WOW, What A Day. - Wow, what an experience. From the early morning pick up to getting back to the hotel, everything ran smoothly. We was met at the airport by AHMED WAHEEB the guide who made the whole day one to remember and answered any questions we had. Walking the old streets of Cairo, seeing the Royal Mummies, Going inside the Pyramid, seeing the Sphinx was mind blowing, I would 100% recommend this tour

Pyramids by plane - Had a great trip with my two son's. This was made even better by the group we were part of and our guide Ahmed Waheeb and our driver Khaled. Ahmed was very knowledgeable about the sites we saw which really made the day. The meal by the Nile was a lovely way to finish this once in a lifetime experience.

An absolutely fantastic day out, amazing tour guide and very well organised. - An absolutely fantastic day out exploring the Egyptian Museum and seeing the Great Pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx. The pick up to get to the airport was straight forward, in a cool and clean minibus. Our flights were at good times and getting through the airport was straightforward. When we arrived in Cairo we were greeted by our tour guide, Wael. He was very friendly, helpful and extremely knowledgable. He took photos for us in all the best spots and made sure we were happy we’d spent enough time at each location. The spot we went to for lunch was nice, perfectly located for the pyramids. We visited two locations we didn’t know we would be going to (papyrus making place and essential oils place) which were ok but we would have preferred to have known in advance about. We didn’t get the opportunity for a cruise on the Nile as it had said in the itinerary which we were really looking forward to but even though we didn’t get to do this, it didn’t take away from the rest of the day. Seeing Cairo as we did and being driven through the streets was an eye opening experience, but we enjoyed it all the same. Overall a very very good trip. We’re very pleased with it all.

Amazing tour guide, highly recommend! - There was some changes in the beginning that made us switch the date a few times. But we ended up with the best tour guide (Nasser) and a private tour because of other people cancelling. We had an amazing day with Nasser telling us all about Egyptian history and felt like a student again. He offered little customized options as to what we wanted to see, how and when. Like we didn’t want to ride any animals like camels and (very skinny) horses that were lined up around the piramide in the hot sun without any water. So we drove to the spot instead of riding animal. We had lots of time in the museum and at the Giza piramids and sphinx to really let it sink in because it’s really an unbelievable sight to witness. We didn’t feel rushed at all and that was very important for us. Nasser has a very calm, patient and relaxed personality and is able to help you navigate certain situations with sellers and/or negotiate prices for things you might want. Beside a lot of information, he also provides you with time and space to walk around or eat by yourself if needed. Itinerary not in this order: Walked around oldest part of Cairo, took a boat ride on the Nile (30min), 2 hours museum, had a drink after, lunch at a good buffet restaurant, stop at a papyrus place where you are shown the process of how it’s made, stop at a well known perfume place where they show you how they make natural perfume for generations, both places you are not pressured to buy anything, visit pyramids for 2 hours. Thank you Nasser, hope to see you next time.

Great time at Pyramids - We had an amazing time with our tour guide Dr Wael Magdy. He was incredibly informative and great company. His thought provoking insights really brought alive the Museum, Pyramids and Sphinx. The transfer and organization was great and we all had an amazing jam packed day. Great price and highly recommend.

Rees Family Trip - This was a good trip well organised. We are a family of 4 with two kids aged 13 and 9. It was a long and very tiring day – but well worth it. Ahmed our guide was a walking encyclopaedia. Very knowledgeable and an all round good guy. Ahmed gets a 10/10. We travelled from Hurghada and it we were met at the hotel and driven to the airport after collecting the other travellers on the tour who were from a range of different nationalities. A few Brits ,French and Germans and some Russian people who were very Russian. It took half an hour to complete all the pick ups and if there would have been an option to go directly to the airport in a taxi I would have taken it rather than go through the ballache of collecting people at 3.30am. Then straight onto the plane and then an hour journey to Cairo. Once you were up, you were making your descant into Cairo. We were met at the airport by Ahmed. All of the travellers on the tour were then split into nationalities so that they had their own tour guide who was speaking your language for the entire tour. So – good news for us is we didn’t have to share with any vodka drinking nation who wanted to invade our bit of the mini bus. We are a family of 4 and and we got straight into the mini bus with another Brit, the smashing Craig from Derby. First stop was a stop in a petrol station/coffee shop for some very cheap coffee and some pastry. Then we went for a walk around Cairo old town and the old walled city. We were walking around at 7.30am to 8.30am so it was very quiet, and we were able to see everything without being hassled. The place looks like the street scenes in Aladdin. There were though quite a lot of street dogs and my 9 year old loves dogs and she got a bit upset at seeing dogs fending for themselves. From there we were off for a 30 minute short boat trip on the Nile which was nice. The boat was quite small and could maybe hold 20 people or so. The weather was lovely so we just sat and looked out at the water. Now. If I have a suggestion to the organisers it would be this. Get a bigger boat. Lets spend an hour on the boat and lets have breakfast of pastry, croissant and pastry on the boat. We have to stop for breakfast so why aren’t you making money off of us on the beautiful Nile river? From there we went to the Egyptian National Museum for a mid morning tour of the museum with Ahmed. We saw Tutankhamun, Rameses and all of the Pharoah statues that the British haven’t stolen (!) and had a real history lesson off of Ahmed. After a 3am start this proved a bit much for my kids as my 13 year old just wanted to sit down and I ended up carrying my 9 year old for 30 minutes whilst she fell asleep on me. It was great. And Ahmed was great. But it was strictly for adults. After this we went to the Papyrus shop for some history on how papyrus was made and we bought a hand made papyrus with hieroglyphics of the kids for them both. Beware the papyrus isn’t cheap. It cost us £100 for two hand made papyrus. Then we went for lunch which is included in the price we paid. It was called the Tasty Place! The food was good. It was roast chicken on the bone, potatoes, rice, beef stew – all very nice. Very Egyptian. But not a lot that was kid friendly. My kids are terrible eaters and wouldn’t have any of it. To play safe with them I need a restaurant that offers Pizza, a burger or fries. I spoke to Ahmed and Ahmed organised two plates of fries for the kids that I paid extra for. You also have to pay for your drinks at lunch. Buffet is included everything outside the buffet you have to pay for. Following lunch it was a short drive to the Pyramids and Sphinx at Giza. The Pyramids are big. Very big. Much bigger than I thought they would be. You can go inside and we were warned by Ahmed that once inside it is small and claustrophobic. It’s a steep walk up some narrow steps to the entrance to the inside chamber. The kids said that they wanted to do it and we paid £100 to all go but after seeing the first flight of steps/ladder when we were inside they both wanted to be taken back out. It was also very hot and stuffy inside. If you have asthma it’s a real no no. Craig our Brit travelling companion did make it inside to the chamber. It took him 25 minutes in and out and he said there is a rabbit hole that you have try and climb through to make it into the final chamber – so I would say this is only for the truly committed traveller. After we got out we carefully made our way down the big steps and then just had a walk around the pyramid. You are in Egypt so you have to be prepared for ‘Egyptian Customer Service’. Around the Pyramids there are a street stalls without prices where you are going to have to barter for everything that you want. The Egyptians only really want foreign currency as the Egyptain Pound is so volatile. So my advice is take a lot of cash in small denominations. If you were with a tour guide go with there advice and don’t engage with the guys trying to sell you stuff. If you’re not with a tour guide then good luck! After the Pyramid we went on a Horse ride or a Camel ride. I read some negative comments about the guys who are doing the horse and camel ride and all I can say is that our experience was a good one. The guys were friendly the horse ride was a bit bumpy but 30 minutes of good fun and the pictures that we took from the ridge over looking the Pyramids are pretty fantastic. Following the Pyramids we then went and had a look at the Sphinx. Which is not as big as the Pyramids but still well over 70m and quite beautiful. Then we were pretty much done. That was around 4pm and our flight back to Hurghada wasn’t until 8pm so there was a fair bit of hanging around until the flight. What is striking about the Pyramids is how disorganised it is compared to anything in the US or in Western Europe. The Egyptians have big plans Ahmed told me for a new museum and visitors centre at Giza but right now it looks like it’s been organised by a few lads from the local bar. If the Pyramids were in Florida you would have a whole host of highly trained customer service smiling and looking after you with Pharoas in costumes, a visitors centre, a movie show, a theatre show and fast food all around the Pyramids with the shops and things to buy. In Egypt you have an entrance in with some street stalls and a bit of rope and some big steps to climb to get into a Pyramid. There is the Pyramids and the Sphinx at Giza and then a vast area of what looks like desert all around it. And that’s it. Also, there was some fairly hilarious Egyptian customer service. On the way into the Pyramids the ticket guy said where is your daughters ticket. I called to Ahmed who said to the guy here’s the ticket on his phone. To which the guy replied ‘Where is the ticket!’ to which Ahmed replied ‘Here on my phone!’ this back and forth went on increasing in volume for a full two or three minutes before the ticket guy backed down. Now all this stuff is cultural. I understand that. But my little girl was like why are they fighting! I think someone needs to tell the Egyptians they are literally sitting on a goldmine with the natural wonders that they have. But they’re going to need to get their people to do the best customer service course in history. Or get in partnership with Disney or Universal to mine that gold. Btw I’m available to run Customer Service courses if you’re reading Egyptian Tourist Board. [email protected] Slight moan: You get whatsap’d by the organisers and FTS messed up our initial travel date. We were meant to go mid way through the holiday but we ended up going at the end of the holiday. So hassle those guys and make sure they have got your date and flights all sorted.

Amazing tour of Cairo and the pyramids - Whar a day! Organisation was on point with great coms from the tour operator FTS. Our guide Amin was knowledgeable and we had plenty of time at each place of interest. Travel was seemless, we had an amazing experience. Would have been a five score but for the stop offs at a couple of places trying to flog you stuff. Par for the course in Egypt though.

Good to visit pyramids and the museum but we had not a guide - Generally speaking, visiting Cairo and the pyramids in one day from Hurghada is quite ambitious, especially if it requires wake up at 3:30 AM. However we enjoyed the day and pyramids are of impact. We had a good experience but the guide was merely a chaperone, she provided almost no explanation. She provided very little information about history, archaeological details and so on. We appreciated the rest for free in a daily hotel as we had the flight back at midnight.

Poor customer service - The agency left a 5 hour gap between the end of the tour and the flight back, the guide was offering us a diner cruise for $80 (2 persons) to fill the gap. We got food poisoning and the cruise just went back and forth on the same part of the river the whole time. We discovered they also could have put us on an earlier flight back. All in all that really killed the ambience of the trip

Disappointing Experience that never happened - Very disappointed in the service provided. We received our flight times 12 hours before departure and notice that we were due to fly to cario on a turbo propeller aeroplane which was not what we were expecting, having had a previously unpleasant experience on such an aeroplane and something which we would not want to do again so we contacted the agent who basically told us they book the cheapest flights & if its a propeller plane so be it. I explained the situation asked for it to be cancelled & requested a refund via Viator. I was fully aware it was outside of the 24hr cancellation policy however I was not given 24 hrs notice of the flight I would be boarding. Viator have declined my refund with no explanation, I have contacted them asking for proof in the product description that they use these planes & also their complaints teams contact details. Not everyone will feel this way about this type of aircraft but for us it's a no go. Viator need to be transparent about the service they are providing, we will not be using or recommending them again