8-Day Egypt Tour of Cairo, Luxor, and Aswan with Nile Cruise

• Receive a pickup from the airport and transfer to your hotel.

• After breakfast, you will be accompanied by your Egyptologist guide to the Giza Plateau to visit the Great Pyramids of Cheops, Chefren, and Mykerinus, the famous Sphinx, and the Valley Temple facing the great statue.

• Additional visit to the Solar Boat in front of Cheops Pyramid (extra ticket on the spot).

• Stop for lunch served in a good-quality restaurant, and then proceed to the Saqqara area to visit the Saqqara Complex and the first pyramid ever built, the Djoser Pyramid.

• Move to Memphis, the Old Kingdom's capital and famous necropolis.

Overnight in Cairo.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch

• Eat breakfast at your hotel in Cairo and then be escorted by your private guide to visit the Egyptian Museum's Treasures Room for the child king Tutankhamen, alongside many other fascinating artifacts. Additional visit to the Mummies Room at the museum (extra ticket on the spot).

• Savor lunch during the tour at a local restaurant.

• Continue driving to Islamic Cairo, where you will be able to explore Khan El Khalili, Cairo's old bazaar.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch

• Upon arrival in Luxor, start your Nile cruise from Luxor to Aswan and Cairo by meeting your private tour guide to discover ancient Egyptian civilization at the most famous archaeological sites along the riverbank in Luxor.

• On the East Bank, see Karnak Temple. No site in Egypt is more impressive than Karnak Temple.

• See Luxor Temple, which was the center of the most important festival, the Festival of Opet. Built largely by Amenhotep III and Rameses II, the temple's purpose was to serve as a setting for the rituals of the festival.

• At the end of the day, return to the cruise and overnight on board.

Meals: Lunch, Dinner

• See the final resting place of Egypt's rulers from the 18th to the 20th dynasty. It is home to tombs including those of the great Pharaoh Ramses II and the boy king Tutankhamen. The tombs were well stocked with all the material goods a ruler might need in the next world, and most of the decoration inside the tombs is still well preserved. Hatshepsut Temple is one of the most beautiful and best-preserved temples of Ancient Egypt. The temple was built on three levels, with two wide ramps in a central position joining the levels together.

• Check out the Colossi of Memnon. These two massive stone statues of King Amenhotep III are the only remains of a complete mortuary temple. The statues are made from blocks of quartzite sandstone that existed in Cairo and were then moved 700 km to Luxor.

• Sail to Esna and Edfu.

Overnight in Edfu.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

• After breakfast, move to explore the Temple of God Horus. Edfu Temple is considered the best-preserved Greco-Roman temple in all of Egypt, and on its walls there is a

• Find out about the possibility of visiting Abu Simbel in the morning and, as an optional excursion in the afternoon, taking a felucca ride.

• Look at the High Dam built across the Nile at Aswan. The High Dam was constructed between 1960 and 1970 and has had a significant effect on the economy and culture of Egypt.

• Witness the Unfinished Obelisk, the giant ancient obelisk. Hatshepsut ordered it (1508-1458 BC), possibly to complement the Lateran Obelisk, which was initially at Karnak and was later brought to the Lateran Palace in Rome.

• Gaze upon Philae Temple, dedicated to the goddess Isis of love and beauty. The temple complex was dismantled and relocated to nearby Agilkia Island as part of the UNESCO Nubia Campaign project, protecting this and other complexes before the 1970 completion of the Aswan High Dam.

• Transfer to Aswan Airport or the train station for travel to Cairo.