• 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.

• 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. This hosted gathering offers a relaxed introduction to the small group and an opportunity to hear about the places and traditions that shape the journey.

Conversations begin against the backdrop of Egypt’s capital, a city where medieval streets, Nile riverfronts and modern neighbourhoods sit alongside one another. It is a chance to settle in and share the anticipation of exploring the country together.

Explore Karnak with an Egyptologist in Luxor, walking past ram-headed sphinxes and into the Great Hypostyle Hall. Its immense columns, carved with hieroglyphs, convey the scale of a sanctuary expanded by successive pharaohs.

Dedicated chiefly to Amun-Ra, Karnak was a centre of worship for more than a millennium. See its pylons and monumental statuary while your guide explains how religious ceremony and royal power were expressed in stone.

Visit Luxor Museum to examine artefacts recovered from the ancient city of Thebes and its surrounding temples and tombs. Its carefully presented collection includes sculpture, everyday objects and two royal mummies.

Set beside the Nile, the museum offers a closer view of the craftsmanship behind Egypt’s monumental sites. Look for the details of carved faces and inscriptions, and consider the lives and beliefs of the people who made and used these objects.

Stand before the Colossi of Memnon on Luxor’s west bank, where two towering seated figures of Amenhotep III face the Nile plain. Their weathered stone surfaces still suggest the scale of the royal complex they once guarded.

The statues are among the few visible remains of the pharaoh’s vast mortuary temple. Hear how centuries of visitors associated one colossus with a mysterious sound at dawn, adding a layer of legend to this ancient landscape.

Visit the mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut with your Egyptologist at Deir el-Bahari, where long terraces rise against the limestone cliffs of Luxor’s west bank. Walk through a monument whose clean lines and dramatic setting distinguish it from the region’s other temples.

Hatshepsut ruled as pharaoh in the 15th century BC. The temple’s surviving reliefs illuminate how she presented her reign, including accounts of a trading expedition to the distant land of Punt.

Explore the Valley of the Kings with an Egyptologist among the desert hills west of Luxor. Enter ancient royal tombs and see how painted passages and burial chambers were designed to guide pharaohs towards the afterlife.

This necropolis holds the tombs of rulers including Tutankhamun. Your guide provides context for the symbols and funerary beliefs preserved here, bringing meaning to the vivid colours and inscriptions sheltered beneath the rock.

Meet the Bahirat family in the village of Geziret Bahirat near Luxor and share a taste of traditional Egyptian sun bread. Listen to residents’ stories for a personal view of daily life beyond the region’s archaeological sites.

Bread has long been central to Egyptian meals and hospitality. This family visit brings that living tradition into focus through conversation and the simple pleasure of sharing food in a local home.

Step inside Luxor Temple to see its monumental entrance, courts and columns in the heart of modern Luxor. Look up at the pylon associated with Ramesses II and examine the carved scenes that record royal ceremony.

Founded in the New Kingdom, the temple was closely linked to Karnak through the ancient Opet festival. Its layers of Egyptian, Roman and later history reveal how this riverside site remained significant across changing eras.

Cruise the Nile between Luxor and Aswan aboard a mid-size river ship, taking in palm-lined banks, cultivated fields and desert beyond. The four-night voyage offers time on the water as well as access to the temples and communities along its course.

Watch river life from the ship as it passes through the Esna Lock and sails towards Edfu, Kom Ombo and Aswan. For millennia, the Nile has connected settlements and sustained agriculture in this otherwise arid landscape.

Explore the Temple of Kom Ombo beside the Nile and discover its distinctive paired design. Two parallel sets of halls and sanctuaries honoured Sobek, the crocodile god, and Horus the Elder.

Examine carved reliefs and the temple’s near-symmetry while learning why these deities shared one sacred complex. Its riverside position and unusual arrangement make Kom Ombo a particularly revealing stop on the Nile.

Visit the Aswan High Dam and ancient granite quarries to see two very different feats of Egyptian engineering. At the quarry, inspect the Unfinished Obelisk, still attached to the bedrock where its makers abandoned it.

The obelisk offers a rare glimpse of how monumental stone was shaped, while the 20th-century dam transformed the Nile’s flood cycle and created Lake Nasser. Together, the sites reveal how successive generations sought to work with and control the river.

Travel by motorboat to Philae for a guided visit to the Temple of Isis. Approach its columned courts across the water and study the reliefs dedicated to one of ancient Egypt’s most enduring goddesses.

The temple complex was carefully relocated to higher ground when the construction of the Aswan High Dam threatened its original site with flooding. Its island setting gives this act of preservation a striking visual presence.

Sail the Nile aboard a traditional felucca in Aswan, travelling in a wooden boat propelled by its distinctive triangular sail. Meet a local sailor and hear how knowledge of the river and its winds is passed from one generation to another.

From the water, take in Aswan’s islands, riverbanks and desert-framed horizons at the pace of the breeze. The experience offers a close connection to a form of sailing that remains part of Nile life.

Enjoy afternoon tea at Aswan’s Old Cataract Hotel as the light softens over the Nile. Pause over tea in a landmark whose riverside setting has drawn travellers for more than a century.

Winston Churchill and Agatha Christie are among its celebrated former guests; Christie stayed here while working on Death on the Nile. The hotel’s literary associations and views of the river make this a distinctive taste of Aswan’s travel heritage.

Return by boat to Philae for its Sound and Light Show, watching the Temple of Isis become an illuminated stage across the water. Light, narration and music bring stories associated with the island’s ancient deities into the evening setting.

See architectural details emerge from the darkness as the performance evokes the Nile’s sacred place in Egyptian belief. The show offers a different perspective on the temple from a daytime guided visit.

Join an Egyptian-themed dinner and galabeya party aboard the Nile cruise ship. Learn about the galabeya, the loose-fitting garment worn in Egypt, and take part in a sociable evening centred on local dress and food.

The gathering brings a playful, participatory dimension to the voyage. Shared around the table with fellow travellers, it is an opportunity to experience a familiar element of Egyptian everyday culture in a festive setting.

Choose an Egyptian cooking demonstration with the onboard chef during the Nile cruise near Aswan. Watch the preparation of local dishes and ask about the ingredients and techniques behind the flavours.

This hands-on look at the ship’s kitchen connects the journey’s meals to Egypt’s food traditions. It is one of two included Insight Choice activities, allowing you to select the experience that most interests you.

Choose a visit to the captain’s quarters aboard the Nile cruise ship near Aswan. See where the vessel is guided and hear from the crew about navigating the river and the skills passed down through generations.

The visit offers a behind-the-scenes view of a working Nile voyage and the people who make it possible. It is one of two included Insight Choice activities; the alternative is an Egyptian cooking demonstration.

Explore Cairo’s Citadel with your Egyptologist and step inside the Great Alabaster Mosque, also known as the Mosque of Muhammad Ali. Look for its domes, slender minarets and stained-glass details, and take in broad views across the city from the hilltop setting.

Saladin established the fortress in the 12th century as a defence against Crusader forces. The 19th-century mosque adds an Ottoman-inspired chapter to a site that shaped Cairo’s political and religious history.

Explore the Grand Egyptian Museum with your Egyptologist near Giza. Discover treasures associated with Tutankhamun, view the monumental statue of Ramesses II and encounter objects that illuminate ancient royal life, craftsmanship and burial practices.

The museum brings together artefacts spanning thousands of years, from Egypt’s earliest cultures to later periods. Look beyond the scale of the collection to the details in its textiles, coffins and ceremonial objects, each offering a more intimate connection to the past.

Visit the Pyramids of Giza with your Egyptologist, meet the Great Sphinx and venture inside one of the pyramids. Move from the vast scale of the monuments outside to the enclosed passages and chambers within.

Built as royal tombs during the Old Kingdom, the pyramids are the last surviving Wonder of the Ancient World. Your guide explains their funerary purpose and the beliefs that shaped this extraordinary landscape on Cairo’s edge.

Watch the Sound and Light Show at Giza as illumination picks out the outlines of the pyramids and the Sphinx against the night sky. Narration and projected light present stories of the ancient rulers associated with the plateau.

The performance offers an evening view of monuments better known in daylight. Their monumental shapes, seen after dark, provide a dramatic setting for reflecting on the civilisation that built them.

Visit the remains of ancient Memphis to see a colossal statue of Ramesses II and the Alabaster Sphinx. These surviving works hint at the importance of a city that served as a major centre of ancient Egyptian power.

Founded near the meeting point of Upper and Lower Egypt, Memphis was closely associated with the Old Kingdom. Examine the scale and carving of its monuments while considering the capital that once surrounded them.

See the Step Pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara, its six rising tiers marking a turning point in Egyptian monumental architecture. Explore the setting of this ancient necropolis with your Egyptologist.

Built more than 4,500 years ago for the Old Kingdom pharaoh Djoser, the pyramid is associated with the architect Imhotep. Its stacked form shows an early stage in the development of the smooth-sided pyramids later built at Giza.

Meet artisans at a local carpet-weaving school near Cairo and watch traditional techniques practised on wooden looms. See how silk, cotton and colour are worked into intricate designs through patient, skilled handwork.

This MAKE TRAVEL MATTER® experience supports the preservation of a longstanding Egyptian craft. Speaking with the makers brings the labour and knowledge behind each finished textile into focus, beyond its appearance as a decorative object.

Raise a glass with your Travel Director and fellow travellers over drinks and canapés in Cairo. This hosted gathering offers time to exchange impressions of the Nile, Egypt’s ancient monuments and the people met along the way.

Rather than a formal sightseeing visit, it is a shared close to the small-group experience. Conversation and light refreshments give everyone a chance to revisit favourite discoveries together.

Fly from Aswan to visit Abu Simbel, where colossal seated figures guard the Great Temple of Ramesses II beside Lake Nasser. See the neighbouring Temple of Hathor, dedicated to the goddess and to Queen Nefertari.

Both temples were moved to higher ground in the 1960s to save them from the rising lake. Their monumental facades and remarkable rescue make this optional excursion distinctive. It is at additional cost and bookable on 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