NEW Aswan to Cairo long cruise

After more than 15 years the long Nile river cruise is back. One of the newest and most luxurious boats on the Nile, the Ms Farah, will be operating a very special 15 day program from Cairo to Aswan and back to Cairo departing on the 30th August 2012.

With guest of honour Dr. Zahi Hawas this special sailing is an event surely not to be missed as you follow in the footsteps of the Pharoahs and sail at a leisurely pace between Aswan in the south and Cairo in the north. Stopping to visit some of Egypt's finest ancient tombs and temples along the way, a dramatic landscape unchanged for a thousand years unfolds before your eyes, the long Nile river cruise allows you to discover the magnificent ancient sites along the Nile.

Atp Travel offers you the chance to enjoy this unforgettable experience in five-star luxury, aboard one of the finest boats on the Nile.

The program includes:
-3 nights accommodation in Cairo
(2 nights in Mena House Oberoi)
-11 nights accommodation on board of M/S Farah
- meals as per program
-all hotels and cruise taxes, service charges and governmental sales taxes
-all transfers on private air conditioned luxury coaches
-assistance at the airport and during the trip
-Licensed Egyptologist English speaking/spiritual guide
-entrance fees to all mentioned sites in the program
-farewell dinner
-tipping throughout the trip
Return UK flights on Egyptair

With prices starting from £1899.00 this is a fantastic opportunity not to be missed

Luxor summer flights from the UK

The summer season in Luxor for Nile Cruises as well as hotels has been dealt a bad blow with the cancellation of both the Monday flights from Gatwick on Easy Jet and Monarch.

Flights from other regional airports such as Manchester and Birmingham had already cut but these new cancellations will leave only the EgyptAir flight from Heathrow on a monday as well as the Thomson flights from Gatwick and Manchester on wednesdays.

This is obviously going to put more strain on the Nile Cruise market which is struggling to recover from the problems of 2011 but is a sign of the lack of faith the airlines have in Luxor.

Fingers crossed for the winter season.

Trip Advisor

Last weeks censure of Trip Advisor by Britain's advertising watchdog brought back the argument about how much reviews on the site are genuine.

As someone who spends sometime going over the reviews for Nile Cruises and hotels in Egypt on the site this is a subject close to my heart. I use to tell clients "would you believe anything a stranger advised you if he walked up to you in the street?" but at the same time if a prospective client sees a good or several good reviews on a holiday he was interested in, it is most likely to have an effect on whether he books or not.

As a tour operator/travel agent, the rules on what I can and cant do on Trip Advisor are quite tough but pretty much boil down to no advertising or soliciting of your own products, which is quite fair but of course companies and organisations will always look at ways to get around this, hence bogus reviews etc, and the problem is there no way that Trip Advisor can check everyone that posts a review. I ask my own clients who have sent me a good feedback if they wouldn't mind putting this on Trip Advisor but for some reason most do not, why I don't know.

The forums for each destination are in some ways now a better way to glean information/ideas about a prospective holiday. Most seem to have their own "destination experts" - who in Trip Advisor's own words - are the backbone of the TripAdvisor community. They are regular contributors who exemplify the best of our forums - and their level of knowledge is generally high normally because they visit their destination so often or have lived or live there.

That said, in the case of Egypt, when some of the posted questions/comments are as follows, you wonder why they would want to reply:

What side of the plane to sit on?

Are Jeans ok in Soho Square?

However recently with the latest problems in Egypt including the deaths and riots at the football match at Port Said and the kidnapping of 2 American tourists last week and other smaller issues it seems that both Trip Advisor and some of the destination experts are having some problems.

Whilst it is completely understandable that many people going to Egypt want to find out information about whether it is safe to visit at the moment etc, Trip Advisor has closed some topics and removed a number of posts on this subject that "did not meet their guidelines". Several had a number of comments, many from destination experts where they had slightly descended into arguments about who could say what which is unfortunately always going to be the case where you have "experts" offering their own comments, but still they were talking about the safety issue.

The overall feeling is that Trip Advisor seems to be getting much tougher on what it will allow anyone to say even if it can effect their safety as opposed to asking "if jeans are ok?" which cannot be good. If they carry on like this it could start to affect how many people want to carry on contributing as destination experts or even posting questions if they feel that Trip Advisor will censure them.

UK Charter flights to Luxor cancelled for Summer 2012

The UK Nile Cruise market seems to have been dealt a huge blow for summer 2012 with the cancellation of both Monday flights from London Gatwick.

Currently the last available Monday outbound flights on both Monarch and Easy Jet is the 23rd April though Easy jets Wednesday service continues till the 20th June.

This will then leave only Egypt Airs flight from London Heathrow as the only direct service to Luxor on the day when most of the UK Nile Cruises start their service.

It seems the reason for the cancellations is pure commerce, ie the flights were not selling sufficiently well to make the route profitable and with the Egyptian Tourism board seemingly not in a position to offer any support this will create further problems for a market still struggling to recover after the events of 2012.

Thomson's Wednesday flights from both London Gatwick and Manchester will still be operating but with most of the UK Boats, The RA II being one of the exceptions, operating a schedule where they have already sailed from Luxor it remains to be seems what this will mean and how it will effect tourists who have already booked a Nile Cruise holiday.

Jordan and Turkey Holidays

As well as our Egypt programs, for 2012 we will be selling a selection of quality holidays to Jordan and Turkey from weekend breaks to extended classical tours with the same quality and service that we offer for Egypt.

Our Istanbul weekend starts at just £459.00 pp and our Jordan weekend from just £599.00 pp based on 2 people with private sightseeing included at not extra charge.

We also have a selection of extended tours that showcase each of these beautiful and fascinating countries from 4 to 8 nights and all at very very competitive prices. So if you are looking for something different this year why not Jordan or Turkey??

Cairo-Aswan Super Cruise

Several Nile Cruise companies are planning to restart the Cairo-Aswan "long Nile cruise" which previously operated between Cairo and Aswan and vice versa.

The planned restart after 16 years is hoped to give tourism to Upper Egypt a boost as the Cruise had previously been a very popular way to see many of Egypt's fantastic historical treasures. The cruise was stopped for a number of reason but chiefly due to lower water levels as well as a lack of good docks for the boats.

Only a small number of Nile Cruises companies will have the license to operate this service and most are building new purpose built luxury boats to cater for demand. In most cases the boats will be smaller but with larger cabins and more top end amenities such as spa and aromatherapy facilities, fitness centres and al a carte dinning.

The planned start is March 2012 and here at Atp Travel we will be offering several boats to our customers. This certainly is an exciting new development for Egyptian tourism.

2012 Nile Cruises

Good morning and a happy new year to one and all, though on day like to day there really is nothing much good about it !!!

January is never really a good month for most people what with the post christmas blues, the bad weather and the bills to pay for all the presents bought. So I thought a few photos of our Luxury Nile Cruise boats showing warm and sunny Egypt seemed like a good idea.

January is a great time to visit Egypt, the weather is not too hot and in general the tourist sites are quieter than most other months and at the moment there are some great deals on flights from both Gatwick and Manchester. So if you fancy escaping the cold English winter why not enjoy a luxury Nile Cruise.

Again a very happy new year to you all.