Everything You Need To Know About G Adventures’ 8 Day Best of Egypt Tour

An Honest Review + Tips & Photos!

Honest Review: 8 Day Best of Egypt Tour with G Adventures

When our planned Arabian Sea and Persian Gulf cruise got canceled last minute, Kyle and I found ourselves scrambling for a new adventure. After some quick decision-making, we knew exactly where we wanted to go: Egypt! This dream destination had been on our bucket list for a while, and we couldn't miss the chance to explore it.

With our goal of seeing as many iconic Egyptian landmarks as possible while sticking to a budget, we turned to G Adventures for their 8 Day Best of Egypt Tour. It promised the perfect balance of sightseeing, authentic experiences, and seamless travel, all while allowing us to explore Egypt's wonders without the hassle of logistics.

We booked our tour for November (the same timeframe as our canceled cruise) and, after much anticipation, the journey was everything we hoped for and more. Now that we’ve been home for a while—after the busy holidays and "WAVE Season" travel rush—I’m excited to share my detailed, honest review of the G Adventures 8 Day Best of Egypt Tour along with some tips and essential travel information!

Why Choose G Adventures for Your Egypt Trip?

If you’re considering a tour of Egypt, G Adventures offers an incredible experience that ticks all the boxes:

  • Authentic Egyptian Experiences: From local markets to traditional food, G Adventures prioritizes immersive activities.
  • Seamless Travel: No need to worry about transportation, accommodations, or logistics. Everything is organized for you.
  • Budget-Friendly: Experience the best of Egypt without breaking the bank.
  • Expert Local Guides: Learn from knowledgeable local guides who bring Egypt’s rich history to life.

>>Contact Us!<<

*Scroll to the end to see MORE reviews/ thoughts on the itinerary, CEO, activities, and more.*

 

Easy Booking and planning:

As a travel agent, I partner with G Adventures in order to bring you a seamless and stress-free vacation planning process! Unlike a lot of the big booking sites, I am available to answer every one of your questions, solve problems big or small, and offer tips, advice and personalized support based on years of experience in the travel industry! After you've read the review, if you're interested, use the contact form above to get started with me as your agent!

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Day 1: Arrival Day

I pre-booked our arrival day transfers through G Adventures. You just tell them your flight information and they arrange the rest. A representative from G Adventures met us at the airport before Immigration. She walked us through everything at the airport and connected us with our driver who was already waiting to take us to the hotel!

Once we arrived at the hotel, we had a sign waiting for us with a meeting time for that evening when we would meet the rest of our small group and our guide / CEO (Chief Experience Officer).

Check in was easy, and the room was comfortable. Nothing fancy, but nice. We had a nice balcony! Noise from the street was loud, but we were too tired to care.

At 6pm we met the rest of our group. There were 13 travelers total, plus our CEO, Arafa. During the meeting we all introduced ourselves to each other and Arafa went over the tour, expectations, etc... plus the itinerary for the following day.

It was very helpful to have the meeting, and then afterward most of us walked to a local restaurant and had dinner together. I had hawawshi and it was delicious!

After dinner, we went straight to bed because we had an early start the next day!

 

Notes:

Timing: You really should fly in at least a day early. We made it to the hotel just in time to check in and attend the meeting. It would have been nice to have had a recovery day before beginning the intensive journey.

Need: Make sure you bring a power adapter. I left mine by accident. However--- our CEO, Arafa, was awesome and helped me get one after dinner!

Transportation: If you don't pre-book your transportation with G Adventures, you will need to book them on your own. I felt like the benefit of having someone lined up in advance to help us at the airport and take us where we needed to be was well worth it.

Hotel: The hotels on this tour are mid level accommodations. Please do not expect luxury here. The hotel we stayed at on our first night was comfortable and offered a very nice breakfast for us in the morning.

Solo Travel: If you are a solo traveler, unless you paid extra to be in your own room you may be assigned a room mate (another solo traveler or someone in a family with an odd number) of the same gender. If you are a solo woman, you will not be assigned to share with a solo man. On our tour there was a young lady traveling from Ireland by herself, and another young lady traveling with her parents. So those two roomed together during the entire trip and it didn't appear to be a problem.

Dinner: The dinner on this night is not included, and it is optional to attend. It is a short walk from the hotel to the restaurant. There are a lot of food choices (at least at the one we went to) and the prices were really reasonable compared to what we are used to paying in restaurants back in the midwestern U.S.

Day 2

Oh, what a wonderful day!

We had to leave very early in the morning so we could beat some of the crowd... we sat our luggage outside of our room at 6am, ate breakfast at the hotel, and left the hotel around 6:45. Our luggage was held for us at the hotel since we were not going to be back before checkout time.

We went to Giza Plateau! Our tour included the entrance to the site but we also chose to purchase additional tickets to be able to enter the Great Pyramid. They were an additional 2,000 Egyptian pounds, roughly $40 USD for the two of us.

We got to ascend up the passageway into one of the burial chambers! It was really neat to be able to do! The passageways were narrow, steep in some places, and you had to crouch or crawl in some places so I would not recommend this to everybody.

Our CEO talked to us about the history of the pyramids and we had free time to walk around, talk pictures, etc. Then we made our way to a spot where we could overlook all three of the pyramids from above! So much to take in! We took some pictures and talked more about the history of the area before heading down to the 3rd pyramid.

At the third pyramid, we stopped to learn a bit more about it before splitting off into 2 groups: those who wanted to ride a camel, and those who did not. Of course I wanted to! It was equivalent of $10 USD for a short 15-20 minute ride and they take you to the other side of the pyramid a decent way out and you can take pictures there which I think came out really fun!

Last stop in the Giza Plateau: the Valley Temple and Sphinx! The Valley Temple is where they would prepare the body and do the mummification process which took roughly 90 days.

Then the sphinx is such a sight to see! We couldn't go right up to it like we could go right up to the pyramids but seeing it from the overlook was still breathtaking! The overlook was crowded so we went out farther and got a nice view of the temple, sphinx, and pyramids all together.

Afterward, we went to lunch at a local restaurant. I enjoyed my fish, and Kyle had beef and chicken. The lunch was not included but was less than $20 USD for both of us.

After lunch we went to the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square and our CEO Arafa took us around to show us some of the most important pieces in the museum. We saw so many interesting artifacts! We even got to see 2 mummies as well as the King Tut collection (including his golden burial mask). You are not allowed to take pictures of anything in the King Tut collection area, sadly, but so many beautiful pieces to see there! We had a bit of time to wander around on our own at the end of the tour and we went to go see the mummified animals and some other things we had been interested in stopping at.

After the museum, we went back to the hotel and they had rooms for us where we could get our luggage and take quick showers. It was a really easy process, and didn't take long for all of us to get showered (there were multiple rooms) and ready to leave.

Then they loaded our luggage up into the bus and we made a short drive over to the brand new train station.

Here, we boarded the overnight train to Aswan. Kyle and I had our own sleeper car on the train. He took the top bunk and I got the bottom bunk. The bottom bunk is folded up to be seating when it's not bed time.

We were served dinner and breakfast on the train. It was pretty much airplane food and I did not necessarily love either meal... but there were components of each that I liked.

The sleeper car had a sink and a place to plug electronics in. There were shared toilets at the end of the train car. I slept pretty good on the train to be honest, haha!

It was a very good first "full" day!!

Notes:

Early Start: If you think you're going to be able to sleep in, think again.

Extras at the Pyramids: Your cost includes admission to the Giza Plateau. If you want to go inside of the Great Pyramid or do a camel ride, it does cost extra.

Lunch: Lunch is not included on this day, but again, the restaurant close to the museum is a decent price and the food we had was good.

Crowds: Our CEO did an amazing job of getting us to places like the pyramids before they started to get crowded. We had plenty of time at the pyramids before they got super crowded. The Sphinx overlook was the only time we felt crowded. The museum was also crowded and I didn't love that but it was manageable. If you have crowd anxiety you may have a hard time here.

Overnight Train: I liked that we had our own sleeper car. It was cramped but overall a good experience. The bathroom is shared with the other guests on in that train car and it was not the most cleanly. I think there are two, though. You can buy snacks and food at the train station--- do it. The food was pretty much airplane food and not as satiating as one might hope.

Day 3

Wow, this was a GREAT day!!

First, we got off of the train in Aswan at around 9am and were on our bus within minutes. The bus took us to our hotel, the Obelisk which is right on the Nile! We dropped off our luggage and then got back on the bus to go on our tour.

We were taken to a boat dock where we boarded a boat that took us out to the island which houses the Philae Temple complex. This place is unbelievably beautiful! The craziest part is, the entire complex has been relocated just a tiny bit... piece by piece as part of a UNESCO preservation project. Otherwise, it would still be mainly underwater as it flooded once the dam was built. You can still see where the original island site was!

This complex celebrates the goddess Isis, god Osiris, and their son, the god Horace and many stories are depicted in the hieroglyphics. The original island is where the goddess Isis collected the body parts of Osiris after he was killed and chopped into many pieces by his brother.

We were guided around the complex and then had almost an hour of free time to explore on our own before boarding our boat and heading back to the mainland.

We then checked into the hotel and went to our room. We ended up taking a little nap and then we visited the busy market across the street on our own. It was very crowded and many vendors will try to get you to their booth or stall. It was an interesting experience but not a bad one.

We met back up with the group at 4:30 and boarded a different boat that took us to Elephantine Island, which is the largest island in the Nile.

We met a Nubian man who told us a bit about life on the island and showed us around their village. Then we were escorted to a rooftop where we were cooked an authentic Nubian dinner and were able to learn a bit more about the culture and area.

The food was very delicious! And the experience was soooo unique! I loved that it was literally just getting to learn about Nubian life and food... nobody tried selling us anything like happens on some tours. G Adventures really just wants to get you into the heart of a place where they can!

After dinner we took a short boat ride back to our hotel. Then we had the opportunity to go to a spice market or walk around but we had to be up at 3:45am to head to our tour the next morning so we decided to bed early!

Notes:

Luggage: Have everything you are going to need for the day in your backpack or purse. Once you drop off your luggage at the hotel you won't be able to get it until you return from Philae Temple.

Day 4

Today we visited the site of Abu Simbel, which was an amazing experience! The cool thing is that both temples here were painstakingly relocated 60m up and 200m back because otherwise they would have been swallowed by the water after the dam was built. Thanks UNESCO 😊.

There are two temples here, one dedicated to Ramses II and the smaller one is dedicated to Queen Nefertari, his favorite wife (he had a lot!).

We enjoyed wandering through both temples and admiring all of the beautiful craftsmanship! We also enjoyed learning about exactly how the workers moved the original temples and preserved them so well despite having to be cut and relocated! There is a special building near the exit that has all kinds of photos of the original site and the relocation process. There is a video you should watch there which has clips of the project being completed, along with narration and facts. It is actually pretty mind-blowing.

The rest of Day 3 was a mix of experiences after leaving Abu Simbel. First, I saw a mirage! Then we went to a place where they make essential oils / perfumes (pure, no alcohol or additives). Kyle and I ended up buying some different scents because they smelled soooo good!

After we got back to the hotel, a lot of us from the group decided to go to the Old Cataract Hotel which is a luxury hotel. We went because 1) we were told it was a great place to watch the sun set over the Nile, and 2) it is where Agatha Christie stayed for a year while she wrote Murder on the Nile. We actually got a tour of the hotel and even the room where she stayed! Other famous people like Winston Churchill and Princess Diana also stayed in that room.

We walked back to our hotel from the Old Cataract Hotel and then ate dinner at our hotel restaurant on the Nile.

Notes:

If you go to Old Cataract: 1) you must buy a voucher to gain access, and you can use it toward a drink or something. But I'm warning you... everything there is very high priced. I'm pretty sure my small cocktail was almost $40. 2) They don't always do the tours for non-guests of the hotel so they may not give you one. It never hurts to ask, though. 3) While you CAN walk there and back from your hotel... it's inexpensive to take a taxi and I recommend it. The pick pocketing along that walkway is... um... it's a real problem.

The Drive: The drive from Aswan to the site of Abu Simbel is very long, and you have to leave very early to join the caravan of busses that go there daily. There is only 1 stop along the way, so be prepared to hold your bladder if you must. The hotel provided us bags of food to eat on the trip, which was nice.

Essential Oils Stop: This is a nice little stop, and there is not really "pressure" to buy anything per se... They do try to sell you the oils but aren't pushy like other places I've been. They are not cheap, but if you're looking for some amazing scents you'll be happy with your purchase here.

Day 5

This day was a mix of serious relaxation, sightseeing, and riding in a bus for a very long time.

We enjoyed a leisurely breakfast at our Aswan hotel before boarding a traditional felucca (boat) and floating down the Nile. It was super comfortable and it was so nice being on the water!

We sailed for quite a while before stopping along the river bank where we were able to get out and swim! Most of our group did not do it, but waded in the water instead. Kyle and I swam, which was cold at first but ended up feeling so refreshing!

After the felucca ride, we boarded a different boat (motor boat) where we enjoyed a tasty lunch, drinks, and birthday cake (two of our group members had birthdays!) The motor boat took us to meet our bus which was already loaded with our luggage.

From there we drove to Kom Ombo Temple where we learned about the two deities that were worshipped there, and why that makes it so unique. This temple is for Horus the falcon god and Sobek the crocodile god.

Something very interesting that you can see here is depictions of medical instruments which are much like what we use still today.
Also, in the area they have found many mummified crocodiles and there is a small museum dedicated to those on site.

After the temple, we began a VERY long drive to Luxor. Very, very long lol. Like 4.5 hours with one stop. It wasn't terrible but it was hard to sit for that long. But once we arrived in Luxor we got off the bus and headed straight for a local restaurant where I had a super yummy vegetarian meal (it seriously just sounded good, I was not in the mood for meat).

Then we walked from the restaurant to our hotel (Susanna Hotel) which is directly across from the Avenue of Sphinxes and Luxor Temple. We could see them from our room window!

Notes:

The Felucca Ride: When you pack for this trip, pack your bathing suit. You'll probably want to swim in the Nile! It was so fun!

Luggage: You'll need to be fully packed and have your luggage in front of your room before you leave for the felucca ride. Everything you'll want for the day should be packed in a backpack or purse so you can access it.

The Bus Ride to Luxor: As I mentioned, this is a VERY long ride. Timing is also very important, as the road you need to take will not allow you to start the journey after a certain time of day. Our CEO did a great job of keeping everyone on track and on time. Even then, we did not feel rushed.

Neck Pillow/ Entertainment: Goodness gracious... mine came in handy on the long bus ride. I actually slept some. I also had a book with me, and had downloaded some shows on Netflix to listen to with headphones. It helped pass the time.

Day 6

Today was another full and wonderful day! We started off with an early breakfast at our hotel, and we saw the beautiful hot air balloons rising in the distance. Then it was off to the Valley of the Kings to explore some tombs!

These are the tombs that I visited:

Rameses IV (included)
Rameses IX (included)
Rameses III (included)
Rameses V & VI (extra charge)
Tutankhamun "King Tut" (extra charge)
Seti I (extra charge)

They were all so mind blowing! My favorite was the tomb of Seti I, I also really liked the tomb of Rameses V & VI.

King Tut's tomb was really neat because it contains his mummy that you can see up close but otherwise his tomb was very small and not nearly as beautiful as others.

After the Valley of the Kings, we made our way just a short distance to the Temple of Queen Hatshepsut, which was massive and interesting to see the archaeological work being done there.

Most of the temple had been destroyed or damaged and so much of it had to be reconstructed to look as close to the original as possible. The whole area is still being excavated, and I enjoyed seeing the rows and stacks of pieces they have organized waiting to be pieced together.

Once we left the Temple of Queen Hatshepsut we made a short stop at the Colossi of Memnon. There is still much excavation work being done in that area and it is just fascinating to see and imagine what it would have looked like back in ancient times.

After that, we enjoyed lunch at the home of a local family in Luxor. It was delicious and it was fun to meet the family and those who wanted to ask questions about their lives, etc... could do so. They were very nice people, and the kids were so cute! The food was super tasty, too!

Our final scheduled stop of the day was to visit an alabaster factory and shop where we watched a demonstration about how the alabaster figures and vases are made by hand and then we could go back to the bus or visit their shop. There was zero pressure to buy anything, which I appreciated even though we did buy a few things. About half of the group enjoyed sitting in a nice waiting / seating area and talking while the other half of us shopped for a few minutes.

The rest of the afternoon was free to do as we liked. Well, first we took a little nap lol. Then we walked across the street to Luxor Temple and went inside.

Of course this was not included in our vacation price so it was a small extra charge for entrance here but WOW!!! What an amazing site. The temple and the Avenue of Sphinxes just blew us away, and we went as the sun was setting which made it even more beautiful.

To end the day, many of us went to dinner at a local restaurant. I enjoyed a milkshake and more hawawshi because it's now my favorite food ever. I had it with mozzarella on it this time which was so yummy. And we ate our meal with a lovely view of Luxor Temple!

Notes:

Extra Charges: Again, there are some tombs that you may want to visit that are an extra charge at The Valley Of The Kings. You have some very nice tombs included already but you have time to spare here... Make use of it! I recommend Seti I... It was my favorite although it was expensive.

Mobility: Some of the tombs require you to go up and down stairs or inclines so please be prepared for that.

Alabaster Factory: You don't have to buy anything. They didn't pressure us or hound us. And when we found some things we liked, we did haggle a little bit on the price so it was somewhat flexible pricing.

Walking Around Luxor: You will be approached by kids selling things, drivers trying to get you to let them drive you places, and more. Just keep walking. Don't have conversations with them about where you're from or anything or else they are encouraged to keep trying. They are not allowed inside the Luxor Temple so you shouldn't be bothered inside of there.

Day 7

Our last full day of the tour did not disappoint!

We spent the morning exploring Karnak, which is a massive temple complex in Luxor. In ancient times, the Avenue of Sphinxes completely connected Luxor Temple and Karnak... a distance of almost 3km! Massive restoration projects have taken place and are still ongoing to try to preserve and revive as much of this beautiful history as possible.

Karnak is gigantic, with lots to see and discover including a cartouche of the name of Alexander the Great which was made during his time in the area.

After Karnak we went by boat across the Nile to another area of Luxor where we were given the opportunity to do a short bike ride from the Funtasia building out to the Sahara desert and back. Kyle enjoyed the bike ride, I opted to ride behind them in the bus.

After the bike ride we went back to the Funtasia building where we learned about all of the work that the program is doing to help kids ages 4-16 with social emotional learning, problem solving, teamwork, and more through play, music, art, etc.

G Adventures provides funding for Funtasia via their foundation and so a portion of every trip helps fund things like this and others. We got to check out their little garden, play one of the games they would typically play with the students, and hear about the work they are doing.

Then, we headed by mini bus back to the boat, and enjoyed some Egyptian falafel on our way back across the Nile.

We had a free afternoon to do as we pleased and then everyone opted to join together for a farewell dinner at another local restaurant.

Kyle was very excited to try camel meat! It was super delicious! I was not terribly hungry so I just had a traditional Egyptian dessert called Om Ali which is very much like bread pudding. It was awesome!

After dinner we went back to the hotel, packed and went to bed!!!

Notes:

Funtasia/ Bike Ride: If you plan to ride bikes you'll want to make sure to dress for it. Dresses might not be your best choice. It's not a long ride, but decent enough length. If you opt to skip the bike ride, you can follow the riders in the bus or you can opt to stay at Funtasia until they return.

Last Night With The Group/ Tip Your CEO: We had one person from the group collect tips for our CEO to give him at the end of this day. Do not wait to tip your CEO on the last morning because they can get into trouble at the Luxor airport for having a certain amount of cash. Giving it to them the night before allows them to deposit it, etc... so they don't have it at the airport. Your CEO will likely tell you that on the last day, but just be prepared anyway.

Mini Bus: The mini buses are not air conditioned. If you have a little fan or something, it may come in handy here. I was not feeling well so the heat made it difficult at times although the ride is not super long).

Day 8

We woke up early, had breakfast from a little box of food provided for us by the hotel, and headed to the airport in Luxor.

The check in process was really easy, and the wait once inside was not bad. There are a few shops you can wander around in. We Sat and chatted with our CEO and another couple from our group for most of the time.

The flight to Cairo from Luxor is very short. Once you get off the plane in Cairo, you will collect your bags and, depending on what your plans are, you will probably do one of four things:

1) You will make your way to the correct terminal for your next flight to go home (this is what we did),

2) You will go to the terminal to catch your flight to continue on to the next part of your tour with G Adventures (if you have opted to do the Jordan portion, for example),

3) You will head out on your pre-booked tour with G Adventures before returning to the airport for your evening flight, or

4) You'll take a taxi and go do your own thing if you aren't leaving Cairo right away or doing the optional tour.

We walked to the correct terminal for our next flight with some of our group who also were headed that way. Once inside, we went our separate ways. Our flight was not until later in the day, so we had to sit and wait for several hours before we could even check in for our flight. It wasn't bad. The airport was comfortable and there were a few places to get food and coffee for a good price.

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Final Notes

  1. The itinerary covered all of the things that we wanted to see and do in Egypt, and we had a little bit of time for other things if we wanted to do more (for example: Luxor Temple)
  2. Our CEO, Arafa, was a native to the area and was a wealth of information. He went out of his way to help when needed (like when I needed an adapter). We had a pick pocketing incident in Aswan and once he found out about it he made sure we were ok (we were... it was an unsuccessful attempt), checked to see if we wanted to file an incident report with G Adventures (we didn't), and overall just made us feel better about the whole experience.
  3. The amount of people coming up to us, trying to sell things, ask for money, offer "assistance" was actually a shock. We did know before we went that this was a "thing" but WOW... It was everywhere and it was annoying. Most would leave you alone once you said no or walked away from them though... but some would follow for a few feet if not longer. If you are in a group or with another person do not let these guys separate you or get between you. *Please note that this is an Egypt thing, not a reflection of G Adventures. Our CEO taught us some ways to avoid the hasslers and stayed close to us when he was out and about with us (which was the majority of the time).
  4. The hotels are clean and comfortable but not fancy. You may have to go up and down the stairs instead of an elevator at times, some hotels have smoking lounges indoors (soooo many people smoke here), and showers may not always have excellent water pressure or thick walls LOL.
  5. If you can not go for long periods of time without peeing... this is probably not the tour for you.
  6. If you have mobility issues... this is probably not the tour for you.
  7. If you can't get out of bed early... this is definitely not the tour for you.
  8. Everywhere you go, you will need EGP (Egyptian Pounds) in small denominations so you can use the bathrooms. I can only think of 2 or 3 places where they didn't have anyone up in the front making sure you forked over some cash to use it.
  9. Water is cheap pretty much everywhere here. One thing we learned quickly was that our bus drivers had cold water available for purchase for super cheap every day so we didn't have to bring much water with us on tours since we could buy it on the bus.
  10. My only real complaint is that I wish it had been longer, because I would have liked to have had more time in the different cities to see more stuff that we hadn't known about before we got there.
  11. The value of the tour is above and beyond the cost (which is actually surprisingly affordable for two adults)
  12. I loved that there were no kids on this tour. I love my four kids but it was nice to not move at a child-friendly pace everywhere we went.

Did this trip sound like something you'd love to experience for yourself?

 

Start Planning NOW! Reach out to me or another agent from C&K Getaways today to start planning YOUR trip to Egypt with G Adventures! We love exploring the world, and love helping others do the same!  


2 comments on “Everything You Need To Know About G Adventures’ 8 Day Best of Egypt Tour

  1. Jo Mcclimans on

    There’s a ton of great information here. Thank you! I didn’t even realize there were so many tombs to visit! Thanks for all the details that many of us wouldn’t even think of.

    Reply
    • Crissandra Winters on

      You really could spend a good portion of the day there exploring the tombs! I loved that each one was different than the next… Although some scenes looked the same, the tombs themselves were all slightly different layouts and some were definitely more ornate than others.

      Reply

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