Cairo, the Western Oases & 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.

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.

Visit the museum of the golden mummies and the underground Ptolemaic tombs of Zed-Amun-ef-ankh and his son Bannentiu, near the centre of the oasis, whose images of gods and hieroglyphs keep remarkably vivid colours, then the little-known temple of Ain el-Muftella, built in the 26th dynasty and enlarged in Greek and Roman times. Lunch in the oasis.

Heading south, cross the Bahariya depression and the Black Desert, named after its dark stones and conical hills, with a stop at Crystal Mountain, a hill made entirely of quartz crystals. Climbing onto the plateau, reach the escarpment above the Farafra depression and enter the legendary White Desert. Overnight in a fixed tented camp.

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

A full day in the White Desert. For miles the track winds across golden sand among dazzling white limestone formations — pinnacles, towers and mushrooms eroded by water and wind into ever-changing, theatrical shapes that create landscapes of rare beauty.

The entrance to the Agabat valley — “the valley of obstacles”, where dunes weave between towering white rocks — is unforgettable; the White Desert surprises even seasoned Saharan travellers. Walks, springs shaded by tall trees and plenty of time for photographs. Overnight in a fixed tented camp.

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

After breakfast, continue to Dakhla Oasis.

First visit Al-Qasr, the old medieval Islamic town and a small jewel of desert architecture: a fortified citadel of lanes, alleys and mud-brick houses, partly buried by sand, with a mud-brick mosque and a well-preserved 21-metre minaret. Continue to the temple of Deir el-Hagar — “the stone monastery” — dedicated to the Theban gods Amun, Mut and Khonsu and built under the Roman emperors of the 1st century AD, then the rock tombs of Al-Muzawwaqa, “the decorated”, named after their colourful Roman-era paintings. Check in at your hotel in the oasis.

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

After breakfast, head for the eastern edge of Dakhla and the village of Bashendi, built — like most towns in the oasis — on the site of a much older settlement. Its domed tomb belongs to a medieval sheikh, Pasha Hindi, who gave the village its name; the adjacent Tomb of Kitinos, from the 2nd century AD, has six chambers whose walls show the owner meeting the gods. Continue to Kharga.

In Kharga, visit the Temple of Hibis, dedicated to Amun-Ra, his wife Mut and their son Khonsu, whose walls show hundreds of Egyptian deities — a true pantheon in stone — and what remains of its avenue of sphinxes. In the desert around the oasis, the Christian necropolis of El-Bagawat preserves some 200 domed funerary chapels from the early Christian era. Overnight in Kharga.

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

An early check-out and private transfer 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: breakfast at the hotel · 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.