Egypt Vacation: The Best 12-Day Egypt Itinerary

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 journey ahead with you — two cruises across twelve days, and what each stage asks of you. The remainder of the day is at leisure.

Overnight in: Cairo – Sheraton Cairo Hotel, Towers and Casino
Signature Experience: Private arrival assistance and a full briefing before a rare dual-cruise journey
Optional Premium Experience: Sound and Light Show at the Giza Plateau this evening, available at additional cost.
Good to Know: This itinerary operates October to April only, when the Lake Nasser cruise sails. Departures are every Tuesday.

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 more than 100,000 artifacts and the complete treasures of Tutankhamun are displayed together for the first time.

Overnight in: Cairo – Sheraton Cairo Hotel, Towers and Casino
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.

Transfer privately to Cairo Airport for your included flight to Luxor. You are met on arrival and taken to the MS Salacia, the first of your two vessels, to settle into your cabin.

In the afternoon, visit the Karnak Temple Complex — the largest religious site ever built — where the Great Hypostyle Hall's 134 columns still carry traces of their original color, then the ceremonial Luxor Temple. Dinner is served aboard.

Overnight in: MS Salacia, moored in Luxor
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
Visits: Karnak Temple Complex, Luxor Temple
Signature Experience: The first of seven cruise nights across two vessels and two very different waterways
Optional Premium Experience: Karnak Sound and Light Show this evening, available at additional cost.
Good to Know: Shore excursions from both cruises are shared with fellow guests and accompanied by an Egyptologist. Your Cairo touring and all transfers are private. 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.

After breakfast, cross to the West Bank. Pause at the Colossi of Memnon, then visit the Temple of Queen Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahari, rising in three colonnaded terraces against the cliff face.

Continue to the Valley of the Kings, where three tombs are included in your visit — the specific tombs open are rotated by the Ministry to protect the paintings. Return aboard for lunch as the vessel transits the Esna Lock toward Edfu, with dinner served aboard.

Overnight in: MS Salacia, moored at Edfu
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
Visits: Colossi of Memnon, Temple of Queen Hatshepsut, Valley of the Kings (three tombs)
Signature Experience: Watching the vessel work through the Esna Lock from the sun deck
Optional Premium Experience: Separate-ticket entry to the tombs of Tutankhamun and Ramesses VI can be arranged on the day. Sunrise hot-air balloon flight over the West Bank, weather permitting.
Good to Know: Which three tombs are open varies by month, as the Ministry rotates access.

After breakfast, visit the Temple of Horus at Edfu, the most complete temple standing in Egypt — its roof, columns and sanctuary intact, with the temple library's inscriptions still legible on the walls.

Sail on to Kom Ombo and its dual-deity temple, shared between Sobek and Horus, where a relief on the outer wall depicts a set of ancient surgical instruments. Afternoon tea on the sun deck as the vessel continues to Aswan, with dinner aboard.

Overnight in: MS Salacia, moored in Aswan
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
Visits: Temple of Horus at Edfu, Temple of Kom Ombo
Signature Experience: The surgical-instrument relief at Kom Ombo — the oldest medical illustration in Egypt
Good to Know: Sightseeing today is a shared group excursion with an accompanying Egyptologist.

After breakfast, visit the Unfinished Obelisk lying in its granite quarry, still attached to the bedrock that cracked beneath it — the clearest surviving evidence of how Egypt's monoliths were cut.

Continue by motorboat to Philae Temple, relocated to Agilika Island and dedicated to Isis and Hathor. The afternoon is free in Aswan, with dinner served aboard.

Overnight in: MS Salacia, moored in Aswan
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
Visits: Unfinished Obelisk, Philae Temple
Signature Experience: Philae seen before Lake Nasser — the first of the rescued Nubian temples, with eight more still to come
Good to Know: Sightseeing today is a shared group excursion with an accompanying Egyptologist.

A final breakfast aboard the MS Salacia before disembarking. Transfer to the M/S Prince Abbas, your second vessel, moored on Lake Nasser above the High Dam.

Settle into your cabin and take lunch and afternoon tea on board as the character of the journey changes entirely — from a busy river lined with villages to a vast, near-empty lake where the only landmarks for the next three days are temples that were moved here to survive.

Overnight in: M/S Prince Abbas, moored in Aswan
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
Signature Experience: Changing vessels mid-journey, from the Nile to Lake Nasser — a crossing very few Egypt itineraries make
Good to Know: Your Lake Nasser stay is four nights, full board.

Go ashore at New Kalabsha, the island where three monuments were reassembled after the dam flooded their original sites: the great Temple of Kalabsha, the rock-cut Temple of Beit El Wali with its painted battle reliefs, and the delicate Kiosk of Kertassi standing on the shore.

Return aboard as the vessel sails south into open water, with a cocktail reception on deck as the sun goes down and dinner served aboard.

Overnight in: M/S Prince Abbas, moored at Wadi El Seboua
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
Visits: Temple of Kalabsha, Temple of Beit El Wali, Kiosk of Kertassi
Signature Experience: Three rescued Nubian monuments on one island, reached only from the water
Good to Know: Sightseeing is a shared group excursion with an accompanying Egyptologist.

Ashore at Wadi El Seboua, where the avenue of sphinxes that gives the site its name leads to the temple of Ramesses II — and where two further temples, Dakka and Meharakka, were relocated alongside it.

Sail on to Amada for the oldest surviving temple on the lake, the Temple of Derr carved for Ramesses II, and the Tomb of Pennut, a Nubian viceroy. A Nubian music and dance performance follows dinner on board.

Overnight in: M/S Prince Abbas, moored at Amada
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
Visits: Temple of Wadi El Seboua, Temple of Dakka, Temple of Meharakka, Temple of Amada, Temple of Derr, Tomb of Pennut
Signature Experience: Six monuments in a single day, at sites most visitors to Egypt will never see
Good to Know: Sightseeing is a shared group excursion with an accompanying Egyptologist. Shore landings on Lake Nasser are onto open ground; sturdy footwear is essential.

The vessel slows at Kasr Ibrim, the only Nubian site still standing where it was built — a fortress city on what was once a clifftop, now an island, and viewable only from the deck. You cannot land here; the stop is roughly fifteen minutes.

Sail on to Abu Simbel and approach the twin temples of Ramesses II and Queen Nefertari from the lake, the way they were meant to be seen. Go ashore to explore both before returning aboard for your final night.

Overnight in: M/S Prince Abbas, moored at Abu Simbel
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
Visits: Kasr Ibrim (from the water), Great Temple of Ramesses II, Temple of Queen Nefertari
Signature Experience: Arriving at Abu Simbel by water, moored overnight beneath the temples — not a coach day trip
Optional Premium Experience: Abu Simbel Sound and Light Show this evening, available at additional cost.
Good to Know: Kasr Ibrim is a photo stop from the deck only; no landing is permitted.

A final breakfast aboard with the temples beside you, then disembark for the road journey back to Aswan — roughly three and a half hours across the Nubian desert.

Continue to Aswan Airport for your flight to Cairo, where you are met and transferred privately to your hotel for the last night, placed so your international departure isn't rushed.

Overnight in: Cairo – Sheraton Cairo Hotel, Towers and Casino
Meals: Breakfast
Signature Experience: A final Cairo night that protects your international departure day
Good to Know: This is a long travel day — approximately 3.5 hours by road, then a flight. Flight times are confirmed by airline availability. 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.