Most Inspirational Moment
Luxor Temple at night, which isn’t part of the itinerary!
Thoughts on Group Leader
She was knowledgeable, but the delivery of information about Egypt wasn’t targeted at the children. Children aged 9-12 don’t want to stand around listening for too long in the same way adults can. Much more engagement with them would make a big difference. Make it feel like it’s about them.
Advice for Potential Travellers
Our recommendation would be to wait until your children are 16 and do the adult version of the trip.
Suggestions
From the outset it just felt very un-Exodus and very transactional. The local operator delivered what they were contracted to and it could be argued 'so you got what you paid for', but that's not why I've returned time and time again to Exodus. It's because I've always felt they've delivered above and beyond just the price. At the core of it is that it is sold as designed for 9-12 year olds but it is not. There were no occasions when I felt something had been specifically designed for the children. Good opportunities would have been the visits to support local businesses. Are trips to a parfumerie, an alabaster shop and a papyrus shop really designed for 9-12 year olds? Maybe if they had been able to participate in workshops (as we did in Vietnam), but there was none of that. The optional extras are many and feel overpriced (see previous reviews). 'Lunch not included' meant we were left to fend for ourselves at tourist trap locations paying for overpriced poor quality food (basic sandwiches, pizza-but-not-as-we-know-it and a deep fried selection). My experience from my previous trips was of our guide using their local knowledge to take us to excellent quality local restaurants where we would be well looked after and enjoy delicious local food. The schedule was often lacking in consideration for the children to ‘refuel’ properly and no parent wants to have to deal with tired and hungry children. For example: check in at 15:00 in Luxor after transferring from Aswan with no lunch and then leaving the hotel at 18:30 for the light show; arrive at Hurghada after a 5.5 hour journey and the operator is more focused on selling trips for the next day; the hotel doesn't start dinner until 19:00. We’re used to the extremely full-on schedules of these holidays and so are our children, but for all the various reasons unfortunately this one often felt quite stressful as a parent.