Cairo, White Desert, Fayoum & Luxor, 8 Days

Arrival in Cairo in the early afternoon and private transfer to a local restaurant for lunch.

Afterwards, visit 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, it 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. Transfer to your hotel.

Meals: lunch at a local restaurant · 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 National Museum of Egyptian Civilization (NMEC), whose collections trace the development of Egyptian civilisation and include the famous Royal Mummies Hall.

After lunch, visit the Sultan Hassan and Al-Rifai mosques, two monumental neighbours built centuries apart, which offer a fascinating comparison of Islamic architecture in scale, form and design.

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

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

At 5 a.m. your guide and driver collect you from your hotel in Cairo or Giza for the drive to Bahariya Oasis, about 350 km south-west of Cairo (around four hours). On arrival you switch to a 4×4 to cross the desert.

After lunch, visit Gebel el-Marsous, one of the best-known peaks of the Black Desert — a volcanic hill strewn with dark stones — and the Bedouin village with its cold sulphur spring.

Along the way there is time for sandboarding on the high dunes.

Continue to the White Desert National Park, Egypt’s best-known desert landscape, where wind-carved chalk formations rise like giant mushrooms, animals and pebbles. Overnight in tents at the Al Haiz camp — or, on request, in Bedouin tents under the open sky, to watch the stars, the planets and the Milky Way far from city lights.

Meals: packed breakfast · picnic lunch · dinner at the camp.

Breakfast at the camp at sunrise. While the Bedouin crew prepares the vehicles and strikes the tents, take a walk through the White Desert among limestone rocks sculpted by wind and sand into the shapes of people, plants and animals.

The 4×4s then take you to Crystal Mountain in the Agabat valley, a ridge made of quartz crystals, before a private transfer to Fayoum Oasis.

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

First stop, Wadi El Rayan: a protected area known for its two lakes joined by waterfalls, vast sand dunes and natural sulphur springs, home to rare wildlife such as the slender-horned gazelle and a favourite spot for sandboarding and swimming.

Second stop, Wadi El Hitan — the Valley of the Whales — a UNESCO World Heritage Site where fossil skeletons around 40 million years old show how whales evolved from land animals into ocean mammals, set in a unique desert landscape.

Lunch with local people in a traditional Bedouin camp, with a freshly grilled barbecue.

In the afternoon, the Magic Lake of Wadi El Rayan, famous for changing colour with the light, framed by golden dunes.

Private transfer back to Cairo (about 90 km, two hours). Overnight in Cairo.

Meals: breakfast at the hotel · lunch in a Bedouin camp · dinner at the hotel.

A very early check-out and private transfer to Cairo airport for the flight to Luxor. On arrival, transfer to your hotel to leave your luggage.

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.

Overnight in Luxor.

Meals: packed breakfast · lunch at the hotel · dinner at the hotel.

An early breakfast and check-out.

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: breakfast at the hotel · picnic lunch.