9-Day Classic Egypt with Dahabiya: Cairo, Aswan & Luxor

Arrive at Cairo International Airport, where your tour manager meets you inside the terminal, assists with your entry visa and baggage, and escorts you to your private air-conditioned vehicle.

Transfer to Le Riad Hotel de Charme in the heart of old Cairo, where your luxury Cairo and Nile cruise itinerary is confirmed with you — pickup times, what to bring for the Abu Simbel morning, and how the Dahabiya days will run. The remainder of the day is at leisure.

Overnight in: Cairo – Le Riad Hotel de Charme
Meals: None
Visits: —
Signature Experience: Entry visa handled on arrival and a private itinerary briefing before the journey begins
Good to Know: Your final hotel and Dahabiya confirmation is issued with your travel documents before departure.

After breakfast, meet your private Egyptologist and travel to the Giza Plateau. Explore the Great Pyramids of Giza, the Sphinx and the Valley Temple, with time at the panoramic viewpoint for photographs across all three pyramids.

Continue for lunch at a local Egyptian restaurant, then visit the Grand Egyptian Museum, where the complete treasures of Tutankhamun are displayed together for the first time. Return privately to your hotel; your evening is free.

Overnight in: Cairo – Le Riad Hotel de Charme
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch
Visits: Giza Pyramids, Sphinx, Valley Temple, Grand Egyptian Museum
Signature Experience: Private Egyptologist-guided touring at your own pace, with no group to keep up with
Optional Premium Experience: Interior entry to the Great Pyramid can be arranged at additional cost.
Good to Know: Dinner this evening is not included, leaving you free to try Cairo's restaurants. Your guide can recommend and reserve.

An early transfer to Cairo Airport for your included flight south to Aswan, where the Nile narrows between granite islands and the pace of Egypt changes.

You are met on arrival and travel by motorboat to Philae Temple on its island setting, dedicated to Isis and Hathor and moved stone by stone to save it from the rising waters of the High Dam. Check in to your Aswan hotel, with the remainder of the day at leisure.

Overnight in: Aswan – premium Nile-view property, confirmed with your travel documents
Meals: Breakfast
Visits: Philae Temple
Signature Experience: An overnight in Aswan before Abu Simbel, so the desert drive starts rested rather than after a day of travel
Good to Know: Domestic flight times are confirmed by airline availability and may require an early departure. Baggage allowance is 1 checked bag up to 23 kg (50 lb) plus 1 cabin bag up to 7 kg (15 lb) per guest. Lunch and dinner are not included today.

An early start and a road journey of roughly three and a half hours across the Nubian desert brings you to Abu Simbel, included in your package rather than sold as an add-on. Here stand the twin temples of Ramesses II and Queen Nefertari, carved into the cliff in the 13th century BC and relocated in their entirety when Lake Nasser rose.

Return to Aswan by early afternoon and board your Dahabiya. Lunch is served as you cast off, sailing to Kom Ombo for its double temple, divided between Sobek and Haroeris. Dinner on board.

Overnight in: Dahabiya, moored near Beshir Island
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
Visits: Great Temple of Ramesses II, Temple of Queen Nefertari, Temple of Kom Ombo
Signature Experience: Stepping from Egypt's most remote monument onto a sailing vessel carrying no more than twelve guests, in a single day
Good to Know: This is the fullest day of the journey — an early Abu Simbel departure, around seven hours of driving in total, then embarkation and your first sailing leg. Abu Simbel runs as a small-group coach excursion with a guide; shore excursions from the Dahabiya are shared with fellow guests. Your Cairo touring is private.

Breakfast on deck as the Dahabiya sails north. At Edfu, a horse-drawn carriage carries you from the mooring to the Temple of Horus, the most completely preserved temple in Egypt, its roof and sanctuary still intact.

Back aboard for lunch as you continue past farmland worked much as it has been for centuries. In the afternoon you stop at El Kab — a walled settlement and rock-cut tombs that larger cruise ships sail straight past. Dinner is served on board.

Overnight in: Dahabiya, moored at El Hegz Island near Esna
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
Visits: Temple of Horus at Edfu, El Kab village and temple
Signature Experience: El Kab — a stop the large cruise vessels cannot make, reachable only by a small sailing boat
Good to Know: Shore excursions are shared with fellow Dahabiya guests and accompanied by an Egyptologist.

A day with nothing scheduled, which on a Dahabiya is the point. The vessel moves at the speed of the current and the wind, mooring where larger ships cannot, and the riverbank passes close enough to watch village life unfold along it.

Take meals on deck, swim from the boat where conditions allow, and spend the afternoon reading, watching the Nile, or talking with the crew. Lunch and dinner are served on board.

Overnight in: Dahabiya, moored at El Hegz Island near Esna
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
Visits: —
Signature Experience: A full day of slow Nile sailing with no fixed schedule — what separates a luxury Cairo and Nile cruise aboard a Dahabiya from a large cruise ship
Good to Know: Mooring points and the day's sailing may adjust according to wind and navigation conditions.

Breakfast aboard, then disembark and transfer to the West Bank of Luxor. Descend into the painted burial chambers of the Valley of the Kings, the royal cemetery holding 62 known tombs beneath the Theban hills.

Continue to the Mortuary Temple of Queen Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahari, rising in three colonnaded terraces against the cliff face, and pause at the Colossi of Memnon. Transfer to your Luxor hotel for the evening.

Overnight in: Luxor – premium property, confirmed with your travel documents
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
Visits: Valley of the Kings, Mortuary Temple of Queen Hatshepsut, Colossi of Memnon
Signature Experience: Moving from three nights of slow river sailing straight into the greatest necropolis of the ancient world
Optional Premium Experience: Sound and Light Show at Karnak Temple, available this evening at additional cost.

After breakfast, visit the vast Karnak Temple Complex, where the Great Hypostyle Hall's 134 columns still carry traces of their original color, and the ceremonial Luxor Temple linked to it by the restored Avenue of Sphinxes.

Transfer to Luxor Airport for your included flight back to Cairo, where you are met and transferred privately to your hotel for the final night.

Overnight in: Cairo – Le Riad Hotel de Charme
Meals: Breakfast
Visits: Karnak Temple Complex, Luxor Temple
Signature Experience: A final Cairo night that protects your international departure day, rather than flying out the moment you leave Luxor
Good to Know: Domestic flight times are confirmed by airline availability and may require an early departure. Baggage allowance is 1 checked bag up to 23 kg (50 lb) plus 1 cabin bag up to 7 kg (15 lb) per guest. Lunch and dinner are not included today.

Enjoy breakfast and a relaxed final morning. Depending on your flight time, luggage storage can be arranged at the hotel should you wish to spend a few last hours in the city.

Your private air-conditioned vehicle and representative collect you at the appointed time and transfer you to Cairo International Airport, where you are assisted through check-in and security for your onward flight.

Overnight in: —
Meals: Breakfast
Visits: —
Signature Experience: Private departure transfer with airport check-in assistance
Good to Know: Standard check-out is 12:00. Late check-out is subject to availability and a supplement.