Places: Egypt

Where do I start? The trip was fantastic. Every guide was superb and all of your representatives did an outstanding job. I sing your praises to anyone who will listen. Hassan is the best guide I have ever had in my life. Forty-eight pharaohs’ tombs have been found in the Valley of the Kings and there are four left to find. Hassan knows all their names, how many illegitimate children they had and each one’s family tree. Thanks again for putting together such an extraordinary trip.

It was perfect. I adored it. The party came together by happy accident: no master-plan. A collaboration and conversation based on past trips with cazenove+loyd. But the trip taken by boat along the Ayeyarwady in Myanmar was probably the inspiration for celebrating a birthday on a river.

Although many of the ancient sites were well-known ‘Wonders of the World’, for me, the unexpected Chamber of the Queens really stood out, with wall paintings that skipped off the walls as if they had just been completed.

And the ‘Wonders’ themselves didn’t disappoint. Outside Cairo, there was the Sphinx, glimpsed in the minimal evening light, and Abu Simbel, with its astonishing monuments and the astonishing feat of moving them — colossal statues of Ramesses and all. How did they do it? The boat was another wonder: all it lacked was Hercule Poirot.

Small group trips offer a totally unique experience, insider access and one-off experiences that simply wouldn’t be available for individual travel. We are treated to private visits to the most extraordinary places and fall upon picnics that seem to magically appear in the most striking settings. At every turn, there is laughter, always meeting like-minded travellers who are also there to explore and discover the world.