Giza and Abu Simbel sit more than 1,000 kilometres apart, at opposite ends of the ancient Egyptian world. This 4 day Cairo and Abu Simbel tour puts both into one short trip by flying every long leg — so your days are spent standing in front of the monuments, not crossing the desert to reach them.
You start on the Giza Plateau with the Great Pyramids and the Sphinx, then fly south to Aswan for the High Dam, the granite quarry that still holds the Unfinished Obelisk, and the Temple of Isis on its island. Day three is the reason people book this trip: an early flight to Abu Simbel, where Ramses II had two temples cut straight into the sandstone cliff above the Nile. You are back in Cairo the same evening, and the final day closes at the Grand Egyptian Museum, Saladin’s Citadel and Khan El Khalili.
Everything is private — your own Egyptologist, driver and air-conditioned vehicle — with domestic flights, entrance fees and 5-star hotels already in the price. Four days is short for Egypt. Flown rather than driven, it is enough for Giza and Abu Simbel both.
Tell us your arrival date and we will confirm availability and flight timings within the hour. Call or WhatsApp Egypt Best Vacations on +20 155 1580 786, or email info@egyptbestvacations.com.
Your Egypt Best Vacations representative meets you inside the arrivals hall at Cairo International Airport and stays with you through visa and passport formalities. Your Egyptologist guide and driver are waiting at the exit, and you head straight for the Giza Plateau.
The afternoon is spent at the Great Pyramids of Giza — Khufu’s, Khafre’s and Menkaure’s — the only one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World still standing. Your guide will take you through how the plateau was quarried and built, and what the surviving evidence actually shows. From there down to the valley floor for the Sphinx and the granite-and-limestone Valley Temple of Khafre beside it.
Lunch at a deluxe restaurant. Check in to your Cairo hotel, and dinner there.
Overnight: Cairo
Meals Plan: Lunch & Dinner
Morning flight to Aswan, where your guide meets you at the airport.
First stop is the Aswan High Dam, built between 1960 and 1970 — the structure that ended the Nile’s annual flood, created Lake Nasser, and forced the rescue of the temples you will see tomorrow.
Then the northern granite quarry, where the Unfinished Obelisk still lies attached to the bedrock. Finished, it would have stood around 42 metres and weighed over 1,000 tonnes — the largest obelisk ever attempted. It cracked during cutting and was abandoned, which is precisely what makes it valuable: it shows the quarrying process frozen mid-stage.
A short motorboat ride takes you to Philae Temple, the great sanctuary of Isis. The temple no longer stands on Philae Island — when the High Dam raised the water, UNESCO and the Egyptian government dismantled it and rebuilt it stone by stone on neighbouring Agilkia Island, which was reshaped to match the original setting.
Lunch at a local restaurant. Dinner at your Aswan hotel.
Overnight: Aswan
Optional tour: Tour to Nubian Village in Aswan
Meals Plan: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner
Early start with a boxed breakfast, and a short flight south to Abu Simbel.
The Great Temple was cut roughly 60 metres into the sandstone cliff for Ramses II and dedicated to Amun-Ra, Ra-Horakhty, Ptah — and to Ramses himself as a god. Four seated colossi of the king, each over 20 metres high, front the façade. Inside, Osiride pillars line the hypostyle hall and the reliefs of the Battle of Kadesh run the length of the north wall.
Next to it stands the smaller temple, built for Queen Nefertari and the goddess Hathor. It is one of very few temples in Egypt where the queen appears at the same scale as the king — her statues on the façade stand the same height as his, which in Egyptian royal art is a deliberate and highly unusual statement.
Your guide will also walk you through the rescue of Abu Simbel; between 1964 and 1968 both temples were cut into more than a thousand blocks and reassembled 65 metres higher and around 200 metres back from the rising water.
Lunch, then your return flight to Cairo. Transfer to your hotel and dinner there.
Overnight: Cairo
Meals Plan: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner
Your last day is Cairo’s, beginning at the Grand Egyptian Museum at the edge of the Giza plateau. GEM holds the complete Tutankhamun collection — all of it shown together for the first time since Howard Carter cleared the tomb — along with the Grand Staircase and the colossus of Ramses II standing in the atrium.
Then to the Citadel of Saladin, the fortress Salah al-Din began in 1176 to defend Cairo, and which remained the seat of Egyptian government for almost 700 years. Inside it stands the Mosque of Muhammad Ali, known as the Alabaster Mosque for the Egyptian alabaster facing its courtyard walls — completed in 1848 and modelled on the imperial mosques of Istanbul.
Lunch at a fine restaurant, then Khan El-Khalili, founded in 1382 and one of the oldest and best known bazaars in the Middle East. Coffee at El Fishawy if time allows.
Transfer to Cairo International Airport for your departure flight.
Thinking of extending? Luxor, a Nile cruise or the Red Sea all attach cleanly to this itinerary — tell us and we will rebuild it around them.
Meals Plan: Breakfast & Lunch
| Travel dates | Triple | Twin | Single |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 May – 30 September | $1,500 | $1,560 | $2,650 |
| 1 October – 21 December | $1,560 | $1,635 | $2,780 |
| 22 December – 10 January (Festive) | $1,950 | $2,045 | $3,475 |
| 11 January – 25 March | $1,560 | $1,635 | $2,780 |
| 26 March – 10 April (Easter) | $1,750 | $1,850 | $3,145 |
| 11 April – 30 April | $1,560 | $1,635 | $2,780 |
| Travel dates | Triple | Twin | Single |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 May – 30 September | $1,800 | $1,875 | $3,190 |
| 1 October – 21 December | $1,875 | $1,965 | $3,340 |
| 22 December – 10 January (Festive) | $2,345 | $2,455 | $4,175 |
| 11 January – 25 March | $1,875 | $1,965 | $3,340 |
| 26 March – 10 April (Easter) | $2,150 | $2,255 | $3,835 |
| 11 April – 30 April | $1,875 | $1965 | $3,340 |
