18-Day Grand Egypt Tour: Cairo, Alexandria, Nile & Red Sea

A representative is waiting in the arrivals hall at Cairo Airport and walks you to a private car for the hour-long drive to your hotel. Nothing else is planned, so the evening is yours to unpack and sleep off the journey before four busy days start.

Your Egyptologist collects you at the hotel for a full day, with the entrance fees, the vehicle and bottled water included. First comes the Giza Plateau: the three great pyramids and the Great Sphinx. Lunch is served at a restaurant with a view. The afternoon belongs to the Grand Egyptian Museum, home of the Tutankhamun collection, before you ride back to the hotel.

Today you leave the capital behind for the Fayoum region and Wadi El Rayan. A private car and driver pick you up at the hotel, and an English-speaking guide goes with you. It is a full day, about 10 hours with the drives, and lunch is at a local restaurant. You come back to the same Cairo hotel in the evening.

A calmer six hours with your private Egyptologist. You see the Sultan Hassan and Al-Rifa'i mosques, then climb to Saladin's Citadel and the alabaster Mosque of Muhammad Ali. After that you cross to Old Coptic Cairo for the Hanging Church and the Church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus, with a lunch break in Old Cairo. Entrance fees to the mosques and the Citadel are included.

You leave Cairo for Alexandria on the coast, on a two-night package that includes Wadi Natrun along the route. Breakfast and lunch are part of the package. By evening you are settled in a hotel in Alexandria, and the main city sightseeing is saved for tomorrow.

This is the big Alexandria day. You visit the 15th-century Qaitbay Citadel on the harbor, Pompey's Pillar and the Catacombs of Kom El Shoqafa, where Egyptian, Greek and Roman styles mix. The last stop is the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, the modern library near the site of the ancient one. Expect a full day on your feet that suits good walkers. You sleep a second night in Alexandria.

After breakfast you visit the Graeco-Roman Museum, then return to Cairo by road. Later in the day your private Egyptologist takes you through the Egyptian Museum on a 4-hour visit with skip-the-line entry: Old and Middle Kingdom masterpieces, royal linens, papyri and animal mummies, with a coffee or tea break. The Mummies Room is not included in the ticket.

It is a full day, so the museum is arranged around your arrival back in Cairo.

A private car takes you from the hotel to Cairo Airport for the flight to Luxor, which is booked for you and set by the airline schedule. In Luxor you are met and driven into town. Your Egyptologist shows you Karnak, including the Sacred Lake, and Luxor Temple, with the sightseeing arranged around the flight. This is your first night aboard the ship, on full board.

The West Bank is today's work. You look up at the Colossi of Memnon, enter three tombs in the Valley of the Kings on your ticket, and finish at Hatshepsut's terraced mortuary temple at Deir el-Bahari. Your Egyptologist, the entrance fees and the transport are covered by the cruise sightseeing package. Meals are on board.

You spend the day moving upriver, stopping ashore at two temples. Edfu, the Temple of Horus, is among the best preserved in Egypt. Kom Ombo is the double temple that stands right by the water. In between, the deck is the place to be, with the farmland and palms of the Nile Valley sliding past.

In Aswan you visit Philae Temple, the High Dam and the Unfinished Obelisk, the giant slab still lying in its granite quarry. Your guide, entrance tickets and transport are covered. Philae is reached by boat. The ship is your home for one more night.

After breakfast on board you check out of the ship and move to your Aswan hotel. The cruise sightseeing is finished, and no tours are planned for the rest of the day. Spend it by the river at your own pace. Tomorrow is a long one.

A full day for one site: the temples of Ramesses II and Queen Nefertari at Abu Simbel, reached by road from Aswan. The entrance fees to the temples are included. Wear a hat, since there is little shade. Back at your Aswan hotel, you have a second night there.

This is a travel day. A private vehicle collects you from your Aswan hotel and drives you to Hurghada on the Red Sea, a transfer of about 7 hours. Luggage is carried for you. There is no sightseeing, so arrive, check in and spend the evening settling in.

Nothing is booked today. After sixteen days of travel, use the time to swim, read or walk along the seafront. If you want to add an activity, ask us and we will arrange it.

You are picked up at the hotel and taken to the harbor, then cross by motorboat to Orange Bay on Giftun Island. There are two guided snorkeling sessions, with equipment and life jackets provided, and a sunbed on the beach in between. A hot lunch and bottled water are included, and the boat brings you back to Hurghada.

Your last full day is open. Do as much or as little as you like, and pack in the evening, since the airport transfer comes tomorrow. If you want a dinner booked or a short activity added, let us know in advance.