Terms & Conditions

1. Who You Are Contracting With

These Terms and Conditions govern every booking made with Discovery Tours Egypt, trading from 12 El Obour St., Saleh Salam, Cairo, Egypt. Our legal name is Discovery Tours. We hold ETAA Licence No. 718, Category A — the senior classification for Egyptian tourism companies, issued in February 1988 — and IATA accreditation No. 90255546. Both are checkable in public registers; see our licences page.

In these terms, "we", "us" and "our" mean Discovery Tours Egypt. "You" means the person who makes the booking and every traveler named on it, for whom the lead booker accepts responsibility. "Supplier" means a hotel, Nile cruise vessel, dahabiya, airline, railway or other independent business whose services form part of your vacation.

Confirming a booking, in writing or by paying a deposit, means you accept these terms on behalf of everyone travelling. Please read them before you pay rather than after.

2. Which Terms Apply to You

These terms cover direct bookings by travelers. If you are a travel agent, tour operator or corporate buyer contracting with us on behalf of others, Part B below applies to you in addition, and prevails where the two differ. Trade contracting is handled separately at dmcegypt.com.

3. Quotations

A written quotation holds for up to 7 days from issue. On peak dates and for scarce inventory — dahabiyas above all — a supplier may give us only 24 to 48 hours, in which case we tell you the deadline and the reason when we send the quotation. We do not quote for longer than 7 days because we do not control the underlying rates beyond that. A quotation is an invitation to book, not a reservation: nothing is held until a deposit is received.

4. Booking and Confirmation

A deposit of 25% of the total vacation cost confirms your booking. A 50% deposit applies to departures over peak dates — Christmas and New Year, Easter, Eid, and the days around the August 2027 solar eclipse in Luxor and Aswan — and where your itinerary includes domestic flights or sleeper-train berths, which cannot be refunded once ticketed. Occasionally a supplier holding scarce space requires payment on acceptance instead; that is their condition, we will say so plainly, and it will be told to you before you commit.

Your booking exists once we have received the deposit and sent you written confirmation. Check that confirmation carefully — names as they appear in passports, dates, room and cabin types — and tell us in writing within 48 hours if anything is wrong. Corrections after that point may attract supplier charges we cannot absorb.

5. Prices, Inclusions and Exclusions

Prices are quoted in U.S. dollars ($) and include Egyptian VAT where it applies. Your itinerary states precisely what is included. Unless it says otherwise, prices exclude international flights, visa fees, travel insurance, tipping, drinks not specified, optional excursions, personal expenses, and any activity described as an add-on.

Once your deposit is received the price is fixed, with one exception: most Egyptian cruise and hotel contracts reserve the right to pass on government increases to fuel, taxes and entrance fees. If such an increase reaches us we will tell you before applying anything, and show you the supplier's notice rather than simply issuing a higher invoice.

6. Payment

The balance falls due one calendar month before you arrive in Egypt, and we state the actual date on your confirmation. Book inside that window and the full amount is payable at the time of booking. If a balance passes its due date we will contact you before taking any step; if it remains unpaid we may treat the booking as canceled with the cancellation charges in section 9 applying.

We accept bank transfer and Visa or Mastercard. American Express is not accepted. Card payments carry a 3% fee charged by our payment provider, passed through at cost. Bank transfers carry no fee from us, but your sending bank's SWIFT charges are yours to cover, and a short-paid amount leaves a balance outstanding. Our provider can process US dollars, euros and pounds sterling; the amount is confirmed on the payment page before you authorise it.

7. Changes You Make

Send amendment requests in writing to info@discoverytoursegypt.com. We will accommodate what we can, subject to availability, and an amendment fee of $30 per change applies once the deposit is paid — plus any charge the supplier levies, which we will quote to you before proceeding. Changing dates, reducing party size or downgrading accommodation close to arrival may be treated as a cancellation and re-booking under section 9, and we will tell you when that is the case before anything is actioned.

8. Changes We Make

Egypt is an operational country and itineraries occasionally move. Minor changes — a different hotel of the same standard, a re-ordered sightseeing day, a vessel substituted for one of equivalent class — we make when we must, and tell you about. We reserve that right explicitly, including for safety, weather, river conditions and site closures.

Where a change is significant — a materially different standard of accommodation, a substantially altered itinerary, or a change in your arrival or departure day — we will tell you as soon as we know and offer you the choice of accepting it, taking an alternative we propose, or cancelling with a full refund of what you have paid us. That is our commitment whatever the cause.

If a Supplier Cancels or Cannot Deliver

Occasionally a supplier lets us down. A vessel is taken out of service for repair, a sailing is withdrawn, a hotel overbooks. It is uncommon, and when it happens it is our problem to solve rather than yours.

The supplier will usually propose a replacement, and we accept it only if it is genuinely of the same category or better. If what they offer falls short, or they offer nothing at all, we source the alternative ourselves from suppliers we already hold contracts with — which is the practical advantage of booking with the company that operates on the ground rather than one reselling from abroad. In either case we tell you what has changed and why, before you arrive to find out.

You will not pay more for a replacement of the same category. Where the only comparable option available is of a higher standard, the difference is ours to absorb rather than yours to fund. Where a replacement is genuinely of a lower standard — and we will say so plainly rather than call it "similar" — we refund the difference. If nothing comparable can be found at all, you choose between an alternative we propose and a full refund of that element of your vacation.

If it happens while you are already travelling, the same principle applies but faster: our office in that city handles the substitution directly, and you should hear it from us rather than from a reception desk.

9. Cancellation by You

Cancellations must reach us in writing by email. A cancellation takes effect when we acknowledge it in writing; if you have not heard from us within 24 hours, email again or message us on WhatsApp rather than assume it has landed. Where a request goes astray at our end and you can show when you first wrote, we will treat it as effective from that date.

Two Sets of Terms — Ours, and Our Partners'

The schedule above is ours, and it governs the parts of your vacation we run ourselves: our guiding, our vehicles, our transfers and our own touring days. Most itineraries also include something held for you by somebody else — a cabin on a Nile cruise, a berth on a dahabiya, a hotel room, a ticketed flight. Those elements carry the supplier's own cancellation conditions as well as ours.

Those conditions vary a good deal. A hotel room usually carries more flexibility than the rest of a vacation, though how much depends on the property and how busy your dates are; a small dahabiya with six or eight cabins may need the fare committed a long way ahead, simply because a late cancellation cannot be filled. Peak dates are firmer everywhere — over Christmas, New Year and Easter most operators charge in full from around six weeks out, which is why our own deposit rises to half for those departures.

If you need to cancel, tell us in writing by email and we will confirm it back to you the same working day. We are also happy to provide written confirmation of the cancellation and the charges applied, which is usually what an insurer will ask for when you claim.

10. Cancellation by Us

We cancel rarely, and there are only three reasons we would. The first is non-payment, covered in section 6. The second is force majeure, covered in section 12. The third is minimum numbers.

Where your vacation is private — as most of ours are — it runs whether you are two people or twelve, and we will never cancel it for want of numbers. Some arrangements do carry a minimum, because they cannot sensibly operate below it: shared day tours, scheduled group departures, certain excursions and some seat-in-coach transfers. Where a minimum applies to anything you have booked, we state it in your quotation and again on your confirmation, so it is a term you have seen rather than one you discover.

If we do have to cancel on that basis, we will tell you as early as we can, and in any event no later than 20 days before arrival for a vacation of more than six days, 7 days for one of two to six days, and 48 hours for anything shorter. You may then take an alternative we propose — at the same price if it is of comparable standard, or with the difference refunded if it is not — or a full refund of everything you have paid us. In either case we would rather find you a way to travel than hand your money back, and we will usually be able to.

11. Refunds

Refunds are paid by SWIFT bank transfer and we will need your bank details, including where you paid by card. Egyptian regulations require refunds to be processed in person at the bank against documentation, so a card payment cannot be reversed at this end. We send you a template; your completed form becomes the payment request we present to the bank. Outgoing SWIFT charges, your own bank's receiving fee, and the 3% card fee already taken by the payment provider are deducted, as none is recoverable by us.

12. Force Majeure

Neither party is liable for failure to perform where the cause is genuinely beyond reasonable control — war, civil unrest, terrorism, epidemic or pandemic, natural disaster, extreme weather, industrial action, or government restriction on travel. Where such an event prevents your vacation going ahead we will discuss the options honestly with you: postponement to alternative dates, a credit against a future booking, or a refund of monies we are able to recover from suppliers, less costs already irrecoverably incurred. We will show you what those costs are rather than assert them.

13. Passports, Visas and Entry

You are responsible for holding a passport valid for at least six months beyond your date of entry, obtaining the correct Egyptian visa, and meeting any health or documentation requirement in force when you travel. We will tell you what we know and help where we can, including arranging visa-on-arrival where that service applies, but we cannot be responsible for refused entry or for a document that does not meet requirements. Check the latest advice from the U.S. State Department at travel.state.gov before you travel.

14. Health, Fitness and Access

Egyptian archaeological sites involve uneven ground, steps without handrails, heat and long days on foot. Tell us at the time of booking about medical conditions, reduced mobility, dietary requirements or anything else that may affect your vacation, so we can plan realistically rather than improvise on the day. We will say honestly if part of an itinerary is unsuitable. Withholding relevant information may mean a service cannot be delivered safely, and no refund is due in that situation.

15. Travel Insurance

We strongly recommend that every traveler holds comprehensive travel insurance covering cancellation, curtailment, medical expenses, emergency repatriation and personal belongings, from the day you book rather than the day you fly. Standard U.S. health insurance generally does not cover international medical care, and an emergency evacuation can cost more than the trip.

16. Conduct

We ask that you respect Egyptian law, local custom and the antiquities protocols your guide explains. We may decline to carry, or remove from an itinerary, anyone whose behaviour endangers themselves or others, or seriously disrupts other travelers. In that event no refund is due and any cost of onward arrangements is yours. This is a clause we have effectively never needed and expect never to use.

17. Our Responsibility to You

We are responsible for arranging and delivering the services described in your confirmed itinerary with reasonable skill and care, and for selecting suppliers with reasonable care. Where something within our control goes wrong, we will put it right or compensate you fairly.

Except as stated in the paragraph below, our total liability arising from a booking is limited to the total amount you have paid us for it. We are not liable for indirect or consequential loss, nor for loss, damage or delay caused by an airline, hotel or other supplier acting independently of the arrangements we made, nor for events outside our reasonable control as described in section 12.

18. Flights and Financial Protection

We arrange the ground element of your vacation — guiding, transport, hotels, cruises and transfers. International flights are booked separately, either through our partner network or directly with the airline, and are not part of what we operate. We hold no U.S. seller-of-travel bond, and our ETAA licence is an Egyptian trading licence rather than a financial-protection scheme. What stands behind your booking is a contract with a licensed Egyptian company trading since 1988 at a verifiable registered address — and, we would stress again, your own travel insurance.

Part B — Terms for Travel Agents, Tour Operators and Corporate Buyers

This part applies where you contract with us in the course of a business — as a retail agent, a tour operator, an incentive house or a corporate travel buyer. It sits alongside Part A and prevails where the two conflict. Consumer-protection provisions written for individual travelers do not apply to a business booking.

19. Agency and Responsibility

Where you book on behalf of a client, you contract with us as principal unless we have agreed otherwise in writing. You are responsible for payment to us regardless of whether your own client has paid you. You warrant that you have authority to bind everyone named on the booking, that the passenger details you give us are accurate, and that you have passed these terms — and any supplier terms we provide — to your client before taking their money.

20. Trade Rates and Confidentiality

Net and trade rates are issued for your commercial use and are confidential. They may not be published, forwarded to another operator, or displayed to the public as net figures. Rates are valid for the contract period stated and for the specific dates quoted; a rate offered for one series does not carry to another. We reserve the right to withdraw trade rates where they are disclosed or used outside the agreed channel.

21. Groups, Series and Allocations

Group and series bookings are contracted individually and their payment, release and cancellation terms are set out in that contract, which prevails over the schedule in section 9. Rooming lists are due with the balance payment and must give full names exactly as they appear in passports, together with the flight schedule. Names supplied late, or corrected after ticketing or after a rooming list has gone to a vessel, may attract supplier charges that we will pass on at cost.

22. Marketing and Content

We are glad for partners to use our itinerary descriptions and imagery to sell our product, provided the pricing and inclusions are represented accurately. Please do not present our services as your own operation to a degree that misleads the traveler about who is running them on the ground, and please do not alter our safety or protocol wording.

23. If Something Goes Wrong

Tell your guide or our local office at the time, while we still have the chance to fix it — that is the single most useful thing you can do, and most problems are solved the same day. Our operations desk is reachable on +20 10 9021 5031, and a duty officer is on call around the clock. If a matter is not resolved on the ground, write to us at info@discoverytoursegypt.com within 28 days of returning home, with your booking reference and any photographs or receipts. We aim to acknowledge within 5 business days and to answer substantively within 28 days.

24. Your Personal Information

We handle your personal information as described in our privacy policy, and share with suppliers only what they need in order to deliver your vacation — typically names, dates and any requirement relevant to your safety or comfort.

25. Changes to These Terms

We may update these terms from time to time. The version that applies to your booking is the one published when you confirmed it, and we will send you a copy on request.

26. Governing Law

These terms are governed by the laws of the Arab Republic of Egypt, and disputes that cannot be settled by agreement fall to the Egyptian courts. This does not affect any right you have under the law of your own country of residence that cannot be excluded by agreement.