Luxor Day Trip from Cairo with Hot Air Balloon

Great time visiting all the temples on my tour. My guide was Hamdi and he was very knowledgeable and nice. If you need guide get with Hamdi!

The tour company got in touch with us a few days before the trip through WhatsApp to confirm all our travel plans and send through the flight details. They let us know our driver would be at our Giza hotel at 3:30pm, and everything went smoothly with the pickup, until we ended up in a bit of a car crash on the way to the airport. Our driver ran into a line of cars and then we were hit from behind. Not ideal at all, but thankfully everyone was okay and we still made our flight. The flight went fine and we were picked up at the other end by another driver who took us to our hotel. Great service overall, although the guide who met us was really pushy for a tip when all other guides and drivers we encountered were grateful with our tipping. The four-star hotel was lovely, with a nice restaurant that served a great dinner and breakfast. When we arrived, we were told the hot air balloon ride had been cancelled due to bad weather. Absolutely gutted, especially when we woke up the next morning to clear blue skies. They offered a USD $40 refund per person, which we haven’t received yet and to be honest, we thought the experience was worth more than that, but they wouldn’t budge. The next day our driver and guide picked us up, and they were both outstanding. Our guide, Mahmoud Hashan, really knew his stuff. He was super knowledgeable, friendly, and seemed to know everyone we met. He used to work as both a guide and an archaeologist at many of the sites we visited. We’d definitely recommend him if you’re after someone who can share a bunch of insights, have a laugh, and still give you space to take things at your own pace. We made a couple of extra stops, one at a factory where they make pottery and art out of stone, and another at an essential oils place. These weren’t part of the itinerary and felt a bit like we were being taken to their mates’ businesses for a bit of commission, but they were still interesting experiences. All the temples and tombs were incredible and we highly recommend visiting them all. We finished off with a felucca ride, which was meant to be at sunset but ended up being a short 30-minute sail around 3pm. The itinerary said there’d be two rides, but there was only one. The same man who was pushy for tips earlier took us on the boat and didn’t really do much except talk a bit while the crew did all the work, and then complained when we tipped him at the end, saying it wasn’t enough. Not a great way to finish. We then spent some time relaxing at a hotel with a pool and had a couple of beers before our 10:25pm flight back to Cairo. Got to the airport and said goodbye to our driver, only to find out our flight had been pushed back to 11:25pm. That meant we didn’t land in Cairo until about 12:50pm, then still had a 45-minute drive back to our hotel in Giza. We understand that is out of the companies control, however it was a bit annoying that we couldn’t get an earlier flight, especially since we’d asked for one when they were booking. When we finally touched down in Cairo, our driver picked us up about 1:10am. Although it took a bit to find each other as his English wasn’t very good, and we ended back up at the hotel at 1:50am. Not ideal after a long day which was supposed to begin at 4:30am. Pretty frustrating way to finish the trip, to be honest. If you’re booking this, definitely don’t plan anything early the next morning just in case. A lot longer than the 15 hour advertised trip. Overall, some ups and downs. We really enjoyed the sites, loved our guide, but there were a few things that could have been handled a bit better.

It’s is very impresionan, must to be here, Karnak and Luxor temples 💪🏼💪🏼💪🏼, air ballon was not done due to weather unfortunately, still waiting for this activity refund, hopefully I get it, otherwise I will give another feedback on it.

Excellent day with mahmoud Hassan. So knowledgeable at our own. His recommendations you could not falter. Would highly recommend

I visited Egypt to celebrate my BDay (turning 70), and the very first day of this tour left me without any energy. I had a hard time trying to understand the lady guide because her limited English and very strong accent, she kept getting a little angry because she had to repeat things. She kept scripting at all times, and did not let me ask questions of my own; at one point, I had to tell her to listen to me for a moment. On top of that, her personality was quite strong--she received me in Luxor outside of the airport, saying with a demanding voice: - What took you so long?! What were you doing?! (not good morning or how was the flight). In addition to that, she tried to sell me things that I was not interested in. If I wanted to see the stores at the entrance/exit of the sites, she prevented me for doing so; if I was interested in essential oils, she took me instead to the store for alabaster. At one point, she tried to sell me a series of postcards, and also jewelry. The drivers were very nice and courteous, there was one, Macarious, who spoke perfect English, which I found out, when he dropped me at the airport, because supposedly, the guide is the only who should talk. Regarding the way the company operates, is very disorganized. I started to contact them via email about 2-3 weeks before my trip and they did not answer my emails. Once in Cairo, and 1 or 2 days prior to leaving for Luxor, they were making changes in a hurry, and pressuring me to answer immediately (I was sleeping a lot due to medication I took because I was sick), saying that if I didn't answer, they would cancel my Luxor tour. More so, the 3 stars hotels, was more like a 2 stars hotel, however, the company told me that they wanted to make my trip very special for me and together with the lady guide, they were saying they were checking me in a 4 stars hotel. The elevator didn't work properly, no warm water for me to take a shower (maintenance fixed it, but when I went again to take the shower, still no warm water), and the room was a disaster. The following day, very early in the morning, around 4 am, they told me there was no balloon ride due to the bad weather, and that they would refund me $40, and I am still waiting for the refund.