9-Day Cairo, Nile Cruise & Hurghada Tour

As you exit customs at Cairo International Airport, look for a representative holding a sign with your name. You are escorted to a private air-conditioned car and driven to your hotel, without the need to deal with taxis or public transport after your flight.

The rest of the day is unscheduled, so plan it around your arrival time. If you land early, your guide or the hotel concierge can suggest a relaxed first outing nearby, such as a short walk by the Nile or dinner at a local restaurant. If you arrive late, rest is the priority: tomorrow brings a full day at Giza and the Grand Egyptian Museum.

Before tomorrow, your guide confirms the morning pickup time, either when you meet at the airport or in a short welcome call during the evening. Keep your phone on and charged. Meals are not included today.

Breakfast first, then a drive to the Giza Plateau, where the pyramids of Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure have marked the edge of the Western Desert for some 4,500 years. Your Egyptologist explains the construction methods, the role of the pyramids in royal religion, and the clues that the workers were paid laborers housed in a town at the foot of the plateau. You then walk down to the Great Sphinx, a lion with a pharaoh's head carved from the bedrock itself.

From Giza you continue to the Grand Egyptian Museum, the world's largest archaeological museum focused on a single civilization. Your guide leads you up the grand staircase, flanked by statues of kings and deities, and into the Tutankhamun galleries, where the boy king's complete burial collection is shown together, including his golden mask, jewelry, shrines and chariots.

Lunch is served at a local restaurant during the day, and you are back at your hotel by evening to rest before tomorrow's early flight to Aswan.

You are picked up early for the transfer to Cairo Airport and a morning flight to Aswan. Your Aswan-based guide meets you on arrival and starts at the Aswan High Dam, the giant barrier completed in 1970 that tamed the Nile's annual flood. On its southern side lies Lake Nasser, one of the largest artificial lakes in the world, stretching into Sudan.

A short motorboat ride then brings you to the Temple of Philae, the island sanctuary of Isis. Pilgrims came here for centuries after the rest of Egypt had turned to Christianity. When the dams began to flood it, a UNESCO-led team moved the temple stone by stone to nearby Agilkia Island, where you see it today, framed by water and rocks.

After lunch you transfer to the dock and board your Nile cruise ship. Check into your cabin, then spend the rest of the afternoon on deck watching feluccas and the granite islands of Aswan while the ship rests at the dock. Dinner is served on board, and the ship stays in Aswan tonight.

After breakfast on board, the ship sails north toward Kom Ombo and arrives in the late morning or early afternoon. Kom Ombo is a rare double temple, built in the Ptolemaic period on a bend in the river. The left half belongs to Horus the Elder, the right half to the crocodile god Sobek, and every element is doubled along twin axes: two entrances, two hypostyle halls, two sanctuaries. Your guide shows you a famous relief often read as a set of medical instruments, along with a carved calendar of festivals.

Next door, the Crocodile Museum displays mummified crocodiles found in the area, a reminder that the Nile's most feared animal was also worshipped here.

You reboard the ship for lunch and continue toward Edfu. Use the afternoon to rest on the sun deck, swim in the pool if the ship has one, or watch farmers, water buffalo and mud-brick villages along the banks. Dinner is on board, and the ship moors at Edfu overnight.

After breakfast you go ashore and take a short horse-drawn carriage or tuk-tuk ride to the Temple of Horus at Edfu. Begun in 237 BC and finished nearly two centuries later, it is one of the best-preserved temples in Egypt, with its pylon, roofed halls, sanctuary and enclosure wall still intact. Walk the passage between the temple and its outer wall to see long reliefs of Horus spearing his enemy Seth, shown as a hippopotamus. Your guide also points out the dark granite shrine in the sanctuary.

You return to the ship for lunch as it continues north toward Luxor, usually arriving in the afternoon or evening. Depending on the arrival time, you may visit Luxor Temple after dark, when floodlights pick out the colonnades and the colossal statues of Ramesses II at the entrance. The temple stands right on the corniche in the center of town, a few minutes from the docks.

Dinner is served on board, and you spend the night with the ship moored in Luxor.

After breakfast you check out of the ship and cross to the West Bank, where ancient Thebes buried its kings. In the Valley of the Kings, New Kingdom pharaohs, Tutankhamun among them, were laid to rest in deep, painted tombs. Entry typically covers three tombs, and the tomb of Tutankhamun can be added as an optional extra paid on site.

Next is the Temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahari, a striking design of ramps and terraces set into the cliffs for the woman who reigned as pharaoh. On the way back you stop to photograph the Colossi of Memnon, two seated statues of Amenhotep III, each close to 18 meters high.

After lunch at a local restaurant, you set out on the drive across the Eastern Desert to Hurghada, about three to four hours by private vehicle. The road leaves the green Nile Valley for dry mountains and wide plains before the Red Sea appears on the horizon. You check into your beach resort in Hurghada and have the evening free.

Today has no fixed plan. After breakfast at the resort, you can stretch out by the pool, swim in the Red Sea from the beach, or simply catch up on sleep after five busy days of touring. The water off Hurghada is clear and usually calm, and the sun shines almost every day of the year.

If you want to see the coral reefs that made the Red Sea famous, optional activities can be arranged locally. Snorkeling and diving trips visit nearby reefs where you can see parrotfish, clownfish and corals in shallow water. Boat excursions run to islands off the coast with white-sand beaches, and a sunset cruise is a gentle way to end the day on the water. The resort concierge can help you book whichever suits your interests and schedule; these activities are paid separately.

Only breakfast is included today, so lunch and dinner are at your own choice and expense. Sunscreen that is safe for reefs and a hat are good to have on hand.

After breakfast you check out of the resort and begin the private road transfer to Cairo, a long drive back across the Eastern Desert. Bring water, a book or downloaded podcasts, and a light layer for the air conditioning. You are likely to arrive in the afternoon or evening, depending on traffic.

Once you check into your hotel, the rest of the day is free. You might rest, do some last-minute shopping, or sit down to a final Egyptian dinner.

If you still have energy, optional tours can be arranged locally, such as a felucca ride on the Nile at sunset, a visit to the Coptic churches of Old Cairo and the Ben Ezra Synagogue, or the sound and light show at the Giza Pyramids, where the Sphinx narrates the history of the plateau. These are paid separately. Breakfast is included today.

Your last morning starts with breakfast at the hotel. How much time you have before leaving depends on your flight, so use it to pack, take a final walk or simply relax. If your flight departs in the evening, the hotel can usually keep your luggage after checkout.

At the agreed time, your driver collects you for the private transfer to Cairo International Airport. Cairo traffic can change quickly, so the driver allows extra time for the roads and for your airline's check-in, getting you to the terminal calmly and on time.

That brings to a close nine days that moved from the pyramids of Giza to the temples of the Nile and finally to the shore of the Red Sea. Breakfast is included today.