We chose this cruise for the itinerary. Was absolutely blown away with our experience. Our exceptional Egyptologist guide Hazem Khalaf solidifies our experience . From the moment we arrived in Cairo we were well taken care of! The Uniworld staff took very good care of us. The Tosca staff whether it was attentive details to our stateroom or assistance from the front desk. Dining experience from the helm of Chef Hamdy - to Restaurant Manager - Ehab Abdelsamd , to oversee perfection. Well done! Entertainment was unique and everyone joined in the fun:) We loved it! Special thanks and shout out to Mohamed and Sayed for the exceptional relaxing Spa treatments Nothing better than a good massage after a long day touring, including a lot of walking. To Mahmoud (Shopping experience) your pleasant personality and professional knowledge made our jewelry shopping a breeze . Love my purchases! River Tosca is a great ship . Read Less

I have been wanting to visit Egypt since I was 4 years old. Instability and fear had always held me back until I discovered Uniworld River Cruises. Uniworld has a unique way of always making you feel like you’re a VIP. So was it possible that Uniworld could possibly provide us the security and comforts of home that we demand in Egypt? The only way that question could possibly be answered was to book the trip and find out first hand. So after much anxiety we did we booked our trip for March 23, and I am all the more thankful and grateful for the decision we made. For us, it was truly that trip of our life time thanks to Uniworld. We arrived at the Cairo airport a day early and was greeted by a smiling and friendly Egyptian holding up a Uniworld sign named Ahab. He grabbed our luggage and the luggage of another Uniworld couple and headed us to the Uniworld Van. He then began to explain all the wonderful things we would be experiencing over the next two weeks and gave us a short Egyptian language lesson. He was funny and knowledgeable and gave us a very positive impression of what was instore. He offered us an optional day trip to the bent pyramid. Any time you meet a 55 year old guide with a high energy cell phone ring tone, you know you are in for a really good time but we had already made other plans. Uniworlds trip includes a visit to the pyramids, sphinx and camel ride, but we were so anxious we booked a private half day exertion via Viator and had a really good guide named Marwa who made certain we had a great time, along with lots of photo opportunities. Our stays at the Four Season Hotel was wonderful. This hotel is well managed and was like an luxury oasis in the middle of the desert. This hotel exhibited very good security and we always felt safe. Our room was magnificent and over looked the Nile River. My wife and I were treated like VIP’s the entire visit and we received exceptional service. The spa was fantastic and the services they provided were extremely professional. We dined at the Italian and Oriental restaurants and the buffet. The food and service at the buffet breakfast, lunch and dinner was our favorite! Since there was 72 people, they divided us into two groups and each assigned a bus and our own Egyptologist. Ours was named Tarek Mostafa and he was absolutely wonderful. Not only was he extremely knowledgeable about Egypt but had good command of the English language, authentic, funny and extremely good dresser. He also made us feel like we were VIP’s the entire trip. My wife and I have traveled to a lot of places in this world and used a lot of guides via Uniworld, Tauck and Viking, but Tarek Mostafa is hands down the best we have ever experienced. I hope you are lucky enough to have him as your Egyptologist. He went out of his way to provide our group with plenty of safe shopping opportunities during a very packed schedule and even helped us negotiate prices with vendors. He will teach you how to deal with locals trying to sell you stuff for one dollar. Every local knew him, and locals treated him with great respect and admiration. If you are lucky enough to get Tarek as your guide, you tell him Pete said hello. I loved the ole majestic Tosca river boat and all the five star staff that they had on board. I thought it was elegant and beautiful just not a quiet as the electric boats Uniworld has in Europe. She parted the waves of the Nile like a knife through butter. I loved all the wood work, comfortable seating and the pictures of old Egypt that hand on the wall. We enjoyed the Egyptian entertainment and dressing up for the Galabeya party. I even learned how to really dance like an Egyptian! We absolutely loved cruising the Nile River from on top of the Tosca. Plenty of comfortable seating and nice relaxing pool. We returned home so dark, that our family thought we had gone to Miami. Expect to see lots of beautiful tall palm trees and tons of banana trees. The only modern machinery you will see is electric pumps to irrigate the miles of farms. I saw lots of fisherman checking trout lines and nets. My favorite were the smiling faces and waving arms of children along the banks of the Nile all happy to see us. Every single day of our trip went as planned and we were always informed throughout the day by our Egyptologist, staff on board the ship and received a printed itinerary of next day’s events in detail. We always felt extremely safe because on every single excursion we had our own embedded guard who wore a three piece suit and holstered an impressive 9mm MP5. In addition, our buses were always escorted by the Egyptian military or police. Everyone waved to us and thanked us for visiting Egypt. I cannot tell you how many people randomly thanks us for coming to Egypt. Not once did we feel unsafe or threatened. We loved the balloon ride and the trip to Abu Simbal. Everything worked like clockwork during the entire trip. We were lucky that the Nile was high enough to cruise to Dendra, and that there were not sand storms or strong winds for us to experience the hot air balloon ride. All the interior Egyptian flights were with Egypt air and they ran smooth and security was extremely good. Expect some early morning wake-ups to avoid the heat, other tourist and sand that can rise up to 13,000 feet during the mid-day. Trust in the process cause these folks are experts when it comes to experiencing Egypt in a safe and comfortable manor. In return, we experienced a perfect trip and a trip of a life time that I will always remember. We left Egypt with a greater knowledge of Egypt and a much better understanding of the Muslim and Christian people who call Egypt home. The last days visit to the pyramids, sphinx and camel ride was as much fun as the first one! I just wish my wife would have let me buy one of those camels for the back yard. Uniworld not only meet our expectations but exceeded them. Ahab, even helped us inside the airport terminal to make sure we made it through security and check our luggage with no issues on the way home. No other company has ever done that for us. These folks treated us like family. If you want to see and experience Egypt first class and feel like a VIP, choose Uniworld’s Splendors of Egypt! Read Less

We had great flights and connections from a very cold Mid-western winter and came to Cairo in the evening. We had been told that we would be met by UniWorld rep as we came off the plane, but we kept on walking and just met him at the customs. As we had e visas, it was easy to enter and went to the baggage claim. We had to wait for quite some time before everyone in our group had collected their baggage. Then we had to wait again to get the bus for us to show up and then we had to use our carts to maneuver over curbs to get our luggage to the bus. It was not the best beginning. We arrived at the Four Seasons where a bomb sniffing dog checked out the bus, then the luggage was put through the X-ray machine, and we walked through the metal detector. We chose to carry our bags ourselves to the room, so we did not have to wait at all. Four Seasons is a lovely hotel as one would expect. There is smoke in the lobby and an ashtray in the room just next to the arrow that points to Mecca (for praying). Buffet breakfast was excellent, and was the only meal that was included in the tour. The morning started early with a meeting for all of us. We were 68 on our tour and were divided into two buses, A and B. We were on bus B which had 35 guests. I was surprised at having that many guests on our bus. I thought UniWorld prided itself on having small groups. 35 is not small. Our guide was Muhamad Abdelrahman and he was excellent. His English was great and easy to understand and his knowledge of the language was such that he could joke with us. He was helpful and kind and I cannot say enough good things about him. We had an issue right away. Most of us wanted to sign up for the Abu Simbel tour which was an add on, optional tour. The person who ran the program in Cairo said right away that there might not be enough spots on the plane for all of us to go to Abu Simbel. There were almost riots among the guests. We all wanted to go there. I think UniWorld should add this to the cost of the tour and include it, so that when we go to Egypt, we know that we will see that great site. (It turned out that all of us did go, but a few went the day after the rest and that was not ideal either). This is the time when we signed up for the optional tours and paid. We signed up for the Abu Simbel tour, the Luxor sound and light show and the Coptic tour (when we came back to Cairo after the river cruise portion). I would skip the Luxor sound and light show, there is one included at the pyramids, go to that one. Luxor show was a snooze, literally. A few signed up for the Cairo Nile dinner cruise and it was a let-down for most of them. (This took place for our group upon returning to Cairo.) The next day was the flight to Luxor. We had early wake up call at 2:30 AM for the flight. We were provided with boxed breakfasts from Four Seasons. Others have described the day to day activities and they were similar for us. The ship, Tosca, features large rooms and bathrooms. I would say though that the ship is looking worn. The food was excellent and they catered to special needs well. The daily excursions started very early in the morning, all of them before 8AM. Uniworld uses the Whisper system so we could wander off a bit and still hear the guide. Being such a large group, it still was a bit frustrating if you were in a narrow passage and in the back, because it was not all clear what you were looking at. Our guide did an excellent job of getting our group to gel and be a group. There was tea served on a few occasions, and other special treats on the ship. There were a few exercise classes with Muhammad Ali, who kept imploring us to “Focus”. Evening entertainment was fun for such a small ship with local shows that involved getting the guests up on the dance floor for Belly dancing and a dance that looked awfully similar to the Conga line. All had fun. Wine and beer and other beverages were included with lunch and dinner, but not otherwise. Drinks were $10 to $15. Tips were included in this sailing, but there was a box for Gratuities on the reception desk, but no mention of it to the guests. We were never told to tip anyone a few dollars, so it was a truly inclusive deal. Vendors in Egypt can be rather persistent, our guide referred to them as “Valley of the Vultures”. In addition to this, some of the guards at the monuments wanted to take our photo, and then required a tip. Some of them asked for your photo pass and then taking a photo and asking for a tip. Just a heads up. Our guide told us to not hand over the camera to anyone. You will need 5 Egyptian pounds to use the rest room. We exchanged money with our guide. Previous reviews have stated that you get an envelope with 5 pound notes. We did not, but were thankful that we could get them from the guide. I had brought tissue paper from home, a good thing because all toilets did not have paper. We were told not to drink any tap water and were provided with bottled water the whole time, even in the Four Seasons. Do no even rinse your toothbrush in the tap water. We did not get sick, but I think a few got a touch of stomach upsets. After spending 7 nights on the ship, seeing so many temples and wonderful antiquities, we flew back from Luxor to Cairo, back to the Four Seasons. All of us got rooms with a view of the Nile. Some even got suites. As the rooms were not ready, there was an optional tour of Coptic Egypt. We thought that was a fantastic tour and highly recommend. The following day was the Great Pyramids. Yes, they are as great as you think, perhaps even better. We were able to climb up a bit and even go into one, with many steps down. We could ride camels in the Sahara, and even though it sounds so touristy, it sure was fun, I think it was $11 per person and then the camel driver expected a tip, which he got of course. WE had armed escort on most excursions, especially in the cities. We could not figure out why there was a siren blasting behind us the whole time, but then realized that it was the escort. There was also an armed guard on the bus. Uniworld really excelled in helping us with departure. We were escorted by a Uniworld representative who looked after us very carefully making sure that we got where we were going and our luggage as well. He stayed with us the whole time. We flew to Tel Aviv for the post cruise extension. The review of that will be on the River Cruise board under “Uniworld Jerusalem Extension”. Overall I was very happy with our trip. Our guide Muhamad Abdelrahman made it the very best he knew how. We felt safe the whole time, and stayed in luxury accommodations. I recommend this trip highly. Read Less

There is much more to Egypt than the pyramids, and Uniworld River Tosca is a great way to see it. We were met at the airport by a Uniworld representative, helped through visa on arrival and promptly transported to hotel. This was appreciated because the Cairo traffic was unbelievable! The Four Seasons Hotel was lovely, but it did not seem like we had much time there. We ate in Bella (Italian) and 8 (Asian) restaurants, and both were excellent. We met our Egyptologist, Sameh, at the hotel. He was a real asset to the Egypt experience and brought the sites and history alive. After a day of seeing the Alabaster Mosque and Egyptian Museum, we had a 2:15 A.M. (that is not a typo - 2:15) wake-up call to get flight to Luxor. The Tosca was a pleasant ship. Our room was spacious and comfortable. Food was very good and fresh. Beef was tender and tasteful. All service was excellent, and we were always welcomed back on board nicely. It is an activity filled agenda with lots to see and little down time to enjoy sailing on the Nile. The pace of the tours was a little exhausting with many very early wake ups. The pace seemed to wear on some passengers, and they had to miss some activities. We always felt completely safe there (except for the wild traffic - but we were in a big bus) The men trying to sell you items was the biggest problem especially at the Step Pyramid. Just try to not make eye contact. Some things that would be helpful to know: In January, it was cold!! (did not expect that) Toiletries are olive oil based, so consider bring hand lotion, etc. Take lip balm - very dry there. Galabeya party - I had brought costumes from home because I did not want to have to bargain to obtain one there. However, the ship gift shop had very nice outfits for about $20 and I wish I would have just bought one there. It was a bit of a hassle to obtain small Egyptian pounds (EP). The first floor ATM at Four Seasons was often out of money. There is one on the second floor, but it does not take cash, only debit cards. The hotel could only make limited change. Once we got on the Tosca, we could get 5 pound notes (needed for bathrooms!). Maybe Uniworld could up the charge a few dollars and have some 5 EP available in your packet on arrival. There are various times that one needs additional Egyptian pounds for the tours (for example to buy camera passes, to buy entrance to tombs, pyramids, etc.) It would be nice if Uniworld could print out a list of these so we could plan on how much to take out of ATM. On the last day at the Great Pyramid, not too many of us had 300 EP each left to buy pass to enter. If we had known ahead, we could have had this with us. When booking, get an even numbered cabin - these always face the Nile. When docked the odd numbers sometimes faced right up against a wall or another ship. Read Less