12-Day Egypt Tour: Cairo, Nile Cruise & Marsa Alam

A representative meets you after you clear the terminal and sees you through to a private car for the roughly one-hour ride to your hotel. Once you have settled in, you head to the river for a sunset sail in a traditional felucca, the wooden sailboats that have worked the Nile for centuries. Nothing else is planned, which leaves you free to recover from your flight and eat wherever you like.

Your private Egyptologist and driver collect you from your hotel for about eight hours of Cairo's headline sights. The Giza Plateau comes first: the three great pyramids, then the Sphinx up close. You cross the city for a lunch with a view, then spend the afternoon among the treasures at the Egyptian Museum on Tahrir Square, with a tea or coffee break to rest your feet.

Your guide, the vehicle, the entrance fees and lunch are all covered.

Today goes back further than Giza, to the places where pyramid building was worked out. With a private English-speaking Egyptologist you visit Saqqara, home of the stepped pyramid, then Memphis, Egypt's first capital, and finally Dahshur, where the Bent Pyramid and the Red Pyramid stand in quiet desert.

Entrance tickets, bottled water and a lunch at a local restaurant are included, and the day runs about eight hours from hotel to hotel.

A car takes you to the airport for the one-hour flight south to Aswan, where a driver waits to take you to the river. This is the first day of your cruise sightseeing package, so an English-speaking Egyptologist, the entrance fees and the transport are included. You see the High Dam, the Unfinished Obelisk still lying in its quarry, and Philae, the island temple of Isis.

Then you board the ship, find your cabin and have dinner on board. Flight times are set by the airline schedule, so the order of the afternoon can shift a little.

The ship moves downstream through the day, and you step off for the Temple of Kom Ombo, a double temple dedicated to Sobek and Horus that sits on a bend of the river. Your Egyptologist guides the visit, with the entrance fee and transport already paid. Back on board there is time for the sun deck, where farmland, palms and village life drift by the rail.

Breakfast, lunch and dinner are served on the ship.

A full day with your guide. You visit the Temple of Edfu, then Luxor Temple, and then Karnak, including a walk to the Sacred Lake. In the evening you go to the Sound and Light Show at Karnak, a two-hour performance with admission included. It is the busiest day of the cruise, so the timings follow the ship's schedule and the cruise team will confirm them on board. Your last night is on the ship.

After breakfast you leave the ship and cross to the West Bank with your Egyptologist. The Valley of the Kings comes first, where your ticket covers three tombs, followed by Queen Hatshepsut's terraced temple at Deir el-Bahari and the two Colossi of Memnon. Then your cruise ends and a private vehicle takes you across the desert to the Red Sea.

This is a long day, with sightseeing and a long drive together, so keep snacks and water handy. You reach your Marsa Alam hotel in the evening for the first of five nights.

Today is a gentle start to the coast. A shared boat collects you from your hotel for about five hours at Marsa Mubarak, a sheltered bay where green turtles often graze on the seagrass. A mask, snorkel and fins are provided, plus tea, coffee and bottled water. Turtles are wild animals, so we cannot guarantee a sighting, although they are seen often here. The afternoon is free at the hotel.

A shared air-conditioned vehicle takes you to the harbor, and from there a shared boat heads out to Samadai, a horseshoe reef known as the Dolphin House. The trip lasts about eight hours. You snorkel in the reef lagoon, where spinner dolphins often rest during the day. The marine park fee is included, with a life jacket, mask, snorkel and fins, and lunch on the boat.

Dolphins are wild, so a sighting is likely but never promised.

Nine hours away from the hotel, mostly outdoors. A shared vehicle takes you into Wadi El Gemal National Park, where mountains, mangroves and open coast meet, and brings you to Sharm El Luli beach. You swim and snorkel in clear shallow water, with a guide at your side. Lunch is served on the beach.

The national park fee, mask, snorkel, fins and bottled water are all included, and you are back at your hotel in the evening.

Your morning is free to swim or rest. At the end of the day a shared vehicle collects you for about five hours in the desert beyond Marsa Alam. You ride a camel, then sit down to a Bedouin dinner with tea and water, and look up at stars that the coast lights never reach. Evenings turn cool once the sun is down, so bring a warm layer.

This is a short camel ride and a dinner outing, with no overnight stay in the desert.