Seven nights in Cairo, one in Alexandria and five on a dahabiya sailing from Luxor to Aswan, with Abydos, Dendera, Gebel el-Silsila and Rashid on the way, a guide on every sightseeing day and both domestic flights included.
This 14-day tour puts a dahabiya, the traditional two-masted sailing boat of the Nile, at the centre of a long first trip to Egypt. You start with two days of sightseeing in Cairo and Giza, fly south to Luxor for the West Bank, and spend five nights on the dahabiya as it sails upriver to Aswan, mooring at small landings and islands that the large cruise ships pass by. A flight brings you back to Cairo, and the second week takes you north to the Mediterranean: a day in Alexandria, a day in Rashid where the Nile meets the sea, a day in the lanes of Islamic Cairo and a free day before you fly home.
A guide leads every sightseeing day, transfers are in a private air-conditioned vehicle, and both domestic flights, Cairo to Luxor and Aswan to Cairo, are included in the price.
It is a weaker fit if Karnak and Luxor Temple are a must, as they are not part of the plan on the East Bank of Luxor; if you want Abu Simbel included rather than as an option; or if you would prefer a beach stay at the end. In those cases ask us about a tailor-made trip, or see our other dahabiya Nile cruises.
The pace is moderate, with a few long days. Five days include a longer journey:
Our representative meets you in the arrival hall of Cairo International Airport, helps with the visa counter if needed, and walks you to your private air-conditioned vehicle. The drive to the hotel takes 30 to 60 minutes, depending on traffic.
At the hotel your tour leader goes through the plan for the coming days. No sightseeing and no meals are planned today; Day 2 starts after an early breakfast.
After breakfast your guide meets you at the hotel and you drive to the Giza Plateau. The three main pyramids were built for the Fourth Dynasty kings Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure about 4,500 years ago; the Great Pyramid of Khufu is the largest of them and the only one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World still standing. Your guide explains how they were built and how the plateau worked as a royal cemetery. Going inside the Great Pyramid needs a separate ticket bought at the site.
A short camel ride at the panoramic viewpoint is part of the morning, then you see the Great Sphinx and the Valley Temple of Khafre.
At the Grand Egyptian Museum, about 2 km from the pyramids, you pass the colossal Ramses II in the Grand Hall and the Grand Staircase, and spend most of the visit in the Tutankhamun galleries, where the objects from the young king's tomb are displayed together. The royal mummies are not here: they are in the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization, which you can add on your free day.
After dark you return to Giza for the Sound and Light show, with the pyramids and the Sphinx lit in colour.
After breakfast you drive about 45 minutes south of Giza to Saqqara, the burial ground of ancient Memphis. The Step Pyramid of Djoser, designed by the architect Imhotep around 2650 BC, is the earliest large stone building in Egypt: six stacked steps that show the move from mudbrick tombs to the true pyramids built at Giza a century later. Depending on what is open, your guide adds one of the decorated tombs nearby, with scenes of daily life.
A few minutes away is Memphis, the capital for much of the Old Kingdom. Its open-air museum keeps a colossal limestone statue of Ramses II lying on its back, and the Alabaster Sphinx. You are back at your hotel in the afternoon; a Nile dinner cruise with a tanoura show is an optional extra tonight.
After an early breakfast you check out and transfer to Cairo airport for the domestic flight to Luxor, about one hour. Your guide meets you on arrival, and your luggage goes ahead to the dahabiya.
You cross to the West Bank, ancient Thebes' city of the dead. The Valley of the Kings holds more than 60 tombs cut into the hills for the pharaohs of the New Kingdom. The standard ticket opens three of the tombs open on the day, and the plan includes the tomb of Tutankhamun, found by Howard Carter in 1922, where the king's mummy still lies. The tombs of Seti I and Ramses VI need a separate ticket bought at the site.
At Deir el-Bahari, the temple of Queen Hatshepsut rises in three terraces against the cliffs, its reliefs recording her expedition to the land of Punt. On the way back you stop at the Colossi of Memnon, two seated statues of Amenhotep III, each about 18 metres tall.
You board the dahabiya in the late afternoon, meet the crew and settle into your cabin. Dinner is served on board, and you spend the night moored at Luxor.
This is the longest day of the tour. After an early breakfast on board, you drive north with your guide, about three hours, to Abydos, the most sacred burial place in ancient Egypt and the cult centre of Osiris, god of the dead. The temple of Seti I, finished by his son Ramses II, has some of the finest carved reliefs in Egypt, many with their colour still on them. In a corridor, the King List names Seti's predecessors back to the first kings. Behind the temple lies the Osireion, a sunken structure of huge granite blocks.
On the way back you stop at Dendera, about an hour north of Luxor. The temple of Hathor, goddess of love and music, was built in the Ptolemaic and Roman periods and is one of the best preserved in Egypt. The ceiling of the hypostyle hall, cleaned in recent years, shows the sky goddess Nut and the zodiac in bright blue and gold; the round Dendera zodiac on the roof is a cast, the original being in the Louvre.
You are back on the dahabiya in the evening for dinner on board.
Breakfast is on deck as the dahabiya sails south from Luxor through the lock at Esna. When the wind is light, a small tug helps the boat keep to the plan.
Edfu's temple of Horus, built between 237 and 57 BC, is the most complete temple in Egypt: its pylon, roofed halls and granite shrine still stand much as they were built. A pair of granite falcons guard the entrance, and the walls tell the story of the battle between Horus and Seth, which your guide reads with you. The ride from the river to the temple is usually by horse carriage. Lunch is back on board.
At Gebel el-Silsila the river narrows between sandstone cliffs. This was the main sandstone quarry of Egypt, where stone for many temples of Luxor was cut. On the west bank, the Speos of Horemheb, a small rock-cut temple, keeps reliefs of the king, and shrines of New Kingdom officials line the cliff.
Dinner is on board or, when the crew can arrange it, on the riverbank by the moored boat. The night is spent near Silsila, with no town lights around.
Breakfast is on deck as the dahabiya sails south past fields and water buffalo in the shallows.
Kom Ombo is a double temple from the Ptolemaic period, with two entrances and two sanctuaries side by side: one for Sobek, the crocodile god, and one for Haroeris, Horus the Elder. Next to it, the small Crocodile Museum shows mummified crocodiles from a nearby cemetery.
Lunch is on board as the boat continues towards Aswan, where the granite begins to show along the banks. Dinner is on board, and the dahabiya moors for the night on the approach to Aswan.
After breakfast on deck, your guide takes you to the sites of Aswan by road. Philae, the temple of the goddess Isis, is reached by a short motorboat ride. It was moved stone by stone to Agilkia Island in the 1970s, in a UNESCO campaign, to save it from the rising water. You then visit the High Dam, completed in 1970, which ended the yearly Nile flood and created Lake Nasser.
A motorboat takes you past the granite islands of the First Cataract to a Nubian village on the west bank. You visit a family in its brightly painted house for tea or hibiscus, with time to walk the village.
Your last night on the dahabiya ends with an Egyptian evening on board: local food, Nubian music and a chance to thank the crew.
After a last breakfast on board you disembark. If you would like to see Abu Simbel, this is the morning for it: the two rock temples of Ramses II and Queen Nefertari stand about 280 km south of Aswan, about three and a half hours each way by road, and the visit is an optional extra that needs an early start. Otherwise the morning is free in Aswan, for the market or a felucca sail between the islands, also optional.
Your driver takes you to Aswan airport for the domestic flight to Cairo, about 1 hour 20 minutes. Our representative meets you on arrival and drives you to your hotel.
After breakfast you drive to Alexandria, about three hours. The city was founded by Alexander the Great in 331 BC and was the capital of the Ptolemies until Cleopatra. Your first stop is the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, the modern library opened in 2002 near the site of the ancient one. The visit is to the building and its plaza; entry to the main reading hall needs a ticket bought at the site.
The Roman theatre at Kom el-Dikka keeps its rows of marble seats, and beside it an open-air display shows statues raised from the sea off Alexandria. You pass the Coptic cathedral of St Mark and the Nabi Daniel Mosque, where a legend places the lost tomb of Alexander. Lunch is in a local restaurant.
You walk the old market lanes of Mansheya, see the mosque of Abu al-Abbas al-Mursi, and follow the Corniche past the fishing boats to the Citadel of Qaitbay, built in the 1470s on the site of the Pharos lighthouse, seen from outside. The day ends in the gardens of Montaza, the former royal estate, and you spend the night in Alexandria.
After breakfast you drive east, about an hour, to Rashid, known in Europe as Rosetta, on the western branch of the Nile near the sea.
A small boat takes you down to where the Nile meets the Mediterranean, past Fort Julien, where French soldiers found the Rosetta Stone in 1799. The stone, whose three scripts were the key to hieroglyphs, is now in the British Museum.
Back in town you walk the old quarter, where Ottoman-era brick houses such as Beit Amasyali and Beit Arab Kali keep their carved wooden window screens, with time for local sweets and dates.
In the late afternoon you drive back to your hotel in Cairo, about three hours.
After a later breakfast your guide takes you to the old city for the food Cairenes eat every day, at small places your guide knows: koshari, ful and ta'ameya, feteer pastry and tea in a traditional coffee house.
Al-Muizz Street was the main avenue of Fatimid Cairo, founded in 969. On foot you see the Qalawun complex, the mosque of al-Aqmar and the Ottoman house of Bayt al-Suhaymi, then walk the side lanes towards the gate of Bab Zuweila. Visits inside depend on opening and prayer times.
The day ends with a mint tea in Khan el-Khalili before the drive back to the hotel.
The day is yours: a walk in Zamalek, coffee by the Nile or a last visit to Khan el-Khalili. For more sightseeing, these options are at extra cost, with a guide and car we arrange:
After breakfast, our representative drives you to Cairo International Airport in time for your international flight; airlines usually ask you to be at the airport three hours before departure, and our representative helps you to the check-in. This is the end of the tour.
Comfortable, well located
More space and better ships
Our highest level
Children pay less, see the children policy below. Christmas, New Year and Easter dates add 25%. Prices are per person in US dollars.
October to April is the most comfortable time. In December and January, days are around 18 to 22 °C in Cairo and Alexandria and 23 to 26 °C in Luxor and Aswan; nights on deck are cool, and Alexandria can be windy and rainy. From May to September, Luxor and Aswan often pass 40 °C; many dahabiyas sail mainly in the cooler months, so for summer dates ask us which boat is sailing. Christmas, New Year and Easter fill first.
Many nationalities can buy a tourist visa on arrival at Cairo airport or apply for an e-visa beforehand on Egypt's official portal, visa2egypt.gov.eg. The rules and the fee depend on your passport, so check them before you book your flights. Your passport should be valid for at least six months from the day you arrive. The visa is not included in the price; we can arrange it on arrival if you ask when you book.
The currency is the Egyptian pound. Cards work in hotels and larger shops in Cairo and Alexandria; on the dahabiya and in Rashid and the Nubian village, cash is more useful, so carry small notes. Tips are not included in the price. The tipping guide in the travel policies below gives the usual amounts for guides, drivers and the dahabiya crew; how much you give is your choice.
All prices are per person in US dollars. The price changes with the season (winter 1 October to 30 April, summer 1 May to 30 September), the accommodation level and the size of the group. Christmas, New Year and Easter dates add 25%. Your quote lists the final price and everything it covers. After the deposit, changes to your itinerary cost US$25 per request, plus any third-party fees.
A deposit of 30% of the total tour cost is required at the time of booking. The final payment is due 30 days before departure, and bookings made within 30 days of departure are paid in full. We accept Visa or Master Card by secure online payment, Visa or Master Card by email, and wire transfer. We confirm every booking by email.
No-show travelers are charged 100%. During peak events in Egypt, hotels and Nile cruises do not refund deposits. Groups of more than 10 people may have different terms.
Add each child and their age in the enquiry form so the quote is exact.
Optional visits, such as a hot air balloon ride in Luxor, a Sound and Light show or a felucca ride, are not in the price. Tell us which ones you want and we add them to your quote with their cost.
Not included in the price: International flight tickets to and from your country; Personal expenses and special purchases; Tips; Any optional activities or tours not mentioned in the basic program; Egypt entry visa fees (we can arrange the visa on arrival on request).
Tipping is customary in Egypt and is not included in the price. A usual amount for a private tour is US$8 to 10 per person per day for your guide, US$4 to 5 for your driver and US$5 to 8 per person per day for the crew on a Nile cruise. Your guide can advise you on the day.
A dahabiya is a wooden sailing boat with a few cabins, usually for about 8 to 24 guests, while the usual cruise ships carry well over a hundred. It sails more slowly, with the wind or helped by a tug, and moors at riverbanks and islands rather than in town harbours, so it can stop at places such as Gebel el-Silsila. In exchange there is no pool or evening entertainment of the large ships, and Wi-Fi is limited.
The guide and vehicle on land are for your group only. The dahabiya itself is shared with the other guests on board, as on any cruise, unless you charter the whole boat. A private charter is possible for larger families or groups of friends; ask us for a quote with your group size and dates.
Not in this plan. In Luxor the tour covers the West Bank (the Valley of the Kings, Hatshepsut's temple and the Colossi of Memnon) and, from Luxor, Abydos and Dendera. Karnak and Luxor Temple can be added with an extra night in Luxor before boarding. Abu Simbel is an optional visit from Aswan on Day 9, by road, with an evening flight to Cairo.
Yes. Because the tour is private, nights can be added in Cairo, Luxor or Alexandria, or the free day can be used for another visit, and the price changes with them. The dahabiya part follows the boat's own sailing days, so tell us your dates first and we will build the rest of the trip around them.
Independent reviews on the platforms travelers already trust.
From the same category, with the same private service.
We always use the cookies this site needs to work. With your permission we also use the optional ones listed under Settings. You can change your choice at any time. Privacy policy