Discover Egypt, Viking III Review

Overall Rating

Our Egyptologist, the boat, the crew, the company and the wonders of Egypt!

An unfortunate catalogue of problems at Gatwick, none Discovery's fault, a fire alarm got us all out the terminal, a technical problem with the plane meant a replacement and delay, which meant a replacement crew, and then our catering trolleys went missing from the original plane.

A lot of people have mentioned the badgering, but it is still in a sense a third world country and this is how these people make a living. We took it all good naturely, and likened the 'you missy, you buy, one pound' as akin to walking through a british fruit and veg market and the vendors all calling you to buy their lovely banana's... etc... Hubby and I took a walk through Luxor into the non tourist part and could not have been made more welcome. No hassle, lots of genuine, shy smiles. Little children saying 'hello' but not begging.

The Nubian village, it's their way of life. They do not use airconditioning, which to westerners seems strange. All we found was genuine friendly people, who were pleased to show us their way of life and there was no hard sell, or begging.

The Boat and the Crew were as we expected, this is not a massive cruise ship, and thats exactly why we chose it. We wanted the personal touch, not to be just one couple of hundreds. The Nubian staff celebrated hubbys birthday with a cake presented at dinner and the chefs all came out and sang and danced.

The only 'tummy trouble' we came across was mainly due to people not being familiar with how to cope with such a hot climate. People drank copious amounts of alcohol, sat in the midday sun without covering their heads, did not up their salt intakes, and did not drink enough water. Ergo, stomach cramps, diahorrea, feeling faint and sickness. We ate exactly the same food, but took the necessary precautions and all on our table were fine. But hubby has worked in the middle east before and made sure we were all taking the necessary precautions.

The trips were tiring, but there is a lot to see, and the tour is designed to get you to see as much of Egypt as they can, so you can go home and digest the enormity of it all afterwards. Also the early starts were designed to ensure that you were back on board and out of the hottest part of the sun. All the Egyptians we met were so proud of their country and their heritage and wanted to share it all with us.

Another comment about the small children trying to sell you things, one little girl noticed i'd dropped my camera, to her this could have meant a BIG payday if she'd just picked it up and not told me, and sold it. Instead she stopped me and took me by the hand and showed me it, asking nothing in return. Her 'job' was to get money for her family by selling home made dolls, not to steal, and she made that apparent. And she was genuinely surprised when I gave her a 'gift' to say thank you, and kept saying thank you to ME!

Yes the boat was not newly built, yes sometimes you could smell the diesel fumes from the other boats, but if you sat out on deck next to the engine of the other boat it's no different from sitting next to the exhaust of a car with a running engine!

We would love to go back again, we were so grateful to Discovery and their Egyptologist for such a fabulous trip. They were recommended to us by friends who had used them before and we will be recommending them to anyone we meet who wants to make a similar trip!