Egypt Forum: Considering Fly Well Egypt Tour - any reviews?

In 2006, my daughter and I travelled to Egypt and Jordan and our Travel Agent in Egypt was Fly Well Travel. It was a wonderful experience right from the start , where we were assisted through customs by the friendly and professional representative of Fly Well Travel..

Amr, our representative , stayed with us all through the tour and catered to our every need in the most professional way and then bid us farewell , with us all feeling that we would one day return...

The whole tour was the most wonderful experience in a wonderful country, full of history and beauty..

Alison0063

I'm sorry, but I have to ask.........

Why did you wait 4 years after your trip to:-

A - Join TA

B - Write this advert giving the standard praise of your 'professional' guide?

I waited till now, as I only found the site on Trip advisor recently.

We had a fantastic 2 weeks in Egypt. Here is my review of our trip, which was arranged through FlyWell Travel -- an agency that I can now highly recommend.

BEFORE THE TRIP

My extensive research narrowed it down to 2 agencies: The Freelancers (based in Sweden) and FlyWell Travel (based in Cairo). Both got back to me very competently, however I got a lot more attention and advice from FlyWell Travel. I was also more keen to go with an agency local to the destination. The only disadvantage was I could not find any references (hence the original posting on TripAdvisor) and also their payment/refund policy was nowhere as good as The Freelancers. However they provided references upon request and I was getting travel insurance anyway. My impression is that FlyWell is often outsourced from foreign travel agencies, and mostly deals with Australian tourists. Our main contact with Flywell was Mohamed Abd El Aziz and he was not only extremely competent organizing our trip, he also appeared genuinely caring. He provided us with a SIM card to put in my mobile, and would call every other day to make sure everything was going ok. My understanding is he and his colleague Amr (who speaks flawless English with Aussie accent) planned our trip. Together they went above and beyond when we missed our return flight out of Cairo (more about that later). I am not sure to what extent they were aware of my TripAdvisor forum posting (the answers I got are clearly motivated). However our trip package and my initial instincts were formed before any posting.

THE TRIP

Our itinerary was 2 days in Cairo, 4 day Nile cruise from Aswan to Luxor (inc. Abu Simbel), 1 extra day in Luxor and 4 days at a resort in Sharm El Sheikh (we were meeting friends who picked the hotel there).

Everything went without a hitch. Wherever we went there was an agent waiting for us at the airport who usually introduced us to our guide and driver for the day/days. For the entire trip I think we had about 15 people helping us out. I think this is probably standard, but it felt way overboard for just the two of us! The travel outfits outside of Cairo were outsourced. We were shuttled around in a minivan and felt very VIP. Hussein, our driver in Cairo, was a retired colonel. He was extremely sweet and made us feel very safe, no small feat in the streets of Cairo. They provided us with water bottles every day -- which does not seem like a big deal but actually removed a little daily hassle. Our hotels and rooms were always top notch (Nile view, top deck, and most importantly non smoking). A few weeks before the trip Mohamed switched us from Pyramid Meridien to downtown Marriott because he heard the Meridien was under construction and also felt we might enjoy being downtown more, and after seeing where the Meridien was located I think he was right. The Marriott was like a protected mall, and we did not really need to venture out of it at all. It was a welcome haven after the day of busy sightseeing. When we did venture out, we found a great Egyptian restaurant called “Le Caire” and were the only foreigners there.

Mohamed also recommended MS Farah as our Nile cruise and he was absolutely right. The boat was brand new (opened just a few months). The décor was very contemporary with a super plush upper deck (wooden chairs and tables under canopies). The food was systematically varied and tasty and we did not get sick. Lunch was served at 1PM and dinner at 8PM -- a bit late for us but we got used to it. Most of the tourists on the boat were small Chinese or Middle Eastern groups and I have to say we were kind of glad not to be with big Western groups. The only thing is nobody really used the pool and I might have felt more comfortable using it if others were too. Overall I would really recommend doing a Nile cruise. The only drawback is all the boats were on the same schedule – so the monuments are empty empty empty and then SUPER CROWDED just when you are visiting. The boat schedule did not give us enough time at the Horus Temple in particular, because we had to then race to get through the Esna lock. The tourism industry really needs to find a way to stagger the boats!

Flywell arranged our lunches at places catering to tour groups, and we felt it was limiting for just the two of us. I wished I had discussed lunches with Mohamed beforehand since I am not a big meat eater but that’s really my fault. I think we would have preferred grabbing shawarma or pita/dips at the corner shop. We could usually choose from 1 (ie no choice) to 3 dishes, and these were usually protein heavy, rice AND French fries (double starch). Veggies were either pickled (which I don’t favor) or raw in salads (I avoided uncooked veggies). My husband ate the veggies and was ok. This said, the lunch restaurant locales in Cairo were spectacular and made it worth it (view of the Nile / view of the Pyramids). The lunch restaurant locales in Luxor were not worth it. I guess the fact that we did not get sick should be all that matters ;o) After sampling of Egyptian western and middle eastern food I feel that cuisine is not one of Egypt’s fortes. Also, at all lunches and also on the boat, the food was included but our beverages were not. Since it’s for tourists, beverage prices were even higher than if we were in the States! Our most positive eating experiences were either on our own or on the cruise.

Our guides John and Ismail were friendly and very knowledgeable. You DEFINITELY need a guide in the Egyptian museum. John was Coptic Christian which made for an unexpected perspective during sightseeing. We had given ourselves a very heavy schedule (esp. in Cairo) and did not realize we pretty much picked the most crowded week (turns out during Eid holiday Egyptians go visit their monuments!) As a result we sometimes felt rushed, but overall the guides were very accommodating if we wanted more time somewhere or if we just wanted to be on our own for a while. They almost always had the tickets on the ready before we got to the tourist attraction, which saved us a lot of time. I guess retrospectively I should have asked Mohamed for a more detailed daily schedule with time slots. We discovered that the Egyptian workday ends in the early afternoon (we had expected 5PM like in USA). The boat has cabins for the guides, and it was nice to get to know Ismail better on the cruise. He was very good at checking in with us to figure out what we wanted to do, and always very truthful with his description of attractions. Anything you are offered to see that is not part of your itinerary is most likely a factory/shop with absolutely no obligation to buy or even tip (eg. not a “papyrus museum”) – and when it’s presented that way we were happy to go/not go because we knew what to expect. Overall we were really grateful to have the guides as they not only explained and took care of everything for us, they also “protected” us from a lot of hassle.

The culture clash definitely made for some miscommunications and confusions, which is to be expected. I think in general the servicemen (rarely women) are so eager to please that they forget to check in with you about what you want. The culture of “tips” (baksheesh) is in part to blame. For instance, our drivers to Abu Simbel drove at crazy speeds, probably thinking we would rather spend a few extra minutes visiting the temple than live another day. Porters would grab our luggage and make it “disappear” when we would much rather carry it ourselves. Similarly, an overly eager waiter at a restaurant poured my soda into a glass, when I was looking forward to drinking out of the bottle. Waiters often hovered to make sure we had anything we might like, essentially watching us eat. On the other hand, our driver and guide would have lunch at a separate table, which felt weird. It took us a few days to communicate that we would much rather they ate with us. But then it left us wondering whether that was their preference too. As I said the culture clash definitely made for some miscommunications and confusions.

The biggest confusion was when it came to tipping. We arrived knowing we should tip, but with absolutely no understanding of what our American dollars were worth and what tipping was expected when. For instance – we paid for a very inclusive tour, so do we tip the drivers, guides, and managers? Also, if the tour includes a felucca ride or water taxi ride (which it did), do we tip the boat guy? Overall this was a great source of anxiety. We asked Amr and he suggested $5-$15 per day for our drivers and guides according to service, and handed out at time of last service. We would have liked a policy or guidelines before we set foot in Egypt so we could feel prepared and would also know how much we’d be spending on tips. We were very relieved when Ismail explained that there was no regular tipping on the cruise boat, but instead you gave a tip in an envelope at the very end, and he suggested a proper tip. I recommend keeping a supply of small bills and one pound coins in your pocket for porters and bathroom attendants. There was pretty much no tipping at all at the all-inclusive resort in Sharm El Sheikh.

THE RETURN TRIP

As my husband likes to say, our only mistake with this trip was in trying to get home… Because of a sandstorm in Cairo, all Egypt Air flights out of Sharm El Sheikh were about 6 hours late. We’d given ourselves a 4-hour connection in Cairo (thanks to Mohamed’s advice because I’d wanted just 2 hours), but turns out that was not enough. If there is one thing I can be consistently critical about, it is airline agents at Egyptian airports. They talk amongst themselves in Arabic, and offer fliers absolutely no accurate information. Egypt Air knowingly lied to us and told us we would still have plenty of time to make our flight to JFK. After much pushing they put us on an earlier flight but we were still at least 30 minutes too late (arriving 45 minutes before departure time). You really need to have at least 1.5 hours in order to get your luggage (we were flying on separate tickets), travel to the other terminal and go through heavy security to the check-in counter. They close security 30 minutes before the flight and then start giving your seats away. Amr knew all this and cautioned me on the phone when I told him what Egypt Air was telling us.

Mohamed and especially Amr basically worked from 5PM to 2AM (on their equivalent of a Sunday afternoon/night), first to get us on our plane (that was really out of their hands), then to get us on the standby list for the next day, and finally to find us a hotel during peak season. Mohamed went to find us something to eat because I was passing out. They then helped us again the next day to make sure we got on the second plane standby, which we thankfully did. Meanwhile I was haggling with Delta to get us home faster, which appeared too hard during peak season. I was pretty shocked about that, and would recommend doing all your flying on one ticket, and on a Star Alliance airline (since Egypt Air is a member) so you have more flexibility in this kind of situation. Also, I discovered our travel insurance would cover hotel and meals up to $150/day for the both of us, but would not cover any ticket change fees. So next time I get travel insurance I’ll be reading the small print more carefully!

Flywell gave us a feedback form to fill out, so they clearly care about their service.

Just before posting this I realized there was a review I had missed, which can be found at:

tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g294201-i9404-k168…

Enjoy your travels!

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