Egypt Vacation: The Best 12-Day Egypt Itinerary

Your tour guide will meet and help you at Cairo International Airport, then escort you to your hotel in a private, air-conditioned deluxe vehicle. Once you arrive at the hotel, your tour guide will take care of a smooth check-in , and go over your holiday itinerary with you to sort out and confirm the pick-up times for each tour. This is also a good moment to consider an optional outing to the Sound and Light Show on the Giza Plateau, near the magnificent pyramids.

Overnight in Cairo.

Welcome Drink.

Visits: Optional excursion to the Sound and Light Show on the Giza Plateau.

After enjoying a delicious, wholesome breakfast at your hotel, your personal guide will take you to the Giza Plateau, to start your journey while marveling at one of the Seven Wonders of the World, the Great Pyramids of Giza. You’ll also stop by the iconic Sphinx, and the Valley Temple. Then, after the pyramid visit, you go for lunch at a truly authentic Egyptian restaurant, and later you head over to the New Grand Egyptian Museum—Egypt’s newest cultural landmark, set just two kilometers from the pyramids. It showcases more than 100,000 artifacts across 5,000 years, plus it presents the full Tutankhamun collection together, for the very first time. Finally, you return back to your hotel.

Overnight in Cairo.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch.

Visits: Great Pyramids of Giza, Sphinx, Valley Temple, Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM).

After a rather early breakfast, your tour guide will move you over to Cairo Airport for the flight heading for Luxor. When you arrive, your representative will be waiting, so you can check in to your Nile Cruise in Luxor. After that, you will go out with your tour guide to wander around Karnak Temple, which is widely known as the world’s largest ancient religious place. The hypostyle hall, with those colossal granite columns, is one of Egypt’s infamous landmarks.

You’ll also get free time to explore the various sections of this huge complex, it was built during the reigns of different Pharaohs, and then you’ll continue on to Luxor Temple. This temple was built by Amenhotep III and Ramses II for rituals and festivals, it was dedicated to the God Amon. You might want to come back later in the evening for the highly recommended optional tour, the Sound and Light show. It tells the glorious Pharaonic historical story of Luxor and Karnak. Then you will return to your Nile cruise.

Overnight aboard your Nile cruise in Luxor.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner.

Visits: Karnak Temple, Luxor Temple, Optional night visit to the Karnak and Luxor Temples Sound and Light Show.

Breakfast is served onboard in Luxor, before being, escorted by your guide to cross over to the West Bank of the Nile for the Ancient Thebes sites which are overall one of the most important archaeological places on earth. You’ll see the two immense statues of Amenhotep III (the Colossi of Memnon) , and then go on to the remarkable colonnaded and terraced Temple of Queen Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahri. That temple is carved into a high cliff face and there are graphics showing the story of Hatshepsut’s expeditions to the unknown, mysterious land of Punt. After that you head toward the Valley of the Kings, to admire a selection of exquisitely decorated rock-cut tombs, many still showing vivid colour and astonishing detail of deities and scenes from the Book of the Underworld, with a visit to 3 tombs included. (Just so you know the three tombs visited are selected by the Egyptian Government to help safeguard them from the big rush of visitors, so they’re rotated through the year, and it can’t be confirmed which tombs you’ll enter before the day of your visit). The most visited tombs have walkways and electric lighting, and the internal surfaces are covered by glass. Later you sail to Edfu via Esna Lock and enjoy dinner onboard.

Please Note: There is an extra charge to enter the Tombs of King Tutankhamun and Ramses VI.

Overnight aboard your Nile cruise in Edfu.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner.

Visits: Colossi of Memnon, Temple of Queen Hatshepsut, Valley of the Kings.

After that slightly quiet breakfast onboard your Nile cruise in Aswan, you sail off to see the Kom Ombo Temple. Out of all the ancient temples in Egypt, this one is kind of special because it is divided into two parts, sort of like a signpost that says it is dedicated to two Gods. Sobek, the Crocodile God of fertility ,and the falcon-headed Horus, God of the sky. Kom Ombo is also well-known for the depictions of surgeon’s instruments, which gives us an early record about medicine and surgery in Ancient Egypt.

In the afternoon, you continue down the Nile to visit the huge Ptolemaic Temple of Horus at Edfu. It’s considered the most complete, and also the best-preserved of the Egyptian Temples, with lots of columns, halls, chambers and smaller chapels. Two statues of Horus stand beside the twin-towered entrance gate ,and then inside one of the interesting inscriptions lists the titles of books ,scrolls that were kept in the library. Back to your Nile cruise for dinner, you also get afternoon tea served on the sundeck, and after that there is dinner sailing onward to Aswan.

Overnight aboard your Nile cruise in Aswan.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner.

Visits: Kom Ombo Temple, Temple of Horus at Edfu.

After enjoying breakfast onboard your cruise ship in Aswan, you will be met by your guide, to visit the ‘Unfinished Obelisk’ which still remains in the granite quarries that once supplied ancient Egypt with building materials. It would have been the largest stone block ever worked on, but once a crack was spotted it was left there, while it was being shaped. Then cross by boat over to Angilika Island, just to visit Philae Temple, a Nubian temple that was rescued. Back on your Nile cruise ship for lunch and afternoon tea, then dinner, plus a relaxed bit of free time in Aswan to wander at your own pace.

Overnight aboard your Nile cruise in Aswan.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner.

Visits: Unfinished Obelisk, Philae Temple, Aswan City.

After breakfast, you’ll disembark and do a transfer over to the Lake Cruise. When you arrive you’ll check in, kind of settle in, and then go on with the journey. Take pleasure in a lovely lunch on board, and later have a calm tea time, not rushed at all. In the evening, a tasty dinner will be served while you continue to take in the scenic surroundings, you know, the view kind of does the talking.

Overnight aboard your cruise in Aswan.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner.

You’ll start the day with a quick look around the Kalabsha Temples , taking in their ancient wonders, a bit here a bit there. After that you’ll sail toward Wadi El Seboua, and you’ll keep moving along those lovely waters, nice and steady. Have a laid back lunch on board, then enjoy a calm tea moment later on, no rush at all. By evening, join a cocktail party so you can loosen up, chat, and mingle a little before you get to a tasty dinner on board.  

Overnight aboard your cruise in Wadi El Seboua.  

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner.  

Visits: Kalabsha Temples.

So you start off with a visit to the Wadi Seboua Temples, getting pulled into their kind of amazing history, a bit closer than you expect. After that, you’ll sail over to Amada, where you’ll tour the Amada Temple, plus you’ll also see the Derr Temple, and the Tomb of Pennut , which is really striking in person. In the evening, plan for a lively Nubian show, bright energy, so it works as a perfect way to wrap up the day.

Overnight aboard your cruise in Amada.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch Dinner.

Visits: Wadi Seboua Temples, Amada.

You’ll head out to Kasr Ibrim, and there you’ll have a quick , sort of brief stop so you can take photos from the sundeck. You’ll get a 15-minute overview of this historic spot, not too long but enough. After that, you’ll enjoy a panoramic view of the Abu Simbel Temples, again from the sundeck, with another 15-minute chance to snap pictures.

Then later, you’ll go and see the Abu Simbel Temples up close, wandering through their grandeur and taking it all in. If you’d like , there’s an optional Sound and Light Show too, which adds this really unique, immersive feel to the temples’ history.

Overnight aboard your cruise in Abu Simbel.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner.

Visits: Kasr Ibrim, Abu Simbel Temples.

Youll disembark from your Lake cruise and get transferred over to Aswan airport, the whole trip will take around 3.5 hours or so. After that, you will board a flight back to Cairo, and you’ll stay for the night there, just like that.  

Overnight in Cairo.  

Meals: Breakfast.

After breakfast at your hotel in Cairo, you will be kinda transferred to Cairo International Airport for your flight back home, and yeah it will all go pretty smooth.  

Meals: Breakfast.