Half-Day Marsa Alam Desert Stargazing and Bedouin Dinner

Not Worth It

First things first, the activity said it started at 5, but they told me pick up was at 3. When I told them that was too early they insisted we needed to leave early. When we got there we were told we would have to wait for an hour. My mom bought a scarf and was confused about the currency exchange and when I told her what the exchange number was the guy basically told me to butt out. Then we went on a quad bike which was fun. They had an extended stop where they made us pose for corny photos and tried to sell us stuff. Next was what I was really excited about - the camel ride “over golden sand dunes.” It was a <5 minute camel ride in a circle with someone leading it like a child’s donkey ride through a flat yard in front of the building. The guys let us go in the circle a second time because we told them how much we love camels. They then they tried to sell us more jewelry. Then we had a 5 minute tea before they took us to a “pharmacy” where they tried to sell us more stuff. It was an extended LONG presentation where they made us smell and listen to the properties of EVERYTHING in the shop. The guy at the pharmacy (the FOURTH we have been forced to go to on this trip) who giving me a sales pitch lectured me in front of everyone for having my phone out when he was talking when HE was the one wasting my time with a sales pitch I didn’t ask for. If I had unlimited money I wouldn’t give him a dollar after the way he treated me. His presentation was longer than the quad bike and camel ride combined. They then took us to “watch the sunset” which was another forced corny photoshoot with no actually watching the sunset. We were offered the photos and video that we were forced to pose for for a whopping SEVENTY dollars, which would be expensive back home. We were the told to wait outside for 40 minutes while those who didn’t sign up for dinner left, during which I gave a stray dog belly rubs - definitely the highlight of the whole experience. Dinner was a mediocre meal of which I could only eat a slice of melon, rice, and spaghetti as a vegetarian who can’t handle spice. It was the same foods you are served for every meal here in Egypt for <$10. I told them I don’t eat meat when I booked and when I told them the dinner wasn’t really my jam they told me I should have told them I don’t eat meat and “it’s not that hard.” I wouldn’t have even said anything about the food except they got snarky with me. Dinner was 30 min of eating in the dark outside. This was followed by a 15 min show of a man dancing with fire - that was cool, but was not what we paid for. Then there was 15 min of group dancing. After the show was supposed to be star gazing with an astronomer and telescope. We were taken about 3 min out away from the building, then the guide pointed to the sky and told us to take a picture. He then asked if we were good or wanted to stay for 5 minutes. We took a few pictures and were there for 6 minutes total. We then quad biked through the dark for about 20 minutes total to get back to where we started. I added it up, and the actual time we spent doing activities (not waiting around or getting a sales pitch) was 111 minutes (of which 11 minutes was the camel ride and star gazing we booked, 30 minutes was dinner, and 60 min was the quad bike and dancing we didn’t actually book). That is 111 of 360 minutes we were there. The last half of the experience was kinda ruined for me because halfway through the operator texted me to ask how it was going. I don’t like lying, so I told the truth, then the rest of the time people were really fake and extra needy. The quad biking and fire show were fun, just not what we had booked. The young guys who led the quad biking were great. The young g guy who took photos was fun, but I didn’t enjoy posing for a bunch of photos then being asked for $70. I found a near identical experience on Viator for $92.34 and I paid $230. Absolutely huge rip off. Should have cost <$40 per person for what it included, and we were constantly bombarded by them trying to sell us stuff. I booked 13 experiences on different platforms while I was on this trip, and this was by FAR the worst. The quad bike was short but fun. The fire dancing was fun, but not what we booked. Everything else was not good and a sale pitch. We booked a 5 hour experience that was supposed to be a camel ride over golden sand dunes, dinner, and stargazing through a telescope. We got a 5 min camel ride around a flat yard, 6 minutes of looking at the sky, and a mediocre meal. We didn’t visit a Bedouin village - we visited a sales trap. This was our last experience on a 10 day trip to Egypt and left me fuming rather than with a positive memory.

via Viator