See The World Tours

I have been on many trips over the past several years, including cruises and land tours. I have traveled a lot my whole life, and know that things can inherently go wrong when you travel - flight delays, cancellation, lost luggage, closed ports, etc. that being said, each traveler must be cognizant of their surroundings to combat crime in certain high-volume tourist areas, and not expect to have your hand held the entire time. Sam handles everything calmly, and quietly, and has a satellite phone with him at all times. I have heard after-the-fact of issues that we were not aware of had occurred. He has a wide network of local foreign contractors, some with whom he has had years-long relationships. After years of having to schedule my own travel, it is very nice to have someone else do it. I have only encountered one issue where a transfer from hotel to ship port was not taken care of. Taxis were scarce, as it was a large metropolitan city, with several huge venue events going on simultaneously, and a lot of the taxi drivers were working double-shifts on Saturday and were taking the Sunday off (the day we needed them!). After another savvy traveler in the group, who luckily spoke Spanish, pre-scheduled several large taxi vans to arrive at the hotel the next morning specifically to transport our group to the ship port. That transfer should have been included, as advertised. Sam manages to incorporate as much into each trip, especially the land tours as possible, since most travelers would not be returning to those areas.

My husband and I have traveled many times with See the World Tours. Twice to South Africa and once to Egypt plus other trips. Always first class experience and accommodations. Never had a problem even when I broke my arm on top of Table Mountain in South Africa. Made sure We had transportation to hospital for surgery. Assisted my husband in plans to get me back to group when discharged from hospital with a plan A and plan B depending on time of discharge. Could not have gone better. Will continue to travel with them because of awesome experiences.
Our guide in Egypt even went to pharmacy for some of the travelers and patched up my husband after her cut his hand, he is on blood thinners and was bleeding a lot. Always available 24/7 for all the travelers as is the owner of See the World Tours.

This company advertises many popular guided trips for a reasonable price as compared to some of the major other tour companies. I have traveled extensively before this trip, including on several bus tours. I booked a trip with See the World Tours to Egypt because of that and the company owner's representations that he had 25 years of experience and that he accompanied all of his tour groups. At a meeting of prospective passengers that I attended he implied that his presence on his tours was beneficial since he was able to solve problems for his travelers. The owner also highly praised his Egyptologist, who he had used on a previous trip. All sounded great to me.
The trip I took to Egypt in September, 2019 had a diverse itinerary with fascinating sights, reasonably good accommodations/meals and enjoyable activities. The Egyptian guide was very hardworking and knowledgeable. On the negative side, the schedule was more challenging than I anticipated due to requirements to be on the bus multiple times at around 3:30-5:00 am. Only two instances of such departures were advertised in the published itinerary, one apparently due to a long distance to the sight and another on the last day to catch a flight.
My biggest complaint though was that once I was on the trip, I realized that the company owner was not actually managing the tour, but rather the trip was being managed by local subcontractors, and unfortunately, not always well. Our baggage was negligently handled more than once. In one instance, my suitcase was left on the tour bus when we were delivered to our Nile River cruise, but was located and returned to me several hours after I inquired. Nobody had ensured that all of our luggae was unloaded and delivered to us. In that instance we were directed to leave the bus and go to the lobby to do necessary paperwork and were thus separated from our luggage. Three days before the tur would end, baggage belonging to me and two other travelers were stolen off the tour bus three days before the tour would end. That incident occurred when the tour group was told they must depart the bus and go directly into the hotel for a meeting, and so again we could not be in control of our luggage when the cargo doors were unlocked for unloading. Nobody was watching the bus cargo doors for a time and the three suitcases never came off the bus with the others belonging to our group. The investigation of the incident by the Egyptian companies was also negligent and the tourists involved were given very little support for their extreme inconvenience and loss by See The World Tours. No police report was filed and no official report was issued by any of the travel companies involved, only an email from the Egyptian guide and only because I demanded some explanation. Kindness from an acquaintance of the Egyptian tour guide and a few of my fellow tourists got me through the ordeal, while See the World Tours' owner continued to enjoy his vacation.
Admittedly, See the World Tours explicitly claimed no responsibiltiy for luggage in its required travel agreement, but I think most people would have expected better handling. The Egyptian companies that See the World Tours hired to arrange accommodations, meals and sightseeing, to guide and to transport us and our luggage were either non-responsive to my inquiries about their investigation and/or denied any responsibility for their inactions. The See the World Tours owner never expressed sympathy to me until after I was back home when I contacted him for assistance getting me copies of documents needed for make my insurance claim. He did fulfill that request. My travel insurance helped, but was not sufficient to compensate me for my entire losses.
Therefore, I cannot recommend See The World Tours, at least for its trip to Egypt.