Your Egypt journey begins the moment you land. Your private guide and driver meet you at Cairo International Airport with a name board — no waiting, no confusion. Private transfer by air-conditioned vehicle to your Cairo hotel. After checking in, your Egyptologist guide joins you for a relaxed evening orientation — a conversation over tea about what you will see, how each site works, what to expect and how to make the most of every hour. This is not a briefing; it is the beginning of the guide relationship that runs through the entire eight days. Cairo is extraordinary even from a hotel window: 22 million people, the Nile running through the centre, the city glowing after dark. Tonight: early to bed.

• Meet & Assist Cairo Airport · Private transfer to hotel · Check-in · Evening orientation with guide
• Overnight: Cairo hotel · Meals: None included

The day that changes how you see history. Morning at the Giza Plateau — the last surviving Wonder of the Ancient World. All three pyramids with your private Egyptologist guide: Khufu (the Great Pyramid, 146 metres, the tallest structure on earth for nearly 4,000 years), Khafre (retaining its original limestone casing at the apex), and Menkaure. The panoramic viewpoint from the south shows all three in their famous diagonal alignment. Your guide explains the engineering logic behind the Great Pyramid’s alignment to true north (within 3/60ths of a degree), the quarrying of 2.3 million blocks averaging 2.5 tonnes each, and what the pyramid complex meant as a theological statement about kingship, death and the afterlife.

The Great Sphinx — 73 metres long, carved from a single limestone outcrop, 4,500 years old — and the Valley Temple of Khafre: the oldest granite structure in Egypt, its 100-tonne monolithic blocks fitted without mortar, where Khafre’s diorite statue was found buried in a pit during 19th-century excavations.

After lunch: the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) — the world’s largest archaeological museum, opened in 2023. The complete Tutankhamun collection together for the first time: over 5,000 objects including the golden death mask, the golden throne, the two life-size guardian statues. The Royal Mummies Hall: the actual bodies of Ramesses II, Seti I, Hatshepsut, Tuthmosis III and fifteen other pharaohs in a dedicated climate-controlled gallery. Allow three hours minimum — most guests leave wishing they had more.

• Pyramids of Giza + Great Sphinx + Valley Temple · Lunch included · Grand Egyptian Museum (3+ hrs) · All entrance fees included
• Overnight: Cairo hotel · Meals: Breakfast · Lunch included

Ancient Egypt is one layer of Cairo. Today you discover two more. Morning in Coptic Cairo — one of the oldest Christian communities in the world:

• Hanging Church (Al-Muallaqah) — built above two Roman towers of the Babylon Fortress, its nave suspended between them (hence the name). One of the oldest churches in Egypt with 13th-century carved wooden screens and Coptic icons spanning centuries. The community here traces its faith to St Mark, who brought Christianity to Alexandria in 55 AD.
• Church of St Sergius (Abu Serga) — built over the crypt where the Holy Family sheltered during the Flight into Egypt. One of the earliest Christian sites in the world; the crypt below the altar is still accessible.
• Ben Ezra Synagogue — the oldest synagogue in Egypt, rebuilt in 882 AD. In 1896 the Cairo Geniza was discovered here: 300,000 medieval Jewish manuscript fragments hidden in the attic for a thousand years, now one of the most important archival discoveries in history.

Afternoon: the Citadel of Saladin — the 12th-century fortified complex (begun 1176 AD by Salah al-Din) that dominated Cairo’s military and political life for 700 years. Inside: the Mohamed Ali Mosque (completed 1848, Ottoman) built in alabaster with an interior so striking it stops conversation. The domed space, the hanging chandeliers and the alabaster walls create a quality of light unlike any other building in Cairo. The courtyard offers the finest panoramic view in the city: the pyramids visible on the western horizon, the minarets of Islamic Cairo below, the Nile. The ornate French clock in the courtyard was given by Louis-Philippe in exchange for the obelisk from Luxor Temple now standing in the Place de la Concorde in Paris.

Evening: your guide leads a walk through Khan el-Khalili Bazaar — Cairo’s medieval marketplace, operating continuously since the 14th century through the Fatimid lanes of Al-Muizz Street. Perfume merchants, gold shops, spice sellers, copper craftsmen, papyrus dealers. Your guide takes you to El Fishawy coffeehouse — open without interruption for over 250 years — for tea among the mirrors and chandeliers before you explore at your own pace.

• Coptic Cairo: Hanging Church + Church of St Sergius + Ben Ezra Synagogue · All fees included
• Citadel of Saladin + Mohamed Ali Mosque (panoramic Cairo view) · All fees included
• Evening: Khan el-Khalili Bazaar + El Fishawy coffeehouse · Lunch included
• Overnight: Cairo hotel · Meals: Breakfast · Lunch included

Breakfast at the hotel. Check-out. Transfer to Cairo Airport for the domestic flight to Luxor (LXR) — 75 minutes in the air. The Nile Valley appears below: the narrow green ribbon between two deserts, unchanged in its essential geography since the pharaohs built their temples above its banks. Your guide meets you at Luxor Airport and transfers you to the Nile Cruise ship. Lunch on board as the ship prepares to depart.

Afternoon excursion to the East Bank of Luxor — the city of the living, where the pharaohs built their greatest temples for the gods:

• Karnak Temple Complex — the largest ancient religious complex ever built, covering 100 hectares and expanded by thirty successive pharaohs over 2,000 years. The Great Hypostyle Hall: 134 columns in 16 rows, the tallest 23 metres high, each so wide that ten people linking hands cannot encircle them. Originally roofed and lit only through clerestory windows between the column capitals — the interior would have been half-dark, the painted columns disappearing into shadow above. The obelisks of Tuthmosis I and Hatshepsut (still the tallest standing obelisk in Egypt at 30 metres), the Festival Hall of Tuthmosis III with its unique tent-pole columns, and the Sacred Lake where priests purified themselves before dawn rituals. Optional: Sound & Light show at Karnak in the evening (supplement — arrange through your guide).
• Luxor Temple — built primarily by Amenhotep III (c.1390 BC) and completed by Ramesses II, who added the great pylon entrance and the two seated colossi. The standing obelisk before the pylon — its twin given by Muhammad Ali to France in 1833 now stands in the Place de la Concorde in Paris. At dusk the temple illuminates and the colossi catch the last warm light across the Nile.

• Breakfast (hotel) · Transfer Cairo Airport · Domestic flight Cairo → Luxor (75 min) · Included
• Board cruise Luxor · Lunch on board · Karnak Temple + Luxor Temple · All fees included
• Overnight: Nile Cruise, moored Luxor · Meals: Breakfast (hotel) · Lunch · Dinner (on board)

Morning: the West Bank of Luxor — the city of the dead in ancient times, where the pharaohs of the New Kingdom hid their tombs in the limestone cliffs of the Theban hills and built their mortuary temples on the floodplain below. Optional at dawn: hot air balloon over the West Bank at sunrise (supplement — arrange through your guide on Day 4 arrival; strongly recommended).

• Valley of the Kings — 63 royal tombs cut into the limestone cliffs, used for pharaonic burials from Tuthmosis I (c.1504 BC) to Ramesses XI (c.1070 BC). Tutankhamun, Seti I, Ramesses II, Ramesses VI, Merenptah are all buried here. Your standard ticket covers three tombs; your guide selects the best available combination. The wall paintings — the Amduat, the Book of Gates, the Book of the Dead — are in extraordinary colour, protected from direct sunlight for three millennia. Optional: Tutankhamun’s Tomb (~$20 extra, own account).
• Temple of Hatshepsut (Deir el-Bahari) — the mortuary temple of Egypt’s greatest female pharaoh, built into the Theban cliff face in three perfectly symmetrical colonnaded terraces. The painted reliefs of her divine birth, the Punt expedition and her coronation are among the finest in Egypt. The architectural precision of the ramps, colonnades and alignment is one of the most sophisticated designs in ancient architecture.
• Colossi of Memnon — two 18-metre seated quartzite statues of Amenhotep III, the largest free-standing statues in Egypt, standing alone in the agricultural fields that were once the forecourt of his mortuary temple. For centuries one emitted a singing sound at dawn; the Roman emperor Hadrian visited in 130 AD to hear it.

Return to the cruise ship. Lunch on board as the ship casts off and sails south toward Edfu. Afternoon on the sundeck.

• Valley of Kings (3 tombs) + Hatshepsut Temple + Colossi of Memnon · All fees included
• Ship sails south toward Edfu · Afternoon sundeck
• Overnight: Nile Cruise, moored Edfu · Meals: Breakfast · Lunch · Dinner (all on board)

Morning: a horse-drawn calèche from the dock through Edfu town to the Temple of Horus at Edfu — the best-preserved ancient temple in Egypt. Buried under desert sand and Nile silt until the 19th century; it survived intact where exposed temples deteriorated. The entrance pylon at 36 metres is the largest in Egypt. Inside: the painted reliefs and hypostyle halls are sharp and complete. The black granite naos in the inner sanctuary has stood in the same position for 2,300 years. The walls of the innermost rooms carry the complete mythological texts of the Horus-Seth conflict — the oldest sustained narrative in Egyptian religion, preserved in full — making this temple literally a library carved in stone. The sacred black granite falcon at the entrance — life-size, wearing the double crown, polished to a high lustre — is the temple’s most photographed object.

Return to ship and sail to Kom Ombo Temple — the only temple in Egypt dedicated to two gods simultaneously and designed with perfect symmetry for both. Sobek the crocodile god (patron of the Nile, fertility and military power) on the right; Haroeris (Horus the Elder — sky and kingship) on the left. Every element — two pylons, two courts, two hypostyle halls, two sanctuaries — exactly mirrored. The carved medical instruments on the rear wall (surgical forceps, scalpels, birthing chairs, Ptolemaic period) are among the most striking details at any Egyptian site. The Crocodile Museum beside the temple holds dozens of mummified crocodiles offered to Sobek over two thousand years.

The ship makes the final southward sail into Aswan — Egypt’s southernmost city, where the pink granite of the First Cataract narrows the Nile and the landscape changes character completely.

• Calèche to Edfu Temple · Sail to Kom Ombo Temple + Crocodile Museum · All fees included
• Sail to Aswan · Arrive evening
• Overnight: Nile Cruise, moored Aswan · Meals: Breakfast · Lunch · Dinner (all on board)

Breakfast on board. Optional early morning (if pre-booked): Abu Simbel by EgyptAir from Aswan (depart ~06:00, return ~11:00 — before main sightseeing; ~$180–$220pp supplement; book in advance). Main sightseeing:

• Aswan High Dam — completed 1971, 3.6 kilometres long and 111 metres high. Created Lake Nasser (550km, the world’s largest artificial lake), generates approximately 10 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity annually and ended the Nile floods that had shaped Egypt’s agricultural life since prehistory. It also required the displacement of 90,000 Nubian people and the UNESCO campaign that saved 22 ancient monuments — including Abu Simbel and Philae. Standing on the dam you are looking at both the achievement and the cost of modernity.
• Philae Temple (Temple of Isis) — reached by a short motorboat crossing to Agilkia Island, where the temple was relocated stone by stone by UNESCO between 1977 and 1980 before the original Philae Island was permanently submerged by the rising reservoir. One of the last ancient Egyptian temples still used for active worship — the Coptic Christian community continued to celebrate mass here into the 5th century AD, three centuries after the official Christianisation of Egypt. The Kiosk of Trajan on the water’s edge — the “Pharaoh’s Bed” — is one of the most photographed images in Egypt; approaching by motorboat across the still water between the islands with the colonnades framed by the reservoir is the finest way to arrive.

Optional evening: Nubian Village by felucca at sunset (own account, arrange through your guide). Return to the cruise ship for the farewell dinner on board — the crew’s final meal on the Nile, last night on the water.

• Optional: Abu Simbel early flight (supplement) · Aswan High Dam + Philae Temple (by motorboat) · All fees included
• Optional: Nubian Village felucca (own account) · Farewell dinner on board
• Overnight: Nile Cruise, Aswan · Meals: Breakfast · Lunch · Dinner (farewell, all on board)

Final breakfast on board. Disembark the cruise after breakfast. Private transfer to Aswan Airport (ASW) for your onward flight. Tour ends at Aswan Airport.

If you wish to fly back to Cairo before your international departure: we can arrange a domestic EgyptAir connection from Aswan to Cairo (approximately 1 hour 15 minutes — ask us to include this when enquiring). If continuing to a Lake Nasser cruise from Aswan, we arrange the handover at the dock.

• Final breakfast on board · Disembark · Private transfer Aswan Airport · End of services
• Optional: domestic flight Aswan → Cairo (arrange at booking) · Or Lake Nasser cruise connection
• Meals: Breakfast on board