12 Days Egypt Tour: Cairo, Nile Cruise & Hurghada Beach Break

Arrive at Cairo International Airport, where your Memphis Tours representative meets you inside the terminal, assists with passport control and baggage, and escorts you to your private air-conditioned vehicle.

Transfer to your hotel, where your representative reviews the twelve days ahead with you — pickup times, what to pack for the cruise and the Red Sea, and how each stage of the journey works. The remainder of the day is at leisure.

Overnight in: Cairo – Sheraton Cairo Hotel, Towers and Casino (Diamond) or Hilton Pyramids Golf Hotel (Golden)
Signature Experience: Private arrival assistance and a full itinerary briefing
Good to Know: Your final hotel, cruise and resort 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, followed by the Grand Egyptian Museum, where the complete treasures of Tutankhamun are displayed together for the first time. Return privately to your hotel.

Overnight in: Cairo – Sheraton Cairo Hotel, Towers and Casino (Diamond) or Hilton Pyramids Golf Hotel (Golden)
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. Your guide can recommend and reserve.

A second full Cairo day with your private Egyptologist, covering the city beyond the Pyramids. Begin at the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization, where the royal mummies rest in a purpose-built hall — the pharaohs themselves, after their tombs and their treasure.

After lunch, walk the lanes of Old Cairo among its early churches, then climb to the Salah El-Din Citadel and the alabaster Mosque of Mohammed Ali, with the city spread out below you.

Overnight in: Cairo – Sheraton Cairo Hotel, Towers and Casino (Diamond) or Hilton Pyramids Golf Hotel (Golden)
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch
Visits: National Museum of Egyptian Civilization, Old Cairo churches, Salah El-Din Citadel, Mosque of Mohammed Ali
Signature Experience: The royal mummies at NMEC, seen after the Pyramids and the Grand Egyptian Museum — three days that build one story
Good to Know: Dinner this evening is not included. Modest dress is required at the mosque; shoulders and knees covered, and a head covering for women.

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

You are met on arrival and travel by motorboat to Philae Temple, dedicated to Isis and moved stone by stone to save it from the rising waters of the High Dam. Continue to the Unfinished Obelisk, still lying in the granite quarry where it cracked. Check in to your Aswan hotel.

Overnight in: Aswan – Tolip Hotel Aswan (Golden); Diamond tier property confirmed with your travel documents
Meals: Breakfast
Visits: Philae Temple, Unfinished Obelisk
Signature Experience: A buffer night 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.

After breakfast, join the air-conditioned coach for the drive across the Nubian desert to Abu Simbel — included in your package, not sold as an add-on. Here stand the twin temples of Ramesses II and Queen Nefertari, cut into the cliff face and relocated in their entirety by UNESCO when Lake Nasser rose behind the High Dam.

Return to Aswan in the afternoon and board your Nile cruise vessel, settling into your cabin before dinner is served aboard.

Overnight in: Nile cruise, moored in Aswan – Dwa Nile Cruise (Diamond) or MS Salacia (Golden)
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
Visits: Great Temple of Ramesses II, Temple of Queen Nefertari
Signature Experience: Abu Simbel included in your package — Egypt's most remote monument, not an optional extra
Good to Know: Abu Simbel runs as a small-group coach excursion with a guide. Your Cairo touring and all airport transfers are private; cruise sightseeing is shared. This is a long day — around seven hours of driving in total, with an early start.

Breakfast on board as the vessel prepares to sail. Those who wish can take an early motorboat excursion to a Nubian village to meet local families in their homes.

Later, sail north to Kom Ombo and its unusual double temple, divided between the crocodile god Sobek and Horus the Elder — the only temple in Egypt shared equally between two deities. Return aboard for dinner as the vessel continues toward Edfu.

Overnight in: Nile cruise, moored at Edfu
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
Visits: Temple of Kom Ombo
Signature Experience: The dual sanctuaries of Kom Ombo, each with its own entrance, halls and priesthood
Optional Premium Experience: Nubian village visit by motorboat, available at additional cost.
Good to Know: Sightseeing from the cruise is a shared group excursion with an accompanying Egyptologist.

After breakfast, visit the Temple of Horus at Edfu — the most completely preserved temple in Egypt, its roof, columns and sanctuary still intact after centuries buried in sand.

Return aboard for lunch as the vessel transits the Esna Lock and sails on to Luxor. On arrival, explore the East Bank: the vast Karnak Temple Complex, where the Great Hypostyle Hall's 134 columns still carry traces of their original color, and Luxor Temple, at its best as the evening light comes on.

Overnight in: Nile cruise, moored in Luxor
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
Visits: Temple of Horus at Edfu, Karnak Temple Complex, Luxor Temple
Signature Experience: Luxor Temple in the evening, lit and far quieter than it is by day
Optional Premium Experience: Karnak Sound and Light Show, available at additional cost.
Good to Know: Sightseeing today is a shared group excursion with an accompanying Egyptologist.

Breakfast aboard, then disembark and cross to the West Bank. Descend into the painted burial chambers of the Valley of the Kings, where three standard tombs are included in your visit, then continue to the Temple of Queen Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahari and the Colossi of Memnon.

After sightseeing, travel by road to Hurghada on the Red Sea — roughly five hours across the Eastern Desert — and check in to your resort.

Overnight in: Hurghada – Hurghada Marriott Beach Resort (Diamond) or Continental Resort Hurghada (Golden)
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
Visits: Valley of the Kings (three tombs), Temple of Queen Hatshepsut, Colossi of Memnon
Signature Experience: Egypt's greatest necropolis in the morning, the Red Sea by evening
Optional Premium Experience: Separate-ticket entry to the tombs of Tutankhamun and Ramesses VI can be arranged on the day.
Good to Know: The Luxor–Hurghada transfer is shared with other Memphis Tours guests, not private. The drive is approximately five hours with comfort stops. Your Hurghada stay is on a soft all-inclusive basis.

A free day at the resort, or a boat excursion out to Giftun Island, where the reefs of the Hurghada archipelago are still in good condition and the snorkeling stops change with the conditions.

The trip moves between sites through the day, with a chance of dolphins where they are running and watersports available at each anchorage. Back at the resort, all meals are covered by your soft all-inclusive board.

Overnight in: Hurghada – Hurghada Marriott Beach Resort (Diamond) or Continental Resort Hurghada (Golden)
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
Signature Experience: A full day on the Red Sea reefs, or a full day doing nothing at all
Optional Premium Experience: Giftun Island snorkeling excursion, available at additional cost.
Good to Know: Dolphin sightings depend on conditions and cannot be guaranteed.

Another day shaped how you want it. Stay by the pool and the beach, or head inland into the Eastern Desert by 4×4.

The safari crosses open desert to a Bedouin settlement, with a short camel ride, quad-biking across the sand, and a barbecue dinner served as the light goes. Away from the coast the sky is genuinely dark, and the stargazing is the part most people remember.

Overnight in: Hurghada – Hurghada Marriott Beach Resort (Diamond) or Continental Resort Hurghada (Golden)
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
Signature Experience: Stargazing from the Eastern Desert, far enough from Hurghada for the sky to open up
Optional Premium Experience: Desert safari by 4×4 with Bedouin village visit, camel ride, quad-biking and barbecue dinner, available at additional cost.
Good to Know: Quad-biking carries a minimum age and a licence requirement; check when booking.

Enjoy breakfast and free time at the resort before your transfer to Hurghada Airport.

Fly back to Cairo, where you are met and transferred privately to your hotel for the final night — placed deliberately so your international departure isn't rushed off the back of a domestic flight.

Overnight in: Cairo – Sheraton Cairo Hotel, Towers and Casino (Diamond) or Hilton Pyramids Golf Hotel (Golden)
Meals: Breakfast
Signature Experience: A final Cairo night that protects your international departure day
Good to Know: 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.

Meals: Breakfast
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.