We are a family of 5 doing a Med. cruise in July and am thinking of booking a private tour to visit Cairo, Pyramids etc from Alejandria, but am not sure if it will be much cheaper than the cruise tour or if we will be as safe with a private tour. Do we need visas for Egypt? Would appreciate any advice.

Hi Gillian, We just spent 2 weeks traveling through Egypt (this past October) on our own, so I guess I could take a shot at your questions. Regarding Visas, USA citizens do need Visas, but there is no need to anything in advance. You simply fill out a form (given to you on a plane or ship) and you buy your Visas at the port of entry. They are simply stamps that you paste into your passports and they are not even individualized. I do not recall the cost, but it was no more than $12 per person. Going from Alexandria to Cairo (the Giza Pyramids are in a suburb of Cairo) takes as long as 2 1/2 hours each way by car (or train). With 5, you might want to check on hiring a car/driver for the day. When we went to Egypt we used a Herndon, VA travel company owned by an Egyptian...and had him make some private arrangements. In Cairo, the company that was uses is called Ancient Royal Tours and the General Manager is a gentleman named Auman Reda. He has cars and drivers and subcontracts with government licensed guides (a good thing in Egypt). His e-mail is ayman@ancientroyal.com and his company web site is www.ancientroyal.com. I do not know if he would be interested in handling a party of 5, but you can certainly ask him for advice. Ayman speaks excellent English and we were very pleased with his company. You should specify that you want a licensed guide, as they are all college graduates who have passed tough government exams. If Ayman's company is willing to help, I am sure he would quote you a price. We were in several of his vehicles and they were all vans with lots of room. There are also lots of other tour companies, but I can only speak to the one we used this year.

Hank

We did a private tour at 5 and it was great that we can control the time of stay at each sight!

Having 50 cruise-fellows and to see how an Egyptian toilet becomes an attraction because you have to wait all the time and the advantage NOT MUST going to a papyrus plant for shopping made the tour very attractive.

We booked with MEMPHISTOURS. They collect us with a mini-bus, a driver, a tour guide and a travel agency represantative.

Check their prices on the website. So you see how much it would be compared to your cruise ship's tours.

Have fun!



Regards,
HeinBloed