By type of trip
Nile Cruises Luxor to Aswan: Routes, Boats and Prices
Classic Egypt Tours: Cairo, Luxor and Aswan Itineraries
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
14 days · Desert & oases
Fourteen days that add the Western Desert to the usual route: Cairo, two days of Luxor on land, four nights sailing to Aswan, then a drive west to Bahariya and a night out among the white chalk formations.
About this trip
Fourteen days that add the Western Desert to the usual route: Cairo, two days of Luxor on land, four nights sailing to Aswan, then a drive west to Bahariya and a night out among the white chalk formations.
This is a desert & oases route through Cairo · Luxor · Aswan · White Desert, 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.
Day 2The Pyramids and the Sphinx, with a short camel ride included, then lunch at a local restaurant. The afternoon is the Grand Egyptian Museum and the Tutankhamun collection.
Day 3The Egyptian Museum, lunch in Cairo, then the Saladin Citadel with the Mohamed Ali alabaster mosque inside it, and Coptic Cairo for the Hanging Church and the Ben Ezra Synagogue.
Day 4Transfer to Cairo airport for the flight to Luxor, which is included. Met on arrival and taken straight to the Valley of the Queens, Medinet Habu and the Ramesseum, with lunch at a local restaurant. Overnight at a Luxor hotel.
Day 5A full day out to the two temples most Nile itineraries never reach, with lunch at a local restaurant between them. Back to the same Luxor hotel for the night.
Day 6Collected after breakfast and taken aboard, then the East Bank: Karnak and Luxor temples. Lunch, dinner and the night on board. A hot air balloon is offered as an optional tour.
Day 7Breakfast on board, then the Valley of the Kings, the temple of Queen Hatshepsut and the Colossi of Memnon. Lunch, dinner and the night on board.
Day 8Sail to Edfu for the Temple of Horus, then on to Kom Ombo, lunch aboard, and the temple shared between Sobek and Haeroris. Dinner and the night on board.
Day 9Sail to Aswan, breakfast on board, then the granite quarries and the Temple of Philae before returning to the boat. Lunch, dinner and the last night on the river.
Day 10Breakfast aboard, then disembarkation and the transfer to Aswan airport for the included flight to Cairo. Met at the airport and taken to your hotel. Abu Simbel is offered today as an optional tour.
Day 11The National Museum of Egyptian Civilisation, including the mummies hall, lunch at a local restaurant, then the Khan el-Khalili bazaar.
Day 12An early start and a drive of about four hours to Bahariya, with lunch on arrival. Then the Black Desert, the hot spring at El Haize, Crystal Mountain and the Valley of Agabat, ending among the white rock formations. You camp in the White Desert, or stay at a hotel in Farafra if the camp is unavailable.
Day 13The Golden Mummies showroom at Bahariya, two 26th Dynasty nobles' tombs including the Tomb of Bannantiu, and a climb up the Black Mountain. Lunch in Bahariya, then the drive back to Cairo for the last night.
Day 14Breakfast, 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 14-day plan. We send it before you commit to anything.
Included
Not included
Good to know
The Cairo touring, and part of the Luxor touring, are private tours with your own guide and vehicle. The sightseeing during the four cruise nights is not: those excursions run for the whole boat, so Karnak, the West Bank, Edfu, Kom Ombo and Philae are visited with the rest of the cruise group.
Yes, two of them: Cairo to Luxor on day four and Aswan to Cairo on day ten. International flights and the Egypt entry visa are not included. Worth noting that the operator's inclusions list prints those two sectors in the wrong order; their own day-by-day plan has it right, and the route above is what actually flies.
It is a camp, not a hotel. The operator's own wording is that you camp in the White Desert or stay at a hotel in Farafra depending on availability, so treat the camp as the plan and the Farafra hotel as the fallback. All three plans list the same desert camp; the tier you pick changes the Cairo hotel, the Luxor hotel and the boat, not this night.
More than on a straight Nile itinerary. The West Bank, Karnak, Dendera and Abydos are each a few hours on uneven ground in heat, and the desert days add a climb up the Black Mountain and walking on sand. Nothing is technical, but the fortnight is fuller than the shorter routes and two long road days sit at the end of it.
About four hours each way from Cairo, on day twelve out and day thirteen back. That is the trade for seeing the Western Desert: two of your fourteen days are largely spent in a vehicle. If sitting in a car all morning would spoil the end of the trip, this is not the itinerary to book.
International flights, the Egypt entry visa, extra meals and drinks, optional tours such as the Luxor balloon on day six and Abu Simbel on day ten, tipping, and additional entry tickets at the sites. Going inside one of the Pyramids or into Tutankhamun's tomb is paid 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 the cash before you board, and again before the desert leg.
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$3,815 / 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
14 days · Desert & oases
from US$3,815 · per person
