Private 10-Day Egypt and Jordan Tour: Petra, Pyramids & Nile Cruise

Welcome to Jordan! Our representative meets you at Queen Alia International Airport in Amman and helps you through arrival formalities. Your private guide and driver then take you south along the Desert Highway to Petra, the ancient capital of the Nabataeans and one of the New Seven Wonders of the World.
Enter Petra through the Siq, a narrow canyon over a kilometre long, with rose-coloured rock walls rising up to 80 metres on either side. At its end, the Treasury (Al-Khazneh) suddenly appears, its 2,000-year-old façade carved straight into the cliff. Continue along the Street of Facades to the Roman-style Theatre and the Royal Tombs, and hear how the Nabataeans grew rich controlling the incense and spice trade routes.
Enjoy lunch at a local restaurant. If you have the energy, you can climb the steps to the Monastery (Ad Deir), one of Petra’s largest monuments, with sweeping views over the mountains.

Meals: Lunch

After breakfast, drive north to Jerash, one of the best-preserved Roman cities outside Italy. Walk through Hadrian’s Arch, built to welcome the emperor in 129 AD, into the huge Oval Plaza surrounded by columns. Follow the colonnaded main street, still paved with its original stones and marked by chariot wheels, and see the Temple of Artemis and the theatres where performances are still held today.
Continue to Madaba, the “City of Mosaics”. In the Church of Saint George, see the famous 6th-century mosaic map of the Holy Land, the oldest surviving map of the region, with Jerusalem at its centre.
End the day on Mount Nebo, where the Bible says Moses looked over the Promised Land. Visit the Memorial Church of Moses and its fine mosaics. On a clear day, you can see across the Jordan Valley and the Dead Sea as far as Jericho and Jerusalem.

Meals: Breakfast

Today you visit the Dead Sea, about 430 metres below sea level and the lowest point on earth. Its water is almost ten times saltier than the ocean, so you float effortlessly on the surface. Enjoy free time to swim and relax, and try the mineral-rich mud the Dead Sea is famous for.
In the afternoon, transfer to Queen Alia International Airport for your flight to Cairo. Our representative meets you on arrival, helps with your Egypt visa and passport control, and takes you to your hotel in a private car.

Meals: Breakfast

After breakfast, your private Egyptologist guide takes you to the Giza Plateau. Stand at the foot of the Great Pyramid of Khufu, built around 4,500 years ago from about 2.3 million stone blocks. It is the last surviving wonder of the ancient world and was the tallest man-made structure on earth for almost 4,000 years. Continue to the pyramids of Khafre and Menkaure, and hear how and why they were built.
Then meet the Great Sphinx, carved from the bedrock with the body of a lion and the head of a king, guarding the plateau for more than 45 centuries.

After lunch at a local restaurant, visit the Grand Egyptian Museum, the largest museum in the world dedicated to a single civilisation. Climb the Grand Staircase lined with royal statues, then enter the Tutankhamun galleries, where the boy king’s complete treasure is displayed together: his golden mask, coffins, gilded shrines, chariots and thrones.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch

Take a morning flight south to Aswan, where your guide meets you at the airport. Start at the Aswan High Dam, the engineering project that tamed the Nile’s yearly flood and created Lake Nasser, one of the largest man-made lakes in the world.
Then take a short motorboat ride to Philae Temple, the graceful Temple of Isis. When the waters of the old dam threatened to drown it, the whole temple was taken apart and rebuilt stone by stone on Agilkia Island in a rescue led by UNESCO.
Finish at the Unfinished Obelisk in the ancient granite quarries. Had it been completed, it would have stood about 42 metres tall, but it cracked while being carved and was left in the rock.
In the afternoon, board your 5-star Nile cruise ship for the next 3 nights. In the evening, you can add an optional visit to a colourful Nubian village.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Enjoy a free morning on board, or add an optional excursion to the temples of Abu Simbel, built by Ramses II and moved to higher ground in the 1960s to save them from Lake Nasser.

Around lunchtime, your ship sets sail north to Kom Ombo. The temple here stands on a bend in the Nile and is unique in Egypt as a double temple, with two identical halves: one for Sobek, the crocodile god, and one for Haroeris, a form of Horus. Look for the relief of ancient surgical instruments, then visit the Crocodile Museum next door, with mummified crocodiles once sacred to Sobek.
Sail on to Edfu as the sun sets over the river.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Before breakfast, take a horse-drawn carriage to the Temple of Horus at Edfu, the best-preserved temple in Egypt. Buried in sand for centuries, it still has its roof, towering entrance pylon and granite falcon statues of Horus.
Back on board, sail north to Luxor, passing through the Esna Lock, where ships are lifted between two levels of the river.
In the afternoon, visit Karnak, the largest temple complex ever built, added to by pharaohs over 2,000 years. Walk through the Great Hypostyle Hall, a forest of 134 giant columns. End at Luxor Temple, dedicated to the god Amun, with the Avenue of Sphinxes stretching from its gates towards Karnak.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

For an unforgettable start, add an optional sunrise hot-air balloon ride over Luxor’s West Bank.
After breakfast, disembark and cross to the West Bank, the ancient city of the dead. In the Valley of the Kings, the pharaohs of the New Kingdom were buried in tombs cut deep into the mountain. Your ticket opens three royal tombs, their walls still bright with paintings of gods, stars, and the journey to the afterlife.
Continue to the Temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahari, rising in three terraces against the cliffs. Hatshepsut ruled Egypt as pharaoh for about 20 years. On the way back, stop at the Colossi of Memnon, two giant statues of Amenhotep III that have watched over the plain for 3,400 years.
Transfer to Luxor Airport for your flight to Cairo, then on to your hotel.

Meals: Breakfast

Spend the day discovering Cairo’s Islamic and Christian heritage. Begin at the Citadel of Saladin, the hilltop fortress built in the 12th century that was the seat of Egypt’s rulers for almost 700 years. Inside stands the Mosque of Muhammad Ali, known as the Alabaster Mosque for its gleaming stone walls. From its terrace, the whole city spreads out beneath you.
Continue to Coptic Cairo, built inside the walls of the Roman Babylon Fortress. Visit the Hanging Church, named because it was built on top of a Roman gatehouse. Then see the Church of Abu Serga, where tradition says the Holy Family sheltered during their flight into Egypt, and the Ben Ezra Synagogue.
End in the Khan El-Khalili bazaar, trading since the 14th century. Wander its lanes of lanterns, spices, silver, and perfume, and stop for mint tea at a traditional café.

Meals: Breakfast

Enjoy a final breakfast at your hotel. Your private car then takes you to Cairo International Airport, where our representative helps you with check-in before your flight home, with memories of Petra, the Pyramids, and the Nile to last a lifetime.

Meals: Breakfast