Timeless Egypt Luxury Tour | 13-Day Private Nile Cruise, Abu Simbel & Cairo
overview
Timeless Egypt is designed for travelers who want to experience Egypt beyond a conventional first-time itinerary without missing the monuments that define its civilization.
The journey begins among Cairo’s spiritual and architectural layers, from Coptic Cairo and Ibn Tulun Mosque to the Gayer-Anderson Museum, the Citadel, and Al Moez Street. Continue to Saqqara, Memphis, and Dahshur, where the development of pyramid building can be traced before the age of Giza.
Travel north to Alexandria to explore its Greco-Roman and Mediterranean legacy, then south-west to Fayoum, home to desert lakes, pottery villages, and the extraordinary fossil landscape of Wadi El Hitan.
After an in-depth visit to the Grand Egyptian Museum, fly to Luxor and begin a four-night luxury Nile cruise through the temples and royal landscapes of ancient Thebes, Edfu, Kom Ombo, and Aswan.
The journey reaches Egypt’s southern frontier at Abu Simbel, before returning to Cairo for a final encounter with the Pyramids of Giza and the Great Sphinx.
Private Egyptologist-guided sightseeing, carefully selected accommodations, domestic flights, private transfers, and dedicated arrival and departure assistance complete the experience.
Exclusive Access (OPT)
Luxury Vessel
Expert Egyptologist
Gourmet Dining
At A Glance
Duration: 13 Days / 12 Nights
Destinations: Cairo – Alexandria – Fayoum – Luxor – Edfu – Kom Ombo – Aswan – Abu Simbel
Tour Style: Private Luxury Egypt Journey
Cruise: 4-Night Luxury Nile Cruise | Luxor to Aswan
Guide: Private Professional Egyptologist
Tour Management: Airport assistance on arrival and departure
Experience: Archaeology · Culture · Architecture · Desert Landscapes · Nile Cruising
Summary Itinerary
Day 1 – Arrival in Cairo: Meet & assist, private transfer and hotel check-in.
Day 2 – Historic Cairo: Coptic Cairo, Ibn Tulun Mosque, Gayer-Anderson Museum, Citadel, Al Moez Street & Khan El Khalili.
Day 3 – Saqqara, Memphis & Dahshur: Step Pyramid, ancient Memphis, Bent & Red Pyramids.
Day 4 – Alexandria: Catacombs, Greco-Roman Museum & Bibliotheca Alexandrina.
Day 5 – Fayoum: Wadi El Hitan, Wadi El Rayan & Tunis Village.
Day 6 – Grand Egyptian Museum: In-depth exploration including Tutankhamun.
Day 7 – Luxor: Fly to Luxor, Karnak & Luxor Temples, board Nile cruise.
Day 8 – Luxor West Bank: Valley of the Kings, Hatshepsut Temple & Colossi of Memnon.
Day 9 – Edfu & Kom Ombo: Temples of Horus, Sobek and Haroeris.
Day 10 – Aswan: High Dam, Philae, Unfinished Obelisk & sunset felucca.
Day 11 – Abu Simbel: Fly to Abu Simbel, return via Aswan to Cairo.
Day 12 – Giza: Pyramids, Great Sphinx & Valley Temple.
Day 13 – Departure: Private transfer and departure assistance.
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Itinerary
- Cairo
Day 01 – Arrival in Cairo | The Journey Begins
Arrive in Cairo, a city where modern life unfolds beside thousands of years of history.
At Cairo International Airport, your Timeless Nile Tour Manager will meet you on arrival, assist with airport procedures and luggage coordination, and introduce you to your private driver.
Transfer to your luxury hotel, where your Tour Manager will assist with check-in and make sure your arrival arrangements are smoothly completed.
The rest of the day is at leisure, allowing time to settle in before the journey begins.
- Meals: —
Day 02 – Historic Cairo | Faith, Architecture & the Living City
Begin in Coptic Cairo, exploring some of the city’s most important early Christian monuments, including the Hanging Church and the Church of St. Sergius and Bacchus, traditionally associated with the Holy Family’s journey through Egypt.
Continue to the ninth-century Mosque of Ibn Tulun, one of Cairo’s oldest surviving mosques, known for its vast courtyard, arcades, and distinctive minaret.
Immediately afterwards, enter the neighboring Gayer-Anderson Museum, housed in two historic residences filled with carved woodwork, decorated ceilings, antiques, ceramics, and traditional furnishings that offer an intimate glimpse into historic Cairo life.
LUNCH – Enjoy lunch at a carefully selected local restaurant, with a menu inspired by traditional Egyptian cuisine.
After lunch, visit the Citadel of Saladin and the commanding Mosque of Mohamed Ali, followed by a walk along Al Moez Street, one of the richest concentrations of medieval Islamic architecture in the world.
End in the lively lanes of Khan El Khalili, where workshops, cafés, spice merchants, and traditional shops preserve the commercial spirit of old Cairo.
Overnight in Cairo
- Meals: Breakfast & Lunch
Day 03 – Saqqara, Memphis & Dahshur | The Birth of the Pyramid
Travel south of Cairo to Saqqara, where the Step Pyramid of King Djoser marks one of the great turning points in architectural history.
Built during the Third Dynasty and traditionally associated with Imhotep, it was the first large-scale stone monument of its kind and introduced a new vision of royal funerary architecture.
LUNCH- Enjoy lunch at a charming countryside-style restaurant surrounded by the palm groves and agricultural landscape of rural Giza.
Continue to Memphis, Egypt’s ancient capital, where surviving sculptures include monumental representations of Ramses II.
Then travel to Dahshur to see the Bent Pyramid and the Red Pyramid, both built for King Sneferu. Together, they reveal the experimentation that eventually led to the perfected pyramids of Giza.
Overnight in Cairo
- Meals: Breakfast & Lunch
- Alexandria
Day 04 – Alexandria | Egypt and the Mediterranean
Travel north to Alexandria,a city shaped by empires and ideas. Founded by Alexander the Great in 331 BCE and shaped for centuries by Egyptian, Greek, Roman, and Mediterranean influences.
Begin at the Catacombs of Kom El Shoqafa, where Egyptian imagery and Greco-Roman architectural traditions meet in an extraordinary underground funerary complex.
Continue to the Greco-Roman Museum, whose sculpture, coins, funerary objects, and everyday artifacts reveal the cultural complexity of ancient Alexandria.
LUNCH– – Enjoy lunch at a restaurant overlooking the Mediterranean Sea, with fresh seafood and coastal Egyptian specialties.
Enjoy lunch in Alexandria before visiting the modern Bibliotheca Alexandrina, created beside the Mediterranean in homage to the intellectual legacy of the ancient Library.
Time permitting, enjoy part of Alexandria’s Corniche before returning to Cairo.
Overnight in Cairo
- Meals: Breakfast & Lunch
- Fayoum
Day 05 – Fayoum | Fossils, Water & Desert Silence
Leave Cairo for Fayoum, where fertile farmland gives way to lakes, desert valleys, and prehistoric landscapes.
Travel into Wadi El Hitan – the Valley of the Whales, a UNESCO World Heritage Site containing exceptionally preserved fossils of early whales. Dating back around 40 million years, they provide important evidence of the evolutionary transition from land-dwelling mammals to fully aquatic whales.
Lunch– Enjoy lunch in a relaxed rural setting, surrounded by the peaceful landscapes and agricultural character of Fayoum.
Continue to Wadi El Rayan, known for its desert lakes, waterfalls, dunes, and dramatic open landscapes.
Later, visit Tunis Village, overlooking Lake Qarun and famous for its pottery workshops. Spend time wandering through the village and discovering a quieter, contemporary side of rural Egypt.
Return to Cairo in the evening.
Overnight in Cairo
- Meals: Breakfast & Lunch
- Cairo
Day 06 – Grand Egyptian Museum | Ancient Egypt Reassembled
Spend the day at the Grand Egyptian Museum, one of the world’s great archaeological museums.
Begin beneath the colossal statue of Ramses II, then explore galleries tracing the development of Egyptian civilization through kingship, religion, art, ritual, and daily life.
LUNCH– Pause for lunch at a carefully selected restaurant near the museum before continuing your exploration.
A major highlight is the extraordinary collection connected with Tutankhamun, whose tomb was discovered by Howard Carter in 1922.
Beyond the famous gold objects, the collection includes furniture, jewelry, ritual equipment, personal belongings, chariots, and funerary material that bring the world of the young pharaoh into remarkable focus.
Overnight in Cairo
- Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner.
- Luxor
Day 07 – Luxor | Into Ancient Thebes
Fly from Cairo to Luxor, ancient Thebes and one of the great religious capitals of pharaonic Egypt.
Visit Karnak Temple, expanded by generations of pharaohs over more than a thousand years. Walk through the monumental Great Hypostyle Hall, its 134 columns forming one of the most extraordinary architectural spaces in Egypt.
Continue to Luxor Temple, closely associated with royal renewal and the ancient Opet Festival that once linked it ceremonially with Karnak.
Later, board your luxury Nile cruise and settle in as the journey south begins.
Overnight on board/Luxor
- Meals: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner
Day 08 – West Bank of Luxor | The Landscape of Eternity
Cross to Luxor’s West Bank, where New Kingdom pharaohs created their royal necropolis beneath the desert cliffs.
In the Valley of the Kings, explore selected tombs whose painted corridors preserve complex beliefs about death, rebirth, and the pharaoh’s journey through the afterlife.
Continue to the mortuary temple of Queen Hatshepsut, whose terraces rise dramatically against the cliffs of Deir el-Bahari.
Before returning to the ship, stop at the Colossi of Memnon, two gigantic statues that once guarded the mortuary temple of Amenhotep III.
Overnight on board/Edfu
- Meals: Full Board
Day 09 – Edfu & Kom Ombo | Gods Along the Nile
At Edfu, explore the Temple of Horus, one of Egypt’s most complete ancient temples.
Built during the Ptolemaic period, its inscriptions preserve detailed information about temple rituals, festivals, sacred geography, and the mythic struggle between Horus and Seth.
Continue sailing to Kom Ombo, whose unusual double temple was dedicated principally to Sobek, the crocodile god, and Haroeris, a form of Horus the Elder.
Its duplicated halls and sanctuaries create a symmetry found almost nowhere else in ancient Egyptian temple architecture.
Overnight on board/Kom Ombo
- Meals: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner
- Aswan
Day 10 – Aswan | Stone, Water & the Southern Nile
Begin at the Aswan High Dam, one of modern Egypt’s most significant engineering projects and the structure responsible for creating Lake Nasser.
Continue to the Unfinished Obelisk, still attached to the granite bedrock. Its enormous scale and abandoned state offer rare evidence of ancient quarrying techniques.
Travel by boat to Philae Temple, principally dedicated to Isis and beautifully reconstructed on Agilkia Island after being threatened by rising waters following the Aswan dam projects.
Later, board a traditional felucca and sail among Aswan’s islands as the late afternoon light settles over the Nile.
Overnight on board/Aswan
- Meals: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner
- Aswan
Day 11 – Abu Simbel | Power at Egypt’s Southern Frontier
After breakfast, disembark and fly from Aswan to Abu Simbel.
The great temple of Ramses II is dominated by four colossal seated statues of the king, each around twenty meters high. Inside, monumental halls lead deep into the mountain toward the sanctuary.
Nearby stands the smaller temple dedicated to Queen Nefertari and the goddess Hathor, notable for showing the queen at almost the same colossal scale as Ramses II.
The site is equally remarkable for its twentieth-century rescue. During the 1960s, both temples were dismantled and reconstructed on higher ground as part of the UNESCO campaign to save Nubian monuments from the rising waters of Lake Nasser.
Lunch- A prepared boxed lunch will be provided, allowing the day to flow comfortably around the Abu Simbel visit and flight schedule.
Fly back to Aswan and continue to Cairo according to the operating flight schedule.
Overnight in Cairo
- Meals: Breakfast & Lunch
Day 12 – Giza – The Eternal Horizon
Today brings the journey to the Giza Plateau.
Begin with the Great Pyramid of Khufu, built around 4,500 years ago and originally rising to approximately 146.6 meters. It remained the tallest human-made structure on earth for more than three millennia.
Continue across the plateau to the pyramids of Khafre and Menkaure, viewing Giza as a complete royal funerary landscape of pyramids, temples, causeways, cemeteries, and workers’ settlements.
Lunch- Enjoy lunch at a carefully selected restaurant with views toward the Pyramids of Giza—a memorable setting for your final full day in Egypt.
Descend to the Great Sphinx, carved from the limestone bedrock and traditionally associated with King Khafre, and explore the adjoining Valley Temple.
It is a fitting conclusion: after exploring Egypt’s hidden landscapes and lesser-known stories, the journey ends before its most timeless horizon.
Overnight in Cairo
- Meals: Breakfast & Lunch
Day 13 – Departure | Until Egypt Calls Again
Some journeys end. Others remain—quietly—long after departure.
After breakfast, your Timeless Nile Tour Manager will meet you at the hotel, reconfirm your flight arrangements, coordinate your luggage, and accompany your private transfer to Cairo International Airport.
At the terminal, your Tour Manager will assist with the departure and airline check-in process as permitted by airport procedures, ensuring that the journey ends as smoothly as it began.
- Meals: Breakfast
Included
- Egypt entry visa
- Meet & assist services at airports
- All airport transfers in private vehicles
- Luxury hotels in Cairo
- Luxury Nile cruise accommodation
- Domestic flights (Cairo–Luxor / Aswan–Cairo / Abu Simbel)
- Private professional Egyptologist guide
- Entrance fees to all monuments
- Meals as mentioned
- All taxes and service charges
Excluded
- International flights
- Private Access
- Optional tours
- Personal expenses
- Gratuities
Choose Your Travel Style
Each journey can be tailored across our three distinct travel styles—from the elegant Signature Collection, to the elevated Refined Collection, and the exceptional Legend Collection featuring Egypt’s most iconic hotels and luxury Nile cruises. Whether sailing the Nile in refined comfort or indulging in the finest heritage properties, every experience is privately guided and seamlessly designed.
From $2,450 per person
Indicative pricing based on double occupancy. Final rates vary by season,number of travellers and availability.
Cairo
Steigenberger Pyramids / Kempinski Nile Hotel
Luxor
Steigenberger Nile Palace Luxor
Aswan
Tolip Aswan Hotel
Nile Cruise
MS Le Fayan Nile Cruise / MS Mayfair Nile Cruise
Hurghada
Marriott
Each journey can be tailored across our three distinct travel styles—from the elegant Signature Collection, to the elevated Refined Collection, and the exceptional Legend Collection featuring Egypt’s most iconic hotels and luxury Nile cruises. Whether sailing the Nile in refined comfort or indulging in the finest heritage properties, every experience is privately guided and seamlessly designed.
From $3,250 per person
Indicative pricing based on double occupancy. Final rates vary by season,number of travellers and availability.
Cairo
Fairmont Nile City / Sheraton Cairo / Hyatt Regency Cairo West
Luxor
Hilton Luxor Resort & Spa
Aswan
Mövenpick Resort Aswan
Nile Cruise
MS Farah Nile Cruise / Sonesta St. George Nile Cruise
Hurghada
Steigenberger – Hilton Resort
Each journey can be tailored across our three distinct travel styles—from the elegant Signature Collection, to the elevated Refined Collection, and the exceptional Legend Collection featuring Egypt’s most iconic hotels and luxury Nile cruises. Whether sailing the Nile in refined comfort or indulging in the finest heritage properties, every experience is privately guided and seamlessly designed.
From $5,900 per person
Indicative pricing based on double occupancy. Final rates vary by season,number of travellers and availability.
Cairo
Four Seasons Nile Plaza / St. Regis Cairo
Luxor
Sofitel Winter Palace Luxor
Aswan
Sofitel Legend Old Cataract Aswan
Nile Cruise
Oberoi Philae Nile Cruise / Sanctuary Sun Boat
Hurghada
Oberoi Sahl Hashish – Steigenberger EL Gouna
related Day Experiences
Tailor This Journey
Every journey can be fully customized. Contact us to design your private Egypt experience based on your preferred travel style.
FAQ
Is this itinerary suitable for repeat visitors to Egypt?
Yes. It is specifically designed for travelers who want to explore beyond the classic highlights.
Is Fayoum worth visiting?
Absolutely. It offers a unique contrast with natural landscapes and UNESCO heritage sites rarely included in standard itineraries.
How long is the flight from Aswan to Abu Simbel?
The flight usually takes around 45 minutes each way, making it the most comfortable and convenient way to visit Abu Simbel within the itinerary.
Do we have Meet & Assist service throughout the journey?
Yes. Meet & Assist service is provided throughout the journey. Whenever your private Egyptologist is not present, a dedicated Tour Manager or local representative will assist you with arrivals, departures, domestic flights, transfers, hotel or cruise coordination, and other logistical arrangements in Cairo, Luxor, Aswan, and Abu Simbel.
Is the sightseeing private throughout the tour?
Yes. All sightseeing is conducted privately with your own professional Egyptologist and private transportation. However, this does not mean exclusive or private access to archaeological sites, temples, or museums. Such special access is not included as standard, but where officially available, it can be arranged separately upon request.
Are meals included during the Nile cruise?
Yes. The Nile cruise is on a Full Board basis, including breakfast, lunch, and dinner on board. Meals during the land portion are included where specifically mentioned in the itinerary.
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