Sphinx
- Address:Giza Plateau, Cairo
- Hours:Open daily 8am - 5pm
- Admission:60 L.E.
Sphinx Reviews
We've found 59 Sphinx reviews from Viator.com travelers and members: what they loved, what they liked and what they think could be improved. It's all here to help you make the most of your next trip.
This tour provided safe and convenient transportation to and from the Pyramids and Sphinx. The guide gave us pointers on dealing with the sellers hawking trinkets and camel rides. The narrative was okay, but not more than what could be found in the guidebooks. I recommend this tour if you are hesitant about making the journey on your own.
Pyramids and sphinx are wonderful pieces and are definitely wonders to see. The sphinx unfortunately was getting work done to it so couldn't get up close to it. The guide was good however, on this tour they want you to buy all sorts of souvenirs. When we did not do this, the guides attitude changed and he got really moody. The tour should be about the wonderful pieces of artistry not buying souvenirs.
The most AMAZING tour I have ever been on. We had Hani as our guide and he was phenomenal. Extremely knowledgeable and overly willing to go outside the basic tour itinerary to personalize this tour. It was fantastic to have a one-on-one guide with us at all times. Never once felt concerned for our safety. Both Hani and our drive Zeku, were extremely friendly and courteous. The bus that we drove around in was comfortable and clean. We were able to go inside the great pyramid in addition to King Titi's pyramid at Sakkara. The Sphinx is really amazing. Definitely recommend one ride on the camels but trust the guide's recommendation for the vendor, as you will be inundated with camel owners trying to rally your business.
Great tour, especially the safety precautions that were taken on our behalf! Our guide today, Khalid, was very knowledgeable about the history of Egypt. While one could not possibly learn a lot about the ancient Egypt in such a short time, he covered all highlights at the museum. Then lunch, and a quick tour of the Bazaar. He correctly held back our temptation of buying anything here. Then he took us to the "Papyrus Institute" to view the art of making and painting papyrus where we purchased genuine papyrus paintings. The last stop was the Pyramids and the Sphinx, where we had wonderful sightseeing, camel and horse-cart rides, picture taking and shopping. Khalid even helped us with bargaining process. We were then taken back to our hotel. Surprising part of this tour was the presence of a suit-and tie-clad man who stayed close to us for most of the tour. Only when he was leaving, did we find out that he was actually a security man provided by the tour company for our protection during crowded parts of the tour! How considerate! We did not even had an opportunity to know his name. Overall, Khalid, and Suleiman were great.
A must-do trip when in Cairo, amazing !! Pick up and drop off prompt and as its a private tour, no visiting other hotels to pick up others. The guide was very knowledgeable and spoke excellent English. The tour can be as adapted to your personal preference, we were pushed for time so our guide accommodated our needs by skipping the trip to the "craft" shop. Although we did not have a camel ride, the guide did seems to be able to negotiate a good price with the locals for this.
The pyramids and Sphinx were as amazing as I had hoped they would be and should not be missed !!
a must see. about 45 minutes long. outside at night with lights on the Sphinx and pyramids and a narration. check language days. you can also get language head sets. it is about 45 minutes outside of downtown Cairo; you can taxi it but it is better to take the tour as they will promptly pick you up at your hotel and the price difference is minimal, it is safer and you ride in comfort.
When my wife and I visited the Pyramids and Sphinx it was just after the Revolution and the site was fairly empty of tourists, which was tough on the locals but advantageous for us. As expected, what you see is quite awesome when you realise when they were built and the tools they had. We didn't venture inside the pyramids, too claustrophobic and too old for the climb!, but had a really good look around the site.
Our guide was excellent and everything went very smoothly.
If you visit Cairo it's a must to take in this tour and I would recommend it to anyone. Not too much hassle from local vendors selling their wares though they are always around.
The driver and guide were good. The pyramids and Sphinx are impressive, but not worth more than a couple of hours' visit. The tour includes an optional visit to an essence merchant nearby. We had mixed feelings about these optional tours. The crafts are interesting, and you don't have to buy anything, but saying "no" all the time in Egypt gets tiring.
This a very beutiful way to see the pyramids. The light show last about an hour and the sphinx and pyramids are lit with differnt pictures and show the history of the building of the pyramids. The commentary is very cheesy but ignore this and enjoy the sites.
Tour could have been better if Viator makes sure that the local tour agency that they are working with are reliable and trustworthy. In our case we felt cheated by the tour GUIDE and to some extend by Viator.
Some highlights were,not showing Sphinx internally, walking away after a short explainations.Not showing entrance to Khafre and mentioned it was closed (while it was not). Tour without proper explanation from tour guide is not worthy as we pay a lot in international currency . This makes one feel cheated. What he did was arranged a camel ride and told us that we should pay him later which was thrice the normal price.We found that camel ride and ticket can be bought at ticket office together. We found out above after going once again to the Pyramids. He took us to the perfume factory which was not included in tour and we had to pay $80 for a very small bottle of perfume which was four time the cost. So the question is should one relay on tour guides!! or what Viator can do to improve service and avoid such guides as we had to go once again to see the pyramids. Managing on our own was more convinient and satisfactory. It was total waste of money in first instance. It was a private tour but we felt forced.
Punctual pick up from hotel in nice clean air conditioned vehicle. Escorted arounf Pyramid site & Sphinx by knowledge English speaking guide. Level of information imparted was just right. An excellent tour.
This tour was nothing more than a sham shopping trip with side trips to the Pyramids, Sphinx, museum. I would give 0 stars if I could. My guide took me to no less than 5 government-run shops, each with high-pressure salespeople who wouldn't take "No!" for an answer. Traveling alone, at times I felt threatened and found myself buying stuff just to get out of there. When would I ever wear a thobe in the Midwest? And the guide was no help; he got in on selling me stuff. The Guide spent so much time taking me through the shops that I only had 30-minutes at the Museum. This was barely enough time to get to the Tut Exhibit. The Guide made no mention of the Bazaar. The camel ride at the Pyramids was supposed to be the experience of a lifetime. It was priced as such. I made a point of asking The Guide about the price before starting. The Guide said it would be handled after the ride but that he would negotiate a "good price". As his company was recommended by Viator, I trusted him. Big mistake! After the 25-minute ride, The Guide negotiated $140 (USD) for the ride. I shudder to think what he negotiated it from. To add insult to injury, the camel handler demanded a tip as did his manager whom came out of no where. As we departed, I saw the manager hand The Guide a few bills. At the end of the "tour", The Guide asked for his tip as we dropped him somewhere Downtown. Luckily, he settled for a price that was more than I paid Viator ($128). What exactly did I pay for? I certainly didn't sign up for a sham shopping trip and an unscrupulous tour guide. Epic Fail!!!
This tour was excellent and very much as advertised. It lasted about 6 hours and we saw all the sites including the Solar Boat and Lunch add ons which were worth it. Our guide, Fowsi (or Bowsi?) was also our guide the next day for the Egytian Museum, Mosque and Khan el-Khalili tour - see my review for that tour as well. The guide was very well educated, nice and accomodating, though at times he did push things we weren't interested in. He took us to a carpet making factory which was nice because we saw how they made them and most importantly, nobody was trying to push us to buy something. Then however he took us to a Egyptian cotton store which was nothing more than a typical boutique with a guy following us around trying to sell us stuff. We then went to a perfume making store which was a cross between the carpet factory and the Egyptian cotton store though admittedly, we did buy a bottle of perfurm. Like most reviews you'll reed, these extra visits seem more like a sales opportunity for the locals than an educational value add. I'd recommend Viator work with there guides on being less aggresive in taking visitors to these places unless they're interested in going. As we were driving past the Sphinx after the pyramids, he pointed them out but was going to drive right past them until we told him we of course wanted to stop. Are you kidding, go to Egypt and not stop for the Sphinx??? Again, he was very educated, nice and acommodating though. I'd rate the guide an 8 of 10 - which notably is a slightly better score than our opinion of him the next day.
I had this tour booked for myself only. We started at the pyramids and the Sphinx. I felt a little rushed at first, but I insisted that I have more time seeing as I was the only one on the tour. We then took a "side trip" to a perfumed oil sales shop and a papyrus place. I don't remember seeing either of those stops on the tour list. I declined to buy anything from either place. I also skipped out on the Khan el Khalili Bazaar part of it because I wasn't in the mood for more shopping. Glad I did because the place is a dump. The Egyptian museum was cool, but the guids "tour explanations" were shallow at best and she basically left me alone to wander the place. After you've seen King Tut's things you've seen it all really. Statue after statue, mummy after mummy, broken pottery..etc. The plus side was having the tour to myself and being picked up at my hotel without having to navigate public transportation. The minus was feeling rushed and the side trips - I'm sure the guids would have got a cut off the proceeds.
We had a very bad experience. We had to try three telephone calls in Egypt to contact the tour provider, and they never called me back to confirm by booking. On the third attempt of telephoning to discuss my tour someone said ok we will collect you, as if it was far too much trouble! When the trip started we were told we would have 15 minutes at 2 pyramids and 15 minutes at the Sphinx. 15 minutes to view and tour these sites is just not enough, the queues waiting and walking around the pyramids were naturally busy and long, so by the time we had walked to the sites it was time to return to our tour guide. Our guide did not walk with us to the sites, she remained in a minibus, so we could not ask questions or get info about what we were viewing and touring. When it was time to visit a carpet, perfume and papyrus shop we were given hours to view. We were not interested in such lengthy times viewing shops, we wanted more time at the pyramids. We told our driver and our tour guide the pyramids was our main reason for visiting Cairo and we would like to have extra time at these sites, we did not want to spend hours in the carpet college and papyrus shop, nevertheless we spent wasted hours in them. This trip was very disappointing, we had no control to change the venue schedule once it had started with our tour adviser, she had her own schedule agenda and we had no choice but to spend the entire of our paid trip conducting the tour as she wanted it. We are very disappointed with the Viator trip, I will not be using the service again. Don't waste your money
