6-Day Cairo & Luxor Tour with a Night in Luxor and Domestic Flights

A representative meets you at Cairo Airport, helps you through arrival formalities and escorts you to a private air-conditioned vehicle for the transfer to your hotel. Once you have checked in, the rest of the day is free.

A long flight and a new time zone are enough for one day, so this first evening is unscheduled on purpose. Eat well, drink plenty of water and get a full night's sleep; you will spend most of tomorrow on your feet in the sun at Giza and Saqqara.

Before bed, pack a day bag with sunscreen, a hat, sunglasses, a refillable bottle and some small Egyptian pound notes for restroom attendants and tips. Lay out closed shoes that can handle sand and uneven stone, and a light layer for the air-conditioned car. No meals are included today.

After breakfast your representative collects you for the Giza Plateau. The pyramids of Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure were raised about 4,500 years ago as tombs for three Fourth Dynasty kings, and the Great Pyramid, built for Khufu, was the tallest human-made structure on earth for thousands of years. Below them lies the Sphinx, its lion body and royal head carved from the plateau's limestone.

Right beside the Sphinx is the Valley Temple of Khafre, built around 2500 BC as part of the king's pyramid complex. It is a quietly impressive building of massive red-granite pillars and lintels with almost no decoration, where the king's funeral rites began before his body was carried up the causeway to his pyramid. Lunch follows at a local restaurant.

In the afternoon you continue to Saqqara, where the Step Pyramid of Djoser, built around 2670 BC, is the oldest monumental stone building in Egypt and the forerunner of everything at Giza. The day ends at Memphis, the capital of the Old Kingdom, whose open-air museum holds a giant fallen statue of Ramesses II and an alabaster sphinx. A private car takes you back to your hotel.

After breakfast you drive to Tahrir Square and the Egyptian Museum, the salmon-colored building that opened in 1902 and remains one of the world's great collections of pharaonic art. Its galleries are crowded with statues, coffins, jewelry and everyday objects spanning thousands of years. Look for the Narmer Palette, an early record of a king of united Egypt, and the slate triad statues of Menkaure flanked by goddesses, which were found in his own valley temple at Giza. Note that the full Tutankhamun collection is now displayed at the Grand Egyptian Museum, which is not part of this itinerary.

After lunch at a local restaurant you head to the Cairo Citadel, the fortress Saladin built in the 12th century. It served as the seat of Egypt's government for centuries and now holds several mosques and museums. The most famous is the Mosque of Mohamed Ali, built in the 19th century in the Ottoman style, with its great dome and two slender minarets. Cover your shoulders and knees and remove your shoes to go inside.

You finish at Khan el-Khalili, the old bazaar of Islamic Cairo, where narrow lanes are lined with sellers of spices, jewelry, textiles and lamps. A private car returns you to your hotel.

After breakfast a private vehicle takes you to the airport for your domestic flight to Luxor, ancient Thebes and the religious capital of the New Kingdom. A representative meets you on arrival.

Your first visit is Karnak, a complex of temples dedicated chiefly to the god Amun that pharaohs kept extending for some 2,000 years. Its Great Hypostyle Hall is one of the great architectural spaces of the ancient world: 134 columns, the tallest in the central aisle reaching about 21 meters, many still showing traces of their original paint. Take time to wander past the obelisks and the sacred lake as well. Lunch is at a local restaurant.

In the afternoon you visit Luxor Temple, built mainly by Amenhotep III and Ramesses II on the east bank of the Nile. Its entrance is marked by a massive pylon, seated colossi of Ramesses II and a single surviving obelisk; its partner now stands in the Place de la Concorde in Paris. The Avenue of Sphinxes that once linked the temple to Karnak runs north from the gate. Afterward a private car takes you to your Luxor hotel, and the evening is free to stroll the Nile corniche.

After breakfast at your hotel, a private vehicle takes you across to the West Bank, the land of the dead for ancient Thebes. Your first stop is the Valley of the Kings, where the pharaohs of the New Kingdom were buried in tombs cut deep into the limestone hills. Their corridors and chambers are painted with gods, stars and passages from texts meant to guide the king through the night journey of the sun. Tutankhamun's tomb is among them.

Next comes the Temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahari, built for one of the very few women to rule Egypt as pharaoh. Its three terraced levels, linked by long ramps and fronted by colonnades, sit dramatically against a wall of cliffs, and its reliefs record events of her reign, including a trading expedition to the land of Punt. Lunch is at a local restaurant.

Your last stop is the Colossi of Memnon, two huge seated statues of Amenhotep III that are almost all that remains of his once-vast mortuary temple. In the evening a private vehicle takes you to Luxor Airport for your flight back to Cairo, where a representative meets you and drives you to your hotel.

Your final morning begins with breakfast at the hotel. Any free time before checkout is yours to pack, rest or take a last short walk.

At the agreed time a representative accompanies you in a private air-conditioned vehicle to the airport for your departure. The pickup is planned with a comfortable margin for Cairo's traffic and international check-in. If your flight leaves late in the day, ask your representative about luggage storage at the hotel, and keep fragile souvenirs from Khan el-Khalili, such as glass or brass, in your carry-on.

Over five days you will have followed ancient Egypt from its first great stone monument at Saqqara to the painted tombs of the Valley of the Kings, roughly 15 centuries of history seen in the places where it happened.