Seems you enjoyed your trip, Rosanna!

That is what counts - to have a choice. To be able to decide between an organized tour or an individual trip according to one's your own schedule and pace.

As long as one gets what s/he had expected and paid for, it does not matter much which one of the two options one chooses.

Since I was sent to a summer-camp on BORKUM as a 10-year old - together with a bunch of other kids from the DEUTSCHE BANK, my father was working for - I never travelled in a group or with folks I did not know and like!

I visited the (selfmade!) website of the tour-operator you travelled with to Egypt, Rosanna. "Small groups" consist of 16 people. The price for a single person's 7-day trip cost the unbelievable amount of 5000 Dollars (free camel ride at Giza and drinking water).

I can only guess, but I believe we haven't paid more than half of this amount. For two, incl. tickets for a 6-weeks trip. Cheap Hotels along the way - any night another one - and food "ala locals", cheap and good, most of the time.

The only costly parts have been the entrance tickets to the graves and museums early one, before we figured a small Bakschisch would open the doors as well (15-30$ for a single grave is a hefty price - and there are many) and a 35-day car rental at ca. 900$. Gasoline was as cheap as the cheap guesthouses for local travellers along the way. Not sure you had liked to stay without AC, room-service, TV, but the shower in the hallway (more often than not). - were without any (totally unnecessary) luxury. Still - any single one of them worth a memory, thanks to their discreet plebeian charme and the friendly owners. All of it Egyptian to the bone! For no price worth an exchange to a 4-5 star. Possibly a style not designed for you. Don't get me wrong - nothing bad about (real) luxury, depending on time and place. A decadent ride on the Nile "Agathe- Christie-style" - private luxury cabin, butler, a bottle of Roederer under Egyptian stars and other enjoyments in the company of an interesting companion is nothing I would reject. Camel-ride and lion-petting does not fall into the same category.

Without public inside the pyramids and the Sphinx is certainly something to envy. I did not even know one could visit the inside of the "big lion" - certainly a highlight, I guess. Were you allowed photos?

Have you been to Abu Simbel?

PS
Excuse the "mean spirited" pics - just kidding you!