Private Alexandria Day Trip from Cairo

We had a grand time! We were picked up in a nice and air conditioned car with an extremely friendly and helpful driver. We then took a 2.5 hour drive to Alexandria and our driver was pointing out all the sights to us. When we arrived at our first point, we met our guide, Shari. She was also very nice and gave us some history on each stop. She kept a nice pace too … not rushed, but not lingering either. She also was very nice with the picture taking at each sight. Finally, we had a nice fish lunch in a restaurant overlooking the Citadel before heading back to the hotel. We’d highly recommend this tour!

Imagine booking a private detour to Alexandria from Cairo only for your driver to tell you he has to pick up someone else along the way. The driver wasn’t great at speaking and there was a random woman sat asleep on my two hour journey into Alexandria. You can imagine how annoyed I was in the awkward silence. My itinerary then changed to accommodate the random passenger and started in the library not a stipulated in the tour I was then pushed into doinga guided tour which I had not planned on doing just to delay my stay there so we could take this passenger back with us of course I refused. I carried on about my day and asked the driver to leave early because I was on a short time Window to get back to Cairo the random passenger kept messaging and calling the driver which was equally frustrating and then there were issues with the car on return. Apparently there was oil in the brakes and there was a number of very quick stop and starts which made the whole experience uncomfortable. The driver was trying to be lovely accommodating which he was, but I did find him to be quite aggressive and I wanted the whole experience to be over as quickly as possibleso I could get back definitely wouldn’t recommend. I used a number of guided tours and this by far was the worst I experienced.

It was a long drive 2.5 hrs each way to go to the city thanks driver for the great job n lady guide Reem speaks very good english brought me to important sites and explain rich history behind it was a super nice experience thank you

"My tour of Alexandria with Emo Tours was fantastic. My driver, Essa, was an absolute gem. He made me feel incredibly comfortable from the very first hour, and by the end of the trip, we felt like friends. He provided excellent descriptions of every place we visited and was very accommodating, allowing me to explore each attraction at my own pace. He even went above and beyond by finding a barber shop on our way back so I could get a beard trim. With Emo Tours, there are no scams, no pressure to tip, and no forced shopping stops—you get exactly what you pay for. An awesome day, and a well-deserved 5 stars to Essa!"

Our driver was amazing, so nice and so knowledgeable. He’s the only reason this wasn’t 1/5 stars. Our guide was awful. Seriously awful. In the catacombs, she rushed us through it and skipped all levels except the first one (while every other tour went), then at the Roman amphitheater and citadel she didn’t walk with us. She gave a 30 second overview of each and gave us “free time” no explanation of anything throughout each site. Again, every other guide was with their group. The mosque, we walked up to it and had to take off our shoes (expected) but the locals all carried theirs and she made us give them to a man there to hold them who of course expected us go pay to get them back!! He wasn’t happy with the tip my husband left and was trying to get more while she just ignored the entire situation. We aren’t Muslim and have never been in a mosque so we only know the very basic etiquette, but again she just stood outside. The library was unfortunately closed but the only reason we even walked around it was because our driver got out of the car. The guide just staid inside. We have had other guides throughout our trip that were amazing and taught us so much while also making it a priority to make us feel safe. She left us in several uncomfortable situations, like insisting we use the bathroom at one site bc it was “nicer” for us to then just not be able to leave said bathrooms without tipping (this is with me saying no thank you to the hand dryer bc I figured it would result in a tip). And again she was nowhere do be found. I would not recommend this tour if you actually want to learn something. We learned more from reading the signs at each site.