Luxor 1 Night Tours Balloon & Sound and Light Cairo show by air.

Posted By : Annette_K
It is hard to leave review as many guides and many parts.
Main guide Sa l ma was extremely knowledgeable and protective.
Hot air balloons was fabulous and kept us all safe
Banana island was great!! Boat captain was incredible wealth of information
Rating :
Posted On : 2022-12-10 10:41:34

Posted By : alexjguillen
Very bad experience. The tour wasn’t 2 days, it was just one very very long day!
The hotel pickup was supposed to be 4am to arrive at Luxor by lunch time and spend half a day touring during the first day, instead the pickup changed to 11 am, travel late and got to Luxor at 4:30… all we could do was check in at a bad hotel, nowhere near 4 stars, eat lunch at 5 pm at a not so good restaurant, and go see a light show… that got cancelled. So, day 1, completely lost. The hotel (Lotus) seems nice, but it is extremely dirty, old, and everything breaks.
Day 2, with the hot air balloon is the saving grace for the tour, but since we lost day 1, we had a day that starts at 5 am, with no hot breakfast, rush rush all day, with no lunch until 4 pm. Other than the cars to pick you and drop you at Luxor airport, everything is low quality and seems the cheapest they could find.
And to make things worse, the driver picking us up at Cairo was 30 mins late.
The guides are good, friendly and the place (Luxor) is amazing, but this seems a budget tour at best. If not for the balloon, I would give it 1 star
Rating :
Posted On : 2022-11-27 17:01:25

Posted By : Ryan_L
I specifically booked this trip as it had many elements that I wanted to see - two days exploring Luxor, not just one, where the proper amount of time is given to the west and the east banks. Also a camel ride, a sailing boat on the nile, banana island, and the hot air balloon ride - these were all checking the list, so I booked it.

The day before, the company reached out and told me they couldn't get me a flight for the evening of the 2nd day, so it needed to be the morning. That basically meant that I would lose about 6 hours of touring. We talked thru a few other options, and I wanted to actually stay 1 day more so things were not rushed, but the operator assured me we would not miss anything, so I agreed to squeeze it down, with the reassurance nothing would be lost from the agenda,

Let me point out, this is not a private flight like it says in the description. this is commercial from the domestic terminal, with Nile Air. it is not a huge deal but kind of.

Upon arrival I was greeted by a friendly guy who showed me to the car. the driver was fine but not necessarily friendly. We finally made our way to the west bank, where we met the guide. For a 2-day tour squeezed into 1 day, there was a surprising lack of a rush at this point.

Then, we made our way to the Valley of the Kings. Spectacular place, really, you must see it. The guide advised me on which tombs to go into, and I took her advice - I probably would have gone into Tut's tomb if I could do it over again, as it is so famous, but I went into 5 others so I don't mind. The guide told me about things on the drive up, and while going into the area with the tombs, but then went and had a soda as the guides can't go into the tombs anyway. Now suddenly it was a rush, I had like 1 hour to do all the tombs. This was not optimal and I did my best. Nonetheless, super cool to see this, and really memorable.

Then we hurried up and went to the Tomb of Hatshetsup, which the guide was very passionate about, and I learned a lot. This is a really cool place, and I loved it.

We then had to hurry over to the other side of the river, but first a stop at an alabaster workshop/store (no rush anymore?). I was not thrilled to go here since I hate these shops and we had a bit of a rushed tour, but it was fine and I bought some stuff anyway.

Then, to the east bank and Karnak. wow this place is amazing. Also a place my guide was passionate about, and again I learned a lot. She tried to get me to skip this since I was going to the sound and light show later, but I am glad I did not.

We did not have time then to go into the Luxor Temple, but we walked along side it (the street/sidewalk goes right next to it), and she pointed out some key elements. this is an interesting place for sure.

Then, it was about 4:30pm and we had lunch. Breakfast for me was at 4:30 am, so this was not cool, but I was fueled by soda and excitement for being there. This lunch was fairly good, probably because I was starving. I recommend bringing / buying some snacks along the way. Then after the "lunch" they dropped me off at the hotel, which was a very nice hotel, where I had a view of the sunset on the nile from my balcony.

Then it was time for the Sound and Light show at Karnak. This was supposed to be included, but it was not so I had to pay for it, which was extremely annoying as the ticket is like $30-40 USD. The show itself was quite interesting but it feels like it was made by some beatniks in the 1960's. Actually I recently watched a james bond from 1977 and I swear it was the same show. Regardless it was good and I learned a lot and enjoyed it.

Then back to the hotel and preparations for an early morning hot air balloon. We started with some felucca's crossing the nile and giving us a coffee/snack. this in itself was fascinating, but it is not sailing and it is not enjoyable, really, as it is really chaotic with all the other balloon companies doing the same. on the west side, we then got into the vans and went to the hot air balloon site. the captain explained how to get into landing position, and this guy was extremely serious about this stuff, which is good. you don't want a captain who doesn't care. Once airborn we had a great ride and it was really beautiful and memorable.

Then, for me it was back to the hotel and then off to the airport. back in Cairo there was a driver waiting and it was a smooth trip back to my hotel.

I mentioned the guide before, I will say it like this: she is an extremely passionate egyptologist. She is not a passionate guide. There is a difference there. I think she would rather be sitting at home reading/studying these things, rather than explaining and helping others learn. More than once when I asked her a question, she would say "I will start talking soon". that is not the response of a person who is passionate about her job. her subject, egyptology, yes. her job, no. If she would lighten up, smile a little, she could see that she gets to help spread Egypt's history to the world, to people that are interested. if we come all the way to Luxor from other countries, we might want to hear what she has to say, right?

The company who I booked with, I do not think they have a good control of what the team in Luxor is doing - and this was felt many times. When I asked my main contact on whatsapp about the sound and light show being included, he said he would ask "them" about that.

Notice there was no nile sailing, no banana island, and no camel ride. Also, no Luxor Temple.

In the end due to all the stuff that was missed, mainly due to squeezing all the stuff promised into less than 1 day, I was partially refunded with the help of customer service at Viator.

I can recommend this tour but not necessarily this company. Definitely do a 2-day tour if you are interested in Egypt's rich history, and do not try to rush Luxor in 1 day. I had intended to do 2 days, which is why I booked a 2 day tour, so of course the tour duration was a disappointment, but I had an amazing time anyway.
Rating :
Posted On : 2022-11-27 03:38:18