<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (mrs767er @ May 30 2009, 03:40 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>
we&#39;ll do the Luxor/Aswan cruise later. We like to make the short trips on days off and save the vacation wks for longer stuff like Asia etc. I will be happy for the Luxor guide referral, tho. I could sepnd days at Luxor temple and VOK.
My husband is Padi cert so Alexandria could be a sep trip, too. I liked your take on their corniche and the Qaddoura is making my taste buds jump for joy--that sounds sooo good![/b]
EDIT - here are some of my Alexandria pics: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=7849...mp;l=62abb131d8

The guides name is Mina Botros - www.englishtour.co.cc / minabotrosguide@yahoo.com and he speaks quite good English.

I wouldn&#39;t book direct though, I booked him through ourexplorer: http://www.ourexplorer.com/tour-guid...ares-1740.aspx

You pay a few dollars on your credit card to the website to secure, then pay rest in cash when you meet him. Much safer this way, as if a guide no shows or is dodgy you can rate them and people can steer clear of them. If he no shows, the small amount you paid goes to charity.

He has jacked his rates to around USD$27/person/day (he was far too cheap before), but this guy will meet you at the train at 5am and not leave you till 7pm -with an air conditioned cab and driver included in the price. He organised a hot air balloon for us for around USD$56, but being Egyptian National Railways our train was quite late so we missed it. But seeing as we weren&#39;t going to pay for it until upfront, there was no cancel fee or anything.

He took us to all the temples, an alabaster factory (great to see how they make it), went on a felucca along the Nile (extra - and advised us how much to pay and not to pay more than x etc), lunch on the Nile (extra but cheap), to a museum or two, cafe for shisha - all over the place.

One thing i&#39;ve learned lately is there is nothing like a local guide (even if just for the 1st day), and nothing like a bicycle tour to help you get to know a city... except a Nth American city... don&#39;t wanna be riding no bikes there.