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What travelers are saying
"I very rarely provide negative feedback due to my sympathy for companies and their need for business. However, on this occasion, I deem it extremely important to do so, mainly due to the horrendous experience one can easily incur with Look at Egypt Tours. I booked the ‘Egypt Christian Journey: Biblical Tour of Egypt’ tour through Tourradar, with Look at Egypt Tours being the local guide. This is what I experienced:
- First of all, there was nothing remotely Christian about this tour, and my guides demonstrated no knowledge of Christianity or the Christian historicity of the places that I visited. The tour manager, Waled, even had the audacity to want to book me onto a Belly Dance Nile cruise the moment I landed in Cairo. He seemed to forget that I was on a Christian pilgrimage of sorts and that I wanted to focus on my faith.
- The attempt to book extra events would become the norm on Waled’s part, despite my persistent refusal. It was apparent that, right from the start, his aim was to extort as much money as possible from me.
- Waled had instructed me not to exchange my Pounds Stirling beforehand and that he would take care of it. Upon reaching my hotel after my arrival in Cairo, he exchanged my money into bills of 200 Egyptian Pounds only. This was inconvenient since I needed small change for tipping. I had told him this. But he shrugged and did not seem to care. He then proceeded to ask for a tip for both him and the driver. I had no option but to hand out a huge chunk of my money. I realised that he had cleverly set this up.
- My guide for Cairo and Alexandria was Mohamed, who was one of the sleaziest people I’ve encountered. He gawked at every single attractive woman that walked by and would shout at the top of his lungs to show off his English-speaking skills. He was highly dismissive and failed to answer any questions I had about the sites. I always felt like I was being spoken at rather than to. Mohamed was also rude to other tourists in public and would often barge past them. It was embarrassing being with him. He constantly smoked and grunted his way through things like an animal.
- Mohamed would pick me up at the hotel in the morning and rush through the day, always ensuring that we finished around 14.00 or 15.00. On one day, when we had finished at around 13.00 and the pyramids were around the corner, I asked him to stop our bus so that I could make most of the day. He laughed and ignored me. So, I always ended up in my hotel in the early afternoon with nothing to do. Thankfully, I was at the Hilton Hotel Pyramids Golf, which is such a beautiful and tranquil place.
- I had prepaid for lunch for most of my days on this tour. However, both Waled and Mohamed did their best to avoid getting lunch, and there were some days when it was skipped. On one occasion, when I raised this concern with Mohamed, he stopped the bus, hopped out, bought a sandwich from a filthy vendor, and shoved it into my hand. It was disgusting. The lunch skipping was disgraceful and was only done so that both Waled and Mohamed could pocket my prepaid money.
- Both Waled and Mohammed had the vain and bizarre request of wanting their photographs taken at every site, as though they were tourists themselves. They rarely conducted themselves in a professional manner and were often too busy posing rather than guiding.
- My hotel in South Sinai, the St. Catherine Plaza Hotel, was hell on earth. It had been abandoned since COVID and is now being run by what seems to be local Bedouin. Although they were pleasant, the hotel is derelict and extremely filthy. Please be aware that none of the information online about this hotel has been updated, and all the photos are old. My hotel room floor was caked in urine, and I had to live with that nauseating smell for two days. Rather than being productive and searching for an alternative, Waled merely joked about the hotel. He had failed in his due diligence of the place.
- Climbing Mount Sinai is certainly not for the faint of heart and is not worth the effort. There was no mention beforehand of how strenuous it can be. It had been planned that Waled would accompany me during the hike, but he was conveniently ill that morning and could not attend. A local Bedouin boy, sweet but not handy, was hired to escort me. The hike was dangerous, and a couple of tourists got lost on the way. After a total of 8 hours of a horrendous hike, I returned to find Waled miraculously recovered. He then had the audacity to ask me for money for the Bedouin boy, whom I had already tipped.
- I finally confronted Waled about my bad time during the tour and came close to asking for a refund, especially for my missed lunches. He laughed and denied that I was owed lunch. But he was quickly silenced when I showed him my original itinerary from Tourradar, the very same itinerary he had. I then had the last laugh by forcing him to pay for my last hotel meal.
- The only good thing about Look at Egypt Tours was the bus driver on this tour. Ebrahim was such a gentleman and did more than Waled and Mohamed could. He saw how tired and distressed I was at times and did his best to cheer me up, going so far as to buy me breakfast and water. I shamed Waled with this, but he only laughed and called Ebrahim nothing but a bus driver.
It is clear that I will never use Look at Egypt Tours again. I have had an amazing experience with Tourradar in the past, so it was certainly not their fault. They should, however, do a thorough review of Look at Egypt Tours. It’s amazing how one tour company can have the power to put you off an entire country. They should be called ‘Never Look Back at Egypt’ Tours.
Do not use this company."
