Intrepid Travel

Weekend

I wrote all about what I did while I travelled with Intrepid in Egypt but not about after. So here it is. I must say that overall I had a great time on my trip with Intrepid.

Pre-Trip

On December 29th there was a change in the route of the trip. Due to hostilities with Libya in the Western Desert. There was an incident that occurred in September and the tour cancelled that portion of the trip and instead went to Hurghada on the Red Sea.

On Trip

On the first night, we sat down in our meeting with tour guide Mohammed Ali, who was amazing the entire trip. He told us more details about the change and what it would include. Intrepid really did a lot of good things for us. They included sites we normally would have paid for. They included half board at the hotel in Hurghada. We were given a snorkelling trip in Hurghada on a private boat.

One thing to make clear is that on basics trips all the daily excursions are extra. Originally on this trip, nothing was included for daily activities, each one was an extra cost. With food and gifts and sights I paid an extra 950$C. If sights in Luxor and Alexandria had not been included my cost would have been closer to 1200-1300$C. So be sure that if you plan a basics trip you look carefully at what is included and what is extra.

One of our hotels was in bad shape. They were renovating until after midnight some nights, they had exposed wires, and made breakfast boxes with expired foods. We were very happy to leave. Other than some creepy elevators in other buildings, the other hotels were in basic condition. They were clean and had private rooms, that was really all that could be asked for.

Post Trip

When we arrived back in our home country they had an extensive review that we could complete to make our comments and concerns known to them. I told them about my concerns with the hotel and how it would have been nice to know about the change in tour a bit earlier than two weeks before.

A few days ago I (and others on my tour who had similar concerns with the Aswan hotel) received an email from Intrepid addressing all of my comments and concerns. This was obviously done by a person and not a generic email which makes me feel like my concerns are truly reaching someone (I hope). They were also writing to inform me that they had done some local follow up with the hotel in Aswan and had found it below their expectations. They were sorry for this and would no longer be using this hotel, as well they offered a refund for the value of the two nights at the hotel.

Overall

I had a great time and met great people. The cost was a bit more then I expected but now I know better. Intrepid did very well with follow up and addressing people’s concerns. I would travel with them again if only I could decide on a location.