Our first trip
My detailed story will probably be of interest to those who, like us, are going to go for the first time. For the rest, the story is banal. 2 weeks before the trip, my husband and I bought a ticket in Moscow from the operator "anex tour" for 14 days with meals, "All inclusive" to Egypt, Hurghada, hotel, "Bella Vista" 4 *. Internet. I wanted a small, cozy, in the city. The ticket cost 46 thousand rubles for 2 adults. Departure at 5 o'clock in the morning from Domodedovo. Airline "UTair" (UTair). I was very afraid of planes, but everything went fine. Only the ears were blocked during takeoff and landing. We flew in the very tail (places, in my opinion, 49 D, E. ). Fed breakfast. Normal food. I don't understand why so many people complain about food on flights. Stewardesses are polite girls. The flight is exactly 4 hours and 30 minutes. Arrived at 7pm Egyptian time. 30 min. The day is not lost. Now about my first mistake: Before the trip, I read a lot about cheating with visas, but I still got caught. When we entered the airport, everyone was called directly to the anex tour desk for visas for $ 17, I rushed to the glass windows, where visas were for $ 15, but it wasn’t there. In this window, as if on purpose, there was no one. And from the next window, where the currency is exchanged, they strongly waved their hands towards the counter of the anex tour. It looks like they split the price difference between them. Not only did I have to buy visas for $17, they also pretended that there was no change for $1. The impression of the country immediately deteriorated, but we decided not to spoil our mood because of 150 rubles. We were taken to the hotel second. Since there was also a bus and a train before the plane, we were very tired and settled in the first offered room. Everything worked there. The view of the sea was slightly spoiled by the roof of the neighboring building, but we are not prejudiced. Yes, and there is nothing to compare the first time with. Then the fabulous life began. Those who arrived earlier said that just a few days ago a strong wind was still blowing. But we were lucky. The temperature during the day is from 28 degrees and above (although the heat is not felt by the sea), the water is 23-24 degrees, but for some reason it is cool to enter and exit the water. Sea class! True, I'm afraid of the depths and always dangled like a float closer to the shore, and my husband sailed a few meters and watched corals and fish. In the hotel, in addition to Russians, we met some of them, there were Swedes, Germans, Poles, etc. . I was very worried about how we would communicate, English. I know the language very poorly. It turned out that both the hotel staff and the street vendors knew several languages and communicated freely with us in Russian, even Russian jokes were released. It is more difficult with Russian in pharmacies and in remote parts of the city, but a few words in English and gestures will help. The food is good. I have not heard of any poisoning in 2 weeks. There was always fish (although almost always the same), chicken, 5 times there was a turkey, some kind of meat. Garnish with rice, spaghetti, french fries, mashed potatoes, some kind of baked and more. Puree soup is not familiar to us, but I liked it, from different vegetables. We didn’t even try all the salads and vegetables, we tried to eat what we were used to. All kinds of sauces. Fruit 6-7 species, strawberries 1 time. About buns, pancakes and sweets, in general, I am silent. You won't lose weight. We drank mainly coffee with milk and cold tea "hibiscus" (reminiscent of our cranberry juice). Many evenings we walked along Sheraton Street. At first, the obsession of traders and the need to bargain strained, then it became fun to bargain, and then they got tired and, in general, stopped paying attention to traders and beckoned attention. Their prices, indeed, are called from the bulldozer, for a fool. I had to mentally translate into rubles and approximately calculate whether it was expensive or normal. Now, taking into account the fact that the dollar is bought for 30 rubles, and Egyptian pounds for 1 dollar you can buy 6, it turns out 1 eg. pound=5 rub. Much has been written about money in other reviews, so I won’t delve into it, but I looked closely at unfamiliar banknotes so that piastres would not be handed over instead of pounds. They didn't cheat. I came to the conclusion that, despite the opinion of others, it is more convenient to buy in dollars. Pounds are needed only for tips and other small things. Yes, but there is nothing to buy there. I read a lot about oils before the trip. Who wrote that the streets were diluted with paraffin, who wrote that the factory, perhaps, is visible to tourists, therefore it is very expensive. As a result, I chose the 3rd option: buy at a pharmacy. After going through several dozen pharmacies, and not finding, as it should be, glass brown bottles with oils, I bought a lot at the pharmacy, but dubious and, as according to the law of meanness, then accidentally stumbled upon what I was looking for. I had to buy only one jojoba oil. Bottle 200 ml. , factory , , El Baraka "the price on the price tag is 110 LE, i. e. 550 rubles. I also bought face creams, hair masks at the pharmacy. They are cheaper than ours. And I bought toothpaste made in Egypt. She not cheap, but I liked the quality. Pink color. I regretted that I took only one. Naturally, we bought hibiscus, but since we bought in the last hours, there was no time to bargain and look for buds. We bought in "Cleopatra" - this is a store with fixed prices almost in front of the hotel. And it is useless to look for clothes and shoes there. All stores have the same T-shirts with camels, pyramids, etc. If you meet something of normal quality, something that you can wear or put on at home, then the prices are even more expensive than we have in the Novgorod region. And we don't have low prices. Now for the tours. . I also read that operators are 2 times more expensive and they intimidate that they will not be responsible for tourists if excursions are not bought from them, but I decided that if there is an insured event, which is provided for by insurance, then the operator has nothing to do with it, but , if the insurance is not included, then the operator will not help. We bought a sea excursion on a boat to El Gouna on the beach, but even then not on the first day, but when we asked the price in street agencies and realized that the more people, the cheaper. Grouped 5 people and the tour cost $ 25 per person. We are all delighted with the tour. We stopped for fishing, instead of the aquarium in El Gouna (they said it was closed for several days. Maybe not true, I don’t know. ) My husband didn’t want to catch at first, he thought it was nonsense, no one would catch anything. It turned out that they caught a whole bucket, he caught one of the first. Everyone took pictures. There were cries of delight after each cry: “Fish! Fish! ”, Then they stopped for swimming with masks. Those who swam saw enough of the beauty. to have enough space. El Gouna is called the Venice of Egypt for a reason. In my opinion, 5 wide channels were dug, we sailed on a motor boat, there were hotels and other beautiful buildings on the banks. But even here there was a nuance that spoiled the mood: we sailed along El Gouna for about 10 minutes, but in some of the most shabby eatery on the shore we stopped, probably for 30-40 minutes. On the way back, we were fed on the boat. There was also a delicious fish we caught on the menu. Then the house of dolphins swam by. It's good that one girl saw 4 dolphins right in front of the boat. There were screams! They swam in front of us for a long time, and how they were not afraid to swim so close to the boat. We also videotaped them. Naturally, there was also a cameraman who filmed the whole tour, but there were no dolphins, and then he offered to buy a video for $ 20. But we, of course, our video is more interesting and free. The second excursion was to Luxor. I didn’t really want to go to her, but my husband wanted to see enough of antiquity. Again 4 people grouped up and bought a tour at a street agency (on the Sheraton, near McDonald's). The excursion to Luxor per person cost, after the auction, of course, $ 37. And there they took a sea excursion to Giftun Island (paradise island) for $ 12.5. We left for Luxor at 4:00. morning. They came for us on time. The bus has air conditioning. But when we arrived, I no longer needed any temples and tombs. 38-40 degrees in the shade, and there is no shade anywhere. Of course, I didn’t look at everything because of the heat, but I mastered the main thing. If it wasn't for the sunshine.... Were in the temple of Karnak, at the colossi of Memon, in the city of the dead, in the tombs. We ate at the restaurant, but the drinks were paid, we were not warned about this. And there is water on the bus. I didn't go to the toilet on the bus. Who came, they said, horror. Then our guide, I think, led the tourists to a banana plantation for $10 per person. At first we refused, so he, so that others would not hear, offered for $ 5. Although the plantation may have been included in the tour, I don’t know. 4 times sailed in boats on the Nile. Swimming was not allowed. They said there are crocodiles. I did not see. Only on a plantation in a terrarium of 2 small ones. Our last excursion to Giftun Island also delighted everyone. 2 times stopped in the sea for swimming. Even I, a coward in a life jacket, ventured to swim 4 meters away. The island itself is a fairy tale. White sand. The purest water. They were there for 1 hour. 30 min. Who wants a whole day on this island under the fungus, he needs to take an excursion to Paradise. This is the same island, only fenced. And it's more expensive. I almost forgot to tell you about Mukhamed, the hotel guide from Anex tour. He asked everyone to fill out papers, such as for the police, there it was necessary to indicate what excursions we would take from him and sign for the fact that, if we did not take it from him, then he was not responsible for us. It was stipulated that these papers were very important so that there would be no problems with the police. We filled out everything except for excursions and did not sign up for the removal of responsibility from them. So Mukhamed quickly turned from a polite guide into an embittered huckster and tore this “important” piece of paper before our eyes. By the way, both we and those who took excursions at exorbitant prices sailed on the same boat and traveled on the same bus. Now my next everyone warned about the sun, but I didn’t read any warnings about the effect of salt water on already dry skin. . Apparently, the minutes that I spent at sea were enough to become like boiled cancer (I myself am pale-skinned). And since I like to plunge with my head, but after each bath I didn’t go to the shower (although it’s 3 steps away), I didn’t recognize my skin. The face became a red bump, it cracked and stinged terribly from everything, the eyes did not open in the morning. True, my husband had no such problems. But even his swarthy skin, and not on the first day, burned while he played dars without a T-shirt. I almost forgot to say that everything in our room was clean, regardless of whether they left a tip or not. At night it was stuffy even with air conditioning, so the balcony was opened, but only with the lights off, otherwise mosquitoes flew in. Music was also heard from the vodka bar nearby at night, but we calmly fell asleep. Mukhamed warned us that no one was responsible for the safes in the room, and they didn’t want to hand over anything at the reception, so I carried money and documents with me in my bag. It's not very convenient, really. And one day I left this bag on the bench. The bartender took the bag to the reception. Nothing is missing. It’s bad that I didn’t think about how much and to whom I need to tip for this. So another incident came up. I gave 10 pounds to the one who gave it, then the one who found it came up, but there was nothing to give. There were already 100 pounds and dollars. Well, as it happened, it happened. And the hotel is a plus for the fact that everything is safe. Now about animation. Those who were in the hotel are unlikely to read such a long story about what they already know, but I am writing for others. Animation at the hotel is done by: a family from Hungary (mother, daughter, son), Katya from St. Petersburg and another boy. They carry out exercises, teach belly dancing, dance the famous “opa-opa” together with everyone, organize darts, volleyball, crazy football and evening programs. Everything is fine. But if you spend all days only on the territory, then there will still be little entertainment The last day is not the best. Departure is at 19h30, departure from the hotel at 16h30, and evicted from the room and cut off the bracelets at 12h As a result, we had breakfast and ran to buy a bag and the last souvenirs for We didn’t have time to drink coffee or tea before 12 o’clock, we had to buy coffee ourselves for $ 1.5, spaghetti with ketchup for $ 5. Then we spent the last precious minutes on the beach and it’s good that new acquaintances suggested that we change clothes in their room, and not somewhere in the toilet. They brought us to the airport at 17.30, the flight was delayed until 22.00. Here we again made a mistake by putting our jackets in our luggage. It is so cold from the air conditioners that I started sneezing on the plane. And, of course, they didn’t take food with them, like other more experienced people. And there is nothing special to eat there, everything is expensive (a small cola is $ 4). Yes, and there was no money, they left only rubles on purpose, because. small dollars and especially pounds in Russia will not be needed. I want to say more about the Egyptian duty free. In Moscow, you can walk calmly along the Dutik, but in Hurghada it is impossible, because. to. they follow you around and offer to buy everything, like hucksters on the streets. As a result, we chose to leave, I do not like when they impose. And at the airport, too, a whole market is made up of shops with souvenirs and all the same notorious T-shirts. Yes, sorry to those who expected to read how things are with alcohol in the hotel. We didn’t drink, so I only know that people took cocktails, beer, wine and whiskey, in my opinion, for free, and expensive drinks for a fee. Well, I’ll end my story by saying that due to the flight delay, returning home turned out to be more problematic for us, because. because our train has left. And Moscow, in a cold state, we had to wander for a very long time. But in general I am satisfied with the trip, the tour operator, the airline and the hotel. Now, even more than before, I want to travel around the world. To everyone who has read this story to the end, thank you for your patience. I would be glad if my story could help someone. Good luck with your travels!!!!!!!!! !
