By type of trip
Nile Cruises Luxor to Aswan: Routes, Boats and Prices
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Nile Cruise and Red Sea Holidays: Two-Week Egypt Trips
White Desert Tours from Cairo: Oases and Desert Camping
Short Breaks in Egypt: Three and Four Day Cairo Trips
Tailor-made Egypt Tours: Private Trips Built Around You
13 days · Nile & Red Sea
Thirteen days that give the ancient sites a week and then stop moving: Cairo, a flight to Aswan, three nights sailing down to Luxor, and three nights on the Red Sea at Hurghada before flying back for a last day in Cairo.
About this trip
Thirteen days that give the ancient sites a week and then stop moving: Cairo, a flight to Aswan, three nights sailing down to Luxor, and three nights on the Red Sea at Hurghada before flying back for a last day in Cairo.
This is a nile & red sea route through Cairo · Aswan · Luxor · Hurghada, 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 1Your tour leader meets you at Cairo International, takes you to the hotel, sees you through check-in and goes through the itinerary to fix pick-up times 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 is the Grand Egyptian Museum and the Tutankhamun collection; it has its own shops and bazaars if you want them.
Day 3The Egyptian Museum first, lunch in Cairo, then the Saladin Citadel with the Mohamed Ali alabaster mosque inside it. Coptic Cairo after that: the Hanging Church and the Ben Ezra Synagogue.
Day 4Collected from your Cairo hotel and taken to the airport for the flight south, which is included. Met at Aswan and driven straight to the granite quarries and the Temple of Philae, with lunch at a local restaurant. Overnight in an Aswan hotel.
Day 5Picked up after breakfast and transferred to the boat. Lunch, dinner and the night on board. Abu Simbel is offered today as an optional tour at your own cost.
Day 6Sail to Kom Ombo and visit the temple shared between Sobek and Haeroris. Sail on to Edfu, lunch aboard, then the Temple of Horus. Dinner and the night on board.
Day 7Sail to Luxor, breakfast 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 last night on the river.
Day 8Breakfast aboard, then disembarkation and the East Bank: Karnak and Luxor temples. After that the transfer from Luxor to Hurghada and your hotel on the coast, with dinner there. A hot air balloon over the West Bank is offered as an optional tour.
Day 9Nothing is scheduled. The beach, or one of the optional excursions sold locally at your own cost. Breakfast, lunch and dinner at the hotel.
Day 10A second day with no touring in it. Same arrangement: the beach or an optional excursion, and all three meals at the hotel.
Day 11Breakfast and a morning to yourself, then the transfer to Hurghada airport. The flight back to Cairo is included; you are met on arrival and taken to your hotel.
Day 12The National Museum of Egyptian Civilisation, including the mummies hall, then lunch at a local restaurant and the Khan el-Khalili bazaar. Back to the hotel for the last night.
Day 13Breakfast, then the transfer to Cairo International for your flight home.
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 13-day plan. We send it before you commit to anything.
Included
Not included
Good to know
Split. The Cairo touring is private, with your own guide and vehicle. The sightseeing during the cruise is not: Kom Ombo, Edfu and the West Bank are run as excursions for the whole boat, so you see them with the rest of the cruise group. That is worth knowing before you board rather than after.
Yes, both of them. Cairo to Aswan on day four and Hurghada to Cairo on day eleven are in the price. International flights into and out of Egypt are not, and neither is the entry visa.
Three nights on the boat, days five to seven, boarding at Aswan and leaving at Luxor on the morning of day eight. The other nine are hotels: five in Cairo, one in Aswan and three in Hurghada. The hotel and the boat both change with the plan you pick, which is most of what separates the three prices.
A fair amount, and in heat. Giza, the West Bank and Karnak are each a few hours on uneven ground with little shade. None of it is technical and the vehicle is never far away. The three Hurghada days carry no touring at all, which is where most people catch up.
The operator describes it as soft all-inclusive with breakfast, lunch and dinner. Exactly which drinks that covers varies by hotel, so confirm it when you book instead of assuming an open bar. Meals away from the hotel and any excursion you book on the coast are your own cost.
International flights, the Egypt entry visa, extra meals and drinks, optional tours such as Abu Simbel on day five or the Luxor balloon on day eight, tipping, and additional entry tickets at the sites. Going inside one of the Pyramids or into Tutankhamun's tomb is charged separately at the gate.
Tipping is excluded from the price and is expected. Budget roughly US$10 to 15 per person per day for your guide, about US$5 a day for the driver, and US$5 to 10 per person per night into the communal crew box on the cruise. Draw that cash before you board, because the river is the one place you cannot solve a cash shortage.
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$2,945 / per person
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5 days · Short break
Five days in Cairo and nowhere else: Giza, the Grand Egyptian Museum, the Egyptian Museum, the Citadel, Coptic Cairo and Khan el-Khalili. Four nights in one hotel, and every sightseeing day run privately.
from US$935 / per person
4 days · Nile cruise
Three nights sailing north from Aswan to Luxor, taking in Philae, Kom Ombo, Edfu, the Valley of the Kings and finally Karnak. Full board on board, and the sightseeing runs as a shared group of about fifteen.
from US$840 / per person
5 days · Nile cruise
Four nights sailing south from Luxor to Aswan: Karnak and Luxor temples on the first afternoon, the Valley of the Kings, Edfu, Kom Ombo and Philae. Full board throughout, with sightseeing in a shared group of about fifteen.
from US$1,095 / per person
5 days · Short break
Giza and the Grand Egyptian Museum, then a flight south for one night in Luxor covering both banks, and a flight back. Five days, two cities, both domestic flights in the price and every day guided privately.
from US$1,480 / per person
13 days · Nile & Red Sea
from US$2,945 · per person
