Our Egypt spiritual tours follow the sacred geography of a country that has been holy ground for five thousand years. In four to ten days they take you into the churches of Coptic Cairo, along the route the Holy Family is believed to have walked, up Mount Sinai for sunrise, into the desert monasteries of Wadi El-Natrun, and through the temples where the Egyptians first worked out ideas of judgement, resurrection and eternal life.
Christian Egypt is the heart of this collection. In Old Cairo you visit the Hanging Church, built over the gatehouse of the Roman fortress of Babylon, and the Church of Abu Serga, whose crypt marks the spot where tradition says Mary, Joseph and the infant Jesus sheltered. The 10-day Holy Family tour and the 6-day Sacred Sites tour continue along that route into Middle Egypt, while the 8-day retreat calls at the fourth-century monasteries of Wadi El-Natrun, where Christian monasticism began. Three itineraries cross to Sinai for a night climb of Mount Moses and a visit to St Catherine’s, founded by Justinian in the sixth century around the site of the Burning Bush and never closed since.
The pharaonic temples belong here too. At Karnak, Luxor and the Valley of the Kings, at Philae and Abu Simbel, your Egyptologist guide reads the walls: the weighing of the heart, the journey of the sun through the night, the daily ritual that kept the world in order. Several tours add a Nile cruise, so the river that made all of this possible carries you between the sites. Islamic Cairo rounds out the picture with the Citadel of Saladin and the Alabaster Mosque of Muhammad Ali and other spiritual mosques.
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A guided journey built around Egypt’s sacred sites rather than a sightseeing checklist: the churches of Coptic Cairo, the Holy Family route, Mount Sinai and St Catherine’s Monastery, the monasteries of Wadi El-Natrun, and the temples of Luxor, Aswan and Abu Simbel. Days are paced for time at each site, and a licensed Egyptologist explains what the places meant to the people who built them.
Depending on the tour: the Hanging Church, Abu Serga and the Ben Ezra Synagogue in Old Cairo; the cave church of St Simeon the Tanner; Mount Moses and St Catherine’s Monastery in Sinai; the monasteries of Wadi El-Natrun; Holy Family sites in Cairo, Alexandria and Middle Egypt; the Citadel of Saladin and the Alabaster Mosque; and the temples of Karnak, Luxor, the Valley of the Kings and Philae. Every tour also visits the Giza Pyramids.
Yes. The 10-day Coptic Christian Legacy tour follows the route of the Flight into Egypt from the Delta through Cairo into Middle Egypt; the 6-day Sacred Sites tour covers the Cairo-to-El-Minya section; and every Cairo itinerary visits Abu Serga, where the family is said to have sheltered in Old Cairo.
Yes, on the 5-, 6- and 7-day Sinai itineraries. You fly from Cairo to Sharm El-Sheikh, drive to St Catherine, and climb Mount Moses at night with a Bedouin guide to reach the 2,285 m summit for sunrise. The walk takes about three hours up on the camel path, with 750 steps at the top; camels can be hired for most of the ascent. You then visit St Catherine’s Monastery before flying back to Cairo.
It was built by the Emperor Justinian between 548 and 565 around the chapel of the Burning Bush and has been occupied by monks ever since, which makes it the oldest continuously inhabited Christian monastery in the world. It holds the second-largest collection of early manuscripts after the Vatican and some of the oldest icons in existence, and it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Yes. Six of the twelve tours include Luxor, and several add Aswan and a Nile cruise. Your Egyptologist guide reads the temple walls as religious texts: the daily ritual at Karnak, the books of the underworld in the royal tombs, the cult of Isis at Philae. Abydos and Dendera can be added to any Luxor itinerary on request.
Two do. The 7-day Cairo & Nile Cruise Spiritual Tour and the 9-day Spiritual Tours Egypt & Nile Cruise both sail between Luxor and Aswan, visiting Karnak, the Valley of the Kings, Edfu, Kom Ombo and Philae from the ship.
Tours of up to six days are private to your party. Tours of seven days and more run as small groups of no more than 16 people, and can be booked privately on request.
No. The Christian sites are the core of the collection, but the tours are open to everyone, and the Sinai and temple itineraries draw as many travellers interested in history and landscape as pilgrims. There is no religious observance required.
Yes. The itineraries are paced for it, and your guide will plan visits for the quieter hours. Mass at Coptic churches and the liturgy at St Catherine’s follow the monastery’s own timetable; tell us in advance if attending a service matters to you and we will build the day around it.
5-star standard & deluxe hotels in Cairo, Alexandria, Luxor and Sharm El-Sheikh, and 5-star standard & deluxe ships on the Nile cruise tours. Upgrades are available on private tours. Twin, double, triple and single rooms are all available.
October to April for the temples and the Sinai climb, which is cold at the summit before dawn even in spring; bring warm layers. Coptic Christmas falls on 7 January and Coptic Easter usually a week after the Western date, and both are moving times to be in Egypt’s churches. Ramadan changes opening hours in Islamic Cairo but not at the churches or temples.
From $570 for the 4-day Spiritual Cairo Tour to $1,480 for the 10-day Holy Family tour, per person in a twin room at the low-season rate. Single supplements apply, and prices rise over Christmas, New Year and Easter.
Yes. Any itinerary can be extended with Abydos and Dendera, the monasteries of the Red Sea (St Anthony and St Paul), a dahabiya sailing cruise, or a few days on the Red Sea coast. Send us the sites that matter to you and we will build the route around them.
