8-Day Hurghada, Luxor, Aswan & Abu Simbel Nile Cruise Tour

Your driver picks you up at your Hurghada hotel in a private, air-conditioned car for the road trip across the Eastern Desert to Luxor, around four to five hours with a rest stop on the way. You board your Nile cruise in Luxor, check in to your cabin and have lunch on board. The rest of the day is free to settle in, use the sun deck and meet your Egyptologist, who walks you through the week ahead.

Dinner and the night are on board, moored in Luxor.

An early start takes you across to the West Bank before the heat and the crowds. In the Valley of the Kings your ticket covers three tombs, chosen on the day from those open, and your guide explains the paintings before you go in, since talking is kept low inside.

Next is the terraced Temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahari, then a photo stop at the Colossi of Memnon, the two seated statues of Amenhotep III. You are back on board for lunch as the ship sets off south.

In the morning you visit the Temple of Horus at Edfu, the most complete temple left from ancient Egypt, with its roof, pylon and inner sanctuary still standing. The ship sails on through the afternoon, past fields and villages, to Kom Ombo.

Here you see the double temple shared by the crocodile god Sobek and the falcon god Horus, set right on the riverbank, and the small museum of mummified crocodiles next to it.

With the ship moored in Aswan, your guide takes you to the Aswan High Dam for the view over Lake Nasser, then to the granite quarries to see the Unfinished Obelisk, cracked and abandoned where it lay. A short motorboat ride brings you to Philae, the island temple of Isis, moved stone by stone to higher ground when the old dam flooded its first site. The afternoon is free in Aswan.

Today starts very early, usually around 4 am, for the drive south to Abu Simbel, about three and a half hours each way in a private car. You get a packed breakfast for the road. At Abu Simbel your guide shows you the Great Temple of Ramses II, with its four colossal seated statues, and the smaller temple of his queen, Nefertari. Both were cut out and lifted above the rising lake in the 1960s.

You are back on board in Aswan by mid-afternoon.

This is the slow day of the trip. The ship turns north and sails back towards Luxor, and you have the day on board to read, swim in the pool and watch life along the river: feluccas, palm groves, water buffalo and mud-brick villages. There is no sightseeing scheduled today, so it is a good day to rest after the early start at Abu Simbel.

Back in Luxor, you spend the day on the East Bank. At Karnak your guide leads you through the Great Hypostyle Hall, with its 134 giant columns, to the Sacred Lake. Later you visit Luxor Temple, joined to Karnak in ancient times by an avenue of sphinxes, which you can see in part today. It is worth seeing in the late afternoon, when the stone turns gold. Your last dinner is on board.