Shoestring

This is my 2nd experience with Encounters. First time was Morocco 2017 Desert Safari Tour & now Egypt - Nubian Adventure Tour. As a Solo traveler at times, I am grateful for Encounters and their top notch service! Very organized form beginning to end, Emails by Mariska to the Itinerary - transfers, hotel and food! (Food in Egypt is Amazing!) From the arrival and airport transfers and their on the spot representative, Saul gives you information on the next steps for the tour. Upon arrival at the Hotel we were told our daily itinerary by tour guide Aboudy! As a group tour our guide Aboudy was the best, with a sense of professionalism he was very attentive and always curtious, organized & funny! Great Egyptologist! He knows his country and History!! Best of all I love the energy and passion he shows while speaking about the history of Egypt. From the temples, to the Valley of the Kings to the Felucca experience to Karnak (my favorite) & optional trips like Abu Simbel and Alexandria (is a must add-on & also my favorites) I was able to explore Alexandria with Aboudy as my personal tour guide! I learned so much! This trip with Encounters by far is and will always be a memorable one!! I will always travel with them to check off my Bucketlist! Thank you Encounters Travel!!! Thank you Egypt!

I loved Egypt! !! This is the most interesting country I've ever been. Everything is so amazing. The tour guides did everything in their power to make everyone in my group, happy. We felt so safe and cared by them. I didn't have to think about anything, and I saw and did so much in 10 days. I learned so much about the acient and modern culture, and about the Egyptians life. The Muslims and Cristian are so united. There, religion brings people together. They are so peaceful and happy. They love tourists. We were so well treated, that we didn't want to come back so soon. I never felt so safe in my entire life. Everything is so different then what the media want us to see. I encourage everyone to go to Egypt to see and feel all the wonder this amazing country has to show and offer to the world. Beautiful people! I'm surprised and amazed by everything. I would like to give a special thanks to our dear tour guide that stayed with us the most and made our journey, the best one ever. This soul is a very special one, Sheriffhassan Mohamed. The best guide ever, his knowledge, kindness, and a great sense of humor, was beyond my expectations. Also Kalifa Mohamed, and Hassan were amazing to us. I'll definitely travel with Encounters again. Next trip is to Jordan, Israel, and Egypt again. Thank you , I feel blessed. This unforgettable experience is going to last even in the after life. I left my heart in Egypt, and some day I'll definitely go back.

In January 2013, I was lucky enough to be on the Garden Route tour through South Africa's amazing Cape Town.

I recon the activities and sights can't get any better than this as far as Cape Town tours are concerned

Accommodation was excellent for most of the tour, breakfasts, lunches and dinners were adventuresome and as far as the tour leaders were concerned, they were two top notch people.

My holiday was truly remarkable thanks to Encounters Travel!

The Good: It was a good guided first look at Egypt. The wealth of surviving history in Egypt is a lot more than the Great Pyramids and the Great Sphinx. The temples visited and the stories behind them are really interesting. There is a lot of overlap of the stories and markings on the temples that towards the end, the enthusiasm for temple visits waned.

I would always cherish the Nubian village visit (stepping in the beach/desert sand and visiting the Nubian household).

I loved the airport pickup and drop off. The airport chaperone (Sool) and the guy who took me from the airport to my hotel (Ahmed) were great. Islam (the tour leader) was fine. Then Saadoon, our guide, with whom we spent the majority of our time was excellent: knowledgeable about Egyptian history, energetic, fun and incredibly customer-focused. Saadoon was able to accommodate the evolving needs of each person. The penultimate night when the group hung out on a motor boat was a good time spent with tour mates.

Food was mostly nice. I loved the sharwamas, koshari and falafel sandwiches.

The Not-so-good: The night on the felucca was okay. I had understood it to mean a cruise on the Nile. It turned out that felucca sailing is prohibited at night, which makes sense for safety reasons. So we pretty much docked for the night. On our night, temperature low was 52 degrees F and no mosquitoes were observed. Cumulatively, though, we did get a reasonable amount of daytime on the feluccas.

The sleeper train idea was not great. It is at night, so you do not get to see a lot of the country. The cabins were tiny, but could be considered an experience of the local transportation. However, the toilet facilities were non-existent. I later realized that whatever you did there ended up on the rails! If you must do the sleeper train, I recommend that you stay away from no. 2 business.

In Egypt, as in many non-Western countries, most commerce involves price haggling. If you are not used to it, it may seem daunting and uncomfortable to you. I feel that a tourist who wishes to interact with the local culture should learn to haggle prices. The sellers may be somewhat pushy, but they mean you no harm. They are just trying to make a living.

The Ugly: It is difficult to escape passive smoking in Egypt. From you hotel lobby to the train’s cafe to the Encounter guides themselves to some of your tour mates, it seems acceptable for people to light up a cigarette in the middle of a conversation in a poorly ventilated space. I call it ugly (the act, not the people) because these were generally nice people casually exposing themselves (and you the tourist) to the health hazards of cigarette smoke.

I notice that I have devoted more characters to the less-than-good parts of the trip. So I wish to conclude that it was an amazing trip. I felt safe. My mind was blown over and over! My mind was blown over and over! (Repeated for emphasis). I hope to study about Egyptian history and hieroglyphics and visit Egypt again several years later.

Shukran!

we had Encounters Travel Great British Tour...visiting the stone henge and bath, to york, cambridge, edinburgh, scottish highlands and finally liverpool, england
it was a great experience, tailor-made for us to accommodate our schedule which really surprised us. All the destinations were very interesting, our tour guide..Mr Chris Ratcliffe was super very knowledgeable that we thought he memorised the whole british history book and was very accomodating too. There were no tiresome excursions and we were given enough time for picture-taking which our group of all filipinos are crazy about. The hotels we stayed were fine and meals were good nothing to complain about.
YES if you ask me if i recommend Encounters Travel