9-Day Cairo, Nile Cruise & Alexandria Tour by Flight

At Cairo International Airport, a representative meets you in arrivals with a sign bearing your name and takes you to a private air-conditioned car. The drive to your hotel is handled from start to finish, so there is no need to hunt for a taxi or work out directions in an unfamiliar city after a long journey.

Nothing is scheduled for the rest of the day. If you land with time to spare, ask your guide or the hotel concierge for a short, easy outing nearby; an evening walk along the river is a pleasant introduction to Cairo's energy. If you land late, settle in, order something simple and get a full night's sleep before the pyramids tomorrow.

Your guide confirms the next day's pickup time, either face to face at the airport or in a quick welcome call during the evening. No meals are included today.

After breakfast you are driven to the Giza Plateau, where the pyramids of Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure have risen above the desert for about 4,500 years. Standing next to the Great Pyramid, originally about 146 meters tall, you start to grasp the scale of the project. Your Egyptologist explains how the stones were likely quarried, moved and set, and what the pyramids meant to the kings who commissioned them. You then visit the Great Sphinx, carved from a single limestone outcrop with the body of a lion and the face of a king.

From Giza you continue to the Grand Egyptian Museum, the largest archaeological museum in the world devoted to one civilization. Your guide takes you through the main galleries, starting with the grand staircase lined with royal statues and moving into the Tutankhamun halls, where the full collection from his tomb is displayed together.

Lunch is at a local restaurant, and you return to your hotel by evening to rest before an early flight.

An early transfer takes you to Cairo Airport for the morning flight to Aswan, Egypt's southern gateway. Your Aswan-based guide meets you and starts with the Aswan High Dam, a massive 20th-century project that regulates the Nile and holds back Lake Nasser, one of the largest artificial lakes on the planet. From the top you can compare the vast reservoir on one side with the narrow river on the other.

Next you board a small motorboat for the short ride to the Temple of Philae, dedicated to Isis, the mother goddess of Egyptian myth. Its graceful colonnades and pylons were saved from rising floodwaters in a UNESCO-led rescue, when the entire complex was dismantled and rebuilt on higher ground on Agilkia Island.

After lunch you transfer to the dock and board your Nile cruise ship. Once you have checked into your cabin, the afternoon is free to relax on deck and watch the boulders and sails of Aswan while the ship rests at the dock. Dinner is served on board, and you sleep moored in Aswan.

After breakfast the ship sets off downstream, heading north to Kom Ombo, where it arrives in the late morning or early afternoon. The temple here is a true double temple. One half is devoted to Sobek, the crocodile god associated with fertility and the Nile, and the other to Horus the Elder, the falcon god. Halls, courtyards and sanctuaries are duplicated side by side, so you can walk two parallel paths through the same building. Your guide points out the reliefs of offering scenes and the well for measuring the river's height.

The Crocodile Museum next to the temple holds mummified crocodiles and small coffins found in nearby burial grounds, offering a vivid look at animal worship in ancient Egypt.

Back on board, lunch is served as the ship continues north toward Edfu. The afternoon is open: read on the sun deck, take photos of riverside villages and palm groves, or join any onboard activities the ship offers. Dinner is on board, and you spend the night moored at Edfu.

Following breakfast, you step ashore at Edfu and ride by horse-drawn carriage or tuk-tuk to the Temple of Horus. Built by the Ptolemaic kings over almost two centuries, it is one of the most complete temples of ancient Egypt, and its walls carry some of the longest surviving religious texts of the period. Your guide walks you from the towering entrance pylon through the hypostyle halls to the inner sanctuary, where a polished granite shrine once held the god's image.

You return to the ship for lunch as it sails on toward Luxor, typically arriving in the afternoon or evening. If the timing works, you visit Luxor Temple after dark, when lighting brings out the depth of the carvings on its columns and the colossal statues of Ramesses II at the gate. The temple sits on the Nile corniche in the middle of the city, so it is a short trip from the dock.

Dinner is served on board, and the ship spends the night moored in Luxor.

After breakfast you check out of your cabin and cross to the West Bank, the realm of the dead in ancient Thebes. At the Valley of the Kings, you enter tombs carved deep into the hills for the pharaohs of the New Kingdom, Tutankhamun among them. Your ticket typically covers three tombs, and you can add the tomb of Tutankhamun separately on site. Look for the starry ceilings and the long processions of gods painted along the corridors.

Your next stop is the Temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahari, a striking terraced temple set against sheer limestone cliffs and built for one of Egypt's few female pharaohs. You then stop for photos at the Colossi of Memnon, the twin seated statues of Amenhotep III that are almost all that remains of his once-vast temple.

After lunch at a local restaurant, you transfer to Luxor Airport for the flight back to Cairo. You land in the evening and are driven to your hotel to rest before tomorrow's trip to Alexandria.

After an early breakfast, your driver takes the desert road north to Alexandria, a journey of roughly two and a half to three hours that gets you there by mid-morning. Alexander the Great founded the city in 331 BC, and under the Ptolemies it became one of the greatest centers of learning in the Mediterranean world.

Your Alexandria-based guide begins at the Catacombs of Kom el-Shoqafa, a Roman-era burial complex cut into the bedrock on several levels, where Egyptian, Greek and Roman funerary art mix in surprising ways. Next is Pompey's Pillar, a monolithic red granite column brought from Aswan, which stands over the remains of the Serapeum temple.

After a seafood lunch at a local restaurant overlooking the Mediterranean, you visit the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, opened in 2002 as a modern tribute to the ancient Library of Alexandria; its interior exhibits are optional and paid separately. The tour ends at the Qaitbay Citadel, a 15th-century fortress built on the site of the ancient lighthouse, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. In the early evening you drive back to Cairo, reaching your hotel at night.

After breakfast, the day belongs to you. You can stay close to the hotel and rest, return to a site you want to see again at a slower pace, or explore a Cairo neighborhood on your own, from the leafy streets of Zamalek to the old lanes around Al-Muizz Street in Islamic Cairo.

If you would like a guided outing, optional tours can be arranged locally. Choices include a day trip to Fayoum Oasis, a sunset felucca ride on the Nile, a visit to the Coptic churches of Old Cairo and the Ben Ezra Synagogue, or the evening sound and light show at the Giza Pyramids. Your guide or the hotel concierge can help you book the option that suits your interests; these are paid separately.

This free day also works as a useful buffer in case of any changes to your domestic flights earlier in the trip. Breakfast is included.

Your final morning starts with breakfast at the hotel. Depending on your flight time, you may have a little free time left for packing, a final stroll or a quiet coffee. If you fly later in the day, ask the front desk to store your bags after you check out.

At the agreed time, your driver picks you up for the private transfer to Cairo International Airport. The timing takes Cairo's unpredictable traffic and your airline's check-in window into account, so you reach the terminal relaxed and on schedule.

That transfer completes a nine-day trip that took you from the pyramids to the temples of the Nile and on to the Mediterranean shore of Alexandria. Breakfast is included today.