Cruising the Nile River
EXPLORING THE EGYPT OF TODAY WITH ABERCROMBIE & KENT
DETERMINED TO SEE THE GREAT PYRAMIDS OF EGYPT with my own eyes in this lifetime, I jumped at the chance to do just that with leading luxury travel company Abercrombie & Kent (A&K). Never mind that security concerns had all but shut down other ways to experience Egypt. Ignore the fact that cautious cruise lines had cancelled calls at ports in the area. A classic A&K Egypt and the Nile experience was still in operation and proved to be far more than a lazy ride up and down the Nile River followed by an extension to Jordan, which served as a luxurious finish to an amazingly significant journey.
Welcome to Egypt_ The first sign that our experience on the ground in Egypt would be a good one came on arrival in Cairo. As I prepared to pay the required US$35 visa fee for entry into Egypt, I felt a tap on my shoulder.
“Right this way,” said the A&K representative, walking me straight through immigration and customs, bypassing a line of hundreds waiting to enter the country. It was my first time experiencing the VIP result of A&K’s massive Egypt infrastructure, including its relationships with local authorities and people on the ground, which ensures a smooth operation. It would not be the last.
On we went to Mövenpick’s Mena House Hotel for the first three nights of our 14-night journey through Egypt and Jordan. Located close to the iconic pyramids of Giza, a first look at the gigantic structures came from my hotel room balcony. Technically, I could’ve marked “See Pyramids in Person” off my bucket list that night, but that would’ve been a mistake. The first full day in Egypt would bring far more than a cursory glance at the giant structures and begin an unadvertised theme of sorts — taking us deep inside Egypt from a variety of views.
All along the way, a layer of A&K luxury was slathered on thick right from the start. Upon checking in at the Mena House Hotel, it was hard not to notice a large, loud Egyptian wedding going on between our rooms and the pyramids. Not taking anything for granted, including a good night’s sleep, each member of our group was given two rooms: the pyramid-view room advertised and a “back-up” room on the other side of the hotel, which would be quieter should the volume of the Egyptian wedding threaten sleep.
To kick off our journey, we were split into small groups and accompanied by certified Egyptologist Ibrahim to begin with a background information tour at the Egyptian Museum of Antiquities. That first-look visit provided a baseline experience to ensure everyone in our A&K Luxury Small Group Journeys group was on the same page, history-wise. From our Mena House base in Cairo, we would venture out to see the Giza Plateau, the Temple of Karnak, the Valley of the Kings, and more, escorted every step of the way with armed guards as well as a number of A&K staffers.
At the local Abousharka restaurant, we started digging in deep on the local flavor, sampling a variety of Egyptian dishes. Dining was a big part of the experience every step of the way. We stopped most often for lunch, and gala dinners bookended the culinary angle of all things Egypt.
Intense but nimble security protocols changed throughout the experience too, ramping up in more dangerous areas with measures that included an armed tourist police escort leading and a chase car following our tour bus, a day walking the markets of Cairo where security guards were always in sight, and checkpoints and armed guards at the entrance to hotels. The result: While this was obviously not a place to wander around on our own, we felt safe being there.