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
16 days · Classic Egypt
Sixteen days and very little left out: Cairo, a flight to Aswan, three nights sailing down to Luxor, two more days of Luxor on land, three nights on the Red Sea, then back to Cairo for Saqqara and Dahshur.
About this trip
Sixteen days and very little left out: Cairo, a flight to Aswan, three nights sailing down to Luxor, two more days of Luxor on land, three nights on the Red Sea, then back to Cairo for Saqqara and Dahshur.
This is a classic egypt 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.
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 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 at an Aswan hotel.
Day 5Collected after breakfast and taken to the boat. Lunch, dinner and the night on board. Abu Simbel is offered today as an optional tour.
Day 6Sail to Kom Ombo for the temple shared between Sobek and Haeroris, then on to Edfu, lunch aboard, and 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. Lunch, dinner and the last night on the river.
Day 8Breakfast aboard, disembarkation, then the East Bank: Karnak and Luxor temples. Afterwards to a Luxor hotel for the night. A hot air balloon over the West Bank is offered as an optional tour.
Day 9A full day out to the two temples most Nile itineraries never reach, with lunch at a local restaurant. Back to the same Luxor hotel for the night.
Day 10The Valley of the Queens, Medinet Habu and the Ramesseum in the morning, with lunch at a local restaurant. Then the transfer from Luxor to Hurghada and your hotel on the coast, with dinner there.
Day 11Nothing is scheduled. The beach, or one of the optional excursions sold locally at your own cost. Breakfast, lunch and dinner at the hotel.
Day 12A second day with no touring in it, on the same arrangement: the beach or an optional excursion, and all three meals at the hotel.
Day 13Breakfast 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 14The Step Pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara, then the Red Pyramid and the Bent Pyramid at Dahshur. The day is spent in the rural area around Dahshur, with lunch at a local family's home.
Day 15The National Museum of Egyptian Civilisation, including the mummies hall, lunch at a local restaurant, then the Khan el-Khalili bazaar. Back to the hotel for the last night.
Day 16Breakfast, 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 16-day plan. We send it before you commit to anything.
Included
Not included
Good to know
The Cairo touring is private, with your own guide and vehicle. The sightseeing during the three cruise nights 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. Luxor on days eight to ten is back on land.
Yes, both: Cairo to Aswan on day four and Hurghada to Cairo on day thirteen. International flights into and out of Egypt are not included, and neither is the entry visa.
Because Luxor gets two more nights on land afterwards. The boat covers Kom Ombo, Edfu and the West Bank; the Luxor hotel then gives you Karnak, Dendera, Abydos, the Valley of the Queens, Medinet Habu and the Ramesseum at a pace no three night cruise fits in. It is a deliberate trade, and a sensible one.
A lot in the first ten days, then none. Giza, the West Bank, Karnak, Dendera, Abydos and Dahshur are each a few hours on uneven ground in heat. Nothing is technical and the vehicle is never far away. The three Hurghada days carry no touring at all, and they land at exactly the point where most people need them.
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 rather than assuming an open bar. Meals away from the hotel and any excursion booked 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 the cash before you board — the river is the one place you cannot fix a 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$3,910 / per person
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16 days · Classic Egypt
from US$3,910 · per person
