12-Day Cairo, Nile Cruise & Sharm El Sheikh Tour with Sleeper Train

Your representative is waiting in the arrivals hall at Cairo International Airport with a sign bearing your name. From there it is a short walk to a private, air-conditioned vehicle and a drive into the city, with no taxis to negotiate and no public transport to decode after a long flight.

The rest of the day is free. Check in, rest, and adjust to the time change; you will want energy for tomorrow, which ends on an overnight train. If you land early, your hotel concierge or guide can suggest a relaxed outing nearby, though nothing is scheduled and you can stay in if you prefer.

Your guide confirms the Day 2 pickup time either at the airport or with a short welcome call that evening. No meals are included today.

After breakfast your guide takes you to the Giza Plateau, where the pyramids of Khufu, Khafre, and Menkaure have stood for some 4,500 years. Your Egyptologist explains how they were built and what they meant to the kings buried inside, then leads you down to the Great Sphinx, carved from a single limestone outcrop with a lion's body and a pharaoh's face.

Next is the Grand Egyptian Museum beside the plateau, where you climb the statue-lined Grand Staircase and tour the halls that show Tutankhamun's complete burial treasure together. Lunch is at a local restaurant, followed by some free time in the late afternoon.

In the evening you transfer to Cairo's railway station and board the sleeper train to Aswan. Settle into your private cabin as the train heads south along the Nile Valley through the night. Pack a small overnight bag so you are not digging through your suitcase in the cabin.

Your train pulls into Aswan in the morning, and your Aswan-based guide meets you at the station. Aswan is Egypt's southern gateway, a granite-edged stretch of the Nile with a strong Nubian identity.

The day begins at the Aswan High Dam, the 20th-century project that controls the Nile's flow and formed Lake Nasser, one of the largest artificial lakes in the world. A short motorboat ride then brings you to Philae Temple, dedicated to the goddess Isis. It was dismantled and rebuilt on higher ground in a UNESCO-led rescue when rising water threatened it, and its graceful colonnades now rise from Agilkia Island.

After lunch you transfer to the dock and board your Nile cruise ship. The rest of the afternoon is free to unpack, shower off the train journey, and watch the riverbank from the deck. Dinner is served on board.

After breakfast the ship sails north toward Kom Ombo, arriving in the late morning or early afternoon. The temple here sits on a bend of the river and is unlike any other in Egypt: a double temple, split down the center between Sobek, the crocodile god, and Horus, the falcon god, with twin entrances, halls, and sanctuaries built side by side.

Your guide also shows you the Crocodile Museum, where mummified crocodiles once revered at the site are on display, along with the coffins they were buried in. On the outer walls, look for the relief that many visitors read as a set of medical instruments.

Back on board, lunch is served as the ship continues toward Edfu. The afternoon is yours on the sun deck, with palm groves, fields, and villages along the banks. Dinner is served aboard.

After breakfast you disembark at Edfu for a short horse-drawn carriage or tuk-tuk ride to the Temple of Horus, one of the best-preserved temples in Egypt. Built under the Ptolemies, it still has its roof, a towering entrance pylon, and a dark inner sanctuary, and its walls carry long reliefs of Horus triumphing over Seth. The carriage at Edfu is not included in the package.

You return to the ship for lunch as it sails on toward Luxor, typically arriving in the afternoon or evening. Depending on the arrival time, you may visit Luxor Temple after dark, when floodlights pick out its colossal statues of Ramesses II, its granite obelisk, and its long colonnade in the center of town. Dinner is served on board, and the ship spends the night in Luxor.

After breakfast you check out of the ship and cross to Luxor's West Bank. In the Valley of the Kings, pharaohs including Tutankhamun were laid to rest in tombs cut deep into the hills, their walls painted with texts meant to guide the king through the underworld. Standard entry covers three tombs, and Tutankhamun's tomb requires a separate ticket.

You continue to the Temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahari, a terraced temple built against towering cliffs for one of Egypt's few female pharaohs, and pause for photos at the Colossi of Memnon, two seated statues of Amenhotep III.

After lunch at a local restaurant you transfer to Luxor Airport for a connecting flight to Sharm El Sheikh via Cairo. You land on the Red Sea coast in the evening and transfer to your beach resort to check in and unwind after a long travel day.

This is your first fully unscheduled day of the trip, and you have earned it. Sleep in, then spend the day as you like: by the pool, on the beach, or in the warm, clear water of the Red Sea, which stays swimmable for much of the year.

Sharm El Sheikh sits at the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula, where desert mountains meet some of the most celebrated coral reefs in the world. If you want to explore them, your resort concierge can arrange optional activities locally, including snorkeling or diving trips to Ras Mohammed National Park, a boat excursion to nearby islands, or a sunset cruise along the coast. Bring reef-safe sunscreen and avoid touching the coral.

These activities are not included, and only breakfast is part of the package here, so lunch and dinner are at your own choice and expense.

A second free day gives you room to do the thing you enjoyed most yesterday, or to try something new. If you went out on the water, a quiet pool day might be welcome; if you stayed put, this is a good morning to head for the reefs.

Popular optional choices include a full-day snorkeling or diving excursion to Ras Mohammed, where steep reef walls drop into deep blue water and schools of fish crowd the shallows, or a glass-bottom boat tour if you would rather see the coral while staying dry. Many travelers also enjoy an evening stroll around Naama Bay, with its promenade of restaurants and cafés.

Your resort concierge can book any of these, and none is included in the package. Breakfast is included; other meals are at your own expense.

Your last full day in Sharm El Sheikh offers a choice between more time by the water and a change of scenery inland.

If you prefer the sea, enjoy a last morning of swimming and sunbathing. If you are curious about the Sinai's interior, you can book an optional Bedouin-style desert safari by quad bike or jeep. These outings head into the rocky desert behind the coast, usually timed for late afternoon, and finish with a traditional dinner and stargazing under a clear sky far from the resort lights. Wear closed shoes and bring a scarf against dust if you ride a quad bike.

Your resort concierge can arrange either option, and neither the safari nor any meal beyond breakfast is included. Pack this evening, since tomorrow you fly back to Cairo.

After breakfast you check out of your resort and transfer to Sharm El Sheikh Airport for your flight back to Cairo. The flight is short, and on arrival you are met and driven privately to your hotel.

The rest of the day is free. Use it to rest, revisit a favorite Cairo neighborhood, or do some last-minute shopping for gifts. If you missed Khan el-Khalili earlier, the old bazaar is a lively place to browse for spices, lanterns, and handmade goods, and its old cafés are good for an hour of people-watching over mint tea. Zamalek, the island district in the Nile, suits a quieter afternoon of bookshops and riverside cafés.

Keep the evening low-key. Tomorrow is your final full day of touring, and it starts after breakfast. Only breakfast is included today.

After breakfast you drive south to Saqqara, the vast burial ground of ancient Memphis. Its Step Pyramid of Djoser, designed by the architect Imhotep, is the earliest monumental stone building in Egypt, and its courtyards and surrounding tombs mark the moment Egyptian builders moved from mud brick to stone.

You continue to Memphis, the capital of a unified Egypt for much of its ancient history, where an open-air museum holds a massive fallen colossus of Ramesses II and an alabaster sphinx.

After lunch at a local restaurant you reach Dahshur, far quieter than Giza. Here King Sneferu built the Bent Pyramid, whose angle changes partway up, likely to fix an early miscalculation, and the Red Pyramid, widely regarded as Egypt's first successful smooth-sided pyramid. Your guide ties the three sites together into the story of how the pyramid evolved, and you return to your hotel by evening.

After breakfast at the hotel, how you spend the morning depends on your flight time. Pack at leisure, take a last walk, or simply sit with a coffee and sort through the photos from Giza, the Nile, and the Red Sea. If your flight leaves late, ask the front desk about luggage storage.

At the agreed time your driver collects you for the private transfer to Cairo International Airport. Cairo's traffic is notoriously hard to predict, so the driver allows for congestion and check-in time, making sure you arrive relaxed and on time for your international departure. Keep your passport close, since you will pass a security check at the terminal entrance.

Your 12 days end here, after pyramids at both Giza and Dahshur, a night on the rails, three nights on the river, and four on the Red Sea coast.