Do not book through them- unprofessional & sloppy- will ruin your trip.
(Written on 08 Nov, 2023)
Booked an Egypt trip thro an Indian travel agent & Book & Go - Ali was the local Egypt partner- a bad choice. This travel agency is not reliable. Ali will change his words after booking- you will have (Read More) to run after him for everything. A ready excuse is available for everything going wrong.
When i got down at the airport,his representative was not there, sim can be bought from departures only....no wifi at Cairo airport- I was stuck. I requested a local guy there to call up Ali.
Bad communication, delay in sending car,several reminders ,bad planning ,changing of cruise at the last minute without informing, not fulfilling the inclusions unless reminded 4-5 times....my egypt sim was only used to call Ali or to make people call Ali.
It’s a good thing i bought my sim at the airport- there was another couple in whose package sim was included- & they were without sim for 3 days….
The tip @ USD 5 per person per day for entire stay was collected from us on day-1. However, there was no communication to drivers, cruise staff and others for the rest of the trip that Ali will be paying the tip to them. They kept on expecting it from us and it was it was an embarrassment to face them at the end of the day & telling them your tips are with Ali....that's stupid.
Those tips are for Ali - he tips himself. It does not go to anybody...the drivers said the tips never come,cruise staff said tips never come....
So be ready to pay tips twice- once to this travel agent & again ,to drivers,guides,cruise staff.DO NOT PAY ADVANCE TIPS
Cairo day1 evening- I asked to send car at 6,it came at 7 after several reminders when daylight had gone & no proper pics with pyramids background could come.
Flight from Cairo to Aswan- he had not shared flight details despite asking several times. The flight was much delayed, we were in hotel reception for a long time waiting for driver & no response from Ali. After multiple calls, he writes flight delayed....so why weren't we told??? When you informed the driver, inform us too.
Imagine his reply- What would you have done?? We wouldn't have given up our room, we would have breakfast more leisurely, whatever- your job is to inform.
We missed lunch at the cruise & a tour bcoz of flight delay, he coolly said he cannot do anything- btw,it was a chartered packed flight- maybe the cheapest, thats why he did not inform flight details.
Even the cruise was not the one that we had booked! Nabalitan was the cruise ship in booking, it had balconies, but we were put on Pioneer 2- no balconies.When on holiday you want to relax and enjoy and not be caught by surprise! We were shocked when we were asked to check-in into a cruise we had no information of and was different from the one we had booked. That it turned out to be nice is a different story but the communication gap and stress was avoidable.
In one tour, he bought the entrance ticket as ‘student’ for my adult daughter- this was never discussed.We were not carrying her student id- it was unnecessary tension.
In Luxor, we were picked up from the ship at 9 am & hotel checkin starts after 12 pm…so what are we to do in between?The hotel could not find his booking at all- after making them talk to him 2-3 times, Ali said- the booking will show at 12?? We wasted 2 hours in this drama.
Many things on a daily basis did not work- oh yes- Water for cruise was to be given by Ali the start -its in writing- he did not send- when reminded, told its not included. After 2 days, he gave those water bottles!! I could go on & on.
The entire trip was very poorly coordinated and unprofessionally managed. Instead of enjoying and relaxing, I spent most of the time sorting out confusions and extracting the services we had been charged for in the package! We have traveled the world with different tour operators, but this has been my worst experience.
I will not recommend this company to anybody travelling to Egypt.
