7 Days Egypt Luxury Holiday Package

Seven days. The way Egypt is meant to be experienced.

Most experienced travelers agree: the Nile cruise changes the trip. Waking up at Edfu Temple as the boat docks. Watching the Luxor West Bank cliffs change colour in the evening from the sundeck, and arriving at Kom Ombo by water.

This itinerary builds the cruise into the center of seven days that begin in Cairo and end in Aswan — structured so that neither Cairo nor the river is compressed.

Highlights

• Grand Egyptian Museum — full morning with a private Egyptologist, Tutankhamun gallery in depth
• Giza Plateau and Saqqara — from the world's most famous monuments to Egypt's oldest stone structures
• Three nights on the Nile — private cabin, sailing from Luxor to Aswan past the landscape of Upper Egypt
• Edfu Temple by horse-drawn carriage — the best-preserved temple in Egypt, dedicated to Horus
• Kom Ombo dual temple and the crocodile mummy museum
• Philae Temple on its island in the Aswan reservoir — the relocated sanctuary of Isis
• Felucca on the Nile in Aswan

Who This Tour Is For

• Travelers who want the Nile cruise experience without compromising on time in Cairo
• Anyone visiting Egypt for the first time who wants the complete picture in one week.
• Couples and small groups who want privacy at every stage

What Makes This Tour Different

• The cruise is in the center — not bolted on at the end. Cairo gets two full days. The cruise gets three. Aswan gets a proper day. Nothing is borrowed from anything else.
• You board the cruise ship in Luxor, having already seen the East Bank temples, so the West Bank day on the river is pure archaeology, not catch-up.
• Edfu Temple at dawn — the boat docks overnight, and you walk to the Temple of Horus before most visitors have left their hotels. The best-preserved temple in Egypt, in the best possible light.
• Same Egyptologist, start to finish — Cairo, domestic flight, Luxor, the cruise, Aswan. Not a series of strangers who know your itinerary on paper.

A Note on Itinerary Sequencing

Nile cruise ships operate on fixed embarkation and disembarkation schedules that are set by the cruise company and may change depending on your travel dates. This means the sequence of days shown above — specifically, which site is visited on which cruise day — may be adjusted to align with the ship's sailing schedule when we book your departure.

What does not change: all sites listed are covered. Every temple, every guided visit, and every day of the cruise is included, regardless of the sequence your particular departure follows. Your Egyptologist remains with you for every site visit, in whatever order the cruise runs

In practice, the common sequencing variations are:

• Southbound (Luxor to Aswan): West Bank → Edfu → Kom Ombo → Aswan. This is the most common direction.
• Northbound (Aswan to Luxor): Aswan → Kom Ombo → Edfu → West Bank. Less common but operated by some cruise lines.

We confirm the exact daily sequence with you before departure, once the cruise departure dates are set. If the direction or sequencing matters to you specifically, tell us when you enquire, and we will match you to the right cruise departure.

What You'll Experience

Day 1 — Arrive in Cairo · Afternoon: Old Cairo 

Private airport transfer to your hotel. After you settle in, your Egyptologist meets you in the afternoon for a walk through Old Cairo — the Hanging Church, Ben Ezra Synagogue, and the Roman fort foundations of Babylon. A measured first afternoon: two thousand years of history in one walkable neighbourhood, at a pace that doesn't demand anything from you yet. Evening at leisure. 

Day 2 — Cairo: Grand Egyptian Museum & Giza Plateau 

The Grand Egyptian Museum in the morning — the full Tutankhamun collection with your Egyptologist, who builds the session around what you'll encounter for the rest of the trip. The golden mask, the canopic jars, the burial furniture: four thousand objects from a single tomb. Two to three hours minimum. The Giza Plateau in the afternoon, before the midday heat has fully settled—the three pyramid complexes, the Sphinx from the south side, and the Solar Boat Museum. Your guide explains the construction logistics — not as a mystery, but as the engineering and logistics problem it actually was. Early evening return to your hotel. 

Day 3 — Fly to Luxor · East Bank · Embark Cruise 

Morning domestic flight to Luxor. Karnak Temple in the afternoon with your Egyptologist — 2,000 years of construction, thirty pharaohs, the largest religious complex ever built. Luxor Temple at dusk. Board your 5-star Nile cruise ship in the evening. Dinner on board as the boat prepares to move south. 

Day 4 — Luxor: West Bank · Sail South 

The Nile cruise ship is still docked in Luxor. Valley of the Kings in the morning — three tombs chosen by your Egyptologist based on what engaged you at the GEM. Hatshepsut's Temple at Deir el-Bahari: the colonnaded terrace cut into the cliff face, your guide explaining why her legacy was systematically erased after her death. The Colossi of Memnon on the return. Back on board and sailing south through the afternoon — the cruise is now moving toward Edfu. 

Day 5 — Edfu Temple

The boat docked overnight near Edfu. Morning visit to the Temple of Horus by horse-drawn carriage from the riverside — the best-preserved temple in Egypt, with its inner walls bearing the complete mythological cycle of Horus and Set, carved in extraordinary detail at eye level. Your Egyptologist explains the sanctuary sequence, the meaning of the reliefs on the naos, and why this is the site that most visitors describe as the one they weren't expecting to be so moved by. The hypostyle hall, 18 columns, leads to an inner sanctuary that has stood almost completely intact for over 2,000 years. Return to the boat and sail south toward Kom Ombo through the afternoon — upper deck, the Nile opening out into farmland between the desert cliffs on both sides.

Day 6 — Kom Ombo · Sail to Aswan 

Kom Ombo Temple in the morning, reached directly from the docked boat. The dual temple for Sobek and Horus — two deities, two sanctuaries, two complete ritual systems inside one symmetrical building. Every architectural element on the left mirrors the right. The crocodile mummy museum attached to the temple gives the crocodile cult a physical specificity that the wall reliefs alone don't achieve. Continue south toward Aswan through the afternoon. The Nile narrows, the desert approaches the water, and the first granite outcrops of Upper Egypt appear in and around the river. Dinner on board as the boat approaches Aswan and docks for the night.

Day 7 — Aswan: Philae · High Dam · Disembark · Departure

Final morning on the cruise. Philae Temple by motorboat from the boat's dock — the island sanctuary of Isis, relocated stone by stone to its current position before the Aswan reservoir rose in 1968. One of the most quietly beautiful sites in Egypt: human scale, a water setting, and an unusual architectural completeness. The High Dam in the late morning: your Egyptologist explains the engineering, the political context — the Soviet assistance, the Western withdrawal of funding — and the archaeological cost: 90,000 Nubian people were relocated, ancient temples were submerged, and the UNESCO operation that saved Abu Simbel and Philae was a direct consequence.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Nile cruise section actually like? 

Three nights on the river, sailing from Luxor to Aswan. Temple visits at Edfu and Kom Ombo during the day; the ship moves between stops at night. Meals are on board. Cabins have private bathrooms. The pace is slower than the city days — that's the point. Evenings on the upper deck watching the Nile landscape pass. 

Is the cruise ship private or shared? 

Your cabin and your touring schedule are entirely private — your Egyptologist accompanies you at all temple visits from the boat. The ship itself is shared with other passengers at mealtimes and in common areas. If you want an entirely private vessel, the Dahabiya charter is the appropriate option. 

Is Saqqara worth visiting alongside Giza? 

Consistently yes. Most travelers who expect a lesser version of Giza discover it's a qualitatively different site — older, quieter, more personal, with mastaba tomb paintings that are more vivid and immediate than the royal tombs in Luxor. The Step Pyramid of Djoser is the oldest stone structure in the world and is visited by a fraction of the visitors to Giza. 

What if I want to add Abu Simbel? 

Abu Simbel requires two additional nights in Aswan — it cannot be added to the 7-day trip without extending the trip. The 9-day Elite Luxury package includes Abu Simbel as standard.