1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your holiday?

The wonderful ancient monuments we visited - in particular Queen Hatshepsut's mortuary temple - but also Luxor temple, Kom Ombo and Karnak. Also the beautiful vistas on the Nile and sailing in a felucca.

2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?

Ensure you spend at least 2 hours in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo - it needs that amount of time as a minimum. Also add on an optional additional excursion to visit the wonderful mosques of old Cairo and the Citadel. Finally, the museum of antiquities in Luxor is definitely worth a visit as is Karnak at night.

3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, and minimized impacts on the environment?

Yes insofar as we used a local tour company and local guides etc. Also we hope that cruising was relatively green although having airconditioning on all the time is not at all good for the environment and we tried switching it off as much as we could. The option of travelling by train from Cairo to Luxor or Aswan and back again is something to be considered as a greener option than flying and we think this should be offered as an option.

4. Finally, how would you rate your holiday overall?

Very very good - the local operators were truly excellent. All our arrangements worked smoothly and our tour leader Mohsen was great - nothing was too much trouble and he made sure everything we wanted to do was arranged calmly and efficiently - an ideal tour leader. We hope he goes far in his career! All the local guides were very knowledgeable with adequate English; however, occasionally one sensed one or two of them were rather bored with the job and weren't really enjoying it much. The ones we most appreciated were the cheerful enthusiastic guides who communicated their love of the history and architecture etc as well as their knowledge. Of course as all the guides in Egypt are freelance and are not employed - their livelihood is precarious and it would help if they had more security...