10-Day Egypt & Petra Explorer: Nile Cruise & Wadi Rum

Your Nourbelle Tours representative meets you at Cairo International Airport and drives you to your 5-star hotel in a private air-conditioned car. There is no sightseeing today, so you can land at any hour without losing part of the tour.

Use the evening to rest, change some money and get a local SIM card if you need one. Tomorrow is the longest day of the Egypt leg: the Giza Plateau, the Grand Egyptian Museum and an evening flight south. An early night helps.

Send us your flight number when you book so the pickup matches your arrival. Meals are not included today, so plan dinner at the hotel or nearby. Our team is reachable 24/7 if anything changes on the way.

After breakfast you check out and meet your Egyptologist guide for the drive to the Giza Plateau. You see the pyramids of Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure, built about 4,500 years ago, then walk down to the Great Sphinx. Arrive early and the plateau is quieter and cooler.

From Giza it is a short drive to the Grand Egyptian Museum. This is where Tutankhamun's golden mask and the treasures from his tomb are now displayed, together with colossal royal statues and thousands of objects from Egypt's long history. Plan on two to three hours inside.

If time allows before the airport, your guide takes you to Khan el-Khalili, Cairo's old bazaar, for a short walk and a mint tea. In the evening you fly from Cairo to Aswan, about 1 hour 20 minutes, and transfer to your Nile cruise ship, where you spend the night.

Aswan is where the Nile narrows between granite rocks and desert hills. This morning your guide takes you to the High Dam, finished in 1970. It ended the yearly flood, created Lake Nasser and changed farming along the whole river.

Next, a motorboat crosses to Agilika Island and the Temple of Philae, dedicated to the goddess Isis. When the dams threatened to drown the temple, it was taken apart and rebuilt block by block on higher ground. Its carved reliefs and courtyards are among the best kept in Egypt, and the boat ride is part of the visit.

You return to the ship for lunch. The afternoon is free to rest on the sun deck or walk the Aswan riverside before the ship starts sailing north. Dinner is on board.

The ship moors at Kom Ombo, where the temple stands on a bend right above the river. It is a double temple, with two entrances and two sanctuaries: one for Sobek, the crocodile god, and one for Horus, the falcon god. Look for the wall carvings that many visitors read as surgical instruments. The small Crocodile Museum next to the temple displays mummified crocodiles found in the area.

Back on board, the ship continues downstream to Edfu. The Temple of Horus was begun in 237 BC and completed in 57 BC, and it is the most complete temple left from ancient Egypt. Its roof, pylon gateway and inner rooms are still standing, so you get a clear sense of how a working temple was laid out.

Both temples are close to the moorings, so the walking is short. The ship sails on toward Luxor while you have dinner on board.

The cruise ends in Luxor this morning. After breakfast on board you disembark and cross to the West Bank with your guide. Luxor was ancient Thebes, Egypt's capital during the New Kingdom.

The Valley of the Kings holds more than 60 tombs cut into the limestone hills. The standard ticket lets you enter three of them, and your guide helps you choose tombs with well-preserved painted walls. Next is the Temple of Hatshepsut, built in three wide terraces against the cliffs. Hatshepsut was one of the few women to rule Egypt as pharaoh, for about two decades.

On the way back you stop at the Colossi of Memnon, two huge seated statues of Amenhotep III. They stood at the entrance of his mortuary temple, once the largest temple on the West Bank. You then check in to your Luxor hotel, and the rest of the day is free.

Start early at Karnak, one of the largest religious complexes ever built. Pharaohs added to it for close to 2,000 years, so it reads less like one building and more like a city of temples, gateways and obelisks. The Great Hypostyle Hall has 134 sandstone columns, the tallest about 70 feet high.

After the visit you transfer to Luxor Airport and fly to Cairo, then connect to a flight from Cairo to Amman, which takes about 1 hour 20 minutes. This is a travel-heavy day, so keep a small bag with water and snacks for the connection.

Your Jordanian guide meets you at Queen Alia International Airport and drives you to your 5-star hotel in Amman, about 40 minutes away. If you are not traveling with a Jordan visa yet, ask our team before departure what applies to your passport.

After breakfast you drive south from Amman to Petra, about 3 hours on the Desert Highway. Petra was the capital of the Nabataeans, Arab traders who grew rich on the incense and spice caravans crossing between Arabia, Egypt and the Mediterranean.

With your licensed local guide you enter on foot through the Siq, a narrow sandstone gorge about 1.2 km (0.75 mile) long. At its end the Treasury appears, its facade carved straight into the rose-colored cliff and about 40 meters (130 feet) tall. You continue past the Street of Facades and the theater to the Royal Tombs and the colonnaded street.

If you still have energy, climb the roughly 800 rock-cut steps to the Monastery, a larger monument with fewer people and a wide view over the valley. Allow 30 to 45 minutes up. Wear broken-in walking shoes and carry water. You spend the night in a 5-star hotel near the Petra entrance.

This morning you drive south from Petra to Wadi Rum, a protected desert of red sand and tall sandstone and granite mountains. The valley is linked with T.E. Lawrence and the Arab Revolt, and film crews have used it for Lawrence of Arabia, The Martian and Dune.

In the afternoon a 4x4 jeep with a local Bedouin driver takes you through the most striking parts of the valley. Stops include Khazali Canyon, with ancient inscriptions cut into its walls, Lawrence's Spring and the red dunes. You finish at a viewpoint for sunset.

Your camp tonight is a luxury desert camp with proper beds and private bathrooms, not a basic tent. Dinner is a Bedouin meal at the camp. Wadi Rum has very little light pollution, so on a clear night the stars are bright. Desert nights are cold from November to March, so pack a warm layer.

After breakfast at the camp you drive north to Amman, arriving in the early afternoon. The capital is built over a series of hills, and its oldest part sits on the highest of them.

With your guide you visit the Amman Citadel, where Roman, Byzantine and early Islamic remains stand side by side, and the Umayyad Palace complex on the same hill. The Jordan Archaeological Museum on the Citadel holds finds from prehistoric to Islamic times. From the top you look straight down onto the Roman Theatre and the downtown streets.

The evening is free. Rainbow Street and the lanes around it are a good place for dinner, with plenty of restaurants and cafes within walking distance. You spend the night in a 5-star hotel in Amman, ready for the transfer to the airport tomorrow.

Breakfast is at your hotel, and then the day depends on your flight time. With a later departure you have the morning free for a last walk downtown or a visit to the Roman Theatre, which seats around 6,000 people and is still used for events.

At the agreed time your driver collects you from the hotel for the private transfer to Queen Alia International Airport, about 40 minutes south of the city. Plan to arrive at the airport about three hours before an international flight.

Your international flight home is not included in the tour price, so you can book the departure time that suits you. Tell us your flight details when you book, and we set the pickup time around them. Our team stays reachable 24/7 until you leave.