This 3 day Aswan tour package is a private trip with two hotel nights in Aswan, your own Egyptologist guide and an air-conditioned vehicle. It runs every day of the year from $395 per person. Touring starts as soon as you land or step off the train: the High Dam, Philae Temple and the Unfinished Obelisk fill day one, Abu Simbel takes the whole of day two, and the Nile islands of Sehel and Elephantine close the trip before your transfer out.
Many itineraries squeeze Abu Simbel into a rushed morning between a cruise and a flight. Here it has the full day. You leave Aswan before sunrise, cross the desert by road in about three and a half hours, and reach the temples of Ramses II and Queen Nefertari in the cooler part of the morning. The other two days stay close to the river, with short drives and boat rides, so the long day sits between two easy ones.
The tour is planned and run by Egypt Best Vacations, a licensed Egyptian tour operator based in Luxor and led by Egyptologist Essam Ali. It suits travellers flying or taking the train down from Cairo, guests finishing a Nile cruise in Aswan, and anyone adding the south to a longer Egypt trip. It is one of our Egypt short breaks; if you only have one day, see our Aswan day tours.
| Detail | What you get |
|---|---|
| Duration | 3 days / 2 nights |
| Starts and ends | Aswan Airport or Aswan railway station |
| Tour type | Private tour: your own guide and vehicle |
| Departures | Every day, all year |
| Sites | High Dam, Philae Temple, Unfinished Obelisk, Abu Simbel, Sehel Island, Elephantine Island |
| Abu Simbel | Included, by road from Aswan (about 3.5 hours each way) |
| Meals | 2 breakfasts, 1 lunch |
| Price from | Gold $395 / Platinum $455 per person in a triple room |
With one more day, the 4 day Aswan tour package (from $535) adds the temples of Kom Ombo and Edfu. The 5 day Aswan tour package (from $690) also adds the Tombs of the Nobles, the Monastery of St. Simeon and the Nubian Museum. Starting in the capital? The 4 day Cairo Aswan Abu Simbel tour pairs the Pyramids with Philae and Abu Simbel. To carry on north by river, board the 3-night Nile cruise from Aswan to Luxor on the day this tour ends.
Our representative meets you inside the arrivals hall at Aswan Airport with a signboard, or at Aswan railway station, and your guide and private vehicle are ready to start your 3 day Aswan tour package.
The first stop is the Aswan High Dam, completed in 1970. From the top you look south over Lake Nasser and north toward the older dam, and your guide explains how this wall of rock ended the yearly flood and forced the rescue of the Nubian temples.
A short motorboat ride then takes you to Philae Temple on Agilkia Island. The temple of Isis was taken apart and rebuilt here in the 1970s after its original island was flooded. You walk through the pylons, the birth house and Trajan’s Kiosk. This was one of the last places where the old Egyptian religion was practised, and the latest known hieroglyphic inscription, dated AD 394, was carved here.
The day ends at the granite quarry of the Unfinished Obelisk. It would have stood about 42 metres tall, the largest obelisk ever attempted, before a crack in the stone stopped the work. The tool marks in the trench still show how it was cut. Lunch at a local restaurant follows, then check-in at your hotel and a free evening.
Optional this evening: Nubian Village tour in Aswan.
Meals: None
Today belongs entirely to the temples of Abu Simbel. You leave Aswan before sunrise with your guide and driver and take the desert road south, about three and a half hours each way.
Ramses II (1279–1213 BC) had both temples cut into the cliff. The Great Temple is fronted by four seated statues of the king, each about 20 metres high. Inside, the reliefs of the Battle of Kadesh run along the great hall, and twice a year, around 22 February and 22 October, the rising sun reaches the statues in the sanctuary. The smaller temple beside it is dedicated to the goddess Hathor and to Queen Nefertari.
Between 1964 and 1968 both temples were cut into blocks and rebuilt 65 metres higher, in one of the great rescue operations of modern archaeology, to save them from the rising water of Lake Nasser. You drive back to Aswan in the afternoon and the rest of the day is yours.
Meals: Breakfast
The last morning goes to two islands that most short itineraries skip. A motorboat takes you between the granite boulders of the First Cataract to Sehel Island. Officials and expeditions travelling to and from Nubia left more than two hundred rock inscriptions here. The best known is the Famine Stela, a Ptolemaic text that tells of a seven-year drought in the time of King Djoser.
Next is Elephantine Island, opposite the town. Its southern end is the site of ancient Abu, a name that meant both “elephant” and “ivory”, a reminder of the trade that passed through this frontier post. Among the ruins are the temple of Khnum, the ram-headed god of the cataract, and the Nilometer that measured the height of the flood.
Your guide then takes you to Aswan Airport or the railway station for your onward journey, or to your Nile cruise ship if you are sailing on to Luxor.
Meals: Breakfast
