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

• 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.

Return by boat for the Sound & Light Show at Philae Temple, where illumination picks out the sanctuary’s columns and carved facade against the night sky. Listen as the presentation recounts stories associated with Isis and the Nile.

The temple’s island setting gives the display an atmospheric backdrop of dark water and ancient stone. It offers a different perspective from the guided daytime visit, using light and narration to bring Egyptian mythology into focus.

Fly from Aswan to visit the temples of Abu Simbel, overlooking Lake Nasser. See the Great Temple of Ramesses II, fronted by immense seated statues, and the neighbouring temple dedicated to Hathor and Queen Nefertari.

Carved into rock in the 13th century BC, both temples were relocated in the 20th century to protect them from the rising waters of the lake. This optional excursion is at additional cost and bookable on tour.

Visit the Aswan High Dam and the nearby granite quarries to see the Unfinished Obelisk still attached to its bedrock. Together, these sites show two very different chapters in Egypt’s relationship with the Nile and its stone.

The modern dam transformed water management and created Lake Nasser. At the quarry, the abandoned obelisk reveals how ancient craftspeople cut enormous monuments—and how a flaw in the stone could halt their work.

• Experience enhanced hygiene protocols to align with the latest guidance following COVID-19.All Travel Directors, Well-Being Directors and Drivers have completed training in enhanced well-being and hygiene protocols.
• We only work with establishments we are confident will consistently adhere to our high well-being standards, which include hotels, restaurants and sight-seeing venues.
• Hand sanitizer is freely available on board for you to use throughout the day.

Insight Vacations

Meet your Travel Director and fellow travellers over a welcome drink in Cairo. It is a relaxed introduction to the people who will share your journey through Egypt.

Hear what lies ahead and begin getting to know your group before exploring the country’s temples, Nile landscapes and ancient cities together. The gathering offers a sociable start without a formal sightseeing programme.

Explore Karnak’s vast temple complex in Luxor with your Egyptologist. Walk an avenue of ram-headed sphinxes and stand among the towering columns of the Great Hypostyle Hall.

Built and enlarged by successive pharaohs over many centuries, Karnak was a major centre of worship devoted chiefly to Amun. Its carved walls, pylons and monumental scale reveal how rulers expressed both religious devotion and royal power.

Visit Luxor Museum to examine objects recovered from the ancient city of Thebes and its surrounding temples and tombs. Its displays include finely preserved sculptures, everyday artefacts and two royal mummies.

The museum’s focused collection gives individual objects room to tell their stories. With the monuments of Luxor nearby, it offers a closer view of the craftsmanship, beliefs and people behind the grand structures of ancient Egypt.

Stand before the Colossi of Memnon, two immense seated statues on Luxor’s west bank. Each depicts Amenhotep III and once guarded the entrance to his mortuary temple.

The temple itself has largely disappeared, leaving these weathered figures rising from the Theban plain. Their survival offers a striking sense of the original complex’s scale and of the pharaoh’s ambition to be remembered on the landscape for millennia.

Visit the mortuary temple of Hatshepsut with your Egyptologist on Luxor’s west bank. Its long terraces and colonnades sit against the sheer cliffs of Deir el-Bahari, creating one of Egypt’s most recognisable ancient settings.

Hatshepsut ruled as pharaoh during the New Kingdom, and the temple’s reliefs helped tell the story of her reign. Explore its architecture while learning how this remarkable ruler presented her authority to her people and the gods.

Explore the Valley of the Kings with your Egyptologist, entering the desert necropolis where New Kingdom pharaohs were laid to rest. Discover the purpose of its rock-cut tombs and the beliefs that shaped their decoration.

Among the rulers buried in this valley is Tutankhamun. Beneath the stark Theban hills, painted chambers and passages reveal an elaborate vision of the afterlife, in striking contrast to the quiet, sunlit terrain outside.

Meet local residents in Geziret Bahirat and share traditional Egyptian sun bread with the Bahirat family. Listen to stories of village life and experience the hospitality offered in a family home.

This personal encounter moves beyond Egypt’s ancient monuments to the rhythms of a living Nile community. Conversation and a simple, locally made food provide a direct connection with the people and traditions of the region.

Step inside Luxor Temple, an ancient sanctuary at the heart of modern Luxor. See its monumental entrance, associated with Ramses II, and walk among columns and courtyards shaped by successive rulers.

Unlike many temples dedicated principally to a deity, Luxor Temple was closely connected to kingship and the annual Opet festival. Its position within the city makes the meeting of ancient stonework and contemporary Egyptian life especially vivid.

Travel the Nile aboard a mid-size cruise ship for four nights, sailing between the temple landscapes of Luxor and Aswan. Watch riverbanks, cultivated fields and riverside communities from the water between guided visits.

The Nile sustained ancient Egyptian civilisation, carrying people and goods through an otherwise arid landscape. Cruising offers a view of that enduring relationship while your ship provides a comfortable base for exploring the monuments along its banks.

Visit Kom Ombo Temple on the Nile’s eastern bank and discover its unusual double, symmetrical design. Paired sanctuaries honour Sobek, the crocodile god, and Horus the Elder, the falcon god.

Explore the temple’s courts and carved reliefs while learning why two deities shared this riverside site. Its balanced layout makes the religious purpose visible in the architecture itself, distinguishing Kom Ombo from Egypt’s more familiar single-sanctuary temples.

Choose an Egyptian cooking demonstration with the talented chef aboard your Nile cruise ship. Watch local culinary techniques at work and discover the ingredients and flavours behind familiar Egyptian dishes.

This hands-on glimpse of the ship’s kitchen connects the journey to a tradition enjoyed around family tables, not just in restaurants. It is one of two included Insight Choice activities offered during your time near Aswan.

Choose to visit the captain’s quarters aboard your Nile cruise ship and learn how its crew navigates the river. Hear about the practical knowledge required at the helm and how sailing skills are passed between generations.

The visit offers a behind-the-scenes perspective on a journey most travellers experience only from the deck. It is one of two included Insight Choice activities offered during your time near Aswan.

Experience a traditional Egyptian-themed dinner and galabeya party aboard your Nile cruise ship. Learn about the galabeya, a loose-fitting garment worn in Egypt, and enjoy a sociable evening centred on local dress and food.

The gathering brings a cultural element to dinner rather than treating it as a routine meal. Its informal, celebratory setting gives fellow travellers a chance to share in a recognisable part of Egyptian everyday life.

Take a motorboat to the Temple of Isis near Aswan and explore its graceful pylons, courts and colonnades. The waterside setting gives the sanctuary a sense of separation from the city.

Dedicated to the goddess Isis, the temple was carefully moved and reassembled on Agilkia Island when construction of the Aswan High Dam threatened its original site on Philae. A guided visit reveals both its ancient religious importance and its extraordinary modern rescue.

Sail the Nile aboard a traditional felucca, a wooden boat propelled by its broad sail. Meet a local sailor and hear about the techniques used to navigate the river by wind.

From the low deck, take in Aswan’s river scenery at a gentler pace than a motorboat allows. The experience connects today’s journey with a long tradition of using sailing craft to travel and work along Egypt’s defining waterway.

Enjoy high tea at Aswan’s Old Cataract Hotel as the afternoon light softens over the Nile. Settle into this historic riverside address, long associated with travellers drawn to southern Egypt.

Winston Churchill and Agatha Christie are among its notable former guests; the hotel is closely linked with Christie’s Death on the Nile. The setting turns afternoon tea into an encounter with Aswan’s literary and travel heritage.

Explore Cairo’s Citadel of Saladin with your Egyptologist and step inside the Great Alabaster Mosque. See its domes, minarets and stained glass before taking in broad views across the city.

Founded as a medieval fortress to defend Cairo, the Citadel remained a centre of power for centuries. The 19th-century mosque of Muhammad Ali Pasha adds a distinct Ottoman-influenced layer to the site’s long history.

Discover the Grand Egyptian Museum with your Egyptologist, examining treasures that illuminate ancient Egyptian life, rulership and burial customs. Highlights include objects from Tutankhamun’s tomb, monumental sculpture and artefacts spanning many eras.

Near the Giza plateau, the museum gives space and context to objects once scattered across collections. Look closely at the materials and craftsmanship of personal possessions, ornate coffins and royal monuments while your guide helps connect them to the people who made and used them.

Explore the Pyramids of Giza and the Great Sphinx with your Egyptologist. Stand beneath the vast limestone monuments and venture inside a pyramid to experience its passages and burial chamber.

Built as royal tombs in the Old Kingdom, the pyramids remain a testament to ancient engineering and beliefs about the afterlife. Your guide brings purpose to the structures’ scale while the Sphinx adds another enduring figure to this desert-edge landscape.

Visit Memphis, the ancient capital associated with Egypt’s early dynasties, and see its colossal statue of Ramesses II and Alabaster Sphinx. These surviving works hint at the grandeur of a city that once held immense political and religious importance.

Memphis occupied a strategic position near the meeting of Upper and Lower Egypt. Its monuments provide a tangible introduction to the rulers and sculptors who shaped one of the ancient world’s most influential cities.

View the Step Pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara, the vast necropolis of ancient Memphis. Its six rising tiers show an early, revolutionary approach to building a royal tomb in stone.

Dating to the third millennium BC, the pyramid is closely associated with the architect Imhotep and marks a pivotal stage in the development of Egypt’s monumental architecture. The surrounding desert setting makes its distinctive stepped silhouette particularly clear.

Meet artisans at a local weaving school near Cairo and watch traditional carpets take shape on wooden looms. Discover how silk, cotton and natural dyes contribute to intricate patterns made through patient, skilled work.

This MAKE TRAVEL MATTER® experience focuses on people preserving a craft with deep roots in Egypt. Speaking with the weavers reveals the knowledge behind each textile and why passing these techniques to new generations matters.

Raise a glass with your Travel Director and fellow travellers over farewell drinks and canapés in Cairo. The hosted gathering gives the group a dedicated moment to reconnect.

Share impressions of the Nile, the temples of Upper Egypt and the ancient sites around Giza in a relaxed setting. More than a standard meal, it is a social close to the shared experiences and conversations of the tour.

• 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