Egypt Nov 2012 - excursions?

nicjane113

Booked to go to Egypt (Sensatori resort in Sharm el Sheikh) for 11 nights in November 2012.

Have looked into excursions that we might want to do while we are there such as camel treks & a trip to the pyramids.

Can anyone recommend any excursions and is it best to book while we are there or have it booked in advance before we go?

Never been to Egypt before so looking for some advice!

DUKE

Have a look here - http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attractions-g297555-Activities-Sharm_El_Sheikh_South_Sinai_Red_Sea_and_Sinai.html

Book with the locals & then you can barter, never pay the price what they ask always knock them down.

MrsE_2

nicjane113 wrote: »

Booked to go to Egypt (Sensatori resort in Sharm el Sheikh) for 11 nights in November 2012.

Have looked into excursions that we might want to do while we are there such as camel treks & a trip to the pyramids.

Can anyone recommend any excursions and is it best to book while we are there or have it booked in advance before we go?

Never been to Egypt before so looking for some advice!

Def do Ras Mohammed. I'm off to the Sensatori in May (third time to Egypt), I've been to the pyramids twice & the desert quad biking. Was thinking about the star gazing, but don't want to have to eat in a tent in the desert & they all include dinner:(

Miles16v

We went 4 years ago and booked trips locally, which is much cheaper. Never book with your tour rep, who will pressure you to on the first day before you get a chance to see what's available outside of the hotel.

We did:

Cairo trip - included coach travel, nile cruise, lunch on riverboat, entry to national museum and pyramids - £30.

2 x snorkalling trips, which included hotel pick ups and a buffet lunch with free drinks - £11 each.

Ok that was maybe in 2007, but it hopefully gives you an idea.

Cairo was a long day (like 20 hours between being picked up and dropped off), but we decided to do it as we were there for 14 nights and it didn't matter if we spent a day in bed recovering, and glad we did. You can fly but the cost was more like £180 each from memory.

MrsE_2

Miles16v wrote: »

Cairo trip - included coach travel, nile cruise, lunch on riverboat, entry to national museum and pyramids - £30.


Cairo was a long day (like 20 hours between being picked up and dropped off), but we decided to do it as we were there for 14 nights and it didn't matter if we spent a day in bed recovering, and glad we did. You can fly but the cost was more like £180 each from memory.

I did the Cairo trip on the cheap too, it was on a minibus.

I think it would have been worth paying more & going on one of Thomsons big comfortable coaches where you might have been able to sleep in the seat.

Miles16v

MrsE wrote: »

I did the Cairo trip on the cheap too, it was on a minibus.

I think it would have been worth paying more & going on one of Thomsons big comfortable coaches where you might have been able to sleep in the seat.

Ours was on a big decent coach (still didn't manage to sleep), with a guy with an Uzi tucked in his trousers at the front!

tim_n

MrsE wrote: »

Def do Ras Mohammed. I'm off to the Sensatori in May (third time to Egypt), I've been to the pyramids twice & the desert quad biking. Was thinking about the star gazing, but don't want to have to eat in a tent in the desert & they all include dinner:(

Contact them. They're very nice and it's a good experience. The tea horrendously sweet

They do non-food expeditions. I tagged onto one which was with a Thomas Cook crew (unofficially like) because they only had about 8 people going and my wife and I weren't trouble makers!

You can go through them direct (rather than a tour operator). Take warm clothes! Take a camera and they'll use the telescopes to take some nice pics!

We did the tour in Luxor - pics here: http://www.waark.com/2012/01/egypt/

Miró

MrsE wrote: »

I did the Cairo trip on the cheap too, it was on a minibus.

I think it would have been worth paying more & going on one of Thomsons big comfortable coaches where you might have been able to sleep in the seat.

If you do this trip either on a minibus or a big coach...sneak a pillow out of your hotel to take with you....made all the difference when we did the minibus trip

joaniemerc

I'd recommend booking beforehand through Viator.com for Egypt - for the extra £5 or so you might save using the locals it is not worth it

We had a bad experience on a boat trip to Ras Mohammed. We'd booked an all day boat trip with Viator which was fab - beautiful boat, lovely food and safe snorkelling. Decided we wanted to do another boat trip before we went home and booked with the guy who was going round the hotel booking trips. Happily walking along the dock wondering which boat would be ours and spied an old tub and thought "Blimey wouldn't want to be getting on that" and yes... that was our boat. I won't bore you with the details but it was a real nightmare day and a real Mickey Mouse outfit who ran the trip. Health & Safety is almost non-existent in Sharm but Viator will only use the best and most safety-conscious companies in the resorts. Another example was the quad biking in the desert - again used Viator and we were issued with helmets and knee and elbow pads - saw other companies while we were on the trip and no helmets, pads etc. were issued. This may not be a problem for some but we had our teenage children with us so it wasn't just our safety we were worried about but also the children's. Have also used Viator in other countries and not had a problem.

I appreciate that there will be posters who will have used the local firms and not had any problems - but each to their own this is just my experience in Sharm - which I love - have already booked flights for New Year:D and will be using Viator again for our boat trips.