Egypt
The Nile, Slowly
10 days
Egypt is visited badly in a hurry. The temples blur into one another if you see five in a day, and stop blurring the moment you walk into one at first light and stay for two hours. This route slows down and uses the river as transport, which is how it was always done.
Day by day
Day 01 · Spain / Cairo
Direct flight and transfer. First dinner in the city.
Day 02 · Cairo
Giza first thing, ahead of the coaches. In the afternoon, the Grand Egyptian Museum, which for the first time brings Tutankhamun’s complete burial assemblage together in one hall.
Day 03 · Cairo · Saqqara and Memphis
Djoser’s step pyramid is four centuries older than those at Giza, and the evolution makes far more sense seen in this order. Afternoon free in Islamic Cairo.
Day 04 · Cairo / Luxor
A short flight. Karnak at dusk, when the hypostyle hall empties and you can hear the swifts between the columns.
Day 05 · Luxor
The Valley of the Kings at dawn and the temple of Hatshepsut. In the afternoon, boarding the dahabiya.
Day 06 · Sailing · Esna and Edfu
A day on the river. The dahabiya is an eight-cabin sailing boat that goes and moors where the large cruisers cannot, and the banks pass at walking pace.
Day 07 · Edfu / Kom Ombo
The temple of Horus at Edfu is the best preserved in Egypt because sand buried it for centuries. Kom Ombo is seen at night, lit.
Day 08 · Aswan
Elephantine island, the temple of Philae, and an hour with no plan on a felucca, which in Aswan is close to compulsory.
Day 09 · Abu Simbel
An early start south. Ramesses had four twenty-metre colossi carved so they would be seen from Nubia, and the whole site was cut into blocks and raised in the nineteen-sixties to save it from the lake.
Day 10 · Aswan / Cairo / Spain
Connection and flight home.
Usually includes
- International flights and internal flights
- A private Spanish- or English-speaking Egyptologist throughout
- Four nights aboard an eight-cabin dahabiya
- Selected hotels in Cairo and Aswan
- All entrance fees, including the Valley of the Kings and the Grand Egyptian Museum
- A travel document with every detail and a direct phone number
This trip, your way
Length
10 days
Route
Cairo · Luxor · Edfu · Kom Ombo · Aswan · Abu Simbel
Format
Private and tailor-made, on your dates
Let us make this trip yours.
Change the dates, add days where you want them, or simply tell us how you like to travel. We reply within 24 hours.
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