I would like to begin by apologizing for the lack of updates
on Tour Egypt over the past two weeks or so beginning after
Thanksgiving, 2004, but I have been
in Egypt on a rather unusual visit, at least for me. I have
been, more or less, leading a tour for the first time. My
trips to Egypt usually involve meeting with officials, tour
operators and others in the tour industry, as well as
gathering information for new articles on specific places and
antiquity sites. Sometimes I travel along with tours to reach
various points, but never before have I arranged and lead a
tour. This was a valuable experience that I shall share with
our readers, but it left little time for me to write during
the tour. Nevertheless, I hope to point out some important
observations in a series of articles that I believe travelers
to Egypt will find very useful.
Any tour to Egypt consists of a number of components, all
of which are important to the tour's success. Some of the most
important components include the itinerary, the tour operator,
the facilities such as hotels and restaurants, and indeed the
people who take the tour. In this instance, our itinerary was
a relatively common one. Most of us traveled from Texas and
spent  one night in New York before heading on to Cairo,
where we spent several more days. From there, we flew south to
Aswan where we
boarded a Nile
Cruise boat, taking tours up to Luxor.
After Luxor we flew to Sharm
el-Sheikh, spending three days there, and continued on
back to Cairo for an additional two days. Upon leaving Egypt
out of Cairo, we spent another night in New York before flying
home. During the tour, we visited all the usual monuments,
including the Giza
Pyramids and the Egyptian
Antiquities Museum, the major tombs and temples of
southern Egypt, we had fun in the hot spots at Sharm, taking a
day trip to the Monastery
of St. Catherine. Of course we did a little, or actually a
lot of shopping, but in many ways the itinerary was not at all
unusual because most of the people who I took with me had
never been to Egypt.
 Our itinerary was not overloaded, and that worked out well.
We also kept it pretty loose, so that if someone needed a
little rest, a little downtime or just wanted to hang out at
the hotel that was not a problem. While some of the crew
seemed to want to see everything, others were satisfied with
visiting only a couple of the scheduled temples, for
example.
There were some interesting highlights however. I, along
with several others, took our first balloon ride over Luxor
and the West Bank, and everyone seemed to agree that it was a very special experience. We had a fine dinner cruise our
first
night in Cairo,
which everyone enjoyed, and our second evening we dined with
Heba at the Hotel
Longchamps (we will be doing an update on the Hotel
Longchamps and their excellent new restaurant), which was an
excellent experience for all. Actually, I have to admit that,
after all these years, I actually saw my first snake charmer,  which
was one of the highlights of my trip. We also managed to have a
private tour of St.
Catherine's Monastery by one of its monks, but I will
describe these events in more detail later.
Our Tour Operator was Misr
Travel, one of the largest and oldest in the Middle East.
Their New York office made the arrangements which were
flawlessly executed by their substantial offices throughout
Egypt. They performed exactly as contracted, with timely
transfers, good busses and a fine guide. In fact, everyone on
the tour agreed that they performed beyond expectations and
indeed, they did in many instances provide extras that were
not a part of our original contract. In fact, I admit that I
chose Misr Travel for this tour because I was well aware of
their capacities and influence in the region.
 Our
tour used the facilities of Movenpick
throughout Egypt, including their Nile Cruise Boat, the
Radamiss I. Movenpick has some remarkable properties in Egypt,
including the plush garden hotels near
the Pyramids in Cairo
and on Crocodile
Island in Luxor,
where we stayed. We also spent our time in Sharm
at their luxurious
beach hotel and casino, which has some of the best
entertainment along the promenade, and which for many on our
tour was one of the highlights. I believe that everyone was
impressed with these hotels and the cruise boat, and all
seemed to agree that the food in each location also went far
beyond their expectations. I will be reviewing each of these
facilities in future articles.
 The highlight of this tour for me, being a
frequent traveler to Egypt and having visited all the sites
that we took in more than once, was seeing Egypt through the
eyes of fellow companions. In fact, while leading a tour to
Egypt is not particularly easy, keeping up with everyone and
making sure that their needs are met, I will probably do so
again on occasions because it really did allow me, after all
these years of writing about Egypt, to expand my understanding
of Egyptian tourism, even though this was not really a commercial
tour. We had a good mix of people, of which most were
connected with Tour Egypt as partners (or related family
members). Actually, only one member of the tour was not
officially connected to Tour Egypt or members of their
families, and that was Ann Marie Terra, one of our
Egyptomaniacs who frequents our BBS
(message) system.
However, besides myself, only my wife
and Ann Marie had ever visited Egypt before this tour.
Irregardless of their connections to Tour Egypt, most of the
other members of the tour were not really Egyptian enthusiasts.
I would have to say that many of them were not unlike many
others who take Egyptian tours, interested, but not radically
so. Some were experienced travelers, while others were not,
and most had never taken a tour so far away from home. They 
ranged in age from an energetic, cute and outgoing 28 year old
female to a 60 something gentlemen who had only weeks before
received a hip replacement, and that's a lot of range. However, it certainly provided me with a diverse view, though
to a person, everyone seemed to enjoy the trip.
As usual with Americans, most went to Egypt
with at least a tinge of nervousness, but as we returned only
last night (December 13, 2004), and also typically, everyone
agreed that there was no reason to be concerned about safety.
Egypt provides excellent protection for their tourists, but in
fact everyone was impressed with the courtesy, friendliness and
hospitality of the Egyptian people. Even as we walked about
shopping outside the confines of regular tourist areas, no one
expressed any safety concerns.
 As a final note, the group took literally
thousands of photos while we were in Egypt, and everyone
agreed to provide these to me and we will be creating a photo
journal of these in the very near future.
In the coming days, I will detail our journey,
pointing out a number of dos and don'ts that I believe will
be most helpful to anyone currently thinking of taking a tour
of Egypt. However, after having arrived back home at 10:20 pm
last night, I must admit that even I am experiencing some of
the expected jet lag, so today I will wind things up by saying
that it was an excellent tour and, for all, an experience of a
lifetime.
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