When you are out and about tip the old boys who appear every time you go to take picture about 2LE which is roughly 20p.

These guys can spot you raising your camera at 200 yards and appear at your side with their hand out

These two men look like the ones that work the Luxor Temple.

These particular 2 were at Kom Ombo however they are everywhere.

Just a point about tipping, tip in LE if you can, that is the local currency and it then saves them having to go around asking British tourists to exchange £ coins back in to Egyptian currency, you may come across locals coming up to you and asking you to exchange £ coins for them.

Going on my first nile cruise 1st december 2010. Lots of questions to ask. Is is best to get egyptian currency here or in egypt ? How do i pay for my visa, sterling or egyptian currency ? Anybody been on the Sunrise MS Semiramis ? What will weather be like ? Thank you.

Hi,
To start with, you can pay for your visa with, British Pounds, Egyptian Pound or Euro, take so much Egyptian with you, tipping is up to you how you do it, i was on the M.S. Stephanie, i was all inclusive so you did not need any money, some of the boats will accept credit cards and some of them do not. Near the end of the trip there was a collection from everyone to pay for the tips for the whole crew. the only time you will need extra cash is when you go so places like, shops or for tobacco or drink.
Ron

I am sure you will love it, you can find more information -

Visa's - http://www.holidaytruths.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=24843

Weather - http://www.holidaytruths.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=109915

Currency - http://www.holidaytruths.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=34391

^ Thanks for the info! I went on a Nile cruise in 2003 and am looking to go again!

Kazee,
We have also booked on the Grand Rose for next March, please can you let me know what you thought of it? Hope you had a great time!
Thanks a lot
Alfie

Has anyone cruised the nile on the M/S Nile Angel ? Unable to find any reviews and would appreciate any response. Thanks.

hi hun
your lucky...we returned home from the nile angel last night..
the boat is a lovely boat....there was good things and bad things about it

sun deck was lovely, waiters and staff were great, excursions were great but tiring.
go all inclusive if you can as its quite expensive
cabins are cozy but comfy
food was same all week...rice, calamari, chicken, salad, soup, beef, sometimes mash or little roasties
its a french orientated boat, was only about 18 english on board the rest were french so it was catered more for them.
at the beginning of the week they take a tip of 15 pound per passenger to share between the staff but some of the waiters and cleaners hang about askin for more...you dont have to give it to them.

we had a brilliant holiday and would deinitely do it again
the boat has its own dock in luxor but it is about 20 minutes from the centre so it costs quite a bit in a taxi to get there so you are basically trapped on board for the time you are docked in luxor unless you are prepared to pay taxi costs.

enjoy your holiday and i wish it was me going back there....

if you need any specific info just ask and if i can help i will xx

angie x

Pensioner take a look at http://www.youtravel.com/10/Egypt/99/Nile-Cruise/368/Nile-Cruise/M_S-Nile-Angel/ and http://www.preferredegypt.co.uk/accommodation-details.asp?accommid=54631 these might help you with some info.

This is the official website http://www.pyramisaegypt.com/nileangel/location.asp

the boat has its own dock in luxor but it is about 20 minutes from the centre so it costs quite a bit in a taxi to get there so you are basically trapped on board for the time you are docked in luxor unless you are prepared to pay taxi costs

Angie is the boat not berthed at a Private dock at the Pyramisa Isis which is only about a 10-15 minute walk in to the centre of Luxor?
Taxis should cost about £2.50 -£3.00 in to the centre of Luxor, Winter Palace or Luxor Temple.

hi

no the boat is docked quite a bit out of luxor....takes about 15mins in a taxi to get to the centre and the taxi drivers charge 40 ep each way which is about £5 x but i hope it doesnt put anyone off using the boat as the boat was lovely x

i have just had a look on the website you provided ..www.pyramisaegypt.com/nileangel and i think it is a dated website as the nile angel is now owned by garranah and is docked in their dock.
also , some of the facilities and pictures were not the same, there is no salon/barbers, no wireless internet in cabins and no satelite tv or vcr in cabins either. there is only 1 toilet in use on the boat which is located on the lower floor restaurant so if you were took short it was either a trip to your room or the lower floor. although the top deck had a sun bar this wasnt opened and to purchase drinks you had to go down to the lounge. x

do any of the pictures look the same Angie, I am just wondering if there are perhaps to similar named boats operated by different companies, is this it http://www.tarottours.com/nile-angel.shtml

hi again

this is definitely the company who own the boat now, but the pictures and the deck plan are totally different. there is only the 1 boat called nile angel.
x

Many thanks for all your replies. On another forum I read that the Nile Angel only cruised for 3 and a half days in the week before your cruise . It left Luxor on the Monday 2 hours after passengers embarked returning to Luxor on Friday morning at 11.30 am. This was because French passengers had their flights home on this day. Obviously this involved overnight sailing missing sights such as Esna Lock and basically was very different from the advertised itinerary. On reading this I contacted our agents who in turn contacted the Egyptian agents who implied that this was a one off. As we were due to pay the balance we were concerned but in the end were reassured that we would indeed follow the advertised itinerary. I hope that you will reply and tell me that your cruise was OK in this respect.
Also we were unaware that the Nile Angel berths so far out of Luxor - didn't read about that one anywhere.
We have booked all inclusive as having cruised before we don't want any nasty shocks at the end.
I'm so pleased you enjoyed your cruise - hope we do too.
Thanks again

hi pensioner

the same thing happened on our week.....we never went to esna as we had to return to luxor for the french and 2 spanish passengers to disembark, leaving us extremely disapointed. we had a "special" surprise one evening.....what a surprise it was....a french fella who done 3 tricks, we did laugh though because it was so unbelieveable....there is no choice for meals, all inclusive means if you dont like the meals that are served, which was usually french food, then you had no other choice. the meals are advertised as buffet service but there are about 3-4 days when it is table service and you get brought a plate of food and have to eat it or go hungry.

when we docked in luxor for the last 3 days, as i said, it was too far out of town to visit unless you are wiling to pay for taxis so you are basically stranded..

we never let anything spoil our holiday but on arrival home we were very annoyed as we had researched for a long time on different boats, trips etc. and feel we never got anything near what we had paid for.

hope you have a great hol and all goes well xx

angie xx

p.s. could you please tell me the name of the other site where you read the reviews

thanks angie xx

Hi Angie
The other forum was Trip advisor. I guess you are the "Angie" who has posted there this evening and had the same shortened cruise but on a different date ie the following week to Frenchie 68. Why can't these agents be honest with us. Could you please let me know if it was your cruise that was cut short so I can go back to our agents again. Our special holiday is turning into a nightmare before we go !!