Egypt with Somak Safaris

Our family of four took a 10-day trip to Egypt, Nov. 16-27, 2006. We booked it with Prem Sharma of Somak Safaris (2700 East Imperial Highway, Ste. N, Brea, CA 92821; 714/985-3456, www.somaksafaris.com). (We had also traveled through Somak in 2004, to Tanzania.)

The cost of $3,060 per person included round-trip airfare from Los Angeles to Cairo (via Frankfurt), three nights in Cairo (including the sound-and-light show at the pyramids), the flight to Luxor, four nights and five days on the Nile cruise ending in Aswan, two nights in Aswan, an optional trip to Abu Simbel, the return flight from Aswan to Cairo, the departure tax and trip insurance.

The land accommodations always included breakfast and lunch. The Nile cruise always included breakfast, lunch and dinner plus several box breakfasts and lunches.

Somak’s guided tours were geared to our group of four and included a driver together with the guide and often a reserve driver. This was personal attention from the moment we were greeted at the Cairo airport by Somak’s Egyptian contact from Midland Travel. The coordination between Midland and Somak was seamless.

While in Cairo, it was just our family and the two or three agency people, who were always on time. Our guide in Cairo, Marco, was outstanding. He has an advanced degree in Egyptology and knows his way around the Cairo museum like the back of his hand. With our small group in tow, he introduced us to museum staff, who each gave us a peek at behind-the-scenes antiquities that were relevant to places we were to see on our upcoming Nile cruise.

We flew from Cairo to Luxor and boarded the Nile Symphony for our upriver cruise. We met our tour guide for the next four days and the rest of our English-speaking group, now a total of 25. Once again our guide was outstanding, and her interaction with the locals gave us interesting perspectives.

Our cruise ended in Aswan, and we extended our stay for two days at the Old Cataract Hotel. One of the days was a round-trip drive to Abu Simbel. The Midland Travel guide and drivers met us at 4 a.m. and we were back at 1 p.m. It was well worth the trip, and the personal touch was evident.

An interesting part of the drive down and back was the Egyptian security. The police had organized a secured convoy of about 50 to 60 tour buses and vans. This mass of vehicles with its armed escorts moved out and traveled at speeds up to 140 kilometers per hour (87 mph), making the 2½-hour trip without incident.

Abu Simbel is so huge in area that this mass of tourists managed, with enough time, to spread out and allow everyone time in the temples without being trampled or crushed.

The return from Abu Simbel was nothing short of John Wayne’s shouting “Saddle up!” as all the buses and vans maneuvered out of the dusty parking lot for the return convoy.

Our return flight from Aswan to Cairo on EgyptAir arrived at noon. Our Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt did not leave until 3:30 a.m. the next morning, so we were put up at the InterContinental Cairo Hotel to clean up and rest until our pickup at 1:30 a.m.

Once we got to the airport, we got a big, nasty surprise. Our return flight had been erroneously booked from Cairo through Frankfurt to Boston rather than Los Angeles. Lufthansa could do nothing to help us and insisted it was a mistake by our agent, Somak.

2 a.m. Monday morning in Cairo is 4 p.m. Sunday in California, and, fortunately for us, my son was home in California and was able to book four one-way flights on US Air from Boston through Phoenix to Orange County, California, at $517 each.

When I got home, I contacted Somak, who upon immediate investigation agreed that this was a regrettable error on their part and within three days I had a check for $2,068 to cover the return charges. This was truly a “class act” service, something seldom seen these days, and it reinforced our faith in Somak.

BRUCE BLANCHART

Mission Viejo, CA