Cairo & Nile Cruise with Abu Simbel, 8 Days

Arrival in Cairo, welcome at the airport and private transfer to your hotel.

Meals: picnic lunch · dinner at leisure.

After breakfast, a short drive takes you to the Giza Plateau and the great pyramids of Khufu (Cheops), Khafre (Chephren) and Menkaure (Mycerinus), built around 2500 BC. Continue to the Great Sphinx, the lion-bodied guardian whose face is traditionally attributed to Pharaoh Khafre.

In the afternoon, travel south in your private vehicle, through palm groves and irrigation canals, to Saqqara. Here the Step Pyramid of Djoser rises from the sand in six tiers — the oldest monumental stone building on Earth and the first pyramid ever built. Visit the Pyramid of Unas, the first to be inscribed with hieroglyphic texts beneath its star-painted ceiling, and the mastabas of high court officials, whose reliefs of daily life in ancient Egypt still keep their original colours. Overnight in Cairo.

Meals: breakfast at the hotel · picnic lunch · dinner at leisure.

Morning at the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM), the monumental new museum facing the Giza pyramids behind a striking façade of glass and alabaster. Beyond its countless statues and works of art, the museum presents the complete funerary treasure of Tutankhamun — more than 5,000 objects displayed together for the first time, including the celebrated golden mask of the young pharaoh.

In the afternoon, continue to Islamic Cairo to visit Al-Azhar Mosque and the famous Khan el-Khalili bazaar, whose alleys are lined with workshops and stalls selling cotton, copper, perfumes, leather, silver, gold and antiques.

Overnight in Cairo.

Meals: breakfast at the hotel · picnic lunch · dinner at leisure.

A very early check-out and flight from Cairo to Aswan; transfer to your Nile cruise ship.

Visit Aswan’s High Dam, the 1960s masterpiece of modern engineering that transformed the region, and the Temple of Philae, dedicated to the goddess Isis and set on an island reached by small boat.

Back on board for lunch. In the afternoon, sail on a felucca, the traditional Egyptian sailing boat, and enjoy the scenery of Upper Egypt at sunset. Dinner and overnight on board.

Meals: packed breakfast · lunch on board · dinner on board.

An early start (around 4–5 a.m.) for Abu Simbel, about 280 km from Aswan, to see the colossal rock-cut temples of Ramses II and Queen Nefertari, rescued from the rising waters of Lake Nasser.

After the visit, return to Aswan and the ship for lunch on board. Dinner and overnight on board.

Meals: packed breakfast · picnic lunch · dinner on board.

Sailing north, visit the Temple of Kom Ombo, built in the Ptolemaic period and dedicated to two gods, the crocodile god Sobek and the falcon god Haroeris. Lunch on board as the ship sails on to Edfu and its Temple of Horus, the falcon god of protection and lord of the sky — the most complete temple to survive from ancient Egypt. Back on board, continue towards Luxor.

In the evening, a traditional Egyptian dinner and a whirling dervish show, with the chance to wear a galabeya, the local tunic. Overnight on board.

Meals: breakfast on board · lunch on board · dinner on board.

An early wake-up and breakfast on board your Nile cruise ship.

Cross to the west bank of the Nile and the royal necropolis of ancient Thebes, the Valley of the Kings, where the pharaohs of the New Kingdom were buried and the painted tombs reveal the wonders of Egyptian art. Continue to the mortuary temple of Queen Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahari, and stop at the Colossi of Memnon, two giant statues of Pharaoh Amenhotep III.

Dinner and overnight on board.

Meals: packed breakfast · lunch on board · dinner on board.

An early breakfast and disembarkation with your luggage.

On the east bank of the Nile, visit the vast temple complex of Karnak, dedicated to the sun god Amun-Ra, whose scale reveals the grandeur of ancient architecture, then Luxor Temple, built in the 18th dynasty and dedicated to the Theban triad of Amun, Mut and Khonsu.

Transfer to Luxor airport for your onward flight.

Meals: packed breakfast · picnic lunch.