This 4 day Cairo and Abu Simbel tour for women is a women-only small group trip, capped at sixteen travelers, that covers the Giza Pyramids, the Grand Egyptian Museum, Philae Temple and Abu Simbel in four days and three nights. It starts and ends at Cairo Airport, includes both domestic flights, and costs from $900 per person.
Most short Egypt itineraries make you choose between Cairo and the far south. This one does both, and the reason is a single building. At Abu Simbel, beside the great temple Ramses II cut into the cliff for himself, stands a second temple he dedicated to the goddess Hathor and to his wife, Queen Nefertari. On the great temple she stands no higher than his knee, which is how Egyptian sculptors normally showed a queen. On her own temple, her statues are about ten meters tall, the same height as his. Nothing else like it survives in Egypt, and it is the natural place for a women’s tour to aim for.
The same thread runs through the other days. Philae Temple, on Agilkia Island at Aswan, belonged to Isis, whose worship spread from here across the Roman world and who was still being served by priests at Philae long after the rest of Egypt had turned Christian. The Unfinished Obelisk, usually attributed to the reign of Hatshepsut, still lies in the granite quarry where it cracked. And in Cairo you walk the Giza plateau, where three queens’ pyramids stand in the shadow of Khufu’s, before a morning in the Grand Egyptian Museum.
Every traveler in the group is a woman, and the group never goes above sixteen, so it fits in one minibus and your guide can be heard without a microphone. You can join alone, or come with friends, a sister, a mother or a daughter. Your guide is a licensed Egyptologist and may be a woman or a man depending on the date. We tell you which before you travel, and if you would prefer a female guide, say so when you enquire and we will schedule one where we can. If you would rather not share the trip at all, the same itinerary can be booked as a private tour for a supplement.
| Duration | 4 days / 3 nights |
|---|---|
| Route | Cairo → Aswan → Abu Simbel → Cairo |
| Tour type | Women only, small group, maximum 16 (private on request) |
| Starts and ends | Cairo International Airport, any day of the week |
| Nights | 2 in Cairo, 1 in Aswan |
| Flights included | Cairo to Aswan, Aswan to Cairo |
| Meals | 7: three breakfasts and four lunches |
| Price | From $900 per person (Gold) or $990 per person (Platinum), in a triple room |
If you would rather see the Valley of the Kings and Karnak than Abu Simbel, the 4 day Egypt tour for women only to Cairo and Luxor uses the same four days differently. With one more day, the 5 day women-only Egypt tour to Cairo, Luxor and Aswan keeps Abu Simbel and adds Luxor. If the river matters more to you than the capital, look at the 4 day Aswan to Luxor Nile cruise for women. All of them, from four to ten days, are on our women only Egypt tours page. Travelling with a mixed party? The same route runs privately as our 4 day Cairo Aswan Abu Simbel tour.
Our representative meets you inside the arrivals hall at Cairo International Airport, holding a sign with your name, and takes you through the visa and passport desks. Outside, your guide and the group’s vehicle are waiting, and the tour begins straight away at the Great Pyramids of Giza.
The Great Pyramid of Khufu was built around 2560 BC from some 2.3 million blocks and stood 146 meters high when it was finished. Your guide walks you round it, past the three small pyramids built for Khufu’s queens on its eastern side, then on to the pyramids of Khafre and Menkaure and down to the Sphinx. Lunch is at a local restaurant, and then you check in to your Cairo hotel.
The Pyramids are visited on arrival day, so a morning landing works best. If your flight arrives in the afternoon, tell us when you enquire and we will arrange the Cairo visits around it.
Meals Plan: Lunch Only
After breakfast you fly to Aswan, where your Aswan guide meets the group. The first stop is the High Dam, built between 1960 and 1970, nearly four kilometers long, and the reason Lake Nasser exists.
From there a motorboat takes you to Philae Temple on Agilkia Island. This was the house of Isis: wife, mother, magician, and the goddess whose worship outlasted every other in Egypt. The last known hieroglyphic inscription was carved here in AD 394. The whole temple was taken apart and rebuilt on this island in the 1970s, when the water behind the old dam threatened to drown it.
The day ends in the granite quarry of the Unfinished Obelisk. Had it been raised it would have stood about 42 meters and weighed more than a thousand tonnes; it cracked, and the masons walked away. Lunch is at a local restaurant before you check in to your Aswan hotel.
Optional this evening: a visit to a Nubian village by boat.
Optional tour: Tour to Nubian Village in Aswan
Meals Plan: Breakfast & Lunch
An early start, with a breakfast box from the hotel, for the drive of about three and a half hours across the desert to the temples of Abu Simbel, some 280 kilometers south of Aswan.
Ramses II (1279–1213 BC) had two temples cut into the cliff here. The Great Temple is fronted by four seated statues of the king, each about 20 meters high. A short walk north is the temple he dedicated to Hathor and to Queen Nefertari. Six standing figures line its façade, four of the king and two of the queen, all the same height. The dedication on the façade says, in effect, that he made this temple for the Great Royal Wife Nefertari, for whose sake the sun rises. Your guide explains both temples outside, then you go in.
Both temples were sawn into blocks and moved between 1964 and 1968, 65 meters up the cliff, to save them from Lake Nasser. Our guide to the rescue of Abu Simbel tells that story. After lunch at a local restaurant you drive back to Aswan Airport, fly to Cairo and transfer to your hotel.
Meals Plan: Breakfast & Lunch
After breakfast you visit the Grand Egyptian Museum, the largest museum in the world devoted to a single civilization. An eleven-meter statue of Ramses II stands in the entrance hall, and the Tutankhamun galleries show the complete contents of his tomb, more than 5,000 objects, together for the first time.
Next is the Citadel of Saladin, begun in 1176 to defend Cairo against the Crusaders, and inside it the Alabaster Mosque of Muhammad Ali, built between 1830 and 1848. Bring a scarf: you will need to cover your hair and take off your shoes to go in. Lunch is at a local restaurant, and the afternoon ends in Khan El-Khalili, where merchants have traded since the 14th century and where your guide does the bargaining if you want help.
From the bazaar we take you to Cairo Airport for your flight home. Because this is a full day of touring, please book a departure in the evening.
Meals Plan: Breakfast & Lunch
