This 6-day luxury Egypt tour covers Cairo, Aswan, Abu Simbel and Luxor in under a week, with no long drives. You fly between cities, stay in 5-star hotels and explore every site with your own licensed Egyptologist guide on a private tour.
In Cairo, stand before the Giza Pyramids and the Sphinx, then meet Tutankhamun’s treasures at the Grand Egyptian Museum. Fly south to Aswan for Philae Temple and the High Dam, and take a short flight to the colossal temples of Abu Simbel. A train carries you north to Luxor for the Valley of the Kings, Hatshepsut’s Temple and Karnak, before you fly back to Cairo for the Citadel, Coptic Cairo and the Khan El-Khalili bazaar.
Every transfer, flight, entrance fee and 16 meals are arranged for you, so you can enjoy Egypt’s greatest sites at an easy, comfortable pace.
Private tour: your own Egyptologist guide and air-conditioned car, never a large coach group.
Fly, don’t drive: domestic flights Cairo to Aswan, Aswan to Abu Simbel and back, and Luxor to Cairo are included.
5-star hotels throughout: 3 nights in Cairo, 1 in Aswan and 1 in Luxor.
Egypt’s highlights in one week: the pyramids, the Grand Egyptian Museum, Abu Simbel, Philae, Karnak and the Valley of the Kings.
Prefer a lower budget? Our 6-day tour with 5-star standard and deluxe hotels starts from $1,090. Short on time? See our 5-day luxury tour in Diamond or Elite hotels from $1,899.
Welcome to Egypt! Your journey begins the moment you land. Our representative meets you inside Cairo International Airport, before passport control, holding a sign with your name. They help you through the visa desk and baggage hall, then walk you to your private air-conditioned car.
As you drive into the city, you get your first glimpse of Cairo, the largest city in Africa, where modern towers rise beside centuries-old minarets. Check in to your 5-star hotel and take time to rest after your flight.
Overnight: Cairo
Meals Plan: Lunch & Dinner
After breakfast, your private Egyptologist guide takes you to the Giza Plateau, home to the most famous monuments on earth. Stand at the foot of the Great Pyramid of Khufu, built around 4,500 years ago and the tallest man-made structure in the world for almost 4,000 years. It is the only one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World still standing. Your guide explains how its 2.3 million stone blocks were cut, moved and raised, before you continue to the pyramids of Khafre and Menkaure.
Then meet the Great Sphinx, carved from the bedrock with the body of a lion and the head of a king, guarding the plateau for more than 45 centuries.
After lunch, visit the Grand Egyptian Museum, the largest archaeological museum in the world dedicated to one civilisation. Climb the Grand Staircase lined with royal statues, then step into the Tutankhamun galleries, where the boy king’s complete treasure is displayed together for the first time: his gold mask, coffins, golden shrines, chariots, thrones and jewellery.
Overnight: Cairo
Meals Plan: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner
Take a morning flight south to Aswan, Egypt’s most relaxed and beautiful city, where the Nile flows between golden desert and granite islands. Your Aswan guide meets you outside the arrival.
Start at the Aswan High Dam, the engineering project of the 20th century that tamed the Nile’s yearly flood and created Lake Nasser, one of the largest man-made lakes in the world.
Then take a short motorboat ride to Philae Temple, the graceful Temple of Isis. When the old dam threatened to flood it, the whole temple was taken apart and rebuilt stone by stone on Agilkia Island in an international rescue led by UNESCO. Its carved halls and riverside setting make it one of the most romantic sites in Egypt.
Finish at the Unfinished Obelisk in the ancient granite quarries. Had it been completed, it would have stood about 42 metres tall, but it cracked while being carved and was left in the rock, showing exactly how the ancient Egyptians cut their obelisks.
Overnight: Aswan
Optional tour: Tour to the Nubian Village in Aswan
Meals Plan: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner
Today you visit one of the greatest sights in Egypt. Fly from Aswan to Abu Simbel, about 45 minutes each way, near the Sudanese border on the shore of Lake Nasser.
Ramses II carved these two temples into a sandstone cliff more than 3,000 years ago to impress anyone travelling up the Nile. Four colossal statues of the king, each about 20 metres high, guard the entrance to the Great Temple. Inside, the halls lead to a sanctuary so precisely aligned that twice a year, around 22 February and 22 October, the rising sun lights up the statues at its far end.
Next door, the Temple of Nefertari is dedicated to the goddess Hathor and to Ramses’ favourite wife. It is one of the few temples where the queen’s statues stand as tall as the king’s. In the 1960s, both temples were cut into blocks and moved 65 metres higher to save them from the rising waters of Lake Nasser, one of the greatest rescue projects in history.
Fly back to Aswan and board a seated train north to Luxor, watching the green fields, palm groves and villages of the Nile valley pass by your window. Arrive in Luxor and check in to your hotel.
Overnight: Luxor
Meals Plan: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner
Luxor, ancient Thebes, holds more monuments than almost anywhere on earth, and today you see the best of them. Start on the West Bank in the Valley of the Kings, where the pharaohs of the New Kingdom were buried in tombs cut deep into the mountain. Your standard ticket opens three royal tombs, their walls still bright with paintings of gods, stars and the journey to the afterlife.
Continue to the Temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahari, rising in three terraces against the cliffs. Hatshepsut ruled Egypt as pharaoh for about 20 years, and her temple’s reliefs record her famous trading expedition to the land of Punt. On the way back, stop at the Colossi of Memnon, two giant seated statues of Amenhotep III that have watched over the plain for 3,400 years.
After lunch, cross to the East Bank for Karnak, the largest temple complex ever built, added to by pharaohs over 2,000 years. Walk through the Great Hypostyle Hall, a forest of 134 massive columns. End at Luxor Temple, once linked to Karnak by the Avenue of Sphinxes, which you can see stretching away from its gates.
In the evening, fly back to Cairo and transfer to your hotel.
Overnight: Cairo
Optional tour: Sunrise hot air balloon over Luxor
Meals Plan: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner
Spend your last day discovering Cairo’s Islamic and Christian heritage. Begin at the Citadel of Saladin, the hilltop fortress built in the 12th century that was the seat of Egypt’s rulers for almost 700 years. Inside stands the Mosque of Muhammad Ali, known as the Alabaster Mosque for its gleaming stone walls. From its terrace, the whole city spreads out below you.
Continue to Coptic Cairo, one of the oldest parts of the city, built within the walls of the Roman Babylon Fortress. Visit the Hanging Church, named because it was built on top of a Roman gatehouse. Then see the Church of Abu Serga, where tradition says the Holy Family rested during their flight into Egypt, and the Ben Ezra Synagogue, where a famous treasure of medieval manuscripts was found.
End in the Khan El-Khalili bazaar, trading since the 14th century. Wander its narrow lanes of lanterns, spices, silver and perfume, and stop for mint tea at a traditional café.
Then your private car takes you to Cairo International Airport for your flight home, with memories of Egypt to last a lifetime.
Meals Plan: Breakfast & Lunch
