Discover Egypt & Jordan (from Cairo to Madaba)

Customer Reviews

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  Leopold

  · April 27th, 2023
  Well organised and run tour. Likeable and capable tour leaders. Minimal steering into shopping situations without putting non shoppers under pressure to buy. Much appreciated, as I intensely dislike being set up in a situation where I feel trapped. Usually there is the pretence of showing one how something is being made, which ultimately leads to a showroom and coercion to buy. This is ok for the shoppers in the group,but often very uncomfortable for the ones who aren't.
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  Intrepid Travel commented on this review

  Hi Leopold, thank you for your great review! We are so pleased to hear that you were happy with your leaders and not put it any uncomfortable situations. We will always support local vendors in line with our brand values and purpose, but we understand... Show more
  Trip date: April 2023
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  Thavamalar

  · October 6th, 2022
  Hotel in Cairo was v bad
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  Intrepid Travel commented on this review

  Hello Thavamalar! We're sorry to hear you're disappointed in the accommodation you had in Cairo. We've been able to locate your booking, and our customer care team will be in touch directly!
  Trip date: September 2022
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  Niti

  · August 29th, 2022
  I recently took 2 trips with Intrepid. Jordan (8 days) and Egypt (12 days) – in June-2022. Here are my thoughts. (I have also shared some of this with Intrepid in their post-tour feedback.) Good • Guides are well informed and do a pretty decent job – keeping the group together. And explaining things. • They go out of their way to help with individual requests – shopping, side tours, health issues. • Execution is quite good. Things go as planned – stays, side trips, transfer logistics – are all well done. • Cost seems reasonable. Not good • Tip kitty. While the concept of a shared pool for tips is nothing new, there is NO transparency. Jordan guide collected 30USD (4 in the group, so 120USD) for 8 days. He even made us give the tips – so we knew who and how much. Egypt was a total mess. 60USD (10 in the group, so a whopping 600USD) for what was essentially a 10d trip. No one in the group knew who was getting the tips. And we all agreed there was NO WAY our guide was tipping 60USD per day (many days all we did was stay in a hotel and go on Intrepid bus tours)! • “Comfort” level: Don’t expect this to mean higher quality stays and rides and food. It just means the day starts at 10am and ends by 3pm. To give you ‘free time’ to relax. • Focus is ENTIRELY on hopping from one tourist site to the next. There is NOTHING focused on anything current in the country. No walking or culture or food tours in the cities. No good restaurants. No interaction with anything current. (Except 2 very STAGED dinners with local families – they get paid to host and make conversation!) • Guides DO NOT come with you inside many sites. They say a lot (hard to remember) – and then you walk around on your own. Even in big sites like Luxor (Egypt) or Petra (Jordan). • Even tho they charge thousands of dollars - Water in these warm climates is not free inside the bus. You pay 40 – 60 pounds per bottle. Cheap. And there are no paid meals – breakfast is usually included in hotel stays – so they are the only meals provided. • The hotels on the trip are just ugly big-box hotels – crowded with tourists. No local color or character. Nothing boutique. • Vendors in both these countries are ubiquitous. And they are aggressive (to the point of threatening), and very very persistent. The guides make NO EFFORT to shield you from them. Even allowing to come INSIDE THE BUS to harass you – as they sit upfront and watch. In coffee shops they take you to – they “allow” these vendors to come inside and stand 2 inches from you (no social distancing obviously) . There is obviously some kind of relationship between the guides and shop owners and these vendors. • Tour descriptions on the Intrepid website – or what they send as Essential Information for the tours – is laughably useless. Like someone cut and past from wikitravel or tripadvisor. And it is very out of date – even the tour guides say so. • I found the tour guides pick one or two people in the group – and focus all their attention on them. The others need to catchup – else the guide starts speaking. This was worse in Jordan with only 4 in the group. • Both my airport pickups were botched. NO ONE standing holding a sign. NO ONE even at the airport. I had to rely on the kindness of some other tour company driver in Cairo. Bad experience. • Trips are actually much shorter. Jordan was 8 days and Egypt was 10. There is NOTHING on the first and last day – so they are travel days. Should NOT be counted towards tour duration.
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  Trip date: June 2022
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  Gary

  · July 5th, 2019
  The tour of Egypt is amazing, giving an overview that has left me wanting to go back for more, the first time I've ever said that about a tour. The tour of Jordan ticked off a couple of items on my bucket list but it doesn't have the history you will find in Egypt. Not entirely sure the stay in the desert achieved anything. That being said the itinerary for the two countries was outstanding. The food in Egypt improved as the Tour Leader assessed what out budgets could accommodate. (Would have been easier if we just said we want to go upmarket... which is still incredibly cheap). Both tour leaders, Ramy (Egypt) and Husam (Jordan) get top marks for their knowledge, work ethic and patience. As to the detractors for the tours… read the instructions that are on the website and downloads, listen to what the tour guides tell you and you will have a great holiday. Yes the facilities can be a bit basic but hey, if you want five star go for 'comfort'.
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  Trip date: April 2019
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  Anonymous

  · May 12th, 2019
  Overall great experience
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  Trip date: April 2019
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  Maybelyn

  · May 9th, 2019
  The tour is well organized and plans are easy...
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  Trip date: April 2019
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  Srini

  · January 12th, 2019
  Great locations. Well guided trip. Highly recommend the itinerary
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  Trip date: December 2018
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  Pascal

  · December 23rd, 2018
  A really good itinerary which ensured that I...
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  Intrepid Travel commented on this review

  Hi Pascal, Thank you for taking the time to leave your feedback, I am really pleased to read that you had a great experience on our Discover Egypt & Jordan trip. Thank you again, hopefully see you on another Intrepid Group trip soon. John
  Trip date: December 2018