SKVEG 003: Great Tour with Egyptian Nile Cruises

Day 1: Cairo

Welcome to Cairo! On arrival at Cairo International Airport, you’ll be welcomed by our representative and then transferred to your hotel within Cairo City in an air-conditioned coach. Overnight at your Hotel.

Day 2: The Pyramids of Giza/Sakkara

After breakfast at your Cairo hotel, we’ll take you for a full-day tour to Sakkara, the vast Necropolis of ancient Memphis. Sakkara (Saqqara) is one of the most extensive archaeological sites in Egypt.

Sakkara is best known for the Step Pyramid, the oldest known of Egypt’s 97 pyramids. It was built for King Djoser of the 3rd Dynasty by the architect and genius Imhotep, who designed it and its surrounding complex to be as grand as it was unique and revolutionary. Imhotep was the first to build stone tombs in honor of the king’s majesty. His many titles included ‘Treasurer of the King of Lower Egypt’, ‘Administrator of the Great Palace’, and ‘Imhotep the Builder, the Sculptor, the Maker of Stone Vessels’. Imhotep may have also designed the pyramid of Djoser’s successor, Sekhemkhet.

Three major discoveries have recently been made at Sakkara, including a prime minister’s tomb, a queen’s pyramid, and the tomb of the son of a dynasty-founding king. Each discovery has a fascinating story, with many adventures for the archaeologists as they revealed the secrets of the past.

We’ll drop you at you Cairo hotel and you’ll have a free evening to relax on your own.

Day 3: Cairo and Aswan

After breakfast in Cairo, you’ll check out of hotel and travel by train to Aswan. You are met on arrival in Aswan and transferred to your hotel.

We later take a full-day excursion around the Aswan city visiting the Temple of Philae, the Aswan High Dam, and the Unfinished Obelisk.

Aswan is a city in the south of Egypt, the capital of the Aswan Governorate. It stands on the east bank of the Nile at the first cataract and is a busy market and tourist center. It contains the island of Elephantine.

You have a free evening.

Day 4: Aswan/Nile Cruise

Today we join an orientation cruise around Kitchener Island – land of the botanical gardens and Elephantine Islands. Transfer to your Nile cruise ship for check-in. Free evening on the cruise and overnight sailing to Kom-Ombu.

Nile cruises may very considerably, but typical Nile cruises are either three, four or seven nights. The usual cruise is aboard a Nile cruiser, often referred to as a floating hotel. Indeed, the better boats have most the accommodations of a land based hotel, including small swimming pools, hot tubs, exercise rooms, nightclubs, good restaurants, stores and even small libraries. Depending on what one is willing to pay, rooms may be very utilitarian and small, or larger then some land based hotel rooms.

A first time visitor to Egypt who wants a classical experience would do well to book a Nile cruise. Historically, the Nile cruise was really the only way to visit the temples and tombs located along this stretch of the river. It is still a popular means of visiting upper Egypt and has many advantages to other means of travel.

Nile cruises often visit a wider variety of antiquities along the banks of the river. But equally important, they also allow the tourist to gain a prospective of the rural Egypt, where people live much the same way they did even thousands of years ago, in mudbrick homes, tending their fields with wooden plows and moving produce via donkey. It is a wonderful experience to sit on a shaded deck of a floating hotel, sipping an iced beverage while watching 5,000 years of culture slowly drift by.

Day 5: Kom-Ombo, Edfu and Nile Cruise

We’ll disembark from the cruise to visit the dual temple of Sobek and Haroeris in Kom-Ombu, and then back to the cruise to continue sailing on the way to Edfu to visit the most well-preserved temple in all of Egypt, dedicated to Horus, the Falcon God. Overnight on cruise, sailing on the way to Luxor.

Day 6: Nile Cruise and Luxor

Welcome to Luxor! Luxor is one of the most interesting tourist destinations in Egypt. Some of the biggest and best preserved temples of the ancient times can be found here. Tourist attractions to this ancient city are the temples of Karnak and Luxor. You’ll be free on your own in the morning. We converge afternoon to the temples located on the East Bank.

Overnight at the Nile Cruise.

Day 7: Luxor

Yesterday, we had a great tour of the East Bank. After breakfast today at the Nile Cruise, we’ll disembark and our journey will focus on the West Bank. We will visit the Valley of the Kings, the Valley of the Queens, the Temple of Queen Hatshepsut and Colossi of Memnon.

You have a free evening. Our journey back to Cairo will be by train.

Day 8: Cairo City Tour

We arrive in Cairo and transfer you to your. We’ll later take a full-day excursion to Islamic Cairo, where the 12th Century Citadel of Salah El-Din stands, followed by a visit to Christian Old Cairo where the Romans constructed the fortress of Babylon.

Known as the Hanging Church, Saint Virgin Mary’s Coptic Orthodox Church is one of the oldest churches in Egypt and the history of a church on this site dates to the 3rd century.

We’ll also tour the Egyptian Museum, where the treasures of King Tut Ankh-Amun and most of the pharaohs are kept.

You have a free evening on your own.

Day 9: Cairo and Depart Home

After breakfast at your hotel, our driver/guide will transfer you to Cairo International Airport for your flight back home.