For anyone going on a Ramasside tour in Egypt please be very careful. I would recommend making sure they provide you with a driver/guide that speaks English and you don’t get into a car that looks like it might break down. My husband and I experienced an absolute nightmare last week where we feared for our lives on a tour with them and did not recieve what we were promised.
I’d like to share my experience to hopefully save you from what happened to us.
We booked a private tour (my husband and I) months ahead of the cruise. A couple days before the excursion, I received an email saying we have to go in a small group, not private because too many people signed up. To make up for it, they will include lunch which we already had in our package. The private tour cost a lot more than the small tour. We paid $1050! After making it clear I was not happy with that, we were told we would get a private tour.
The morning of our tour, when we were walking to meet our guide, we received a text that they were changing the schedule. No pyramids that day, instead we would go to the museum and pyramids the next day. We were quite Disappointed but, in the end, that worked out better for us.
When we got to the spot where they said to meet them, no one was waiting for us. They advertised “your Ramasside tour guide and manager will be waiting for you. They will be holding a sign showing your name. You do not need to look for them, they would look for you”. Not the case! We had to ask many people to finally be told our guide was on his way, he was running late. Then, after about an hour of standing on the street, we were told he was not coming, and to go with some else. We had no idea who this person was and, if they were even connected to Ramasside. We were told our guide would meet us in 3 hours in Cairo. The driver did not speak English at all! He couldn’t show us any sights per advertised. They say “from the moment your tour starts your guide will give you his full attention, once in the car your driver will talk to you about all the things on the ways well as other aspects of your tour that interest you”. Not the case!
The seat belts in the car were broken and the traffic was the CRAZIEST we’ve ever seen! The lane dividers must have just been a suggestion. People drive anywhere they want. We held on for dear life! The car had 285,000 miles on it and was in terrible condition! I couldn’t believe we were in it. On the 5 lane freeway, people run across on foot constantly. Scary!! The driver (and everyone else on the road) was constantly honking and swerving. We felt very unsafe.
About an hour into the drive the car overheated. The driver stopped the car ON the 5 lane freeway with people driving fast and crazy swerving to avoid us!! He couldn’t communicate with us so, we had no idea how long we would be there and what the plan was. He was using his phone but, not sure who or what was being said. He had a huge bottle of water and a rag so, I can only conclude that this happened often. Found out later the car belonged to Ramasside. It was 104 degrees and it was HOT!!!! REALLY hot with no way to get relief. The one bottle of water we were given was warm and, we couldn’t drink it. My husband who is a mechanic, was standing on the freeway helping the driver (again no way to communicate with him). I was scared for our lives. All I could do was look behind us, hold my breath and pray! One we got back on the road after thirty minutes, We drove over 2 hours with no AC. Remember it was 104 degrees. We were also breathing nasty polluted air because the windows were down. The pollution is out of this world and we had a hard time breathing. The whole time I was questioning if we would make it. I’ve never experienced heat like this and I’ve been in Florida in the middle of summer!!
We finally met the tour guide in front of the museum. We thought when we met him, we would get in his AC car but nope, he was on foot. He walked us to the museum. I was overheated and very dizzy. I’d never felt like this in my 52 years of life. I literally could not see clearly. He didn’t know anything about our tour. Had no idea that lunch was included. No idea what time we go on Nile River cruise. No idea what time we need to be back to the ship next day.
After the museum (which had no AC), the original driver picked us up in a different car, thank god! Our tour guide left again and we had no way to communicate.
The driver took us to lunch at four thirty pm. We were starving! The lunch was in a boat that sits on the Nile which was cool but, the lunch itself was no good. Pita bread with dip. Salad, pickled veggies. We were the only ones there. Felt weird. The people who worked on the boat said the dinner cruise we were scheduled for through Ramasside would be at 7pm and 9pm. We were told 8pm so, now we didn’t know when it was. Quite frustrating! Then, after we ate we had to wait for the driver to finish his food and his phone calls before we could leave. We were SO ready to go to the hotel. He doesn’t speak English so there’s no way to communicate with him.
We finally get to the hotel and they don’t have a reservation for us. We had to wait at the desk while she checked with her supervisor. She came back and said she found it. But, now we were told NO Nile River view as promised by Ramasside. Only city view. My husband is a Diamond member with Hilton and was able to talk to a manager to get the upgrade to river view otherwise, we would have not got it. It took 30 minutes to get a key for our room.
At this point we were not sure we even wanted to go on the Nile River cruise because we were afraid of what would happen next and we only had 30 minutes to get ready. Well, we decided to go and guess what? The driver (same one as before) was not waiting where he said he’d be to take us. We looked everywhere and called him (he answered but we couldn’t understand each other) and he was no where to be found. We finally found someone to call him and translate. He was waiting in a different spot than he said. We barely made it to the cruise on time.
The cruise was really nice. Good food, good entertainment and amazing views!
At this point, I sent a message on Whats App the manager of Ramasside (Rakaia) to explain the situation and she said she will get us a driver that spoke English for the next day and, for our trouble she will upgrade our lunch to one with a view of the pyramids. That’s nice and all but, it did not begin to make up for our experience and, our package already included lunch.
The 2nd day we were met by our guide (who showed us the museum) and another driver who showed up to pick us all up, who did speak a little English. They took us to the pyramids, sphinx, rode the camels and to a paper and oil making factory and lunch. This day was perfect!!! No complaints. We chose to skip going into the pyramids to save time and, we chose to be taken directly back to the ship with no tour of Alexandria because we were afraid of being stranded again and, not making it back to the ship in time for departure. We did make it back thank goodness!
Our guide explained to us that all of this happened because they overbooked and didn’t have the right people in place. I’m really not trying to be rude but, how can that be our fault. It was as if we were to be ok with that explanation. The guide we had was really great and the driver could not help he didn’t speak English and that Ramasside gave him a really old car with issues but, it certainly is Ramasside fault.
My husband and I are very easy going people but, this was way to much for anyone to deal with. We will not be using them ever again! Very disappointed and upset! I’ve since emailed Rakaia the manager again and she said they would offer us or our friends a discount on future excursions with them. I find this insulting! How could or why would we ever put ourselves in this situation again! NO WAY!
Please be wary!
