14-Day Cairo, Alexandria, Siwa Oasis & Nile Cruise Tour

Your representative meets you in the arrivals hall at Cairo International Airport, holding a sign with your name, and walks you to a private, air-conditioned vehicle. After a long flight, it is a relief to leave the taxis and public transport to everyone else while your driver handles the drive into the city.

The rest of the day is free to check in, rest, and adjust to Egyptian time. If you land early and want a gentle start, your hotel concierge or guide can suggest a short outing nearby, though nothing is scheduled and you can recover at your own pace.

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

After breakfast your guide drives you to the Giza Plateau, where the pyramids of Khufu, Khafre, and Menkaure have stood for some 4,500 years. Your Egyptologist explains how the blocks were cut and raised, and how each pyramid fit into a complex of temples and causeways. Below them sits the Great Sphinx, carved from a single outcrop of limestone with a lion's body and a pharaoh's face.

From Giza you continue to the Grand Egyptian Museum, a vast museum devoted to ancient Egypt. You climb the Grand Staircase, lined with colossal kings and gods, and tour the galleries where Tutankhamun's complete burial treasure is shown together, from jewelry and shrines to chariots. Lunch is at a local restaurant, and you return to your hotel by evening.

After an early breakfast you drive north to Alexandria, about two and a half to three hours on the desert road, arriving by mid-morning in the city Alexander the Great founded in 331 BC.

Your Alexandria-based guide begins at the Catacombs of Kom el-Shoqafa, an underground Roman-era necropolis where Egyptian, Greek, and Roman funerary styles blend in carved tombs and statues. You then visit Pompey's Pillar, a red granite column rising above the ruins of the Serapeum.

After a seafood lunch overlooking the Mediterranean, you continue to the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, the modern successor to the ancient Library of Alexandria, and finish at the fifteenth-century Qaitbay Citadel, built on or near the site of the Pharos lighthouse, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. You drive back in the early evening and reach your Cairo hotel at night.

After breakfast you visit the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization, where the royal mummies of Egypt's pharaohs rest in a hall designed to protect them, alongside galleries covering Egypt's history from prehistory to the present. Your guide explains mummification and burial customs as you pass kings such as Ramesses II.

Next comes the Cairo Citadel, the fortress Saladin began in the twelfth century, now crowned by the nineteenth-century Mohamed Ali Alabaster Mosque. From its terrace, Cairo's rooftops spread toward the pyramids on a clear day.

The day ends at Khan el-Khalili, a bazaar trading since the fourteenth century, with alleys full of spice stalls, goldsmiths, perfume shops, and craft workshops. Your guide can point you to reputable vendors before you settle in an old café over Egyptian tea or mint lemonade. You return to your hotel in the evening to rest before the desert journey.

After an early breakfast you leave Cairo by private air-conditioned vehicle for the long road west to Siwa Oasis, roughly 750 kilometers and eight to nine hours via the Cairo-Alexandria road and the coastal road to Marsa Matrouh. With no regular flights to Siwa, the overland route is the way in, and it is part of the adventure.

The scenery changes as you go, from the city's outskirts to the turquoise Mediterranean near Marsa Matrouh, then south into open desert for the final stretch. Your driver paces the journey with stops for rest, meals, and photos of the coast.

You reach Siwa in the evening and check into your eco-lodge or hotel, built in the traditional local style. Siwa lies below sea level near the Libyan border, and its palm groves and salt lakes feel a world away from Cairo. Rest well; tomorrow is a full day.

After breakfast you explore Siwa's landmarks. The Temple of the Oracle of Amun stands on a rocky hill at Aghurmi, where Alexander the Great is believed to have come in 331 BC to have his divine status confirmed. From the top you can see across palm groves and salt lakes.

Next is Cleopatra's Spring, a stone-lined natural pool where people have bathed for centuries, then the Shali Fortress, the crumbling mud-brick citadel at the heart of town, built from kershef, a mix of salt rock and mud. Lunch is at a local restaurant.

In the afternoon a 4x4 heads into the Great Sand Sea, a vast field of dunes. Expect fast dune driving, a chance to try sandboarding, and a stop at a natural hot spring in the desert. The day ends with sunset over the dunes before you return to your hotel. Dinner is included tonight.

After breakfast the day is yours to experience Siwa slowly. Rent a bicycle or walk through the palm and olive groves, swim in one of the oasis's natural springs, or browse for local handicrafts such as embroidered textiles, silver jewelry, and woven baskets. Siwa is known for its dates and olives, which make good gifts to carry home.

Siwa's people speak Siwi, an Amazigh language distinct from Arabic, and the town has a calm rhythm built around the groves and springs. Dress modestly in town, and ask before photographing people, especially women.

If you want more adventure, optional excursions can be arranged locally to the salt lakes, mountain viewpoints such as Gebel Dakrour or the Mountain of the Dead, or other desert landscapes. These extras are not included, and only breakfast is included today.

After breakfast you check out and begin the long drive back to Cairo, retracing the route north to the Mediterranean at Marsa Matrouh and then east toward the capital. As on the way out, your driver makes stops for meals and rest, and lunch is included en route.

Long road days are easier with a little preparation. Keep water, snacks, a charged phone, and something to read or listen to in your day bag, and wear comfortable layers, since the air-conditioning can feel cool while the sun is strong through the windows. The coastal stretch is a good place to watch the Mediterranean's color shift from pale green to deep blue.

You arrive back in Cairo in the evening after a full day of travel and check into your hotel. Get to bed early, because tomorrow begins with a morning flight south.

An early pickup takes you to Cairo International Airport for a morning flight to Aswan, where your Aswan-based guide meets you on arrival.

The tour begins at the Aswan High Dam, the twentieth-century project that controls the Nile and created Lake Nasser, one of the largest artificial lakes in the world. A short motorboat ride then brings you to Philae Temple, sacred to Isis, which was dismantled and rebuilt on higher ground on Agilkia Island in a UNESCO-led rescue from rising water.

You also visit the Unfinished Obelisk, still lying in its granite quarry. Had it been completed, it would have been the largest obelisk ever raised, but a crack forced its abandonment, and the tool marks around it show how such monoliths were cut. After lunch you transfer to the dock and board your Nile cruise ship, with the afternoon free on deck. Dinner is served on board.

After breakfast the ship sails north toward Kom Ombo, arriving in the late morning or early afternoon. Its temple, set right on the riverbank, is a double temple: one half dedicated to Sobek, the crocodile god, and the other to Horus, the falcon god, with mirrored entrances, halls, and sanctuaries built side by side.

Your guide also takes you through the Crocodile Museum, where mummified crocodiles once worshipped at the temple are displayed. On the temple walls, look for the carved calendar and the panel many visitors read as a set of medical instruments.

You reboard for lunch as the ship continues toward Edfu. The afternoon is free on the sun deck, watching palm groves and villages pass, or joining the onboard activities. Dinner is served on board, and the ship spends the night at Edfu.

After breakfast you disembark for a short horse-drawn carriage or tuk-tuk ride to the Temple of Horus at Edfu, one of the best-preserved temples in Egypt. Built under the Ptolemies, it keeps its roof, its massive pylon, and its inner sanctuary, and your guide explains the reliefs showing Horus defeating Seth. The carriage is optional and payable locally.

You return to the ship for lunch as it continues toward Luxor, typically arriving in the afternoon or evening. Depending on the arrival time, you may visit Luxor Temple after dark, when its colossal statues of Ramesses II, its obelisk, and its colonnades glow under floodlights 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 and scenes of the afterlife. Standard entry covers three tombs, and Tutankhamun's tomb needs a separate ticket that is not included.

Next is the Temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahari, a terraced temple built against sheer cliffs for one of Egypt's few female pharaohs, followed by a photo stop at the Colossi of Memnon, two seated statues of Amenhotep III that once guarded his mortuary temple.

After lunch at a local restaurant you transfer to Luxor Airport for your flight back to Cairo, landing in the evening and transferring to your hotel to rest before your free day.

After breakfast the day is entirely yours. Relax at the hotel, revisit a favorite site at a slower pace, or explore a Cairo neighborhood on your own. Zamalek, the island district in the Nile, is good for cafés and galleries, while Islamic Cairo's Al-Muizz Street rewards a slow walk past medieval mosques and madrasas.

If you want to keep exploring, your guide or hotel concierge can arrange optional add-on tours locally. A day trip to Fayoum Oasis brings lakes and desert scenery within a couple of hours of the city. A felucca ride on the Nile at sunset shows Cairo from the water. After dark, the sound and light show at the Giza Pyramids tells the plateau's story with projections on the monuments.

These extras are not included, so you can match the day to your energy. Breakfast is included.

After breakfast at your hotel, how you use the morning depends on your flight. Pack at leisure, take a final walk, or sort through two weeks of photos from Giza, Alexandria, Siwa, and the Nile. If your flight leaves late, the front desk can advise on luggage storage.

At the agreed time your driver collects you for the private transfer to Cairo International Airport. Since Cairo traffic is hard to predict, the driver allows for congestion and check-in time so you arrive relaxed and on schedule for your international departure. Keep your passport handy for the security check at the terminal entrance.

You leave having seen Egypt at its most varied: pharaonic temples on the Nile, Greco-Roman ruins by the Mediterranean, and a desert oasis that still keeps its own language and pace.