Private Aswan Tour: Abu Simbel, Philae and Nile Sunset with Guide

This tour is almost too...

This tour is almost too much packed into one day. The company, Eyes of Egypt, want to provide good customer service and communicate well. However, there were good and bad things about this tour. The arrival at Abu Simbel was a bit disorganized. We had to wait about 10-15 minutes with the driver to meet up with a guy to take us down to the temple. We had to use the bathroom first, so he told us he would meet us down at the ticket booth. After we used the bathroom, we headed down to meet up with the guy. We saw him walk passed us angrily talking on the phone and we did not know what was happening. Our driver found us and showed us someone new to follow. The new guy did not have our pre-purchased tickets, so when we arrived at the gate, we had to wait even longer for him to get the tickets so we could go down to the temple. After getting to the temple, we listened to a guide outside explain things about the temple since they cannot enter. After that, we were only given 50 minutes to wait in the long lines and look around at the two temples. That is not long enough to really enjoy the site with how busy it was. The 20-30 minutes waiting at the entrance was wasted when we could have purchased the tickets ourselves and walked down to the temple on our own in a quicker amount of time. At Philae Temple, our next guide was Aisha. She had been keeping in touch with me already on WhatsApp which I appreciated very much. She was very knowledgeable and explained a lot about the history of Philae and information about Aswan. She talked about essential oils and cartouches which we could tell was leading into some kind of sales pitch, which seems to be normal here. I was interested in getting myself a Cartouche, so she offered to take us to a shop after the tour of Philae. The price for a 925 silver cartouche pendant with 6 letters was reasonable, so we did purchase one and I am very happy with it. The Sunset Felucca ride I do not recommend. At least not with the boat we took. The start of the ride was peaceful and enjoyable. However, as we approached Elephantine Island, the boat captains let the boat drift to the left of the island. This island has a huge building on it, the Movenpick. During the best parts of the sunset, we were parked behind this building and it blocked our view of the sunset the entire time. We have no idea why a sunset cruise would ever go to that side of the island... they have the ability to turn the rudder or the sails to steer it to the side of the setting sun, but instead they let it glide to directly behind the building... it ruined our whole felucca experience. Our guide Aisha did her best to fix the issue by arranging a pickup by motor boat to take us to the other side of the island to see the sunset, but the sun had already gone below the horizon. It was too late. We finished the tour by taking the motor boat around the rest of Elephantine Island and Aisha explained a little history about the island which I appreciated. Overall, I regret spending so much money to have this many things go wrong. I wish we had arranged to stay in Abu Simbel and take a bus back to Aswan instead of trying to fit in both site tours in one day. And the felucca ride was very disappointing once we got stuck behind the building during the sunset. Our driver was on time and did well transporting us between destinations, and the company itself seems like a good company. Aisha was also a good tour guide. I just do not recommend this tour specifically if you dont like feeling rushed. If you are staying in Aswan and want to see both sites still, this is one of the only options I could find to do so, and we were able to experience everything in one day. For the felucca ride, request to go on the sunset side of Elephantine Island ahead of time, because the boat captains apparently do not do that on their own.

Response from the operator: Thank you very much for taking the time to share your detailed feedback about your experience with **Eyes of Egypt**. We truly appreciate your honest review and are grateful that you chose our company for your visit to Aswan. First of all, we would like to sincerely thank you for your kind words about our company’s communication, our punctual and professional driver, and especially our guide **Aisha**. We are very pleased to know that you appreciated her knowledge, her constant contact via WhatsApp, and her explanations at Philae Temple and during the rest of the tour. Providing knowledgeable guides and good customer service is one of our main strengths, and your comments confirm that we are on the right path. At the same time, we truly apologize for the inconveniences you faced, especially at Abu Simbel and during the sunset felucca ride. Your feedback regarding the timing, organization at the entrance, and the felucca route is very important to us. We take such comments seriously, and we are already using them to improve coordination on-site and to better brief our partners, including felucca captains, to ensure that future guests enjoy the sunset from the best possible viewpoint. We would also like to thank you for recognizing our efforts to solve issues during the tour, particularly Aisha’s attempt to arrange an alternative solution by motorboat. Our team always does its best to support guests and handle any unexpected situations as quickly as possible. For future guests, we would like to assure you that **Eyes of Egypt** is committed to providing the same level of care, communication, and professional service, with continuous improvements based on guest feedback. Guests who book with us can expect punctual transportation, experienced guides, and dedicated customer support throughout their journey. Once again, thank you for your valuable feedback. We truly hope to have the opportunity to welcome you again in Egypt and provide you with an even better experience next time. Warm regards, **Eyes of Egypt Team**

via Viator