8 Days in Egypt: Giza, Abu Simbel and a 5-Star Nile Cruise

Breakfast at the hotel, then out to Giza with your guide. You begin at the Great Pyramid of Khufu and work along to Khafre and Menkaure, with time at the panorama point where all three sit in one frame. The Sphinx comes last, at the end of Khafre's causeway. Lunch is at a local restaurant nearby. The afternoon goes to the Grand Egyptian Museum two kilometres east, where the complete Tutankhamun assemblage sits in two purpose-built galleries: 5,398 objects from a single tomb, together for the first time since Howard Carter cleared it in 1922.

Overnight: Cairo
Included visits: Great Pyramid, Khafre and Menkaure pyramids, Sphinx, Grand Egyptian Museum
Meals: Breakfast, lunch
Optional experiences: Entry inside one of the pyramids; camel or horse ride across the plateau; Saqqara and Memphis as a half-day extension
Important notes: The GEM runs on timed entry and needs two hours minimum. Almost no shade at Giza — hat and water.

Your tour manager collects you after breakfast for the transfer to Cairo Airport and the flight south, about an hour and a quarter. A local guide meets you on arrival. A motorboat carries you across to Agilkia Island for Philae Temple, dedicated to Isis and rebuilt block by block here when the dams raised the water. The Unfinished Obelisk follows, still lying on its side in the granite quarry where a flaw opened along its length, the ancient tool marks legible on the stone. You check into your Aswan hotel afterwards.

Overnight: Aswan
Included visits: Philae Temple, Unfinished Obelisk
Meals: Breakfast
Optional experiences: Felucca sail around Elephantine Island at sunset; the Nubian villages by motorboat; the High Dam
Important notes: Domestic baggage allowance is lower than international — check before you pack. Philae involves a short boat crossing at each end. Lunch and dinner are not included today.

An early start for the drive south, roughly three hours across the desert by air-conditioned coach in a small group. Ramses II cut two temples into the cliff face here: the great one for himself, its facade fronted by four seated colossi, and the smaller one for Nefertari, dedicated to Hathor. Both were sawn into blocks and lifted sixty-five metres uphill in the 1960s under a UNESCO-led rescue, ahead of the water rising behind the High Dam — the joins are visible if you look for them. You return to Aswan in the afternoon and board your ship, with dinner on board.

Overnight: On board in Aswan
Included visits: Abu Simbel
Meals: Breakfast, lunch, dinner
Optional experiences: Abu Simbel by short flight instead of road, at a supplement
Important notes: A long day — six hours of driving plus the site, mostly before noon. Take water for the road.

Breakfast on board as the ship sails north to Kom Ombo. You walk up through the town to the temple, which is unusual for being built double: twin entrances, twin hypostyle halls and twin sanctuaries, one side for Sobek the crocodile god and the other for Haroeris, Horus the Elder. Lunch is back on board as you continue to Edfu, where a horse-drawn carriage takes you through the farmland and into town for the Temple of Horus — the most complete pharaonic building standing anywhere in Egypt, roof and enclosure walls intact. Afternoon tea is served as you sail towards Esna, with dinner on board.

Overnight: On board
Included visits: Temple of Sobek and Haroeris at Kom Ombo, Temple of Horus at Edfu
Meals: Breakfast, lunch, dinner
Important notes: Small notes are useful for the carriage drivers at Edfu.

The ship reaches Luxor in the morning. You cross to the West Bank for three tombs in the Valley of the Kings, cut deep into the limestone with painted ceilings that have survived three thousand years underground. Hatshepsut's mortuary temple at Deir el-Bahari follows, terraced directly into the cliff face, and the two seated Colossi of Memnon are the last stop. You return to the ship for the afternoon — the sundeck, the spa, or the jacuzzi — with tea and dinner on board.

Overnight: On board in Luxor
Included visits: Valley of the Kings, Temple of Hatshepsut, Colossi of Memnon
Meals: Breakfast, lunch, dinner
Optional experiences: Dawn hot-air balloon over the West Bank; the tombs of Tutankhamun and Seti I, ticketed separately
Important notes: Uneven ground and warm, still air inside the tombs — closed shoes are worth wearing.

Breakfast on board, then disembarkation with your luggage. Karnak comes first, a complex successive pharaohs enlarged across two thousand years, where the Hypostyle Hall's 134 sandstone columns still hold traces of paint high up where the light cannot reach. Luxor Temple follows on the corniche. You transfer to Luxor Airport afterwards for the flight north, under an hour, and a representative meets you in Cairo to drive you to your hotel for the final night.

Overnight: Cairo
Included visits: Karnak Temple, Luxor Temple
Meals: Breakfast
Optional experiences: Luxor Temple after dark before your transfer, if the flight timing allows; a Nile dinner cruise in Cairo
Important notes: Karnak is large and mostly unshaded. Lunch and dinner are not included today — worth eating in Luxor before the transfer.

Breakfast at your hotel, then free time until your transfer. Late checkout can usually be arranged for a fee if you fly in the evening, and reception will hold your luggage if you would rather check out and spend the last hours in the city. Your driver collects you with enough margin for Cairo traffic and airport queues.

Included visits: None
Meals: Breakfast
Important notes: Allow three hours before an international departure.