Do You Need a Private Egyptologist Guide in Egypt? What to Expect

If anyone is to guide you at Egypt's sites, it must be a licensed guide: Law 121 of 1983 reserves guiding for people licensed by the Ministry of Tourism and registered with the Tour Guides Syndicate. "Egyptologist" is the name tour operators give these licensed guides. On a private trip, the guide, the vehicle and the driver are for your group alone on land.

What "Egyptologist" means, and what the law licenses

The law speaks of tour guides, not Egyptologists. Law 121 of 1983 on tour guides and their syndicate was published in the Official Gazette on 25 August 1983 and has been amended since. Under it, guiding may be practised only by someone who holds a license from the Ministry of Tourism and is entered on the register of the Tour Guides Syndicate.

"Egyptologist" is the word tour operators use for their licensed guides. Intrepid tells travelers that their leader is "a trained Egyptologist", and Abercrombie & Kent writes of its Egyptologists and local experts. In practice, a "licensed Egyptologist guide" is a licensed tour guide described by the training behind the license. The useful questions are about that license, the training and the language, not the title. For the languages you will hear around you, see the language spoken in Egypt.

How a guide is licensed and trained

The path to a license runs through a university, the Ministry and the syndicate:

So the person explaining Karnak or the Valley of the Kings to you holds, by law, a university qualification and has either passed the Ministry's exam or graduated in tourist guidance.

Languages on the journeys

The journeys on this site include a guide who speaks English, Portuguese, German or Spanish. Some journey pages name the language outright: Egypt's Palace Hotels, 10 Days lists private sightseeing with a dedicated English-speaking Egyptologist. Name your language in your first message and check that it appears in the proposal.

Language matters most at the museums. The Grand Egyptian Museum's own guided tour runs in Arabic or English, and it is a group tour with other visitors, not a private one. With your own guide, the explanation is in your language and at your pace; the guide to the Grand Egyptian Museum covers that visit in detail.

What a private guide does on each kind of day

On land, the guide, the vehicle and the driver are for your group alone. What the guide actually handles changes with the day:

The tomb days ask the most of a guide's judgment. The royal tombs are entered by descending corridors and stairways cut deep into the hillside, and travel guides note that a guide can choose the more accessible tombs open that day. Which tombs are worth the extra tickets, and which separately ticketed visits exist at all, is set out in private and after-hours visits in Egypt.

How to judge a private guide

• The license. Licensed guides carry official ID, and travel guides advise asking to see it. The new smart license is checked electronically at site gates, though not every guide has received one yet.
• Booked ahead, not at the gate. Sources agree that guides are normally booked in advance; touts at site gates and in arrival areas are to be avoided.
• The language. Your guide should handle your questions in your language, not only recite a script. On the journeys that means English, Portuguese, German or Spanish.
• The logistics. A guide who knows the sites buys the right tickets in the right place: at the Valley of the Kings, every extra-tomb ticket at the Visitor Center before the tram.
• Your pace. The Great Pyramid's interior means rough steps, crouching to enter and a low, steep passage, and it is not advised for anyone with claustrophobia or limited mobility. A guide should say so before the ticket is bought and suggest what fits instead.
• Your interests. After the first day, a guide should know whether you care more about inscriptions, architecture or photographs, and shape the next site around that.

What to fix in writing before you travel

Every journey is quoted in a written proposal that names the route, the hotels and room types, what is included and what is not, and the terms; nothing is booked until it is confirmed in writing. For the guide, check five points in it:

1. The guide's language.
2. Whether one guide travels with you through the trip or a licensed guide meets you in each city.
3. Which sites are named. The journeys include entrance fees to the sites named in the itinerary, so a tomb with its own ticket, such as Tutankhamun's, or the Great Pyramid's interior should be named if it matters to you.
4. Which days are guided and which are free.
5. Tips, which are not included in any journey. A customary tip for a private guide is US$30 to 50 per full day; see tipping on a private trip.

On the ultra-luxury journeys, one coordinator also follows the trip from the first request to the departure, in addition to the guide at the sites. The journeys are booked with Egypt Today Travel, a Category A travel agency licensed by Egypt's Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities under license 1947; more is on the about page.