Published on Feb, 2025
We had an amazing overnight tour to Luxor.
After reading multiple reviews of Nice Tours on both Tripadvisor and other sites, I was a bit nervous. Though they have great reviews, the Luxor tour seems to collect the most negative reviews. Primarily, reviewers share that the tour is canceled at the last minute. Because of this, I reached out directly to Nice Tours after booking for more information. It seems that this issue is related to Tripadvisor's cancellation policy. Since you can cancel your tour up to 24 hours in advance, Nice Tours is stuck with a nonrefundable air ticket if customers cancel. I assured the representative that we were 100% in! Even still, we received our flight confirmation and tour specifics the Wednesday evening before our Friday evening departure.
At this point, I'm not a huge fan of Air Cairo; our departure was delayed 3.5 hours and our return was 2 hours delayed. Because of the delay to Luxor, we made it to the Maryland hotel at midnight. The hotel was the least impressive part of the experience, and not what I would have chosen for our group. Though by the time we arrived, we had less than 4.5 hours before we had to be up for our hot air balloon pickup.
The hot air balloon ride, a first for most in our group, was amazing. We had a clear view of the Hatshepsut Temple and the other archaeological sites being excavated. Our guide, Meena, met us afterward and he was so knowledgeable about the various sites and history. He kept the kids engaged while also giving enough information to the interested adults. Our package did not include entry tickets, so we purchased them in advance from the Egypt Monuments website. This saved us time at each site. I strongly encourage you to add on the Ramesses V&VI tomb at the Valley of the Kings.
The other sites were equally amazing. If you have the time, definitely plan for multiple days in Luxor. But if you're cramming it all into a few days, this tour really hits the highlights.