サンライズバルーンフライト＆プライベートルクサーツアー＆サンセットフェルッカライド

-We paid full day tour worth $800 but it turned out to be quite the scam -We selected SUNRISE hot air balloon for 4am during online booking.. but were told last min we were getting picked up at 545am as the "VIP guests". Driver came at 600, stalled waiting for another party, left hotel at 615, picked up another party... and we ended up getting to hot air balloon @ 720am.. missing the entire sunrise by almost an hour. We were told- they had no control over "government regulations"... except there was about 50+ other balloons in the air already whom made it for the sunrise. Sounds like utter bs. We were one of the final balloons to go in the air. . Ahmed (Abdelhamed) had bunch of excuses ready to go when we met him for bfast; and was very unapologetic.. instead boasting about being "one of the best Egyptologist in the entire county" and how that would make up for what occurred. Whatever.. we tried to move on with our day- thinking positively as we had a long experience ahead of us. -Tour of the Valley of the kings, King tut tomb, Hatshepsut temple etc was incredible from historical standpoint.. but Ahmed certainly was not the "best Egyptologist" or guide. He walked far ahead of us, mumbled same info on repeat, and didn't answer several Qs correctly. He was also pushing for us to go for our SUNSET felucca ride at 130pm but we asked to have lunch instead. This trend of changing our itinerary continued as he wanted us again to go for SUNSET felucca ride at 345pm and got upset when we asked if we going to Luxor temple first. He rudely said "Let me do this, I know what I'm doing". -Thus we proceeded to go on boat ride early.. which ended up being the same motorized boat we had taken at 645am that morning. He barely paid attention to us on this ride and instead smoked his cigarette entire time. There was many many many other felucca boats out on the water at the time but we stayed in our motorized boat the entire time & didn't even see the sunset. Obviously we were now even more upset... as both the beginning & end of our day was changed. We then finished with a rushed mumbled tour of Luxor temple & another cigarette break for Ahmed. -Prior to hotel drop off, Ahmed asked us "Are you happy???" for the 100th time that day.. but we didn't say much. He then sent one of us a link and asked that we leave a good review. At the hotel- me & my friend kindly spoke to him about our experience and how the tour lacked what was promised to us. He immediately became defensive stating he had no control over the balloon ride being late (despite this whole tour being his "own company") . He was again not apologetic what so ever. Next he was astonished to hear that we were aware that we hadn't gotten an actual felucca boat... and then decided to lie- stating that he asked us in the car which type of boat we wanted.. and then made another lie- stating he told us there was not enough wind (then how are the other felucca boats out on the water which we saw operating ???) . Obviously absolute rubbish . He then panicked and offers us a felucca ride that same night LOL or the next morning. Obviously we are not going to do that... esp with a scummy guy like him & we had a flight out that night anyway. So we told him that's not what our convo was about.. instead we wanted to let him know we were going to leave an honest review and ask for our money back in some capacity atleast. He then proceeded to storm off to his car... visibly upset, dismissive , and telling his driver to storm off. I went over to the car to tell him that he was a loser for running off and not even listening or apologizing to his guests. He drove off anyway. Then also deleted the review link from the previous text he had sent. -All in all- this guy thinks he's this amazing Egyptologist/guide but instead is an arrogant, rude, and unpleasant guy. You're better off finding a different guide whom will be considerate, personable, and not try to scam you & then also lie about it to your face. -SIDE NOTE: He also responded to one of our reviews and said- "we have tinted education, no career, no values". He also said one of the girls in our group needs "more hair care and plastic surgery instead of make up" . Obviously he deleted it now but we have proof .. So if you are booking with him- just know this is the guy you're getting.

When you go to Egypt everyone tells you to get a guide to ensure your experience is as smooth as possible and you don’t get heckled. Unfortunately, that happened to us even with a guide. The day started off on a bad note when the sunrise air balloon ride was inappropriately handled with late pickup, completely missing the sunrise, and having plentiful excuses and taking no accountability for their mistakes. We were not the only party that was visibly upset about the coordination of the air balloon pickup. Honestly, that is a bucket list experience, and to have it ruined is something very hard to overlook, especially when you have paid for it. Regardless, our group decided to make the most of the day after voicing our concerns to an unapologetic Ahmed. Now I don’t know about you, but when people boast about how “they are the best around” I am automatically suspicious. In this case, I was right to be. During the tour of the tombs and the temples, Ahmed didn’t offer much information. It was a lesson in hieroglyphs (the same ones) over and over again. No interesting history or anecdotes or other facts were shared. It was almost boring, which is crazy because you’re surrounded by such amazing history. He also had an attitude about us taking 5 mins to take pictures and ask him simple questions about the itinerary (which he changed). Now we were already trying to make the best out of a bad situation, but the last straw was when he switched from felucca boat to motorboat, lied about why he did that, and then backtracked to get out of a bad review. While we were on the boat he completely ignored us and hung out with the captain instead. 100% don’t recommend this tour. There are plenty of amazing guides that can teach you about the beauty of Egypt while remaining friendly and letting you get your money’s worth. Avoid him like the plague

We had a fairly terrible experience with our guide Ahmed on this tour. It started from initial communication, we had been very excited about the sunrise balloon ride so we had actively selected a 4AM start for our tour (options range from 4am - 6am). So when he told me that we 'll have a 545AM pickup, I was confused. How would we get picked up at 545AM, make it across the river, down to where the hot air balloons are, and be up in the air to catch a 630AM sunrise? I let him know that it seemed off but he reassured me that we would not miss sunrise and that we were the last pick up as we are his "VIP" guests. The day of pickup, the driver arrived at 6AM. Already 15 minutes late. Then he proceeded to wait for another group that delayed us till 610AM. The driver then had to do another pick up (guess we weren't the last pickup?). At this point we knew we were going to miss the sunrise which is the entire point of the sunrise balloon ride. If we had wanted a "just missed the sunrise balloon tour", we would've booked that. When we arrived at the hot air balloon field, we had to wait 15-20 minutes while the driver complained it was not his fault we're late and that the reason we're going up late is due to weather and government permit conditions. I guess the 50 other balloons in the air were all breaking the law and unaware of the weather conditions (which were clear, sunny skies with limited wind). The rest of the balloon ride was fine but we were disappointed to have to see the sunrise while still on the ground (we didn't get up high in the balloon till around 715AM -- have time stamped photos to prove it). After this we finally met up with our tour guide, Ahmed. When we told him about the morning issues, he tried to say this and that but we told him point blank his reasonings and excuses didn't make sense. But we decided that we'll move on with the day as we still had most of it ahead of us. The next few hours were spent going across the Valley of the kings, multiple temples, etc. Ahmed loved to exclaim that he's the most knowledgeable and renowned Egyptologist in the region but he seemed to fumble through a lot of his explanations, would pull far ahead of the rest of the group (even if they were taking pictures, is it not a guide's job to make sure he keeps the group together or waits up?) and kick off his mumbled, half hearted explanations before most of the group was there. For such a knowledgeable specialist, he seemed to not know the answers of some of the basic questions we asked (i.e. why did the pharaohs wear false beards? his response was that it was fashionable at the time - which a quick google search will tell you is not true.) It was almost as if he relied on us not knowing the answer to give us some random explanation that he assumed we would buy. He also was quite arrogant in the way that he spoke, belittling in the way that he responded to our inquiries, and gaslit us when we wanted to make minor changes to the plan (i.e. do the felucca tour last so we can see the sunset on the Nile -- which is literally what is listed as will be provided, and do Luxor Temple before that). His response to this was -- I know best, let me do my job. Mind you, the question was asked gently, calmly, and with the intention to guide us back to what we're supposed to be experiencing -- a SUNSET felucca ride on the Nile. But whatever, we decided to do it his way and do the felucca ride on the Nile before sunset around 4PM. We proceed to get into a motorized boat. Now a quick google search shows that a felucca boat is essentially a sail boat. Why are we on a motorized boat? The one we had already been on earlier in the morning? We reasoned that maybe we're taking this boat to the felucca because maybe those boats can't come as close to the shore considering their wind powered and may not be as nimble to bring closer to shores for boarding. We then proceed to have a full pre-sunset motorized boat ride on the Nile. Obviously we were very disappointed. That was not what we paid for and that was not what was promised in the itinerary. We proceed to go to Luxor Temple where once again (as he had done throughout the day), Ahmed fumbled through some half-hearted explanations, told us to wander on our own for 30 minutes, and just went to the front so he could smoke. Lovely. At this point with all of the fumbles of the day, we had decided we'll let him respectfully know that we'll be writing an honest review about our experience. Ahmed had proactively shared a review link over Whatsapp. Once we are dropped off at the hotel, we asked Ahmed to chat. We relayed all of the details above. A side note to all of this is that Ahmed had proudly told us multiple times during the day that 2 years ago, he had left working for others to run his own company, Luxor Private Day Tours. So it means he has ownership over all aspects of the tours and the operators he contracts. When we relayed the details above, his first reaction was not ownership. He said that the sunrise balloon ride is operated by someone else so he can’t control that. Interesting thing to say when he is the one who selected that operating group, assured us even with late time for pickup we’d still make it, and then decides to take zero ownership of the mistakes. When we called out the felucca ride, he said that he had asked us in the car if we wanted to do motorized or felucca because there was limited wind that day. He must’ve been talking to himself because none of us heard him ask that question. And for his reference, there were tons of felucca boats out in the water that day (not being pulled by other motorized boats — picture evidence provided). So he was just banking on us not knowing the difference between the regular cheap boats and the felucca boat. He then proceeded to offer us the felucca ride right then and there. Why would he want to do a felucca ride in the dark with someone who had scammed us left and right the entire day? But it was nice to hear him admitting that we had not been given the felucca ride as promised and instead provided a cheap boat that’s mostly just used to cross the Nile river for tours on the opposite side. At this point we realized he was not going to hear us out and instead would try to placate us with things that he knew we couldn’t use (i.e he offered us a felucca ride the next morning despite us telling him we’re leaving that night). We told him calmly that we’ll just be writing an accurate review so others know what they’re getting into. At this point, he proceeded to BOLT to his car, screamed at this driver to drive off, and that was that. We stepped to the window asking him if this is how he wanted to handle it, to which he decided to not respond at all. The cherry on top of all of this was that he deleted the review link he had shared with me earlier — which looks like quite an admission of guilt if he wants honest reviews. So please select this tour carefully and know that Ahmed will not have your best interest at heart, but will do what he wants to do so, banking on the fact that either you don’t know better or you won’t speak up.

We had a fairly terrible experience with our guide Ahmed on this tour. It started from initial communication, we had been very excited about the sunrise balloon ride so we had actively selected a 4AM start for our tour (options range from 4am - 6am). So when he told me that we 'll have a 545AM pickup, I was confused. How would we get picked up at 545AM, make it across the river, down to where the hot air balloons are, and be up in the air to catch a 630AM sunrise? I let him know that it seemed off but he reassured me that we would not miss sunrise and that we were the last pick up as we are his "VIP" guests. The day of pickup, the driver arrived at 6AM. Already 15 minutes late. Then he proceeded to wait for another group that delayed us till 610AM. The driver then had to do another pick up (guess we weren't the last pickup?). At this point we knew we were going to miss the sunrise which is the entire point of the sunrise balloon ride. If we had wanted a "just missed the sunrise balloon tour", we would've booked that. When we arrived at the hot air balloon field, we had to wait 15-20 minutes while the driver complained it was not his fault we're late and that the reason we're going up late is due to weather and government permit conditions. I guess the 50 other balloons in the air were all breaking the law and unaware of the weather conditions (which were clear, sunny skies with limited wind). The rest of the balloon ride was fine but we were disappointed to have to see the sunrise while still on the ground (we didn't get up high in the balloon till around 715AM -- have time stamped photos to prove it). After this we finally met up with our tour guide, Ahmed. When we told him about the morning issues, he tried to say this and that but we told him point blank his reasonings and excuses didn't make sense. But we decided that we'll move on with the day as we still had most of it ahead of us. The next few hours were spent going across the Valley of the kings, multiple temples, etc. Ahmed loved to exclaim that he's the most knowledgeable and renowned Egyptologist in the region but he seemed to fumble through a lot of his explanations, would pull far ahead of the rest of the group (even if they were taking pictures, is it not a guide's job to make sure he keeps the group together or waits up?) and kick off his mumbled, half hearted explanations before most of the group was there. For such a knowledgeable specialist, he seemed to not know the answers of some of the basic questions we asked (i.e. why did the pharaohs wear false beards? his response was that it was fashionable at the time - which a quick google search will tell you is not true.) It was almost as if he relied on us not knowing the answer to give us some random explanation that he assumed we would buy. He also was quite arrogant in the way that he spoke, belittling in the way that he responded to our inquiries, and gaslit us when we wanted to make minor changes to the plan (i.e. do the felucca tour last so we can see the sunset on the Nile -- which is literally what is listed as will be provided, and do Luxor Temple before that). His response to this was -- I know best, let me do my job. Mind you, the question was asked gently, calmly, and with the intention to guide us back to what we're supposed to be experiencing -- a SUNSET felucca ride on the Nile. But whatever, we decided to do it his way and do the felucca ride on the Nile before sunset around 4PM. We proceed to get into a motorized boat. Now a quick google search shows that a felucca boat is essentially a sail boat. Why are we on a motorized boat? The one we had already been on earlier in the morning? We reasoned that maybe we're taking this boat to the felucca because maybe those boats can't come as close to the shore considering their wind powered and may not be as nimble to bring closer to shores for boarding. We then proceed to have a full pre-sunset motorized boat ride on the Nile. Obviously we were very disappointed. That was not what we paid for and that was not what was promised in the itinerary. We proceed to go to Luxor Temple where once again (as he had done throughout the day), Ahmed fumbled through some half-hearted explanations, told us to wander on our own for 30 minutes, and just went to the front so he could smoke. Lovely. At this point with all of the fumbles of the day, we had decided we'll let him respectfully know that we'll be writing an honest review about our experience. Ahmed had proactively shared a review link over Whatsapp. Once we are dropped off at the hotel, we asked Ahmed to chat. We relayed all of the details above. A side note to all of this is that Ahmed had proudly told us multiple times during the day that 2 years ago, he had left working for others to run his own company, Luxor Private Day Tours. So it means he has ownership over all aspects of the tours and the operators he contracts. When we relayed the details above, his first reaction was not ownership. He said that the sunrise balloon ride is operated by someone else so he can’t control that. Interesting thing to say when he is the one who selected that operating group, assured us even with late time for pickup we’d still make it, and then decides to take zero ownership of the mistakes. When we called out the felucca ride, he said that he had asked us in the car if we wanted to do motorized or felucca because there was limited wind that day. He must’ve been talking to himself because none of us heard him ask that question. And for his reference, there were tons of felucca boats out in the water that day (not being pulled by other motorized boats — picture evidence provided). So he was just banking on us not knowing the difference between the regular cheap boats and the felucca boat. He then proceeded to offer us the felucca ride right then and there. Why would he want to do a felucca ride in the dark with someone who had scammed us left and right the entire day? But it was nice to hear him admitting that we had not been given the felucca ride as promised and instead provided a cheap boat that’s mostly just used to cross the Nile river for tours on the opposite side. At this point we realized he was not going to hear us out and instead would try to placate us with things that he knew we couldn’t use (i.e he offered us a felucca ride the next morning despite us telling him we’re leaving that night). We told him calmly that we’ll just be writing an accurate review so others know what they’re getting into. At this point, he proceeded to BOLT to his car, screamed at this driver to drive off, and that was that. We stepped to the window asking him if this is how he wanted to handle it, to which he decided to not respond at all. The cherry on top of all of this was that he deleted the review link he had shared with me earlier — which looks like quite an admission of guilt if he wants honest reviews. So please select this tour carefully and know that Ahmed will not have your best interest at heart, but will do what he wants to do so, banking on the fact that either you don’t know better or you won’t speak up.