• 8 Breakfast (B)
• 4 Lunch (L)
• 4 Dinner (D)
• 1 Afternoon Tea (AT)

• 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: Follow in the footsteps of Sir Winston Churchill and Agatha Christie as you enjoy high tea at Aswan’s famous Old Cataract Hotel, as the sun begins to set.

• Luxor: Enjoy listening to stories of village life from local residents, when you visit a family home for a tasting of authentic Egyptian sun bread.
• Aswan: On a traditional Nile felucca, meet a sailor and learn the art of sailing this ancient Nile craft. 

• Aswan: Satisfy your curiosity and your taste buds over an Egyptian cooking demonstration with your talented onboard chef.
• Aswan: Ever wondered what it is like to be in the driver’s seat? Enjoy a tour of the Captain’s quarters and learn about how he sails through the Nile and how knowledge has been passed down through generations.

Explore the Valley of the Kings with your expert, entering cool chambers where stars, protective deities and solar barges guide pharaohs to the afterlife. Colors still glow on the walls, a testament to artisans working by lamplight.

Admire the sweeping terraces of the Temple of Hatshepsut pressed against limestone cliffs, and see the Colossi of Memnon, two towering guardians of Amenhotep III’s vanished mortuary temple. This is Theban grandeur distilled into stone, myth and desert light.

Walk Luxor Temple, begun by Amenhotep III and embellished by Ramesses II, where colossal statues flank the pylon of Ramesses II and courts echo with centuries of ritual. The carvings remain crisp beneath the Egyptian sun.

Trace the line of the Avenue of Sphinxes that once linked the sanctuary to Karnak, and linger in the graceful temple court of Amenhotep III, its columns recalling festivals, royal jubilees and the city’s enduring sacred heart.

Visit the double temple at Kom Ombo, uniquely dedicated to Sobek and Horus the Elder, where twin halls, sanctuaries and mirror-image reliefs unfold in perfect symmetry.

Learn how priests served two cults side by side and study carved medical reliefs—a rare ancient record of instruments and practices. The Nile-side setting heightens the drama as warm sandstone glows against water and sky.

Survey the Aswan High Dam and the vast azure sweep of Lake Nasser, a modern feat that reshaped Egypt’s south. Your Egyptologist sets the scene of national ambition and environmental change.

Continue to the ancient quarry to examine the Unfinished Obelisk, still tethered to bedrock. Chisel marks and fault lines reveal the risks of quarrying in the ancient granite quarries, offering rare insight into pharaonic engineering on a colossal scale.

Travel by motorboat across Aswan’s calm waters to the Temple of Isis at Philae, an island sanctuary of lotus-topped columns and intimate courts. Hear how the complex was relocated stone by stone after rising waters threatened its survival.

Return after dusk as the facades become a canvas for the Sound & Light Show. Voices, myth and music animate pylons and reliefs, while reflections ripple across the lake—a dramatic retelling of devotion, Nile floods and rebirth.

Sail a traditional felucca beneath a billowing lateen sail as your Nubian sailor reads wind and current with effortless skill. The river narrows, granite islets surface, and palms lean over water bright with afternoon light.

Drift past birds skimming the surface and listen as your host explains how to read the Nile’s winds, a practice passed through families for generations. This intimate glide offers river life at eye level and a human connection to Egypt’s timeless waterway.

Enjoy high tea at the Old Cataract Hotel, where polished silver, crisp linens and views over the First Cataract set a refined scene. Sip fragrant brews as feluccas tack across the shifting blue.

Bite into buttery pastries while your Travel Director shares tales of illustrious guests, from Churchill to Agatha Christie. The hotel’s Belle Époque ambience and island-strewn vista lend a cinematic elegance to late afternoon in Aswan.

Explore Saladin’s Citadel, the medieval fortress crowning Cairo’s Mokattam Hills. From ramparts and courtyards, the city unfurls in minarets and districts that trace centuries of change.

Step inside the Great Alabaster Mosque of Muhammad Ali, where soaring domes and stained-glass glow bathe marble in jewel tones. Your Egyptologist connects Ayyubid, Ottoman and modern histories that shaped this UNESCO-listed skyline.

Discover the Grand Egyptian Museum with your Egyptologist, where Tutankhamun’s golden treasures are presented together—ornate coffins, ceremonial beds and daily objects that humanize a young king.

Stand before the colossal Ramses II and examine the reconstructed solar barque once buried beside the Great Pyramid. Galleries span from Predynastic to Greco-Roman Egypt, revealing how art, ritual and power evolved along the Nile’s long arc of civilization.

Walk the Giza Plateau among limestone giants, then enter a pyramid through narrowing passages into cool inner chambers aligned to cosmic and royal design.

At the foot of the plateau, meet the Great Sphinx, guardian of the necropolis with a lion’s body and human face. Your Egyptologist interprets funerary beliefs, construction feats and the enduring fascination of Egypt’s most iconic horizon.

Visit Memphis, ancient capital of the Old Kingdom, to view the prone statue of Ramesses II and the enigmatic Alabaster Sphinx. Sculpted forms rest beneath palms in an evocative open-air setting.

Continue to Saqqara to admire the Step Pyramid of Djoser, the prototype of later pyramids. Your Egyptologist explains Imhotep’s revolutionary design and the vast necropolis that preserves early chapters of royal ambition.

Meet skilled artisans at a local weaving school safeguarding Egyptian carpet weaving. Watch warp and weft tighten on wooden looms as silk and cotton threads, coloured with natural dyes, become intricate patterns.

Hear how this social enterprise sustains livelihoods and heritage, aligning with UN Global Goal 11 for resilient communities. Your visit supports training that keeps a centuries-old craft vibrant in modern Cairo.

Visit a local family in a West Bank village to share stories and taste authentic sun bread—‘aysh shamsi—traditionally leavened beneath the Upper Egyptian sun. The warm crust and nutty crumb pair with honey or tahini.

Conversation flows about crops, festivals and stories of village life. This intimate exchange reveals the rhythms that sustain households beyond Luxor’s temples.

Gather for an Egyptian dinner featuring spice-rich dishes, grilled meats and fragrant rice as your ship’s dining room fills with colour and laughter. Traditional galabeya party attire adds playful flair.

Enjoy music and dancing that spotlight regional rhythms and hospitality. Your Travel Director and crew create a joyful, inclusive celebration of Nile culture on the water.

Choose between two insider experiences. Join an Egyptian cooking demonstration with the ship’s chef—hear spice tips, watch breads puff and taste warm, aromatic bites.

Or tour the Captain’s quarters to see charts, instruments and the helm, learning how generations of Nile know-how guide navigation through currents and locks. One experience is included per guest, selected on tour.

Fly to Abu Simbel to witness the lakefront masterpieces of Ramesses II and Nefertari. The Great Temple of Ramesses II presents colossi carved into Nubian rock; nearby, the Temple of Hathor honours his beloved queen.

Hear how UNESCO’s rescue project moved both temples in the 1960s to save them from inundation. This optional excursion is at additional cost and bookable on tour, subject to availability and flight schedules.

Return to the plateau after dark for the Sound & Light Show, where narration and music animate the Great Pyramids at Giza and the Sphinx in shifting colour.

Beneath a starlit desert sky, voices recount dynasties, engineering and myth as lights sculpt angles and shadow. This evening experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour.

Visit the Luxor Museum, a carefully curated trove where finely lit statues of pharaohs and deities reveal the elegance of New Kingdom art. Clean lines and precise displays invite close looking and quiet reflection.

See select objects from nearby temples and tombs, including delicate jewelry and weapons, then pause before royal mummies whose linen wrappings and serene profiles speak across millennia to the craftsmanship and beliefs of ancient Thebes.

Insight Vacations

Join a guided tour through Karnak’s vast ceremonial city, entering along the Avenue of Ram-Headed Sphinxes to pylons and courts dedicated to Amun-Re. In the legendary Hypostyle Hall, 134 papyrus-topped columns rise like a stone forest, their hieroglyphs catching the light.

Hear how pharaohs expanded this sacred precinct over 2,000 years and imagine festival processions linking Karnak to Luxor Temple. Pause by the Sacred Lake as your Egyptologist deciphers pharaonic reliefs celebrating kings, gods and the life-giving Nile.

Settle into your cabin and cruise the Nile, watching palm-fringed banks, sugarcane fields and mud-brick villages slip by. Life unfolds at the water’s edge—fishermen cast nets, children wave from the shore, and temple silhouettes appear against the tawny desert.

Glide through the engineering marvel of the Esna Lock, learn river lore from your crew, and savour sunsets that stain the current copper and rose. Evenings bring cool breezes and starlit skies over the desert, a timeless counterpoint to the day’s ancient wonders.