Camper53157603603
31 Dec 2025
Our driver's name was Redar and he was already with us at the Golden Beach Hotel, Hurghada at 1:40 a.m. Redar was in his mid-30s, spoke neither English nor German, which was difficult at first, but was also somehow good, because this allowed Redar to concentrate fully on traffic. Redar is a good driver, always focused and barely has his phone in his hand.
Our tour was interrupted relatively quickly at the Hurghada checkpoint by the police, we were standing from 2:20 am to 4:30 am and no one knew what phase was. The checkpoint, a riesieger parking lot with a toilet and a small cafe / kiosk (my theory on this, the cafe / kiosk belongs to the police). In the parking lot were about 15 buses, 40-50 minivans and some cars. And when you got out of your vehicle, you automatically went to the kiosk, nothing else was "allowed."
After this experience, the rest of the tour went relatively normally, enough coffee breaks were taken and the driver always made sure that we were not missing anything.
Once in Cairo, our stay at the GEM started and we got to know our guide. Bilal, also in his mid/late 30s, has become a fresh father. His German was almost perfect. After his military service, Bilal studied archaeology and was very knowledgeable in the history of his country. He explained and all we wanted to know was jokes and was a fantastic guy.
After GEM we drove to the pyramids and the Sphinx, here Bilal proved to be a real great, far away from the tourist hotspots he told us story we had never heard before. In addition, Bilal protected us from the local souvenir sales and skilfully brushed off every sales attempt. Of course, we told him in advance that we were not interested in a coffee ride. Which is why neither the bazaar nor the papyrus or perfume factory interested us.
Bilal suggested taking a felucca ride on the Nile while eating a classic street food, our highlight of the already impulsive day. Bilal knew the perfect place for it and invited us to do it.
On the Feluken cruise across the Nile, you could perfectly switch off and escape all the everyday stress. We talked about God and the world with Bilal. If we had to describe Bilal in one word, then that would be just great..
At the end of our tour we wanted to give Bilal a "tip" which he vehemently refused, however we insisted!
On the way back, the organizer called me and asked about our well-being, asked if we needed anything else on the way back from the supermarket or we wanted to McDonalds and also wanted to invite us to any interaction.
Long story.... it was a great experience. We were met with our wishes and it did not feel like mass tourism.
We would book a second time, but then prefer to slow down either by plane or for two days.