Live Your Best Lives
Hello everyone, I am Qingyun, the product manager for the Middle East and Africa.
In the early morning of June 12, 2015, I embarked on my first trip to Africa for work.
The work experience of being "sold" to Africa by my former boss opened the door to a new world, thus opening the Pandora's box of my journey.
I can say that I have both a love and hate relationship with Egypt. Here are some of my personal experiences~
Let me talk about the complaints first. My experience of leaving Egypt was the beginning of an embarrassing journey. As soon as I landed at the airport, I was extorted for money by the customs. My computer bag was stolen when I took a taxi. There were still several hundred dollars in the bag (this was the relief money my dear mother gave me when she left).
I was carrying a lot of bags, and in the lower right corner was the lost laptop bag. Just a second ago, I was so happy when I was on a special plane in Qatar, a country of tycoons...
In the first month after arriving in Egypt, we deliberately chose a brand new apartment and waited for the guy to come and install the air conditioner. We waited for a whole month from the delivery, installation to use. You know, the temperature in Egypt is 40-50 degrees in summer, and I only had a Xiaomi electric fan in my hand!
Egyptians are incredibly slow. They often say "one minute," but don't believe it; it's always going to take an hour or two. If they say one hour, just come tomorrow. I once waited in my Egyptian apartment for a gas tanker to cook. I had the food ready, but he made me wait two weeks...
Then the experience of driving in Egypt hit me again, and I could have written a guide to avoiding lightning strikes.
The first time I drove on the highway after getting my driver's license was not in China, but in Egypt. Egyptian roads have no lines, and people drive from the far right to the far left, which is the normal way they drive.
I have been involved in two car accidents in Egypt. In one accident, someone hit me, and in the other accident, someone else hit me as well.
The battle-hardened rental car
Although there are indeed many things to complain about my work experience in Egypt, I have also heard the most "Habibi (which means dear in Chinese)" here in my life.
When I broke down on a deserted desert road and had no hope of help, a friend I had only met once took half a day to come to my rescue.
In Egypt, I experienced many firsts in my life:
The first time I took a diving certification test, the first time I chased dolphins on a liveaboard, the first time I camped in the black and white desert, and the first time I saw the pure and bright starry sky.
Of course, I also saw the world wonders of the pyramids, temples, and mosques for the first time...
There is an old Egyptian saying: "Whoever drinks the water of the Nile will surely return."
Although I have never drunk the water from the Nile River (are you kidding me, how can you drink it when it’s so dirty?!), I often go back there after returning to China (as if I were under a spell).
This "second hometown" that I can't quite describe, even though it is dirty and messy and full of scams and traps, is still the country I love.
Sitting in a cafe in the Egyptian city, ordering a cup of black tea, surrounded by the apricot-flavored shisha, saying "Salam~" to the uncle sitting next to me and starting a conversation, this is my unforgettable time in Cairo.
After arriving at China-TravelNote with a complex love-hate relationship for Egypt, I dove headfirst into developing our "Return to Egypt" series of itineraries. What makes these itineraries so special? And how did they become our signature itineraries? Let me explain.
Many guests have asked us why the route is named "Return to Egypt"?
This stems from an expectation, which is the ancient Egyptian saying "Whoever drinks the water of the Nile will surely come back again", which means that those who have drunk the water of the Nile or come to the Nile will have an indissoluble bond with the land of Egypt, and will eventually return to Egypt because of their love and longing for this place.
We have a deep love for this route and hope that everyone who visits Egypt through this route will fall in love with this country, even if it's just a small part of it, and may return one day in the future. Moreover, the name has taken on new meaning after the mask era, signifying that we at China-TravelNote are resuming our Egypt journey and we look forward to everyone returning.
Since 2022, over 1,000 tourists have traveled with us on Return to Egypt tours, with a 96% positive review rate. To ensure every tourist has a satisfying Egypt trip, we strive for zero negative reviews. We refine the details of our product based on each actual tour, and we sincerely invite you to share your suggestions for improving Return to Egypt itineraries!
Many tourists often ask: With so many package tours to Egypt, how do I choose? We've compiled a methodology to answer this question, so feel free to take a look!
First, let's take a concise version of the "hard condition" judgment method:
Tips:
1) Is it a formal and endorsed travel agency?
2) Is there any shopping (with direct pass)
3) Actual tour price (whether it is all-inclusive)
4) Self-funded (number of self-funded projects)
5) Maximum number of participants and group formation rate
6) Food (how many meals are included, is there any detailed information)
7) Accommodation (hotel star rating; hotel location)
8) Attractions and experiences: For once-in-a-lifetime destinations, of course you should try to visit them all, but is your schedule too tight?
Now I will tell you in detail why our group tour to Egypt is worth it.
First of all, we are a reliable and formally qualified travel agency in the industry~
China-TravelNote never organizes shopping tours!
Return to Egypt route, tips for guide and driver, and meals are all included.
Our self-funded projects when we returned to Egypt were limited to two: visiting the Bedouins in an off-road vehicle and taking a hot air balloon in Luxor.
Here I will analyze it from the perspective of an industry insider (you can take a look if you are interested, and you can scroll down if you are not interested, it will not affect your reading later):
Many Egypt tours on the market include six to eight optional activities at high prices. This is because Egypt itself is a low-cost tourism market, and many companies offer low tour prices to recoup their profits through optional activities. This is understandable. However, if there are too many optional activities, the tour guides will be under great pressure and will want to earn more. This can lead to unstable quality control, resulting in a subpar experience for guests.
② Many friends who have been there wrote in the comments that the prices of self-funded projects are much higher than those on Taobao or Xiaohongshu. This is indeed the case, because the self-funded projects of group tours include the tour guide service commission and project fees.
So when choosing self-funded tours, you can compare them on multiple platforms, but be sure to pay attention to safety. In the Egyptian tourism market, the more self-funded tours a tour guide can sell, the more money they make. However, if the entire group has no self-funded tours, there is a certain probability that they will not be able to find a good tour guide (of course, excluding the extremely expensive tours of the wealthy).
During the peak season, the number of people per group will be limited to 25, and on non-holidays, the number of people per group will be limited to 20.
The Return to Egypt itinerary includes all meals, breakfast is a buffet at the hotel, lunch is usually a special meal, dinner is sometimes a buffet at the hotel and sometimes out, and the whole trip includes 2 Chinese meals. The cost list is clear at a glance and there are no hidden charges.
Actual photos of local meals
Egyptian cuisine is mainly barbecue, with ingredients such as chicken, beef, mutton, fish, etc. The staple food is basically bread with a lot of sauce, the method is relatively simple, but the seafood is very fresh!
International star hotels are definitely better than local star hotels. Our Return to Egypt product is all five-star hotels, and most hotels on the market are also five-star, but the hotels we choose are different. We of course carefully select the best for tourists.
We promise to select international five-star brand hotels such as Marriott/Sheraton/InterContinental/Hilton/Steffenbacher/Sonesta in Cairo, Red Sea and Luxor, and we have selected sea/river view rooms in Hurghada and Luxor, all in the city.
The 12-day itinerary has a total of 8 nights, 6 of which are international five-star nights. The 11-day itinerary has a total of 7 nights, 6 of which are international five-star nights.
The four ancient civilizations of the world, the world's unsolved mystery of the pyramids, the world's longest river, the Nile River, more than 3,000 years of Pharaoh era, 7,000 years of historical civilization... Everyone should be familiar with these and have been exposed to them since childhood.
In addition to the scenic spots known to all, we can look at the distribution of Egypt's attractions with the help of a map.
Image source@Illustrator: Mee Mee
Egypt's tourist destinations can basically be divided into four parts according to their regions: east, south, west and north.
The northern region is mainly composed of two major cities: Cairo (Pyramids & Museums) and Alexandria (Mediterranean Roman ruins).
The south is the temple area, which mainly includes three major areas: Luxor, Aswan and Abu Simbel.
There is the Sahara region in the west, whose main attractions include the black and white deserts and the Fayoum Oasis.
There are also tourist resorts on the eastern Red Sea coast, with major cities including Hurghada and Sharm el-Sheikh on the Sinai Peninsula.
As can be seen from the above, Egypt's attractions are widely scattered, so we recommend a trip to Egypt of at least 10 days, otherwise the experience will be greatly affected.
We chose a reverse route, first going to the Red Sea to adjust to the time difference, then heading to a southern city, and finally adding a domestic flight. This avoids the usual international flights and repeated domestic flights in the early morning.
Below is a chart showing the product differences when we returned to Egypt for different number of days.
In addition to the pyramids and temples that you must visit, we have also added the Saladin Citadel (Mohammed Ali Mosque), where you can have a chance to see the unique landscape where the pyramids and the city are integrated into one.
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The Valley of the Kings also includes the most expensive entrance fee to Seti I (worth 2,000 Egyptian pounds).
It also includes the relatively small twin temple of Kangwengpo Temple.
Phew… We have finally finished talking about the hard conditions. If all the above “hardware” can be met, then a good trip to Egypt basically has a general framework. Next, let’s take a look at the “software” that adds icing on the cake.
Many tourist routes on the market are constantly adding more and more attractions to the point of being tiresome, but we care more about tourists' local experience, cultural understanding, and enriching activities.
Take our 11-day itinerary to visit the ruins of southern Egypt, for example. The itinerary includes:
1️⃣Snorkeling in the Red Sea
2️⃣Pyramid View Restaurant
3️⃣ Cairo Centennial Cafe
The locals boast about him like this, "This place represents Cairo better than the Pyramids." Nobel Prize winner in Literature Naguib Mahfouz witnessed all kinds of life here and wrote a trilogy that shocked the world.
4️⃣Nile Felucca Cruise
【The best time to experience this is around sunset. 】
5️⃣Arabic experience course
Experience the teacher's "teaching stick" teaching style at the Nubian Village Primary School in Aswan
6️⃣Horse-drawn carriage tour and Luxor Temple night tour
7️⃣Abu Simbel Temple Tour
[Generally, travel agencies do not include this item. It is a self-funded item costing US$160 per person, which is about 1,000 yuan per person.]
8️⃣ Free admission to the New Grand Egyptian Museum (with tour guide)
This new museum, which took 20 years to prepare and cost 1 billion US dollars, houses more than 100,000 cultural relics. We don’t have this attraction ourselves, but in order to let everyone have no regrets (I think very few people come to Egypt for the second time), we still added this attraction. Come and enjoy this humanistic feast!
When traveling to Egypt, it's crucial to have a Chinese-language tour. Don't go with an English-language tour. Even if you have a CET-6, Egypt has so much history and so many pharaohs! You might not even be able to remember them in Chinese, let alone unfamiliar technical vocabulary.
Our guide
We work with experienced Chinese-speaking tour guides. In addition to explaining Egypt's rich history and culture, we will also introduce the local customs and practices of Egypt. It is full of practical information.
The above hardware and software are all maintained at a good level, which means it is a relatively high-quality group. For the same specifications, you can just compare the prices. This way you are most likely to find the group you like.
Finally, I would like to say something from the bottom of my heart:
We can't always create a good route from the beginning, and we have experienced many complaints from guests and disappointment from old tourists. We would like to thank all tourists for their tolerance and support!
My biggest feeling during the seven years I have been at China-TravelNote is that it is easy to design a fun and interesting product, but it is very difficult to design a product that most tourists like.
Our Return to Egypt route has undergone many revisions and upgrades. Behind each upgrade, not only are the product managers’ own ideas, but also come from many tourists’ suggestions for improvement. To this day, Return to Egypt is not a perfect product, but we will keep working hard to make everyone experience this trip more happily.
Thank you again for your continued support. I hope that after "drinking" the water of the Nile, you will fall in love with Egypt.
