This trip gives you the opportunity to see many of the key sights of Egypt with the exception of Abu Simble and is well organised with responsible guides to help you navigate a new culture when travelling with children. Egypt itself is a fascinating country full of history and culture and we had a brilliant experience of Egypt. There are some things that you should consider to ensure that this is the right tour for you. The trip does promise a first class sleeper train and 4 or 5 star hotels throughout but that is a local distinction and most were more a European 2 or 3 star hotel at best. This isn’t a luxury tour. Many of the tours are optional rather than included and as such you need to allow plenty of extra dollars if you want to have the full experience. This makes you feel somewhat like you’re being exploited because the extra trips are significantly overpriced compared to the face value of the entry tickets to the sites visited, but you can’t easily then organise on your own. This trip gives you the opportunity to see many of the key sights of Egypt with the exception of Abu Simble and is well organised with responsible guides to help you navigate a new culture when travelling with children. Egypt itself is a fascinating country full of history and culture and we had a brilliant experience of Egypt. There are some things that you should consider to ensure that this is the right tour for you. The trip does promise a first class sleeper train and 4 or 5 star hotels throughout but that is a local distinction and most were more a European 2 or 3 star hotel at best. This isn’t a luxury tour. Many of the tours are optional rather than included and as such you need to allow plenty of extra dollars if you want to have the full experience. This makes you feel somewhat like you’re being chased for more money all the time and the extra trips are somewhat overpriced compared to the face value of the entry tickets to the sites visited, but you can’t easily then organise on your own. We noticed our 13 year old went in as a child ticket but we were charged a full adult price for the tour by exodus because he was over 12. The brochure said group tips paid in advance are optional but recommended but we were chased for the exact amount ‘recommended’ which I suspect is a profit source for the local tour provider. The coach journey was advised as 4 hours but actually took 7 hours due to using back roads rather than toll roads. There can be delays and you need to be prepared to sit for long periods.
Family Holidays to Canada
Top 5 Parks to Visit on a Canada family Holiday
Banff National Park: Laying claim to being the oldest national park in Canada, Banff is surrounded by the Rocky Mountains, forests and glaciers, making it a truly diverse landscape to discover. Hikers will be in their element as there are countless walking trails to explore. And there’s always something to keep the children’s attention on our family holidays to Canada, with an array of wildlife lurking around every twist and turn and optional activities such as gondola and helicopter rides. While elk, deer and bighorn sheep are most commonly seen during walks through Banff National Park, you might also be lucky enough to spot a bear, mountain goat, wolf or coyote in the distance. And to capture some impressive photos, the glistening water and mountainous backdrop of Lake Louise is the perfect setting and possibly one of the most photographed locations on a Canada family holiday.
Jasper National Park: Sprawled across almost 19,000 square miles, Jasper National Park if the largest in Canada. As you explore its wildly beautiful scenery, you’ll be in awe of the vast wilderness. One of the best ways to really grasp its immensity is on a cable car ride up Whistler Mountain. From here you’ll have a bird’s-eye perspective of its mountains, glaciers and valleys. Alternatively, you can visit Mount Edith Cavell to witness the views of Angel Glacier or get your blood flowing with a mountain bike ride through the lakeside scenery. Icefields Parkway is the most scenic drives you’ll experience on family holidays Canada and runs through the heart of the Rockies. Watch the most magnificent scenery unfurl as you travel among hanging glaciers and breath-taking valleys before visiting Peyto Lake and hiking across Athabasca Glacier.
Yoho National Park: Whilst Yoho National Park isn’t quite as immense as the Canadian Rockies’ more well-known Banff and Jasper parks, its natural beauty is equally as astounding. Emerald lakes are hugged on all sides by scented pines and its alpine waterfalls, mountains and rock walls will leave you in awe. Our Canada family holiday ensures there’s always something exciting for the children, whether that’s white water rafting along the Kicking Horse River or canoeing on the Emerald Lake.
Wells Gray Provincial Park: Encapsulating a large portion of the Cariboo Mountains in British Columbia, Wells Gray Provincial Park is beyond impressive; it will quite literally take your breath away. As you listen to the roar of the Helmcken Falls thundering down the rock sides and feel the cold spray on your face, you’ll appreciate how wondrous this place is. Carved out by glaciers and volcanoes, and home to a staggering 41 named waterfalls, beautiful lakes, rivers and mountains, Wells Gray is a force of nature to be reckoned with.
Stanley Park: Providing the lungs to the city of Vancouver, Stanley Park may not be in the same league as the country’s national parks, but it sure has its own charms and is well worth visiting on family holidays to Canada. Tucked into the peninsula of the city, this urban park is a peaceful oasis and a honey pot for tourists wanting to discover the local nature. Here you’ll find golden beaches, flower gardens and plenty of attractions for the kids, including a water park, swimming pool and a miniature railway.
Stephen Dossett Egyptian Family Adventure
Kelli Keesey Borneo Wildlife Family HolidayWe are traveling as a family of four with our two girls, 13 and 11 years old for four months. This tour was a highlight of our trip so far. We absolutely loved the animals and the jungle as well as being exposed to the culture and people of Sabah. Our tour guide Nostalia was a fountain of knowledge and took such amazing care of us. The people of Sabah are friendly and welcoming and with our guide as a translator we learned so much more than we otherwise would have.
Jon Browning Egyptian Family AdventureOur family of four went on this tour in February half term 2023. The places you visit are amazing, Pyramids and Valley of the Kings especially. 19 of us on the tour, really good bunch of people and the kids all got on well. We were first time travellers with Exodus and we really expected more effort to have gone in to their planning and attention to detail in making this a family adventure as billed. In reality it’s a tour Exodus seem to resell from an Egyptian tour operator and felt like an adult tour with kids on. e.g. after the 15hour overnight train journey when clearly the group were exhausted, the guide announced that the hotel rooms weren’t ready and we were going to do the next day’s itinerary then. This completely misread the group. Often the plan for the day didn’t factor in meals or breaks at a reasonable time, e.g. on the first day we at left at 0730 but lunch stop wasn’t till 1400, lots of very hungry children. For the overnight train to Aswan they don’t use the main station in Cairo but a small suburban one. They got us to the station 3 hours before the train departure and there was only a small café that served drinks. With a bit of thought they could have easily sorted out a family friendly restaurant with toilets etc, the food on the train is pretty poor so a meal before departure would have been welcome. With some planning all of this could be fixed easily. We didn’t expect someone from Exodus to be with us, but I did expect one of their team to have built the itinerary and worked with the operator to match the vision they sell. This just didn’t seem to be the case. Exodus say they have at some point visited the hotels etc but not been on this particular tour. The Cairo hotel (Cairo Pyramids – Steigenberger) was terrible, you don’t stay in the main part which is on the website but are in old bungalows that were like a 1* motel from the 1980s. I can’t believe that anyone from Exodus has stayed in that part of the hotel and they still let people stay there. At each hotel the group were met by a local representative from the tour operator, but never managed to once get the hotel rooms sorted to match the group, e.g. those that needed three beds seemed to always get two. I realise this seems petty but at 2030 after a 7 hour coach drive you don’t want to be spending another 45mins trying to sort out hotel rooms. It would have really helped if they’d got this type of detail right. The tour operator runs a tipping kitty which Exodus say is optional. In reality it isn’t. You are summoned to pay ($45 or $25 for kids) on the first day, also children age 12 or older are adults for this and the optional tours. The tour operator was literally chasing some people around hotels to collect any missing tip kitty. Exodus have said they are going to make sure the operator knows it is optional, but I think if it’s needed they should simply add to the cost of the holiday. The tipping kitty doesn’t cover the tip for the guide which is recommended at $4/day per person. We really enjoyed Egypt but think Exodus need to step up their game on this tour to make it close to experience they say they offer.
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