Private Half Day West Bank Tour to Valley of the Kings Queen Hatshepsut Temple and Colossi of Memnon

Our guide, Salwa, was very knowledgeable and explained the history of the tombs and temples very well, as well as offered interesting facts and insights about Egypt and Luxor in general. The car was comfortable and had AC. Where things went downhill were when she took us to two unsanctioned stops that weren’t part of our itinerary: a fancy looking alabaster souvenir shop, and a fancy looking perfume shop. The alabaster shop owner (“Hatshepsut for Alabaster”) Abdul first explained how they make the alabaster items. There are some staff working outside that demonstrate this to you (they seem to only “work” when tourists are there - probably part of the act). Then comes the sell - the staff offer drinks and ofcourse want you to buy something. Abdul wasn’t too pushy so you don’t feel obliged to spend money but we did in any case buy a tiny pyramid piece for a few €s. We hope it’s genuine alabaster and not some random material made in a factory. Time will tell. The second shop (“thurmoses perfume factory”) felt much less authentic (we got a bad vibe) and we didn’t feel comfortable buying anything. We later read reviews on Google from other tourists saying they had also been taken there by their guides, whom they had trusted, only to realise they been scammed and their perfumes had been watered down. It is such a shame that the guides are in on these scams. It ruins the whole experience for us as tourists - we are here as we are interested in learning the history of this beautiful country and we happily tip guides and drivers along the way. It totally eroded the trust we built with our guide.

Perfect tour in every detail! We booked the tour through get your guide and it is not specified that it is a private tour so it was a very pleasant surprise! (we recommend you make it more understandable for clarity). Our car was modern, clean and air-conditioned, the driver had a pleasant drive and our Salwa guide was nice, considerate and above all very prepared! He told us in detail the story of the Valley of the Kings, the temple of Hatshepsut and the giants of Memnon along with a lot of information about what we saw in the landscape during the drive. The basic ticket for the Valley of the Kings included in the tour includes admission to the site and to three tombs of your choice (among those included in the basic ticket) but our guide Salwa was kind enough to wait for us to also allow us to visit some extra tombs (we paid a few euros more). The Temple of Hatshepsut, although suggestive, is not unique like the Valley of the Kings, but its beauty lies in its history and Salwa was very good at telling us about it! We recommend the tour and recommend Salwa as a guide!:)

Tour guide made us feel very uncomfortable. He kept getting extremely close to us, even when we tried to back away, and was quite a controlling and creepy person. He made an inappropriate comment to my partner and she didn’t feel safe standing or sitting next to him. We felt very rushed around the monuments, as he gave us very little free time to look around. He gave very little history or information about the sites, we learnt more by reading about them online. Driver was excellent though, would highly recommend him, the tour guide however, no.