This private 6 day Egypt Christmas tour gives you the whole classic circuit — the pyramids and a Nile cruise — over the holidays without a wasted day. You land in Cairo and go straight to the Giza pyramids and the Sphinx; fly to Aswan for a 3-night Nile cruise to Luxor past Philae, Kom Ombo, Edfu, Karnak and the Valley of the Kings; then fly back for the Grand Egyptian Museum, the churches of Coptic Cairo and Khan el-Khalili before your flight home. It starts every Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday through the Christmas holidays, timed to the cruise embarkation in Aswan.
The cruise is where Christmas happens. Ships dress for the season, the galley puts on a Christmas Eve dinner, and you spend the days between the two great temple cities with the Nile going by. Coptic Cairo on the last day adds the oldest churches in the country, where the Holy Family is remembered as having sheltered on their flight into Egypt.
Choose your level. Gold means an Egyptian 5-star standard hotel in Cairo and a Standard Nile cruise ship, both about 3.5-star by Western standards. Platinum means an Egyptian 5-star deluxe hotel and a Deluxe ship, about 4-star by Western standards. Triple, twin and single rooms and cabins are available at both levels. Everything else is the same: a private Egyptologist guide in each city, domestic flights, and all sightseeing and entrance fees. See the rest of our Egypt Christmas tours if you have more or fewer days.
An Egypt Best Vacations representative meets you inside the arrivals terminal at Cairo International Airport with a signboard and helps with visa and passport formalities, then hands you to your private Egyptologist guide and driver. Go straight to the Giza Plateau: the Great Pyramid of Khufu, the pyramids of Khafre and Menkaure and the Great Sphinx. Your guide explains how the pyramids were built and what they were for. Lunch at a local restaurant, then check in to your hotel in Cairo.
Meals Plan: Lunch Only
After breakfast, transfer to Cairo Airport for the flight to Aswan, where your guide meets you on arrival. Visit the Aswan High Dam, built in the 1960s to control the flood and generate power, then take a motorboat to the Temple of Isis at Philae, rebuilt block by block on Agilkia Island when the dam’s reservoir threatened the original site. Finish at the granite quarries and the Unfinished Obelisk, still lying in the bedrock where it cracked. Board your Nile cruise ship, settle into your cabin and spend the night moored in Aswan.
Optional tour: Nubian Village in Aswan
Meals Plan: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner
A free morning on board — the sun deck, the pool, or the optional excursion to Abu Simbel, the two rock-cut temples of Ramesses II above Lake Nasser. The ship sails north at midday to Kom Ombo, where you visit the double temple of Sobek and Horus the Elder and the Crocodile Museum next door. Sail on to Edfu for the night.
Meals Plan: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner
Ride by horse-drawn carriage to the Temple of Horus at Edfu, the best-preserved temple in Egypt, Ptolemaic and built between 237 and 57 BC. Back on board, the ship passes through the Esna Lock on its way to Luxor. On arrival, visit Karnak, the largest religious complex ever built at about 100 hectares, with its great hypostyle hall and the precincts of Amun, Mut and Khonsu, then Luxor Temple, joined to Karnak by the avenue of sphinxes. Overnight on board in Luxor.
Meals Plan: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner
Disembark after breakfast and cross to the West Bank. In the Valley of the Kings, with more than sixty tombs, your guide picks the three best open tombs for you to enter. Continue to the terraced Temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahari. Hatshepsut began as regent for Thutmose III and went on to rule as a crowned king in full pharaonic regalia, with his regnal years still running alongside hers.
Stop at the Colossi of Memnon, the two seated statues of Amenhotep III that stood at the gate of his mortuary temple. Lunch at a local restaurant, then transfer to Luxor Airport for the flight to Cairo and check in to your hotel for the last night.
Optional tour: Sunrise Hot Air Ballooning Over Luxor
Meals Plan: Breakfast & Lunch
Start at the Grand Egyptian Museum on the edge of the Giza Plateau, where the grand staircase of royal statues leads to the galleries holding the complete Tutankhamun collection. Continue to Coptic Cairo inside the walls of the Roman fortress of Babylon: the Hanging Church, raised over the fortress gate; the Church of Abu Serga, whose crypt is held by tradition to be where the Holy Family sheltered; and the Ben Ezra Synagogue, where the Cairo Geniza was found.
After lunch, walk the lanes of Khan el-Khalili, trading since the 14th century, for a last coffee at Fishawi’s and any gifts you still need. Your driver then transfers you to Cairo International Airport for your departure flight. If you would like to add the Red Sea or Jordan, ask us and we will build it around this tour.
Meals Plan: Breakfast & Lunch
