20 Mar 2024
This experience went from bad to worse. First, the driver called early in the morning to ask us to change the pickup time by 6 hours. We said no. Then he called us to ask if we could change the time by 3 hours. We said no, the time we paid for was for fit our plans and that we would have to cancel if he could not make the scheduled time. So he then agreed to pick us up at the scheduled time. At that point he asked us what we wanted to do! We said to follow the agenda stated on the tour site. Lots of driving, not air conditioned. Picked up the guide after 45 minutes of driving. Stopped for mango juice while sitting in the car. Stopped at a “medical oil, lotion, perfume store. Felt pressured to purchase by our guide and owner. Afraid of being abandoned. Then pointed out sites, lots of driving, then local lunch. Which was very good and more what we expected. Then a papyrus store where we refused to purchase anything. Our guide was not happy. Then more driving and we stopped for coffee. So again I said that we were not interested in shopping. Please just local food. But he insisted that we go to the cotton shop for “just 5 minutes”. I purchased a scarf because we really felt they would abandon us on the street. We then asked them to return us to our hotel. We tipped them because we knew they had our names, hotel, and phone numbers. Most frightening experience we have ever had. We even waited until we left Cairo before leaving this review, it was that bad.