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 Valley Temple follows, built of granite and alabaster, then the Sphinx 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: the Grand Hall with its Ramses II colossus, the Grand Staircase, and the two Tutankhamun galleries holding all 5,398 objects recovered from the tomb.

Overnight: Cairo
Included visits: Great Pyramid, Khafre and Menkaure pyramids, Valley Temple, 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.

After breakfast you drive up to the Citadel of Salah al-Din, the fortress that governed Egypt for seven centuries, and go into the Alabaster Mosque of Muhammad Ali built at its centre in the 1830s. From there you descend to Old Cairo, inside the Roman walls of Babylon, for the Hanging Church built across a gate tower, the crypt below the Church of St Sergius and Bacchus, and the Ben Ezra Synagogue. Lunch follows. The afternoon is at the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization in Fustat, where the Royal Mummies Hall holds twenty-two kings and queens in individual climate-controlled cases.

Overnight: Cairo
Included visits: Citadel of Salah al-Din, Mosque of Muhammad Ali, Hanging Church, Church of St Sergius and Bacchus, Ben Ezra Synagogue, National Museum of Egyptian Civilization
Meals: Breakfast, lunch
Optional experiences: Khan el-Khalili added to the end of the day; a Nile dinner cruise
Important notes: Shoulders and knees covered at the mosque and the churches, and shoes come off inside the mosque. No photography in the Royal Mummies Hall.

The Egypt half ends after breakfast. You check out and transfer to Cairo International Airport for the flight to Amman, roughly an hour and a half. Your representative meets you at Queen Alia Airport, helps with the entry formalities and drives you into the city, about forty minutes. The rest of the day is free.

Overnight: Amman
Included visits: None
Meals: Breakfast
Optional experiences: An evening walk through downtown Amman, the Citadel hill and the Roman theatre
Important notes: Confirm your Jordanian visa arrangements with us before travel — the Jordan Pass, bought online in advance, waives the visa fee for most visitors and covers Petra entry. Lunch and dinner are not included today.

After breakfast you drive southwest to Mount Nebo, the ridge where Moses is said to have looked out over the land he would not enter, with the Jordan Valley, the Dead Sea and, on a clear morning, the hills beyond visible from the terrace. Madaba is ten minutes on, where the floor of St George's Church holds a sixth-century mosaic map of the Holy Land laid in more than two million tesserae — still legible enough to pick out Jerusalem's colonnaded street. The road then drops several hundred metres to the Dead Sea, where the water is salt-saturated to the point that floating takes no effort and the mineral mud along the shore is what the resorts were built for. Lunch is included. You return to Amman in the evening.

Overnight: Amman
Included visits: Mount Nebo, Madaba and the Church of St George, Dead Sea
Meals: Breakfast, lunch
Optional experiences: Spa treatments at the Dead Sea resort
Important notes: Bring a swimsuit and flip-flops — the shoreline is sharp underfoot. Do not shave that morning, keep the water out of your eyes, and twenty minutes in is plenty. Modest dress at the church and the memorial.

An early start for the drive south, roughly three hours on the Desert Highway. It is about seven hundred metres from the visitor centre to the mouth of the Siq, then a little over a kilometre through the gorge itself — walls rising eighty metres, narrowing in places until the sky is a line overhead — before the Treasury opens at the far end. Beyond it the Nabataean city keeps going: the Street of Facades, the theatre cut into the rock, and the Royal Tombs along the eastern cliff. Lunch is included. You walk back out through the Siq and return to Amman in the evening.

Overnight: Amman
Included visits: Petra
Meals: Breakfast, lunch
Optional experiences: The climb to the Monastery, around 800 rock-cut steps; the Al Khubtha trail to the viewpoint above the Treasury; horse or golf-cart assistance along the approach
Important notes: Six hours in the vehicle plus a full day on your feet, with the walk back out uphill. Proper shoes, a hat and more water than you expect to need.

Breakfast at your hotel, then a transfer to Queen Alia Airport timed around your flight, with margin for the drive and the airport queues. If you fly late in the day, reception will hold your luggage and a half-day of Amman sightseeing can be arranged in advance.

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