9 Day Egypt Tours

The Four Nine-Day Routes

Cairo, Luxor, Aswan and a Nile cruise

The classic, and still the one I’d point a first-time visitor towards. Two or three nights in Cairo for the Great Pyramids of Giza, the Sphinx and the Grand Egyptian Museum, then a flight south and three to four nights sailing between Luxor and Aswan. You cover Karnak, Luxor Temple, the Valley of the Kings, Edfu, Kom Ombo and Philae without spending your holiday in a vehicle. From $1,370.

Nile cruise plus a second region

Same spine, with Alexandria, Siwa Oasis or Lake Nasser added on. These work because the cruise handles Upper Egypt efficiently, which frees up two or three days at the end. The Lake Nasser option is the underrated one — Abu Simbel from the water at dawn, with a fraction of the crowd that arrives by coach. From $1,350.

Dahabiya and felucca sailings

A Dahabiya is a small sailing boat with a handful of cabins that moors at sites the big ships can’t reach and doesn’t run a generator through dinner. A felucca is simpler and cheaper again — open deck, sleeping under the sail. Dahabiya nine-day trips start at $1,965; felucca-based ones from $1,250.

Cairo, Alexandria and the Red Sea

For travelers who want beach time built in rather than bolted on. These run by road and domestic flight rather than by river, which keeps the price down — the cheapest nine-day trip we sell, at $1,175, is in this group. You trade the Nile temples for Alexandria and four days at Hurghada.

What’s Included on a Nine-Day Trip

In every package:

• Meet and greet by an Egypt Best Vacations representative inside the arrivals terminal, holding a signboard with your name, who assists with visa and passport formalities
• Private airport transfers on arrival and departure
• Hotels and Nile cruise cabins at the standard shown on each itinerary
• A licensed Egyptologist guide throughout
• All entrance fees to temples, tombs and museums
• Air-conditioned private vehicle with driver
• Domestic flights between Egyptian cities where the route requires them
• Daily breakfast, plus full board on cruise days
• Direct support from our Luxor office for the duration of your trip

Not included:

• International flights — our prices are land-only and start when you land in Egypt
• Your Egypt entry visa, currently $30 on arrival
• Travel insurance
• Gratuities and personal spending
• Optional excursions listed as extras on the itinerary

Not every nine-day route flies. Cairo–Alexandria–Siwa itineraries travel entirely by road; anything reaching Aswan in nine days will use a domestic flight in at least one direction. Each itinerary page states exactly which applies.

How Much a Nine-Day Egypt Tour Costs

Prices are per person, based on three people sharing a room, and are the lowest available across the year. Solo travelers pay a single supplement that varies by itinerary and season.

Four things move the price: hotel standard, whether you sail on a cruise ship, a Dahabiya or a felucca, how many domestic flights the route needs, and your dates. December and the March–April window cost more than August. The eclipse itinerary sits outside the normal range because 2 August 2027 is a fixed, once-in-a-lifetime date and every bed in Upper Egypt is priced accordingly.

For a fuller breakdown including international flights, visas and tipping, see our guide to how much a trip to Egypt costs.

Private or Small Group?

Nine-day itineraries run as small-group tours capped at 16 travellers. Sixteen is a deliberate number: small enough that everyone can hear the guide inside a tomb, and small enough to move between sites without waiting on stragglers.

Our luxury and slow-travel packages run fully private as standard — your own guide, your own vehicle, your own schedule. And any itinerary on this page can be arranged as a private departure on request, for solo travellers, couples, families or a group booking the whole trip together. Just ask when you enquire.

Nile cruise ships are shared vessels either way. What changes is the guiding and the shore excursions, which follow whichever model your package uses.

When to Travel

October to April is the comfortable window. Daytime temperatures sit in the mid-20s Celsius — right for walking the Theban necropolis or standing on the Giza plateau at midday. November to February is the peak, and books out first.

May to September is hot, genuinely so in Luxor and Aswan, where 40°C is routine. It’s still very workable on a nine-day trip with early starts and an afternoon break, and you’ll pay noticeably less with far fewer people at the sites. On a cruise-based itinerary the heat matters less than people expect, because you’re on the water for half of it.

Christmas and New Year are our busiest dates. Worth knowing: the compulsory gala dinner is already inside our quoted price on festive packages, on ships and in hotels alike. Most operators add it to your bill on arrival. The price you see is the price you pay.

Book three to six months ahead for October–April travel. Dahabiya sailings and the better cruise cabins fill first, because the capacity is genuinely small.

Eight, Nine or Ten Days?

The honest answer is that nine days is the shortest trip that fits Cairo, a full Nile cruise and one more destination without feeling compressed.

Eight days does Cairo and a cruise well, but the third destination has to go. Ten days adds a genuine rest day, which matters more than most people anticipate once they’ve done four consecutive early starts — and it’s the point where Abu Simbel stops being a pre-dawn round trip and becomes a comfortable one.

If you’re still deciding, our guide to how many days you need in Egypt works through the trade-offs properly. Or browse the full range of Egypt tour packages by length and travel style.

If nothing on this page is quite right, tell us what you’re after and we’ll build it around your dates.