This 6 day Egypt budget tour with felucca cruise covers Cairo, Aswan and Luxor without a single domestic flight. Two overnight sleeper trains and one night on a traditional sailing boat take the place of flights and hotel nights. That is how the price starts at $790 per person while the sightseeing stays complete.
You begin in Cairo with the Great Pyramids of Giza, the Sphinx and the Grand Egyptian Museum. The sleeper train carries you south to Aswan, where you visit the High Dam and Philae Temple before boarding your felucca. After a night on the river you travel by road to the temples of Kom Ombo and Edfu, then on to Luxor for the Valley of the Kings and Karnak. A second sleeper train returns you to Cairo for a final morning in the old city.
The tour is private. You travel with your own guide and vehicle, not with a mixed group, and you can start on any day of the week.
| Night | Where | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cairo | Hotel, bed and breakfast |
| 2 | Sleeper train, Cairo to Aswan | Private compartment, dinner and breakfast on board |
| 3 | Felucca on the Nile | On deck under the stars, full board |
| 4 | Luxor | Hotel, bed and breakfast |
| 5 | Sleeper train, Luxor to Cairo | Private compartment, dinner and breakfast on board |
If you would rather sleep in hotels every night, look at our 6 day Cairo Luxor Aswan budget tour. To add the Mediterranean coast in place of Aswan, see the 6 day Egypt budget tour of Cairo, Alexandria and Luxor. With more time, the 10 day budget tour with felucca cruise and Hurghada adds Red Sea beach days, and the 7 day Egypt budget tour with Nile cruise swaps the felucca for a cruise ship. All of them are listed on our Egypt budget tours page.
Our representative meets you inside the arrivals hall at Cairo International Airport with a signboard and helps you through the visa and passport formalities. A private vehicle takes you to your hotel. The rest of the day is free.
Meals: No meals
Your guide collects you from the hotel for the Giza Plateau. You visit the Great Pyramids of Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure and the Great Sphinx. Entering a pyramid is possible with an extra ticket.
After lunch at a local restaurant you continue to the Grand Egyptian Museum, home of the complete Tutankhamun collection. In the evening you transfer to the railway station and board the sleeper train to Aswan. Dinner is served in your compartment.
Meals: Breakfast, lunch, dinner on the train
Breakfast is served on the train before you arrive in Aswan, where your guide is waiting. You visit the High Dam, then cross by motorboat to Philae Temple, the temple of Isis that now stands on Agilkia Island. The last stop is the granite quarry of the Unfinished Obelisk.
Then you board your felucca. The crew sets the sail and you drift north with the current, past palm groves and Nubian villages. Lunch and dinner are cooked on board. At sunset the boat ties up on the riverbank for the night.
Meals: Breakfast on the train, lunch and dinner on the felucca
After breakfast on board you leave the felucca and travel by road. On market days you stop at the Daraw camel market. You then visit Kom Ombo, the twin temple shared by the crocodile god Sobek and Horus the Elder, and its Crocodile Museum.
Next comes the Temple of Horus at Edfu, a Ptolemaic temple built between 237 and 57 BC and the best preserved in Egypt. After lunch at a local restaurant you continue to your hotel in Luxor.
Meals: Breakfast and lunch
You cross to the west bank for the Valley of the Kings, where your ticket covers three royal tombs. You continue to the Temple of Hatshepsut. 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. A photo stop at the Colossi of Memnon follows.
After lunch you visit Karnak, the largest religious complex ever built, covering about 100 hectares, and then Luxor Temple. In the evening you board the sleeper train to Cairo.
Optional: sunrise hot air balloon over Luxor.
Meals: Breakfast, lunch, dinner on the train
You arrive in Cairo in the morning and meet your guide. You visit the Citadel of Saladin, begun in 1176, and its Alabaster Mosque of Muhammad Ali. In Coptic Cairo you see the Hanging Church, Abu Serga Church and the Ben Ezra Synagogue.
The tour ends with time at the Khan El-Khalili bazaar before your transfer to Cairo Airport for your flight home.
Meals: Breakfast on the train
