Having always travelled on our own before, I didn't know what to expect booking a tour. We added air from Portland Oregon - nonstop to Frankfurt then to Cairo. Upon arriving at the desk to check in, we found a sign that our flight was cancelled, they simply moved us to the next day due to lack of passengers. We spent the next 24 hours playing catchup and rerouting via United, which we are extremely greatful to. We managed to arrive in Cairo 4 hours later then our orginal flight - we missed our arrival person, but managed to get word we were in late and they sent a rep. that helped us to our hotel, but had no other information about the next mornings flights. We were on our own. We found our rep the next morning after quite a bit of confusion, which I cant really blame Gate 1 for. Once we found our group in Aswan, found out it was a group of 11, plus 4 from an outside group that joined us, Perfect size. Everything clicked away like clockwork once we joined the group. Caught our opt. flight to Abu Simbel, back to Aswan to the boat. The Boat was sufficient, King of Thebes. The diesel fumes and generator noise was particularly horrible in the back, which we were able to move after one nite. I really enjoyed the food, no complaints there from me! Having a guide expedited entrance to all the sites - although after the 1st few sites we became very bored with our guide. He would take us AROUND the major entrances and sites, make us sit and listen to information that was not really about that temple. I was really wanting to be on our own more than once. Everyone was dreading more talks by the end of the 4 days.
The Hotels used were fine, nothing extra fancy, but all the locations were perfect. Once we went to Cairo and hooked up with our Guide there, things moved at a very fast pace, I think they have way too much crammed into one day in Cairo - but we really enjoyed our Guide who was an Egyptologist - and much more efficient than our Nile Guide. For the price, I wouldn't hesitate to use Gate 1 again for Egypt. If anyone has specific questions, I would love to respond!