• 11 Breakfast (B)
• 7 Lunch (L)
• 7 Dinner (D)
• 1 Afternoon Tea (AT)

• “Koshari is our national dish, and it never disappoints. Believed to have originated in the 19th century, this vegetarian street food staple is made of rice, pasta, lentils, and chickpeas, topped with delicious fried onions and a spicy tomato-based garlic sauce.”
• “I love to share our Ancient Egyptian civilization and history with our guests and to explain all the details and stories related to Egyptian mythology so our guests can enjoy a very special guided vacation.”
• “The Abu Simbel Temples are utterly unique in scale, architecture, art and history. From one of the most prominent eras of Ancient Egyptian history, these magnificent structures emphasise how persistent and clever ancient Egyptian architects were to carve a mountain to make such incredible tributes for Egyptian deities.”

• Top-rated dining, from farm-to-table to local restaurants
• 4 & 5-star hotel and overnight cruise stays
• Business class coach with extended leg room, cruise travel and select flights

• Luxor: Get to know your fellow travellers over a delightful drink followed by dinner.
• Kom Ombo: Learn about traditional Egyptian attire and immerse yourself in local culture at an Egyptian dinner and galabeya party.

• Aswan: Delve into the fascinating history of papyrus. Experience a fascinating demonstration on how the ancient Egyptians used papyrus leaves for writing. Learn how paper was made from the papyrus water-plant which grew abundantly in the marshy delta of the Nile. Be amazed at the history of when excavators of a tomb at Saqqara discovered the earliest known roll of papyrus, dating to around 2900 B.C. You’ll also receive a small gift to commemorate your visit.  
• Aswan: Discover the ancient art of belly dancing, reported as far back as the 4th century as an identifying element of Egyptian culture. 
• Aswan: On a traditional Nile felucca, meet a sailor and learn the art of sailing this ancient Nile craft. Visit the High Dam and Granite Quarries.
• Aswan: Savour cocktails and canapés at the historic Old Cataract Hotel while watching the sunset over the Nile. Enjoy this blend of natural beauty and timeless elegance for an unforgettable experience.
• Luxor: Satisfy your curiosity and your taste buds over an Egyptian cooking class with your talented onboard chef. Learn the time-honoured secrets behind how to make Egyptian vegetable Moussaka, a beloved Egyptian dish made of eggplant, tomatoes and peppers.
• Luxor: Get up close and personal with ancient history at the Valley of the Queens. Located amid the hills along the western bank of the Nile River in Upper Egypt, this site was a burial ground first for officials and later for royal wives, daughters and sons from 1550 to 1080 BC. You can visit from a selection of tombs open to the public.  

Discover a beautifully presented collection at the Luxor Museum, where lighting and layout highlight the finesse of New Kingdom statuary, jewellery and daily-life artefacts. Admire exquisitely preserved pieces from nearby temples and tombs that bring ancient craftsmanship into clear focus.

View royal mummies and finely carved reliefs that illuminate the world of Theban priests and pharaohs. The museum’s curated approach encourages unhurried looking, allowing the stone’s smooth polish and delicate hieroglyphs to speak across millennia.

Visit the harmonious Temple of Hathor at Dendera, one of Egypt’s best preserved sanctuaries. Gaze up at blue ceilings spangled with zodiac motifs and Hathor-headed columns, then trace the rare relief showing Cleopatra and Caesarion, a meeting of Ptolemaic and pharaonic worlds.

Learn how this complex flourished under Roman and Ptolemaic patronage while retaining ancient rituals to the goddess of music, joy and motherhood. The temple’s crisp carvings and roof chapels reveal layers of devotion spanning centuries.

Cruise Egypt’s life-giving artery aboard your comfortable ship, watching riverbank scenes of fields, date palms and mudbrick villages slip by. Experience the mechanical theatre of the Esna Lock, where the vessel gently rises or falls as water gates open with a resonant surge.

Your Egyptologist layers the view with stories of irrigation, trade and sacred journeys that once linked temples along the Nile. This cruise on the River Nile threads past timeless landscapes that have sustained Egypt’s civilization for millennia.

Visit the unique Temple of Kom Ombo, ingeniously dedicated to two deities—Sobek the crocodile god and Horus the Elder. Twin sanctuaries, duplicated halls and mirrored reliefs reveal a rare symmetry in ancient temple design.

Inspect finely carved medical instruments and Nile scenes before seeing mummified crocodiles that recall ancient reverence for these powerful creatures. The riverside setting, with evening breezes and golden stone, adds a contemplative mood to this dual shrine.

Survey the scale of modern engineering at the Aswan High Dam, a project that reshaped Egypt’s agriculture and created Lake Nasser. Contrast this with ancient ambition at the nearby quarries where the Unfinished Obelisk remains tethered to bedrock, revealing chiseling marks and a dramatic crack.

Hear how both feats—separated by thousands of years—speak to Egypt’s mastery of stone and water. The obelisk’s sheer size evokes the logistical genius required to raise these monoliths into temple courtyards.

Glide by motorboat across the reflective waters to Philae Island, where the elegant Temple of Isis rises from the Nile. Colonnades, pylons and intimate sanctuaries unfold as your Egyptologist shares myths of Isis, Osiris and Horus that animated sacred rites here.

Learn how the complex was meticulously relocated stone by stone after the dam’s construction. The temple’s island setting, lapped by water and framed by granite boulders, creates a serene, otherworldly hush.

Set out on a traditional felucca, feeling the canvas catch the breeze as a local sailor explains time-honoured navigation on Egypt’s river highway. The creak of wood and hush of water replace engines, opening a tranquil window onto Aswan’s palms and granite islets.

Hear how these lateen-rigged boats once carried goods and people between river towns. The experience offers a tactile connection to daily life along the Nile, from antiquity to today.

Meet the artisans at a local women-owned co-operative in Aswan whose mission is to empower vulnerable women through skills training. Browse handwoven baskets, palm-leaf crafts and upcycled designs created with natural and reclaimed materials.

Learn how your visit supports UN SDG 5: Gender Equality by fostering income, confidence and community. Conversations with the women reveal resilience, creativity and a shared commitment to a cleaner environment and brighter futures.

Savour high tea or crafted cocktails at the storied Sofitel Legend Old Cataract, where figures like Agatha Christie and Winston Churchill once lingered. From the granite terrace, watch the sun bathe feluccas and river islands in amber light.

The hotel’s Edwardian elegance and Nubian-stone setting embody Aswan’s cosmopolitan past. As dusk deepens, the sunset over the Nile becomes a slow-moving tableau of sail, water and sky.

Experience the Sound & Light Show at Philae, as narration and music animate pylons, courtyards and reliefs of the Temple of Isis. The illuminated facades transform into a theatrical canvas recounting myths and the Nile’s sacred floods.

Set against water and rock, the spectacle adds a modern storytelling layer to an ancient sanctuary. It’s an atmospheric way to absorb history where ritual once echoed through the island’s colonnades.

Celebrate onboard with a lively Egyptian dinner and galabeya party. Taste regional dishes fragrant with cumin and coriander while donning traditional robes that bring colour to the evening.

Music and dance invite participation, offering a light-hearted window into Egyptian hospitality. Your Travel Director and crew curate the mood so guests can relax, mingle and enjoy this festive cultural moment on the Nile.

Join your chef for a hands-on Egyptian cooking class, preparing vegetable moussaka layered with aubergine, tomatoes and peppers. Learn spice-balancing techniques and family tips that give home-style dishes their depth and warmth.

Taste as you go, then enjoy the finished plate with fellow travellers. The session demystifies pantry staples while revealing how Egypt’s markets and seasons shape everyday cuisine.

Visit Luxor Temple as lights trace columns and pylons against the night sky. Walk past colossal statues of Rameses II and along processional courts once linked to Karnak during grand festivals.

Hear how Amenhotep III, Tutankhamun and later rulers added chapels and colonnades. The temple’s urban setting—steps from the modern city—shows how ancient Thebes continues to anchor Luxor’s cultural heart.

Delve into the Valley of the Kings, where painted corridors descend to royal chambers, including those of Tutankhamun and powerful New Kingdom pharaohs. Nearby, ascend to the terraces of the Temple of Hatshepsut, a striking colonnaded shrine set beneath sheer cliffs.

Trace funerary beliefs, solar cycles and queenly power as your Egyptologist decodes scenes of offerings, deities and cosmic boats. The desert silence heightens the sense of ancient ceremony and permanence.

Visit the serene Valley of the Queens, final resting place of royal wives, daughters and princes. Enter select tombs where jewel-toned scenes depict goddesses guiding the deceased through the afterlife.

Learn about artisans of Deir el-Medina who created these delicate paintings, and the evolving status of royal women in the 19th and 20th Dynasties. The intimate scale contrasts movingly with the grandeur of the Kings’ Valley.

Ascend to the UNESCO-listed Salah el-Din Citadel for sweeping views across Cairo’s minarets. Step inside the Great Alabaster Mosque of Muhammad Ali, where Ottoman domes, stained glass and a peaceful courtyard frame the city in luminous stone.

Hear how the citadel anchored Cairo’s defenses and royal seat for centuries. The mosque’s 19th-century architecture symbolizes Egypt’s modernizing turn under Muhammad Ali Pasha.

Encounter the Grand Egyptian Museum’s treasures, including the complete Tutankhamun collection displayed together and the reconstructed solar barque of Khufu. Stand before the towering statue of Rameses II and explore galleries spanning Predynastic to Greco-Roman eras.

Your Egyptologist weaves the discovery stories with insights on craftsmanship, burial beliefs and royal symbolism. Thoughtful curation and striking architecture invite an immersive dialogue with Egypt’s deep past.

Visit ancient Memphis, once capital of the Old Kingdom, to view the colossal statue of Rameses II and the graceful Alabaster Sphinx. Continue to Saqqara to see the revolutionary Step Pyramid of Djoser, designed by the architect Imhotep around 2700 BC.

Learn how mastabas evolved into pyramids and how this necropolis influenced Giza’s monumental leaps. The desert plateau, edged by palm groves, links village life to the origins of royal tomb building.

Stand before the Pyramids of Giza and the Great Sphinx, icons of the ancient world. With your Egyptologist, venture inside a pyramid to feel the cool stone corridors that once guarded a pharaoh’s journey to eternity.

Unpack engineering feats, astronomical alignments and funerary rites as you survey the plateau. Photo stops let you pause for photos and reflection amid timeless desert horizons and sharply cut limestone blocks.

Watch a live demonstration at a traditional Papyrus Institute, where artisans transform reeds into writing sheets using ancient techniques. Learn how scribes prepared surfaces for ink and how scrolls preserved religious texts and administrative records.

Explore motifs from the Book of the Dead and daily-life scenes reproduced on papyrus today. The visit blends craft, conservation and commerce, offering insight into an enduring Egyptian art form.

Meet your fellow travellers and meet your Tour Director over a relaxed welcome drink in Cairo. Share interests and travel goals in a comfortable setting designed to build camaraderie among women exploring Egypt together.

Hear helpful tips for navigating souks, cultural etiquette and the days ahead. The gathering sets a supportive tone where questions are encouraged and new friendships begin.

Discover the grace and musicality of Egyptian raqs sharqi (belly dancing) in a women-only setting. A local instructor introduces foundational movements, rhythm and posture, emphasizing expression over performance.

Discuss the dance’s roots and how it has evolved from social gatherings to stage art since at least the 4th century. The session celebrates body confidence, cultural appreciation and shared joy in movement.

Journey to the monumental Temples of Abu Simbel, where four colossal statues of Rameses II guard a rock-cut sanctuary aligned to the sun. Inside, reliefs and pillars recount military triumphs and divine devotion; nearby, the Temple of Hathor honors Queen Nefertari.

Learn how a UNESCO campaign relocated the complex above Lake Nasser in the 1960s. This Optional Experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour; schedules may vary by season and availability.

Explore the monumental precinct of Karnak Temple, entering along the avenue of ram-headed sphinxes to the vast Hypostyle Hall. Walk beneath forests of papyrus-shaped columns and carved lintels while your Egyptologist deciphers royal cartouches and ritual scenes that once animated this sacred city of Amun.

Gain context on how pharaohs from the Middle and New Kingdoms expanded Karnak over 2,000 years. Pause to admire obelisks and reliefs of Rameses II, and sense the ceremonial power that drew ancient processions between Karnak and Luxor along the festival route.

Insight Vacations