Desert Camping With The Bedouins Under The Stars - White & Black Deserts

The desert itself and the Beduin guide is definitely 5 stars! I highly recommend going there. But, the organization of the tour was not great at all. Besides, to my opinion it is overpriced. To start with: they say "it is a shared tour" and no one tells you that it does not mean that you will be just a part of a group, it means that you will be traveling to Baharea on a public bus. The way to the desert was fine though (a man picked me up from my hotel, bought me a ticket and another one met me at the station). However, on my way back when I noticed that people started getting off here and there, I decided to ask when I should get off and how I can meet someone who would take me back to the hotel. So I was quite shocked to receive a message (from the second person, because the first I texted to did not respond) that no one will meet me there and I need to take a taxi! On my question "why so?", they said: "because you booked the tour last minute!". Can you imagine that? They had time to organize a moring pickup, but when money was paid and the trip was over they did not want to waste time organizing the transfer back. It was so rude and unprofessional! Only when I said that I would contact Viator support regarding this, they found a driver and a car to pick me up surprisingly fast.

I left a five-star review because I believe our guides (Sami and Muhammed) provided five-star service, while the management provided 3 or 4 stars. The listing states: "In the morning, our team will pick up from your Cairo or Giza hotel and transport you to the Bahariya Oasis." You could imagine our surprise when we were picked up from our hotel and escorted to a general public bus terminal located on a dirt lot under a bridge. We were told it was a "nice" bus (couch bus in American terms). Regardless of how nice the bus was or was not, arranging public bus transportation instead of implied private was a clear cost-cutting tactic. The private transportation management did find was by a teenager making package deliveries from Cairo to the Bahariya area - and we became one of his deliveries for the day. This made the trip nearly 6 hours vs the regular 4 hours which was made worse by the awful selection of teenage music our driver serenaded to us. We love listening to traditional local music, but even Allah would've disavowed this abomination of sound. All and all, our trip started off on the wrong foot and we were on the brink of cancelling. Once we got to the Bahariya area, Sami and Muhammed quickly turned things around. The experience in the black and white desert is pure natural beauty like none other. From the black basalt mountains to the towering white columns of the white desert - the entire journey felt absolutely surreal. Sami and Muhammed were the most gracious of hosts and tended to our every need. Muhammed made the most delicious and bountiful meals, it felt guilty to call it camping. Armed with a tiny fire and some pans, Muhammed made meals better than most restaurants in Cario. It was absolutely amazing. Muhammed and Sami set up the entire campsite, laying out comfortable wool mats and our tent. Sami was cheerfully and joyful as he sang songs and told stories. Some of the best parts of the evening were telling each other stories of our daily lives and bewildered one another. This experience was one of the highlights of our trip as it pulled away from the berating shopkeeper atmosphere so common in Egypt. It's Egypt at it's purest form.

It took us with great surprises to seeing many type of deserts .. The guide ( ‘better’ means full moon in Egyptian) is very efficient and knowledge, we had a great dinner and tea prepared by him.