Board your overnight flight to Cairo today. 

Welcome to Egypt! This evening, enjoy an included dinner at your hotel on your own. 

Meet up with your Tour Director and set off on a guided tour of Giza, Egypt’s third-largest city and home to some of the world’s most enduring ancient monuments.

• Uncover the Pyramids of Giza, home to the only Wonder of the Ancient World to have survived into the modern era. Standing as tall as 480 feet when it was built, the Great Pyramid continues to amaze with its size and the precision with which it was constructed.
• Visit the enigmatic, 4,500-year-old Great Sphinx. Carved from limestone bedrock, it’s the largest monolithic statue in the world.
• Enter the Grand Egyptian Museum—said to be the world’s largest archaeological museum—and explore its vast collection of ancient artifacts alongside your Egyptologist.

Later, gather with your Tour Director and fellow group members at a mixer before enjoying a welcome dinner, served with beer or wine.

Fly to Aswan this morning and enjoy free time for the rest of the day (put your bargaining skills to the test at the Aswan Souk, perhaps?), or add an unforgettable experience aboard a felucca, a traditional Egyptian sailboat. You’ll float down the Nile before dusk, watching the sun slowly melt beneath the horizon and set the sky ablaze.

Please note: On some departures, the sightseeing tour of Aswan may take place on day 4.

Day 5: Sightseeing tour of Aswan & cruise embarkation 

Included meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner 

Enjoy a free morning to relax in Aswan and catch up on sleep or add an optional excursion to Abu Simbel to visit the temples of Ramses II and his wife Nefertari. Originally carved into a mountainside, they were painstakingly relocated to save them from being submerged by the creation of Lake Nasser. 

This afternoon, board your cruise ship and enjoy an included lunch while enjoying views of the Nile River. Afterward, set off on a sightseeing tour of Aswan led by your Egyptologist. 

• Board a boat and visit the temples at Philae, located on an island in the Nile. Watch in awe as enormous columns and imposing facades rise from the water, emblazoned with hieroglyphics. 
• Walk through the colorful local market and peruse its perfumes, spices, traditional talismans, and souvenirs.

Sit down for an included dinner aboard the ship this evening, served with beer or wine.

Please note: On some departures, the sightseeing tour of Aswan may take place on day 4. 

Set sail for Edfu and Kom Ombo this morning. With your Egyptologist leading the way, disembark for guided tours of the best-preserved temples in the country.

• Visit the Temple of Kom Ombo. Noted for its dedication to two deities, Sobek and Horus, it was built as two symmetrical temples, aligned parallel to one another. Although they were initially constructed during the Ptolemaic period, they were expanded after the Roman conquest of Egypt, resulting in a blend of both Egyptian and Greco-Roman architectural styles.
• Enjoy an included lunch aboard your cruise ship.

After lunch, dock in Edfu and spend a free afternoon relaxing on board or add an exploration of the Temple of Horus. This classic example of Ptolemaic architecture, with massive stone walls and towering pylons, is also one of the few temples in Egypt where inscriptions on its walls describe how it was built and used in ancient times.

Sit down for an included dinner, served with beer or wine, aboard the ship this evening.

Please note: Based on sailing schedules, the Edfu & the Temple of Horus excursion may take place on day 7.

Enjoy a morning walking tour through Luxor Temple, located on the banks of the Nile River. With your Egyptologist, you’ll walk among the antique remains of one of the world’s highest-quality collections of Egyptian artifacts. 

• Enter the painstakingly excavated Temple of Karnak—a sprawling, vast site. It’s said that 30 pharaohs presided over the building of the temple over the course of 1,500 years; you’ll feel a palpable connection to the ancient world as you walk in the footsteps of priests and worshippers who came here over millennia. 
• Venture on a walking tour through the complex to see the Precinct of Amun-Re, whose mudbrick walls stretch more than 1.5 miles in circumference. Gaze over extensive hieroglyphic inscriptions marking moments in history, and end at the Temple of Khonsu—a smaller, more intimate structure dedicated to the god of time and the moon. 
• Walk through Luxor Temple, where an avenue of human-headed sphinxes creates a dramatic and awe-inspiring entrance. The temple unfolds with a series of striking architectural elements that include massive columns, colossal statues, and timeworn hieroglyphs. 
• Wrap up your day of sightseeing with the 13th-century Abu Haggag Mosque early this evening. Built on the site of several churches that stood before it, the mosque is an active place of worship, continuing a spiritual tradition that has lasted for 35 centuries.

Enjoy lunch aboard the ship. Then, spend a free afternoon in Luxor. Ask your Tour Director for a recommendation or take a stroll through the city’s souks to browse stalls filled with nose-tickling spices, rich textiles, and artisanal crafts.  

This evening, sit down with your fellow travelers for an included dinner aboard the ship, served with beer or wine. 

Spend the morning relaxing and catching up on sleep or brave an early start for an optional, but certainly once-in-a-lifetime, hot-air balloon ride over the Valley of the Kings and the Nile. 

 Later, head out to tour the Nile’s West Bank with your Egyptologist. 

• Explore the Valley of the Kings, a series of tombs nestled into the rocky terrain of the Theban Hills. This barren landscape stunningly contrasts with the lush greenery of the Nile’s East Bank. 
• Enter King Tut’s tomb, famous for containing the ancient Egyptian treasures a ruler would need in the afterlife: clothing, food, chariots, games, and other ceremonial items.

Disembark from your cruise this afternoon and fly to Cairo. 

Celebrate your trip with your fellow travelers during tonight’s farewell dinner, served with beer or wine. 

Transfer to the airport to board your flight home. Or, with so much more to see and do —there’s thousands of years of history here, after all—continue exploring Cairo’s multicultural and culinary mosaic. You’ll get a taste of the city’s museums, houses of worship, and even a home-cooked meal.