I would recommend this trip with a lot of caveats. The folks are punctual, and you can make your trip efficient by using their services. If I were to do the trip all over again, I would just hire the taxi service from these folks, and do rest of the trip on my own.
You can purchase your own tickets. the queues are not that long, or pick up the tickets online, ahead of time from the egyptian monuments website. Skip the lunch (if you are not a meat-heavy person). Skip the guide. The driver is as good as the guide.
Pros:
- The guide and the driver helped us navigate three pyramid complexes (nearly) and Memphis in a day. It would could not have been possible without the inputs. For that, we are grateful.
- Also, the most useful information was to skip the ticket to go into the pyramids at Giza, One can do an all inclusive ticket that includes a visit inside the Red Pyramid at Dahsur. And if going to Luxor and the Valley of Kings, you could get possibly the same experience. Plus save some time.
Not so nice things:
- The guide, Madhat was useful only in helping keeping time and quickly moving between locations. Do not expect any useful archaeological or historical information from him. Honestly, in the first five minutes, we realised this and tried to politely reduce his talking time. But he would not get the cue. At the Giza Pyramid complex, he began by stating that the pyramids were built '7000 years ago'. To be honest, there are multiple types of guides, and one cannot expect all of them to be rolled up into one. To be Egyptologist, one needs to put in years of study, and they would cost dearly. Expecting a truly qualified Egyptologist in this price is also unfair. He continued to dole out his fabricated information at the Sakkara complex. We were not experts on ancient Egyptian history, but we could spot incorrect or fabricated information pretty quickly. And that does not help much with establishing credibility for any other information being doled out.
- Importantly, our guide was more interested in taking us to a perfumery, a cartouche place, introducing us to free-lance photographers at the Giza pyramid complex (who was actually good), and then a carpet place. God knows what else, if we had not put our foot down. We did stop at the overpriced cartouche place and the perfumery (where we ended up buying perfumes), but the other two we refused. These services end up eating into your time that you could spend at the sites. Towards the end, there was no time to visit the Bent pyramid or the Black pyramid at the Dahsur, on account of him wasting our time with his side mini-scams.
- The lunch is Egyptian fare. Meat heavy, and was not to our liking. The sodas are overpriced (chargeable separately). And there is an introductory spectacle that was sprung on us, as soon as we stopped (outside of the Sakkara complex). And every single person expects tips. Kind of off-putting, but seems to be the traditional expectation from the tourists in this country.
- We tipped 200 EGP to the driver and 400 to the guide. In retrospective, and after touring the country, I think a bit much for the quality of guiding.