At two weeks, an Egypt trip changes character. There is room to sit with a place instead of photographing it and moving on to the next one. This 14 day Egypt tour with Nile cruise and Red Sea stay is built on that principle: thirteen nights, split six in Cairo, three sailing from Aswan to Luxor and four on the coast at Hurghada, with both domestic flights, every transfer and 29 meals already inside the quoted price.
Six nights in Cairo rather than the usual two means the capital is treated as a destination instead of a transit stop. One day belongs to the Giza plateau and the Grand Egyptian Museum, where the complete Tutankhamun collection is displayed together in a single gallery for the first time. Another traces the older city: the Hanging Church, Abu Serga and the Ben Ezra Synagogue in Coptic Cairo, the Citadel of Saladin, the Alabaster Mosque of Muhammad Ali, and finally the spice lanes of Khan El-Khalili. A third runs south to Saqqara, Memphis and Dahshur, where Djoser’s Step Pyramid and the Bent Pyramid record the century of trial and error that made Giza possible.
Alexandria is the day most two-week itineraries quietly drop. This one keeps it. Egypt’s Greek and Roman centuries survive here in a form you will not find anywhere upriver: the Catacombs of Kom El-Shoqafa, where Egyptian funerary gods appear in Roman dress; Pompey’s Pillar standing on the mound of the vanished Serapeum; the Citadel of Qaitbay built from the ruins of the Pharos lighthouse; and the Bibliotheca Alexandrina answering its ancient namesake across two thousand years. It is a genuine change of register, and it is what separates this Cairo, Alexandria, Nile cruise and Hurghada tour from the standard fortnight.
Then you fly south. Aswan opens with the High Dam, the island temple of Philae and the Unfinished Obelisk still lying in the granite it was cut from, before you board for three nights on the river. The ship works downstream to the double sanctuary at Kom Ombo, to the deep-cut reliefs of Edfu, through the Esna lock and on to Luxor for Karnak, Luxor Temple, the Valley of the Kings, Hatshepsut’s terraces at Deir El-Bahari and the Colossi of Memnon. Abu Simbel and a sunrise balloon flight over the west bank are both available as add-ons.
The last stretch is deliberately unscheduled. Four all-inclusive nights in Hurghada on the Red Sea, with diving, snorkeling, glass-boat trips and desert safaris there if you want them and nothing at all required if you do not. After nine days of early starts, this is the part of the 2 week Egypt itinerary with Nile cruise that most guests end up describing first when they get home.
Groups run to a maximum of sixteen, every site is led by a licensed Egyptologist guide, and prices start at $2,050 per person in a triple room. To compare this route against its shorter and longer siblings, see our full 14 day Egypt tour packages and Egypt tours with Nile cruise collections.
Your representative meets you inside Cairo International Airport, before immigration, and stays with you through the visa desk and baggage hall. From there it is a private air-conditioned transfer to your hotel.
Nothing is scheduled for the rest of the day. Most long-haul arrivals land tired, and the itinerary that follows starts early, so the evening is left open deliberately. Your guide will confirm tomorrow’s pick-up time at check-in.
Meals Plan: No Meals Included
Your Egyptologist collects you after breakfast for the drive to Giza. You will see all three pyramids — Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure — and the smaller queens’ pyramids at their feet, then walk down to the Sphinx and the granite valley temple beside it.
The morning is spent on how the plateau was actually built: the quarries, the ramps still argued over by archaeologists, the workers’ village excavated to the south, and why the site was chosen at all. Khufu’s pyramid is the last of the seven wonders of the ancient world still standing.
Lunch is at a local restaurant, then the Grand Egyptian Museum. The full Tutankhamun collection is displayed together here for the first time since Howard Carter cleared the tomb — over 5,000 objects, many of which had never been shown publicly before the museum opened.
Meals Plan: Breakfast & Lunch
Today covers the fifteen centuries between the pharaohs and the modern city.
Start at the Citadel of Saladin, begun in 1176 on the Muqattam spur to hold Cairo against Crusader attack and still the best viewpoint over the city. Inside stands the Mosque of Muhammad Ali, faced in the pale Egyptian alabaster that gives it its usual English name, the Alabaster Mosque.
Then down into Coptic Cairo, built inside the walls of a Roman fortress. The Hanging Church is suspended over one of its gate towers — the nave floor has a glass panel showing the drop. Nearby, Abu Serga marks the cave where tradition places the Holy Family during their years in Egypt, and the Ben Ezra Synagogue held the Cairo Geniza, the storeroom of discarded manuscripts that rewrote what historians know about medieval Jewish life.
The day ends in Khan El-Khalili, trading continuously since the fourteenth century. Your guide will show you which lanes sell to Cairenes and which sell to visitors.
Meals Plan: Breakfast Only
An early start for the drive north to the Mediterranean, roughly three hours each way.
The Catacombs of Kom El-Shoqafa are the first stop and the strangest thing you will see in Egypt. Cut three levels into the rock in the second century AD, they began as one wealthy family’s tomb and grew into a public cemetery of more than 300 burials. In the principal chamber, Anubis stands in Roman legionary armour and a serpent wears the double crown — two religions visibly merging on the same wall.
From there to Pompey’s Pillar, a single 25-metre column of Aswan granite raised for Diocletian and standing on the mound where the Serapeum once was. Then the Citadel of Qaitbay, built in the 1480s on the exact footprint of the Pharos lighthouse and partly from its fallen stone. The day closes at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, opened in 2002 as a deliberate reply to the ancient library, its granite wall carved with characters from every writing system in use.
Lunch is on the seafront before the drive back to Cairo.
Meals Plan: Breakfast & Lunch
The pyramid problem, solved in reverse order.
Saqqara comes first: Djoser’s Step Pyramid, the earliest monumental stone building anywhere, designed by Imhotep around 2670 BC as six mastabas stacked on one another. The surrounding funerary complex reproduces temporary festival buildings in permanent limestone — reed bundles, matting and wooden doors, all carved in stone.
Memphis follows, Egypt’s capital for most of the Old Kingdom and now an open-air museum of what survives: an alabaster sphinx and the colossal fallen Ramses II, over ten metres long, displayed lying down because his feet were never found.
Dahshur closes the day and explains everything you saw at Giza. Sneferu built the Bent Pyramid here, changed its angle partway up when the structure began to fail, then built the Red Pyramid a short distance away at the corrected slope — the first true pyramid that worked. His son Khufu applied the result at Giza. Dahshur sees a fraction of Giza’s crowds.
Meals Plan: Breakfast Only
Morning transfer to Cairo Airport for the flight south to Aswan, where your Aswan guide meets you at arrivals.
The High Dam comes first — completed in 1970, it ended the annual Nile flood that had governed Egyptian agriculture for five thousand years, and created Lake Nasser behind it. Then Philae, the temple of Isis, which the dam would have drowned: between 1972 and 1980 it was cut into more than 40,000 blocks and rebuilt on higher ground on Agilkia Island, where you see it now.
The last stop is the Unfinished Obelisk, still lying in the granite quarry where it was abandoned. Had it been finished it would have stood nearly 42 metres and outweighed anything else ever raised — a crack ran through the stone and the work stopped. The tool marks are still visible.
Transfer to your ship in the late afternoon. Overnight moored at Aswan.
Optional tour: Nubian Village Tour in Aswan
Meals Plan: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner
The morning is free on board unless you have booked the optional excursion to Abu Simbel, which leaves very early and returns around midday.
The ship casts off after lunch and sails north. Kom Ombo appears in the late afternoon, standing directly on the riverbank — the only Egyptian temple built in perfect mirror image, with two entrances, two hypostyle halls and two sanctuaries. The southern half belongs to Sobek the crocodile god, the northern to Horus the Elder. Construction ran from Ptolemy VI in the second century BC through to the Roman emperors, roughly four hundred years of additions.
The adjoining Crocodile Museum holds mummified crocodiles recovered from the site, some still wearing gilded fittings.
Back aboard, the ship continues to Edfu. Overnight moored there.
Meals Plan: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner
A horse and carriage takes you from the mooring to the Temple of Horus at Edfu before breakfast, while the site is still cool and nearly empty.
Edfu is the most completely preserved temple in Egypt. Sand buried it for centuries, which is precisely why its roof, its pylon, its enclosure wall and almost every inscription survived. The walls carry the temple’s own construction records and a detailed account of the ritual drama performed here each year, in which Horus defeats Seth. It took 180 years to build.
Back on board, the ship sails to Luxor and passes through the Esna lock, which raises it several meters in a controlled chamber. Waiting time varies with river traffic.
In Luxor you visit Karnak, the largest religious complex of the ancient world, built and rebuilt across two thousand years, its hypostyle hall holding 134 columns. Then Luxor Temple, joined to Karnak by an avenue of sphinxes, built mainly by Amenhotep III and Ramses II for the annual Opet festival.
Meals Plan: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner
Disembark after breakfast and cross to the west bank.
The Valley of the Kings holds 60-odd tombs cut into the rock over five centuries. The ancient Egyptians called this place Ta-Iset-Maat, the Place of Truth. Thutmose I is generally taken as the first king buried here; Ramses XI had the last royal tomb cut in the valley, though the evidence suggests he was never actually laid in it. Your standard ticket admits you to three tombs from the rotating selection open that day.
Then the terraced temple of Hatshepsut at Deir El-Bahari, built for the woman who ruled Egypt as pharaoh for about twenty years and set against a cliff wall 300 metres high. The Colossi of Memnon end the morning — two seated figures of Amenhotep III, all that stands of what was once the largest temple on the west bank.
The road to Hurghada takes roughly four to five hours across the Eastern Desert, arriving in time for dinner at your all-inclusive resort.
Optional tour: Sunrise Hot Air Balloon over Luxor
Meals Plan: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner
Your first full day on the Red Sea, and the obvious way to spend it is under it.
The reef here belongs to the northern Red Sea system, with visibility that regularly exceeds 30 metres and water warm enough to swim year-round. Giftun Island sits about an hour offshore and is the standard full-day boat trip, with two or three snorkelling stops and lunch aboard. Certified divers can join a two-tank day; if you have never dived, most centres run an introductory dive in shallow water with an instructor beside you.
If you would rather stay dry, glass-bottom boats and the tourist submarine both reach the reef without getting in.
All arranged on request through your resort or through us. Nothing is compulsory and nothing is prepaid.
Meals Plan: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner
A day for the land side.
The Eastern Desert starts a few kilometers inland and runs to the Nile. Afternoon safaris by quad bike or four-wheel drive cross the sand flats to a Bedouin camp, usually returning after sunset — the temperature drops sharply once the light goes, so take a layer.
In town, El Dahar is the older quarter, with a produce market, the Mosque of Abdulmoneim Riyad and small local restaurants where prices are not written for visitors. The Marina, at the other end of the seafront, is where the town eats in the evening. Private transfers between the two are available whenever you want them.
Meals Plan: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner
Deliberately empty.
By this point you have covered Cairo, Alexandria, Aswan and Luxor, sailed three nights and crossed a desert. This day exists so the last one before you fly is not spent recovering from the one before it.
The resort is all-inclusive, so meals and drinks are already handled. Some guests use the day for the spa or a second reef trip; plenty of people do not leave the beach. Anything you skipped on the previous two days can be moved here.
Meals Plan: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner
Transfer to Hurghada Airport for the short flight to Cairo — under an hour, and the descent gives you a last look at the desert edge where it meets the Delta.
Your driver meets you at Cairo arrivals for the transfer to your hotel. The evening is free. If there is something you missed on the first five days — the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir, the Ibn Tulun mosque, dinner on a Nile boat — this is when to do it, and we can arrange it on the day.
Meals Plan: Breakfast Only
Breakfast at the hotel, then a private transfer to Cairo International Airport, timed to your flight with assistance through check-in.
If you are extending — Sharm El-Sheikh, Siwa, the White Desert, or on to Jordan — tell us before you travel and we will build it onto the end of this itinerary rather than sell it to you as a separate trip.
Meals Plan: Breakfast Only
