The Best of Egypt Tour: Cairo, Nile Cruise & Sharm El Sheikh

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 before a twelve-day journey
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, leaving you free to try Cairo's restaurants. Your guide can recommend and reserve.

A second full Cairo day, 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, having seen 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 to Luxor. You are met on arrival and taken to your Nile cruise vessel, where you settle in and take lunch on board.

In the afternoon, visit the Karnak Temple Complex, where the Great Hypostyle Hall's 134 columns still carry traces of their original color, and the ceremonial Luxor Temple. Dinner is served aboard.

Overnight in: Nile cruise, moored in Luxor – Dwa Nile Cruise (Diamond) or MS Salacia (Golden)
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
Visits: Karnak Temple Complex, Luxor Temple
Signature Experience: Cairo in the morning, moored beside Luxor's temples by evening
Good to Know: Sightseeing from the cruise is a shared group excursion with an accompanying Egyptologist. Your Cairo touring is private; the cruise portion is not. 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 to 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 Temple of Queen Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahari, rising in three colonnaded terraces against the cliff face, and pause at the Colossi of Memnon. Return aboard for lunch as the vessel sails to Edfu, with afternoon tea on deck and dinner served aboard.

Overnight in: Nile cruise, moored at Edfu
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
Visits: Valley of the Kings, Temple of Queen Hatshepsut, Colossi of Memnon
Signature Experience: An afternoon on the sun deck as the vessel sails south through the Nile Valley
Optional Premium Experience: Sunrise hot-air balloon flight over the West Bank, and onboard spa treatments, can be arranged at additional cost.
Good to Know: Sightseeing today is a shared group excursion with an accompanying Egyptologist.

After breakfast, a horse-drawn carriage carries you from the mooring to the Temple of Horus at Edfu — the most completely preserved temple in Egypt, its roof and sanctuary still intact after centuries buried in sand.

Sail on to Kom Ombo and its twin temple, built with two identical entrances and divided between the crocodile god Sobek and the falcon-headed Haroeris. Lunch is served as the vessel continues to Aswan, with dinner aboard.

Overnight in: Nile cruise, moored in Aswan
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
Visits: Temple of Horus at Edfu, Temple of Kom Ombo
Signature Experience: The horse-drawn carriage ride from the riverbank to Edfu's temple gate
Good to Know: Sightseeing today is a shared group excursion with an accompanying Egyptologist.

After breakfast, visit the Unfinished Obelisk lying in its ancient 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 on its island setting, dedicated to Isis and Hathor and rescued stone by stone from the rising waters of the High Dam. Return aboard, moored at Aswan, with the afternoon at leisure and dinner served on board.

Overnight in: Nile cruise, moored in Aswan
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
Visits: Unfinished Obelisk, Philae Temple
Signature Experience: Approaching Philae by motorboat, the temple rising from its island as you cross
Optional Premium Experience: Private felucca sailing around Elephantine Island at sunset can be arranged at additional cost.
Good to Know: Sightseeing today is a shared group excursion with an accompanying Egyptologist.

A final breakfast aboard before disembarking at Aswan and transferring to the airport for your flight to Sharm El Sheikh, where the Nile Valley gives way to the Red Sea and Sinai.

You are met on arrival and transferred to your resort. The rest of the day is yours — the beach, the pool, or simply the change of pace after a week of temples.

Overnight in: Sharm El Sheikh – Maritim Jolie Ville Resort & Casino
Meals: Breakfast
Signature Experience: From the Valley of the Kings to the Red Sea in a single day
Good to Know: Most Aswan–Sharm El Sheikh services connect via Cairo rather than flying direct, so this is a travel day; final routing and timings 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. Your Sharm stay is on a bed-and-breakfast basis — lunches and dinners are not included on Days 8, 9 and 10.

A free day on the Red Sea, or a full day at Ras Mohamed National Park, where the reef drops away into open water at the tip of the Sinai peninsula and the coral is among the best preserved in the world.

The excursion sails out by boat, with an open buffet lunch served on board and time to snorkel over the reef walls. Those who want to go deeper can add a dive with an instructor.

Overnight in: Sharm El Sheikh – Maritim Jolie Ville Resort & Casino
Meals: Breakfast
Signature Experience: Snorkeling the reef walls of Ras Mohamed, one of the world's first marine national parks
Optional Premium Experience: Ras Mohamed boat excursion with buffet lunch. Introductory dive (1 dive) $20 per person; scuba diving (2 dives) $40 per person. Vehicle-based snorkeling is available at no extra charge.
Good to Know: Bed-and-breakfast basis; lunch and dinner are not included unless taken as part of the excursion.

Another free day, or a journey inland into Sinai to the Colored Canyon — a narrow sandstone gorge whose walls rise as high as 40 meters, streaked yellow, purple, red and gold where mineral deposits have stained the rock.

The route runs by road across the desert, with time to walk the canyon floor between the walls before returning to the coast.

Overnight in: Sharm El Sheikh – Maritim Jolie Ville Resort & Casino
Meals: Breakfast
Signature Experience: Walking the floor of the Colored Canyon between 40-meter sandstone walls
Optional Premium Experience: Full-day Colored Canyon excursion, available at additional cost.
Good to Know: The canyon walk is on uneven ground with some narrow sections; closed shoes are essential. Bed-and-breakfast basis; lunch and dinner are not included.

Enjoy a final Red Sea breakfast and a relaxed morning before your transfer to Sharm El Sheikh Airport.

Fly back to Cairo, where you are met and transferred privately to your hotel for the last 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. 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.