Egypt: Pyramids, Abu Simbel and the Nile

1. Day 1: Arrive in Cairo, stay by the pyramids

   Cairo International Airport to your hotel in Giza

   • Meals on your own
   • Stay in Giza
   Day 1 details

   Fly into Cairo International Airport (CAI). We meet you after arrivals and drive you west across the city to your hotel in Giza, close to the pyramid plateau and the Grand Egyptian Museum, so tomorrow's early start is minutes from the door instead of an hour in Cairo traffic. In the early evening your See Sight Tours guide hosts a short welcome briefing: how the days run and why we start early, what the included tipping pool covers, which tickets are already booked, and how to set up mobile data before the river, where wifi is patchy. If you land early, the rest of the day is free. Dinner tonight is on you, and your guide can point you to somewhere good nearby.

   Included

   • Pick-up at Cairo International Airport (CAI)
   • Welcome briefing with your guide

   Free time: Rest of the day free

   Activity: Any arrival time works on day 1. The briefing is in the early evening; if your flight lands later, your guide catches you up at breakfast.

2. Day 2: Giza at opening, then the Grand Egyptian Museum

   Giza pyramid plateau and the Grand Egyptian Museum

   • Breakfast
   • Stay in Giza
   Day 2 details

   We are at the gates of the Giza plateau when it opens, around 7 am, while the light is low and before most coaches arrive. Walk around the Great Pyramid of Khufu, built about 4,500 years ago and still close to 140 metres tall, then drive out to the desert viewpoint where all nine Giza pyramids line up for the classic photo. The Great Sphinx sits below, beside the Valley Temple of Khafre. Late morning we cross to the Grand Egyptian Museum, about ten minutes away, on a pre-booked timed entry. Climb the grand staircase lined with royal statues, stand under the colossal Ramesses II in the atrium, and see Tutankhamun's burial treasures shown together in their own galleries. The afternoon is yours to rest.

   Included

   • Giza pyramid plateau at opening, with the Great Sphinx and the Valley Temple of Khafre
   • Panorama viewpoint over the nine Giza pyramids
   • Grand Egyptian Museum on a pre-booked timed entry, with your guide

   Optional experiences

   • Inside the Great Pyramid of Khufu. Separate ticket, limited numbers.

   Free time: Afternoon free

   Activity: Camera rules in the Tutankhamun galleries are strict (at the time of writing, phones only, no flash and no tripods). About 3 hours on foot on the plateau, on sand and uneven stone.

   

3. Day 3: Saqqara and Memphis, then fly to Aswan

   Saqqara and Memphis by road, then a flight from Cairo to Aswan

   • By plane
   • Breakfast
   • Stay in Aswan
   Day 3 details

   Saqqara is where pyramid building began, and it is far quieter than Giza. We arrive as it opens and walk around the Step Pyramid of Djoser, designed by the architect Imhotep around 2,670 BC and one of the oldest large stone buildings in the world. Your guide takes you into painted Old Kingdom tombs nearby, where scenes of fishing, farming and feasting still hold their colour. A short drive brings you to Memphis, the first capital of a united Egypt, where a colossal limestone statue of Ramesses II lies in its own hall among palm groves. After lunch we fly south to Aswan, about an hour and twenty minutes, instead of the overnight sleeper train. The evening is free on the Nile corniche.

   Included

   • Saqqara: the Step Pyramid of Djoser and painted Old Kingdom tombs
   • Memphis open-air museum and the colossus of Ramesses II
   • Flight from Cairo to Aswan
   • Transfers to and from the airports

   Optional experiences

   • The Red and Bent Pyramids at Dahshur. When flight times allow.

   Free time: Evening free

   Activity: Saqqara is a real half day, not a drive-by: about 3 hours on site.

   

4. Day 4: Philae, then the desert road to Abu Simbel

   Philae by boat, then Aswan to Abu Simbel by road

   • Drive about 3.5 h
   • Breakfast
   • Stay in Abu Simbel
   Day 4 details

   A small motorboat takes us across to Agilkia Island in the morning, with soft light on the Temple of Isis at Philae. The temple once stood on a nearby island that the old Aswan dam left flooded for much of the year, and in a UNESCO rescue completed in 1980 it was cut into blocks and rebuilt here, stone by stone. Back on shore there is time for lunch and a rest before the afternoon drive south, about 280 km and three and a half hours across the Western Desert beside Lake Nasser. We spend the night at Abu Simbel itself, instead of the pre-dawn convoy day trip most tours use. In the evening the sound and light show is projected onto the temple facades.

   Included

   • Boat to Philae and the Temple of Isis with your guide
   • Drive from Aswan to Abu Simbel
   • Abu Simbel sound and light show

   Free time: Late morning free in Aswan

   Activity: Nobody else's schedule sets the wake-up: no 3 am convoy start.

   

5. Day 5: Abu Simbel at dawn, then a felucca and a Nubian dinner

   Abu Simbel to Aswan by road, board the boat, felucca at sunset

   • Drive about 3.5 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Aswan
   Day 5 details

   Be at the Great Temple of Ramesses II as the gates open, when the low eastern light turns the four seated colossi gold, each about 20 metres high, and the coaches from Aswan are still on the road. Inside, carved halls run more than 50 metres into the rock. Next door, the smaller temple honours Queen Nefertari and the goddess Hathor. Both were cut into the cliff about 3,200 years ago and lifted to higher ground in the 1960s, before Lake Nasser rose. Mid morning we drive back to Aswan and board our small riverboat for lunch. At sunset a felucca sails us past Elephantine Island to the Nubian village of Gharb Soheil, where we have dinner with a Nubian family in their home.

   Included

   • The Great Temple of Ramesses II and the Temple of Nefertari at opening
   • Drive from Abu Simbel to Aswan
   • Board the riverboat
   • Felucca sail at sunset past Elephantine Island
   • Dinner with a Nubian family in Gharb Soheil

   Free time: Early afternoon free on board

   Activity: Tonight the boat stays moored in Aswan.

   

6. Day 6: Sailing the Nile to Kom Ombo

   Aswan to Kom Ombo on the river

   • By boat
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Kom Ombo
   Day 6 details

   A full day on the river, and no early alarm. Our boat is small, sized for a group like ours, so the day goes to sailing rather than waiting at a crowded dock. Breakfast on deck as we leave Aswan, then slow hours past palm groves, sugar cane fields, sandstone cliffs and fishermen working from small rowing boats. Lunch is served on board, and the afternoon is yours to read, doze in the shade on deck, or simply watch the banks go by. Late in the day we moor below Kom Ombo, a temple on a bend of the river with a rare double plan, one half for Sobek the crocodile god and the other for Haroeris, a form of Horus. Walk through as the floodlights come on, then see the mummified crocodiles in the small museum next door.

   Included

   • A day of sailing from Aswan to Kom Ombo
   • Temple of Kom Ombo at dusk, with your guide
   • Crocodile Museum, Kom Ombo

   Free time: Most of the day free on board

   Activity: Golden hour on deck as the boat moves north is the photo of the day.

   

7. Day 7: Edfu and Esna, on to Luxor

   Kom Ombo to Edfu by boat, then Edfu to Luxor by road with a stop at Esna

   • By boat
   • Breakfast
   • Stay in Luxor
   Day 7 details

   The boat sails north early, past the old sandstone quarries of Gebel el-Silsila, and after breakfast we leave it at Edfu. The Temple of Horus here is the best preserved temple in Egypt, built between 237 and 57 BC, with its roof, towering pylon and inner sanctuary still in place and the story of Horus and Seth carved along the outer walls. Then we drive north and stop at Esna, where the Temple of Khnum sits well below street level in the middle of town, and a recent cleaning has brought back the blues, reds and yellows of its painted ceiling. We reach Luxor in the early afternoon. After a rest, walk through Luxor Temple at dusk as the lights come on along the Avenue of Sphinxes.

   Included

   • Sail from Kom Ombo to Edfu
   • Temple of Horus, Edfu
   • Temple of Khnum, Esna
   • Drive from Edfu to Luxor
   • Luxor Temple at dusk, with your guide

   Free time: Mid afternoon free

   Activity: How far the boat sails before Edfu depends on the vessel and the river; if needed, the last stretch is by road, about an hour.

   

8. Day 8: Balloon at sunrise, then the Valley of the Kings

   Luxor West Bank

   • Breakfast
   • Stay in Luxor
   Day 8 details

   An early start, and one worth it. We collect you before dawn, about 4 am depending on the month, for the hot air balloon flight over the West Bank, included in your trip. You rise with the sun over the Theban hills, the Ramesseum and the green fields along the Nile. If the aviation authority grounds flights for wind, which does happen, we cross to the West Bank by road and watch sunrise from the ground instead. After landing we go straight to the Valley of the Kings, arriving while it is still cool, and enter three royal tombs whose painted corridors run deep into the hillside. Then Hatshepsut's terraced temple at Deir el-Bahari, and the Colossi of Memnon, two 18 metre statues of Amenhotep III. Back at the hotel by early afternoon.

   Included

   • Sunrise hot air balloon flight over the West Bank
   • Valley of the Kings, entry to three tombs
   • Temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahari
   • Colossi of Memnon

   Your choice: Sunrise hot air balloon over the West Bank / Sleep in, join the group for the Valley of the Kings Included in the price.

   Optional experiences

   • Tomb of Tutankhamun or the tomb of Seti I. Separate tickets.

   Easier option: Skip the balloon and sleep in; your guide collects you later for the Valley of the Kings.

   Free time: Afternoon and evening free

   Activity: Rest through the hottest hours; the Valley of the Kings is crowded and hot by mid morning, which is why we are there first.

   

9. Day 9: Karnak at opening, fly to Cairo

   Karnak, then a flight from Luxor to Cairo

   • By plane
   • Breakfast
   Day 9 details

   Last morning, and the biggest temple complex of all. Karnak opens at 6 am and we are there for it, walking into the Great Hypostyle Hall while low sun slants between its 134 columns, the tallest about 21 metres, before the heat and the tour groups arrive. Your guide leads you on past the standing obelisks of Thutmose I and Hatshepsut to the Sacred Lake, where priests once purified themselves before rituals. Back at the hotel for a late breakfast and time to pack, then we fly from Luxor to Cairo, about an hour, and take you to Cairo International Airport for your flight home, or to a hotel if you are staying on. Plan an evening departure, or ask us to add nights in Luxor or Cairo.

   Included

   • Karnak at opening, with your guide
   • Flight from Luxor to Cairo
   • Transfer to Cairo International Airport (CAI)

   Free time: Late morning free

   

Wildlife and weather: Balloon flights depend on the wind and can be grounded on the day; we then watch sunrise from the West Bank by road.

• Giza2 nights
• Aswan1 night
• Abu Simbel1 night
• Aswan1 night
• Kom Ombo1 night
• Luxor2 nights