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9 days · Classic Egypt
The standard Cairo and Nile cruise route with the day most itineraries cut: a second Cairo day at the end for the Royal Mummies, the Citadel and Coptic Cairo.
About this trip
The standard Cairo and Nile cruise route with the day most itineraries cut: a second Cairo day at the end for the Royal Mummies, the Citadel and Coptic Cairo.
This is a classic egypt route through Cairo · Luxor · Aswan, run privately unless you pick a group departure. Your guide is a licensed Egyptologist who lives on the route rather than flying in with the group.
Nothing here is fixed. Days can be added, dropped or reordered, and we will tell you honestly which optional sites are worth the extra ticket.
Your trip
Open any day for the full description. Every day can be changed before anything is booked.
Day 1Met at Cairo international airport by your tour leader, taken to the hotel and walked through the plan for the trip, including the pick-up time for each day. Nothing else is scheduled.
Day 2The Pyramids and the Sphinx in the morning, with a short camel ride included, then lunch at a local restaurant. The afternoon goes to the Grand Egyptian Museum and the Tutankhamun treasures. Back to the hotel afterwards.
Day 3Collected from the hotel and flown south to Luxor — that flight is in the price. Aboard the boat, then the east bank: Karnak and Luxor temples. Lunch, dinner and the night on board.
Day 4Breakfast on board, then the Valley of the Kings, the temple of Queen Hatshepsut and the Colossi of Memnon. Back aboard for lunch, dinner and the night. The boat does not move today.
Day 5Sail to Edfu for the temple of Horus, then on to Kom Ombo after lunch and the double temple shared by Sobek and Haroeris. Both sit close to the mooring, so there is no long transfer either side.
Day 6The boat sails to Aswan. Breakfast aboard, then the Unfinished Obelisk in its granite quarry and the Temple of Philae on its island, and back to the boat for lunch, dinner and your last night on the river.
Day 7Breakfast on board, then off the boat and out to Aswan airport for the flight to Cairo, which is included. Met at the other end and taken to your hotel. Abu Simbel is offered here as a paid optional excursion.
Day 8The day the shorter itineraries do not have. The National Museum of Egyptian Civilization and the Royal Mummies Hall, then the Citadel of Saladin and the alabaster mosque of Mohamed Ali. Lunch at a local restaurant, then Coptic Cairo — the Hanging Church and the Ben Ezra Synagogue.
Day 9Breakfast, then a transfer to Cairo International whenever your flight goes.
Want this written up for your dates — travel times, what each day asks of you and where you would sleep? Ask us for the full 9-day plan. We send it before you commit to anything.
Included
Not included
Good to know
A second full Cairo day at the end, on day 8. That is the Royal Mummies Hall at the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization, the Citadel of Saladin with the Mohamed Ali mosque, and Coptic Cairo with the Hanging Church and the Ben Ezra Synagogue. On the eight-day version that day does not exist and you fly home instead.
It is split, and the operator is clear about it. Both Cairo days are private tours with your own guide and driver. The sightseeing from the boat is shared with the rest of the cruise group. If you want the temples along the river to yourself as well, that is a different trip at a different price.
Yes. Cairo to Luxor on day 3 and Aswan back to Cairo on day 7 are both inside the price, along with every airport transfer. International flights into and out of Egypt are not.
The operator offers it as an optional tour on day 7, the morning you leave the boat, and it is not in the price. It means a very early start from Aswan rather than a whole spare day. Say so when you send your request, so the flight back to Cairo is not booked over it.
More than most people expect, though none of it is difficult. Giza, Karnak and the Valley of the Kings are long walks over uneven ground with very little shade, and a tomb usually means a ramp down and back up. There is no climbing or scrambling, which is why this is graded easy, but the Cairo day on day 8 is another several hours on your feet.
International flights, your Egypt visa, extra meals and drinks, optional tours including Abu Simbel, tipping, and additional entry tickets. That last one catches people out: going inside one of the pyramids, or into the tomb of Tutankhamun, is a separate ticket bought at the gate.
Tipping is excluded from the price and it is a real line in an Egypt budget rather than loose change. Reckon on US$10–15 per person per day for your guide and about US$5 for the driver, plus US$5–10 per person for each night on the boat, which goes into the communal crew box at the end. Carry small notes; getting change is a daily chore otherwise.
Entry rules, opening hours, security advice and exchange rates all move. Check them at the source, not here.
Before you travel
You are quoted by the local company that runs the trip. No booking fee and no surcharge at the airport.
Not a tour escort with a flag. Our partner uses guides who have spent twenty years on the same temples.
Some tickets are. Some are a queue in the heat. We will tell you which before you pay for them.
Your guide, your driver, your pace. Group departures are labelled clearly on the card and the page.
Our partner is in Egypt, in Egyptian hours, and you are put in touch with them directly rather than through a chain.
Every itinerary is a starting point. Add days, drop sites, reorder — nothing is fixed until you say so.
Plan this trip
A real itinerary with prices, usually within 24 hours. Nothing is booked and nothing is charged until you say yes.
from US$2,385 / per person
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