Fantastic. Thanks for the recs. You just can't beat having a personally customized tour. Glad you had a great time. :-)

TB08

PS. What did you think of Imaginative Traveller?

The tour itself was pretty good.

Our tour leader, Emad, was one of the longest serving leaders in the company (9 years, I think) and it showed! He was also extremely knowledgeable, incredibly helpful and generally made the trip an amazing experience. He even took us off the itinerary so we could spend some time in Dahab snorkeling.

It wasn't perfect though. We were on the M/S Melodie (ImTrav's own boat) for about a week. While the staff were friendly and helpful, they got annoying after a while.

Their playfulness and slapstick humour is amusing at first but it becomes grating after the 5th time they take your plate and you lean over to let them and them they switch sides so you lean over the other way then they switch again. Just take the bloody plate already!

Another note, the Melodie's laundry service was fine for me but it turned another guy's whites pink.

Then I have some beefs about how the company itself is run: no more last minute deals; they refused to send my travel docs to me personally, it had to go through 2 layers of travel agencies; they wouldn't send them more than a month beforehand, unlike other companies that make your docs available online electronically as soon as you pay in full and a couple of other things.

Don't get me wrong, these beefs didn't ruin my trip and I'd still book with them if they had a tour I liked. Still, it was annoying and people should get the full picture before they book.

Hello Fuzzypuppy,

Thanks for your receommendations of Karen and Debbie, will add your name to the lists.

For sure using guides away from your package deal was a good thing and you saw parts of Cairo which were for sure on on the standard type trip, good idea.

As I guess you know Islamic Cairo and the markets in the area are what I am fond of, never get tired of these areas, glad that you had the chance to experience them with Debbie.

Regards

Wendy

Hi,

Don't know how I missed your response. Thanks for the info on Imaginative Traveller. Had heard about them in passing but never gotten a direct report. Glad you had a good time even with the slight inconveniences and annoyances. And yeah, I know what you mean about the staff lol. Sometimes it can just become a bit much.

TB08