Unfortunately, what was supposed to be an exciting family vacation to Egypt turned into an…read moreextremely stressful and disappointing experience because of how poorly our trip was organized by Trip to Go.
We booked this trip **two years in advance**, and from the beginning, I tried to have my reservation connected with the rest of my family's reservations. I was initially told it was too close to the trip date, but when I called Trip to Go directly, I was assured they would link everything for me. They never did.
Then came my flight itinerary. I live in New Jersey, right next to Newark Airport, yet Trip to Go booked me from **LaGuardia to Toronto, Canada, to London, England, and finally to Cairo**. I was traveling alone through all of these airports. My flight itinerary was sent to me less than 30 days before my vacation, so I was unable to make any changes. I later found out there were direct flights from New York to Cairo, which made the itinerary even more frustrating and difficult to understand.
When I received my bus information in Egypt, I discovered that I had been assigned a different bus from the rest of my family. I contacted Trip to Go and asked to be moved to their bus. I was told they would take care of it once we arrived. They did not. Nothing was changed.
Because of this, a family vacation became a situation where I was essentially **traveling alone in Egypt with strangers**. I was alone on the flights, separated from my family on the buses, on a cruise ship without them, and staying in different areas of hotels and resorts. I did not spend the majority of the trip with the people I had planned and paid to take this vacation with.
There were also issues with the excursions. I was told I had signed up for excursions that I never purchased or requested.
The entire trip felt extremely disorganized. On multiple mornings, we had to be on the bus as early as **4:00 a.m.** because things that should have been handled beforehand were not completed on time. There was constant confusion and a lack of communication throughout the trip.
One positive part of the experience was our tour guide, **Sherif**. He was great, very knowledgeable, and did an excellent job sharing information about Egypt and its history.
Even coming home was stressful. I was questioned at multiple airports about why I was traveling on such an unusual route. I had to repeatedly explain that **Trip to Go booked my flights and I had no control over the itinerary**. The routing was so unusual that it created unnecessary questions and stress when traveling internationally.
I understand that travel can come with unexpected issues, but these were not isolated inconveniences. There were **multiple opportunities for Trip to Go to correct these problems before and during the trip, and they failed to do so**.
This was supposed to be a special family vacation that we had looked forward to for two years. Instead, I spent a significant portion of it alone and separated from my family because of poor organization and a lack of follow-through. That is incredibly disappointing, especially for a trip of this cost and significance.
I would strongly encourage Trip to Go to take a serious look at how these tours are being coordinated, because my experience was nowhere near what I expected when booking a once-in-a-lifetime family vacation.
