Guest Book

We are a retired professor and a retired elementary school teacher, who were on the November, 2017 tour. This trip was everything we had hoped it would be, and then some. We are experienced travelers, but we chose to go on a guided tour in Egypt rather than on our own, and we are glad that we did. Our tour had 12 tourists, so we fit into a van, which was our typical mode of local transport. A tremendous amount of planning and local arrangements went into the "infrastructure" of this tour; I believe that Mara planned the overall structure of the trip, so that we saw absolutely as much of Egypt as possible in 10 days; but her right-hand-man Ahmed probably handled the details, of which there were MANY. Everything was flawlessly handled. Vans appeared out of nowhere when they were needed. Tickets were purchased. We were, for example, let into a theater a little early so we could all be seated together for a fabulous Sufi Dance exhibition in Cairo. Lunch appeared when required. Airport transfers went flawlessly; our luggage moved magically from airport to hotel, hotel to boat, etc. You could never in a million years plan your own Egypt trip so well. Don't even think about trying.

Mara is a native of Ireland, who fell in love with Egypt. In conducting this tour business, she wants to share her Egypt with others. She is not in this primarily for the money, as her prices should make absolutely clear. I don't believe you would be able to see half of what she showed us, on your own, for the same price. Moreover, what we paid was just what she said we would pay. You can trust Mara.

As for what she showed us, there was a tremendous variety, more than we would have known to arrange for ourselves. Our primary interest was the antiquities of the Pharaonic period (pyramids, tombs, temples). We were unaware of the Islamic, Graeco-Roman, and Coptic periods of Eqyptian history, and the resulting melting-pot nature of contemporary Egyptian society, but Mara and Ahmed made sure we saw everything.
Nor was the focus always on history: we visited a kindergarten in the Nubian Village, and learned how garbage is collected in Cairo.

I must also praise the talents and learning of the two Egyptologist guides that Mara and Ahmed hired to explain everything to us. (One in Cairo and another in Luxor and Aswan.) These two have many years of experience as tour guides and the erudition and knowledge you would expect from a professor. They answered every question (and without needing Google),
and were absolutely helpful. We did see a lot of temples and as a result, at some point it came to life for me: I saw in my imagination what it was like thousands of years ago on one of their festival days, when the god of the temple would be taken out in his boat by the priests and carried across the Nile to visit the god of the temple over there, in the middle of a celebrating throng of the whole local population, with music, dancing, eating, and drinking. The oracle would speak from the back of the temple to answer the people's questions.

Finally I note that our group had one thing in common: each of us had been told by some friends and relatives, "You're crazy to go to Egypt",
and had concluded "Let's go anyway!" Well, we are glad that we did.
If you're worried about it, take up your concerns by email with Mara.