Disappointments on Egypt/Jordan tour

My wife and I took an almost 3-week-long tour to Egypt and Jordan with Vantage Deluxe World Travel, Jan. 20-Feb. 8, 2008, at a cost of $10,248 for two, including round-trip airfare from Washington, D.C., to Cairo.

This was advertised as a 5-star trip. It involved two cruises, one on the Nile and the other on Lake Nasser.

I’d say the Nile ship, Crown Empress, was 3-star, not 5-star. This was confirmed by walking through other ships, as they were tied up one next to another; some were obviously better.

I felt our Lake Nasser ship, Tania, was horrible. It was probably a 1½-star. Our cabin (No. 103, I believe) was on the lower of two decks, on the same level where the engine room was located, and down a dingy narrow hallway that smelled of diesel fuel. Our window was small, narrow and high up. The cabins on the upper deck were somewhat better.

Vantage said that both boats were substitutes and refunded us $300, which didn’t come close to making up for two ship downgrades and a terrible cabin.

The hotels were 5-star, as advertised, with the exception of Le Passage Heliopolis Hotel at the airport in Cairo. It had a 4-star lobby and grounds, but our room was very small and had one working light, plus the TV didn’t work.

Time management on this tour could have been improved. On our first morning after arriving in Cairo we had a 5:30 wakeup call for a tour that started at 7 a.m. and ended at 5 p.m. On our fourth and last day in Cairo we had only a 3-hour optional tour. They need to even out the days.

We had three internal flights in Egypt, all VERY early; one had a 2:20 a.m. wakeup call. We were told that all the EgyptAir flights were early, but the departure boards at the airports showed lots of flights at more reasonable hours.

In going to Jordan from Egypt, it would have been best to fly to Amman from Aswan. Instead, we flew 1½ hours to Cairo and spent the night at an airport hotel, which was all we did that day. We spent most of the next day at the hotel waiting to fly to Amman.

For returning to the USA, there are direct flights from Amman to New York, but we spent the day sightseeing and then boarded a flight back to Cairo. We had a 6:30 wakeup call that day and didn’t get settled into the Cairo airport hotel until 10 p.m. — a long, hard day. We flew home from Cairo the following morning.

It was not all bad. The sights were wonderful, the guides were very good, the food was very good and the ships’ crews were excellent. It was quite an adventure and we were glad we went. It was a hard trip, however, and I would not use Vantage Deluxe World Travel again.

BOB BINGHAM
Vienna, VA

ITN sent a copy of the above letter to Vantage Deluxe World Travel (90 Canal St., Boston, MA 02114) and received no reply.