Exclusive Nile River Cruise Review

We've just got back home after an exhausting but exhilarating week on the Nile. It was always my ambition to visit the temples of ancient Egypt, and Ruby was along for the ride, as it were. Despite that she has had a great holiday too, despite being totally unaware of the more detailed aspects of Egyptian mythology and archaeology before we went. She was soon caught up in the magic of the place. The temperatures were everything a sunworshipper could wish for. being 43C in Luxor by 11.30 and climbing to 45C down south in Aswan. Unfortunately, this meant getting up really early to visit the sites, so that we could get back to the boat before we were cooked. I think most of us were in bed by 10.30 every night.

We went on holiday with African Safari Club on the MS Da Vinci, which is operated by Mirotel. It's rated 5* by the Egyptians, but that's not to be confused with Berlitz ratings! It was a very comfortable vessel, though and the quality and variety of the food was very good. My only complaint, echoed by many of the passengers was the extortionate price of drinks! A beer was 40 LE (Egyptian pounds) which was about £4 and even a bottle of water was 13 LE. We soon learnt to buy ashore as water was 3 LE and a beer (500 ml) was 10 LE. The cabin fridges were just the right size! I must admit that we had never drank so much water
in all our lives.

There were 10 excursions in the price and we paid extra to go to Abu Simbel, which was an incredible place to visit. The Sound and Light show at Philae was well worth the extra as well. All in all we can thoroughly recommend a Nile Cruise with ASC and I will certainly visit Egypt again. The people were really friendly and our guide was really knowledgeable and completely passionate about the subject. He enthused everyone and brought the ancient people and their beliefs to life for us.

Geoff

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