If you haven’t’ already downloaded a copy you can go to the dedicated page by clicking on the tab at the top of this site.

I should have the new updated version finished within the next 7 days which will include a whole section on our last Nile Cruise and Cairo trip that Barbara and I undertook in December of last year plus a whole lot of video clips that we filmed whilst we were there.

I’ll be sending out an email notification to everyone who’s downloaded previous editions of the Guide to let them know the new updated version is available.

If having read it you have any other suggestions as to why you think people should take a Nile Cruise I’d love to hear from you.

In the meantime here’s the link, just click on this title “Why Take A Nile Cruise?”.

If you would like more details please call either Barbara or myself on Freephone 0808 1089 100

It’s a thing of beauty and the graphics are just stunning.  I need it for the ability to create web content and to edit the masses of video footage that we obtained when we were took our last Nile Cruise and Cairo trip in November.  (Honestly…)

That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it!

We had a great time in both places of course but sitting here typing this out today as the snow falls outside the office and the UK comes to a grinding halt I can honestly say if I had to choose between the two destinations now I’d be back to Luxor like a shot.

I’m just hearing that Liverpool and Manchester Airports are closed and all flights have stopped and we were told last night that Liverpool had run out of grit which must have made travelling into work this morning a lot of fun!!

We’re located between Liverpool and Southport on the coast in a place called Formby and normally we get slightly different weather than Liverpool but the snow started about an hour ago and its already pretty white outside the office windows.

When we were travelling to Andorra on the 20th of December Manchester Airport was closing down as we checked in and we ended up eventually being coached down to Luton Airport and we finally arrived at our Andorran hotel 24 hours later than was planned.  During that time we were on three planes (that didnt’ take off) and two different coaches, sleeping when and where we could.  So I really feel for those passengers trying to get out of Liverpool and Manchester Airports today.

The funny thing is, looking back on the experience, we actually had a lot of fun whilst the chaos was going on and the holiday we enjoyed when we finally reached our destination was fabulous.  Perhaps one of the best family holidays we have ever had.  I suppose it’s all down to your approach to things.  The old “glass half full – glass half empty” approach to life.

Anyway today’s photo is of Barbara and her tasteful day-glow orange ski outfit standing on the snowy slopes of Arinsal, Andorra.  I know its’ not very “nile cruisey” but I just thought it matched the weather we are all experiencing today.

We all have our bad days when its’ hard to “enjoy life”.

We’ve had a day or two like that over the last two days when an admin problem, (not of our making) has led to us having to deal with some issues.

But I stumbled across a great video about an artist called Sean Pace and I loved his introduction to the video and his approach to life. It made me think and put the issues we have had into perspective.

Here’s what Sean says:

“If your not enjoying life you oughta quit ‘cos you won the “cosmic lottery”,  really.

You could have been a worm or a rock or a cockroach, anything, but your a human.

You can do a lot of things and you wanna take advantage of it ‘cos it’s soon over. You dont’ live very long”.

Isnt’ that great?  We have won the “cosmic lottery”.  That’s really true and a great way of approaching things.

If you’d like to see the whole video you can see it here.

Our cabin, 301, is at the front of the ship (the pointy bit) and is really lovely.

I am really hungry now and we are just getting ready for dinner and then hopefully axrelaxing drink in the bar.

Tomorrow we have an early start as we are off the The Valley Of The Kings and I’ll be videoing as much as I can.

Speak later.

Flight is pretty full but not completely and there are a few spare seats here and there. Barbara has slept most of the way up to know. Which is not a surprise as she falls asleep on the 2 minute journey to Tesco’s.

Using the iPhone Wordpress app. to write this which is really good and allows you to add photos, etc.

Speaking of which you will find a nice picture of Barbara’s breakfast. (one for all the airline goodies out there).

I’ll have to wait until we land before I can post this up, but it’s a good way to fill in time whist flying. Better stop now as I have a small bottle of red wine to finish. (What??? At 1057 in the morning?). Yep!!

I travelled to Majorca last week for 2 days and used my iPhone to access the web without realising the enormous costs I was racking up.  The default setting on my iPhone meant that I was accessing the local provider and as such I was using a facility that was costing me a fortune.

You can imagine my horror when I received the bill this morning for £444 instead of my usual monthly fee of £44.

I nearly had a heart attack.  However when I telephoned 02’s Customer Care Department I have to say I couldnt’ have found them more helpful.  The guy I spoke to was helpful, sympathetic and explained what had hapenned and how I could avoid the same probelm when next abroad, (which is next week when I travel to Egypt on business).

Not only that but he checked that this was not something I normally did and that it was a mistake on my behalf and then credited the £400 overspend back onto my account bringing it back to my normal monthly fee of £44.

What a star!! And what great Customer Care.

I highly recommend the iPhone and cant’ imagine life without it but I also highly recommend O2 as a service provider.  They couldn’t have been nicer and more helpful.

Here’s a short AudioBoo recorded earlier which was done just to ensure that the whole concept was working.  Over the next day or two I’m hoping to find a method to automatically add the AudioBoo to the Nile Cruise blog from a remote location.

The Viking Premiere is part of the same fleet as the excellent Royal Viking and we are told that the refurbishment is along the lines of the style of the Royal Viking.

We only have pictures of the newly styled cabins at the moment but as soon as we have the photographs of the rest of the ship we’ll post them here and on our Nile Cruise Ships page on the main Nile Cruises 4u website.

Here is the email we have just received:

Dear Barbara,

I wanted to thank you for all your help and advice in booking our recent 3 centre holiday to Egypt.

Having established the type of cruise, hotel and resort we liked you quickly made specific recommendations.  Your choice was spot on and surpassed our expectations.  the quality of accommodation and facilities on the Royal Viking definitely deserved it’s category of 5 Star Plus and your promise of a double cabin was kept.  The inclusive guided trips were well organised and led by very knowledgable guides.  The choice of the Sofitel Le Sphinx in Cairo was perfect with our balcony view of The Pyramids and the excellent roof top restaurant with a truly special ambience.

As if that was not enough our 4 nights at The Movenpick Resort and Spa in El Gouna was fantastic.  It was a beautiful resort with wonderful facilities.  We tried the range of restaurants and were delighted with them all.

We loved it so much that we did not want to leave and are hoping to visit there again in the near future!!

Thanks again,

Elizabeth and Brian

Elizabeth J Arthur
August 2009

When I first cruised the Nile I enjoyed the daily visits to the temples and archeological sites as well as the fascinating and often humorous explanations of our Egyptologist.  But what I enjoyed equally was the opportunity, when cruising, to just sit quietly and watch the life of the river go by.

Each afternoon, when we were sailing, I would draw up a comfortable chair next to the rails up on the sun deck and, cold drink in hand, watch people working, children playing, mothers washing clothes and all sorts of personal interaction along this most fascinating of rivers.  I also found the sounds of the Nile mixed with the regular sounds of the call to prayer would make you realise that you were in a unique and wonderful country.  So different to ours.

I also looked beyond the green of the immediate banks, past the low rise of buildings and watched the sands of the desert hills beyond.  Often, in quieter stretches of the river I would see wild camels grazing in the low hills adjacent to the banks.  I also saw extensive bird life.  I knew little about the birds of Egypt but when I next return I will take the Birds Of Egypt book that we sell in the Nile Cruise bookshop so that I can identify and find out more about this side of Egypt.

If you are due to cruise shortly I would highly recommend that you take a good pair of binoculars, a video and still camera  and some books about the bird and wildlife of Egypt.  You wont’ regret taking them but you will regret it if you dont’.

Cruising the Nile is a totally different experience than most you will have had before and I think you will enjoy those quiet times just watching Egypt as I did.

Over the next few weeks there are some great bargains to be found starting at prices in the early £400’s for 4 star cruises and there are great savings to be made on such luxurious ships as the Royal Viking in August for just £699 but later on in the season, (October and November) things are getting tighter with a lot of dates on some of the more popular ships getting booked up already.

We’re booking a lot of Nile Cruise and Stay holidays where people are combining either a few nights in Cairo and/or a further period in El Gouna.  (You can learn more about El Gouna from our sister website www.elgounaholidays4u.co.uk), but as seats are starting to get harder to obtain I’d recommend anyone thinking of booking either a Nile Cruise or a Nile Cruise and Stay to getting booking as soon as possible so that your not disappointed.

The pair of them were spotted from the window of the Nile Cruises 4u website laying down enjoying the rays of the sun.

At first we thought they might have snuffed it but on closer inspection we realised that they were just sunbathing.

Probably be pouring down tomorrow so they might as well make the best of it.

The article mentions that Kate was interviewed online by Sarah Hymas the poet.  If you visit Sarah’s excellent website you will be able to hear a reading by Kate Pullinger from her novel which is accompanied by a slideshow created by Sarah called “Night Views Over The Nile”.

Whilst watching you will be able to hear Kate’s reading and I think it might be a great book to take with you on your forthcoming Nile Cruise, or, if you havent’ booked already it might give you a real feel for Egypt and confirm your thought about taking a Nile Cruise this year.

Here’s a link to Kate Pullinger’s book, “The Mistress Of Nothing“.

Credit to  Sarah Hymas.

The type of things that you cant’ see with the naked eye but hopefully make the website perform a lot better both in terms of the user’s point of view and also in terms of everything working a little faster, all the links working correctly and lots of little tweaks to try and ensure that we look “ok” to the search engine spiders.

Search engine optimisation as its’ called is a pretty esoteric art that seems to fascinate some people and just turn others off competely.

Search engine optimisation means ensuring that lots of little on-page and off-page tweaks are correctly in place with regard to your website to ensure that the major search engines place you highly in their search results.

It’s something I am quite fascinated by so it’s suits me to be playing around with the various things that can make a difference.  Anybody else would be pretty bored I think…but…horses for courses!

As our business is pretty much conducted online, (our websites are our shop windows, Skype allows us to talk to anyone, anywhere for free, etc, etc), we could, in theory, run Nile Cruises 4u whilst travelling the world.

Sadly, I’m too chicken to take the plunge.  Plus our kids might wonder where we’ve gone!

But I watched a great video interview on Andrew Warners excellent Mixery website, (I highly recommend you take a visit), where he interviewed someone who’s done just that.  Hit the road and is successfully running their business whilst travelling.

Here’s a link to the interview I think you’ll find it very interesting.

Mixery.com

If you’re one of those people, then I’m happy to tell you that there’s now an audio feed for the Nile Cruises 4u Blog, courtesy of Odiogo.

So, you can either click on the “LISTEN NOW” button at the top of each post or you can subscribe to the audio feed by clicking on the “Odiogo” button in the right hand column of this page.

Or, you can visit this page to listen to the last 20 posts and to get a feed that works with Itunes, Zune, Juice and podcast enabled RSS readers. Or you could simply search for the post you want to keep and listen to it from the page itself.

I must tell you that the voice you’ll here is not me – instead, it’s a strange man, but he does a great job of reading the posts, most of the time. I hope you’ll enjoy being able to listen to us now and then.

In our Testimonial section you’ll be able to read how Barbara managed to book a Nile Cruise on the Da Vinci for Kevin and Petila Lewis who’s honeymoon to Mexico was cancelled at the last minute due to the Swinflu scare.

Barbara suggested that a Nile Cruise would make a great destination for a honeymoon, being a mysterious and romantic destination and Kevin and Petila have kindly written to us telling us what a great time they had.

If you are thinking of booking your honeymoon or know someone else who is  then you might consider a Nile Cruise and then a further week’s stay down on the Red Sea Riviera.

In the meantime please take a quick look at Kevin and Petila’s email testimonial.