{"title":"Full Egypt Grand Tours","description":"10 to 13-day journeys covering Cairo, the Nile Valley and the Western Desert in one trip.","products":[{"product_id":"10-day-full-egypt","title":"10-Day Full Egypt: Pyramids to Nile Cruise Classic","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eCairo, Luxor and Aswan by land, air and Nile cruise — the full classic circuit, start to finish.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe \u003cstrong\u003e10-day Full Egypt tour\u003c\/strong\u003e is Dune Raider Adventure's classic first-timer itinerary: Giza's pyramids and the Egyptian Museum, Saqqara's Step Pyramid, a Nile cruise from Luxor to Aswan through Karnak, the Valley of the Kings, and Abu Simbel, with an Egyptologist guide throughout and a free day to choose Alexandria or Islamic and Coptic Cairo.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eDAY 1 — Arrival in Cairo\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eYou land, clear customs, and step out into Cairo traffic - a city of about 20 million people running on its own logic of horns and gaps in the lanes. Your driver meets you at arrivals and takes you to your hotel, where you can shower off the flight before a welcome dinner with the rest of the group. No sightseeing today; it's a night to reset your clock before an early start tomorrow.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eDAY 2 — Giza, the Egyptian Museum, Khan El Khalili\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Giza plateau in the morning, before the heat sets in. The Great Pyramid, the two smaller pyramids beside it, and the Sphinx facing east toward the sunrise - the last of the ancient world's Seven Wonders still standing. You'll have time to go inside one of the pyramids if you choose (extra ticket, arranged on-site), and to ride a camel along the ridge for the classic photo with all three pyramids in frame.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn the afternoon, the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square (or the Grand Egyptian Museum near Giza, depending on opening schedules at time of travel) - Tutankhamun's gold mask and burial treasures, the royal mummy room, room after room of statues that used to just be museum clutter until you realize how old they are.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEvening in Khan El Khalili, Cairo's centuries-old bazaar - narrow lanes of spice stalls, lantern shops, and tea houses, good for a last coffee at El Fishawy before heading back to the hotel.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eDAY 3 — Saqqara, Memphis, and on to Luxor\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSaqqara's Step Pyramid predates Giza by roughly a century - six stacked stone layers built for the pharaoh Djoser, generally credited as the first large-scale cut-stone building anywhere. It sits in a wider necropolis of smaller tombs, some with wall carvings still sharp enough to read the scenes.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNearby, Memphis was the old capital of Egypt for most of the Old Kingdom; not much of the city remains above ground, but the open-air museum there holds a fallen colossus of Ramses II and an alabaster sphinx worth the short stop.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAfternoon flight (or overnight train, depending on the group's schedule) south to Luxor. You land into a smaller, slower city built around the temples - check in, then the evening is yours to walk along the Corniche or just rest before an early Day 4.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eDAY 4 — Luxor East Bank: Karnak and Luxor Temple\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFor guests who want it, an optional dawn hot-air balloon over the West Bank goes up before sunrise - worth the early alarm for the view over the Nile and the Valley of the Kings from above (booked and paid locally, weather permitting).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eKarnak Temple is the big one: roughly 200 acres, built up over some 2,000 years by more than 30 pharaohs, with a hypostyle hall of 134 columns so large it changes the light and sound around you.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLuxor Temple sits closer to the river, smaller and more contained, and lit up after dark in a way that makes the evening visit worth planning for if timing allows. An avenue of sphinxes once connected the two temples directly - parts of it have been excavated and are visible along the route.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eDAY 5 — Luxor West Bank, then boarding the Nile cruise\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMorning across the river to the West Bank, where the pharaohs stopped building visible pyramids and started cutting tombs directly into the hillside instead - partly for security, partly because the terrain suits it. The Valley of the Kings holds over 60 tombs, including Tutankhamun's (a separate ticket, and one of the few where the mummy itself is still on display).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHatshepsut's mortuary temple is built directly into the cliff face in three long terraces, one of the more unusual pieces of ancient architecture anywhere in Egypt. A short stop at the Colossi of Memnon - two seated statues, all that's left standing of a much larger temple - rounds out the morning.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn the afternoon you board your Nile cruise ship and set sail south, past riverside villages and fields of sugarcane, toward Esna and Edfu.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eDAY 6 — Edfu, Kom Ombo, and sailing into Aswan\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEdfu's Temple of Horus is the best-preserved large temple in Egypt, mostly because it was buried under sand and silt for centuries before excavation, which kept the roof and the wall carvings intact. You'll get there by horse-drawn carriage from the dock - a slightly touristy ritual, but a fun one.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe ship continues to Kom Ombo, a temple built as a mirror-image double: one half dedicated to the crocodile god Sobek, the other to the falcon god Horus, each with its own set of halls and sanctuaries side by side. The riverside setting here is one of the best on the whole cruise, especially near sunset.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOvernight sailing brings you into Aswan, Egypt's southernmost major city and historically the gateway to Nubia and the routes south into Africa.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eDAY 7 — Aswan: the High Dam, Philae, and a felucca ride\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Aswan High Dam, completed in 1970, is what created Lake Nasser and ended the Nile's annual flood cycle for good - a quick stop, mostly for the view across the reservoir and a sense of the scale of the engineering.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Unfinished Obelisk still sits in its original granite quarry, abandoned mid-carving after a crack appeared - it would have been the largest obelisk ever raised in Egypt had it been completed, and you can see the tool marks on the stone.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePhilae Temple, dedicated to Isis, was relocated stone by stone to Agilkia Island in the 1970s to save it from the rising lake - reached by a short boat ride. Late afternoon is a felucca sail around Elephantine Island and a stop at a Nubian village, with its brightly painted houses and a different pace of life than anywhere else on the trip.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eDAY 8 — Abu Simbel, then back to Cairo\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAn early departure (by road convoy or short flight, depending on the season and group) to Abu Simbel, near the Sudanese border. Ramses II built two temples here, the Great Temple fronted by four seated colossi of himself, over 20 meters tall, and a smaller temple dedicated to his wife Nefertari.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBoth temples were cut from the cliff face directly, then relocated in the 1960s - the whole site was moved uphill in pieces to keep it above the new Lake Nasser waterline, one of the largest rescue operations in archaeological history.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAfter the visit, return to Aswan and catch a flight to Cairo. Evening at the hotel, back where the trip started ten days ago.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eDAY 9 — Free day: Alexandria, or Islamic \u0026amp; Coptic Cairo\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOption A - Alexandria (full-day trip, roughly 2.5 hours each way by road): the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, a modern library built as a tribute to the ancient one, and the Qaitbay Citadel, a 15th-century fort built on the site of the vanished Pharos lighthouse, right on the Mediterranean waterfront. A different coastline and a different pace than anywhere else on this trip.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOption B - Islamic Cairo and Coptic Cairo, staying closer to base: the Citadel of Saladin with its Ottoman-era mosque and views over the city, the medieval gates and mosques of Islamic Cairo, and the old churches and synagogue of Coptic Cairo, one of the oldest continuously inhabited Christian quarters anywhere.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis day is kept flexible - tell your guide which option you'd rather do, or use it simply to rest and pack before departure.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eDAY 10 — Departure\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA last Egyptian breakfast, then transfer to Cairo International Airport in time for your flight home. Depending on departure time, there may be a couple of free hours for last-minute shopping near the hotel - ask your guide what's close by.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTen days, three cities, one river. Thank you for traveling with Dune Raider.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003ePrice Includes\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAll accommodation as listed (hotels \u0026amp; Nile cruise cabin)\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAll transfers by private, air-conditioned vehicle\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eDaily breakfast; full board while on the Nile cruise\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eEntrance fees to all sites listed in the itinerary\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eEnglish-speaking Egyptologist guide throughout\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eFelucca ride in Aswan\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eDoes Not Include\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eDomestic flights or transfers, Cairo-Luxor and Aswan-Cairo\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eInternational flights to\/from Egypt\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eEgypt entry visa fees\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eOptional activities (hot-air balloon, entry to Tutankhamun's tomb, etc.)\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eTravel insurance\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eTipping \/ gratuities for guides, drivers, and cruise staff\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003ePersonal expenses and drinks not specified as included\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003ePrice\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e$2,500 USD \/ €2,140 EUR \/ 127,182 EGP\u003c\/strong\u003e per person. Indicative rate at today's exchange rate — contact us to confirm current pricing for your group and season.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Dune Raider Adventure","offers":[{"title":"Per Person","offer_id":43234711863358,"sku":"DRA-10D-FE","price":2500.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0677\/3538\/8222\/files\/product-01-mobile_19fc8fed-6500-4924-bc20-77d3eb1b5b46.jpg?v=1787828781"},{"product_id":"11-day-full-egypt","title":"11-Day Full Egypt: Pyramids, Fayoum Desert \u0026 Nile Cruise","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003ePyramids to the Nile Valley and the Fayoum oasis\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe \u003cstrong\u003e11-day Full Egypt tour\u003c\/strong\u003e extends Dune Raider Adventure's classic circuit with a full Fayoum desert day — Wadi El Hitan's whale fossils and Magic Lake — sandwiched between Cairo's pyramids and museums and the Nile cruise from Luxor to Aswan, ending with Abu Simbel and an Egyptologist guide throughout.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eDAY 1 — Cairo Arrival, Giza \u0026amp; Khan El Khalili\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eYou land in Cairo, clear customs, and get driven straight to the pyramids — the Giza plateau is the first stop, before the day's heat sets in and before the group has even checked into the hotel. The Great Pyramid of Khufu is the last of the ancient Seven Wonders still standing, built around 2560 BC from over two million blocks of limestone, and you can walk right up and put a hand on it. The Sphinx sits a short walk away, worn down by four and a half thousand years of wind.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFrom Giza it's the Egyptian Museum (or the Grand Egyptian Museum, depending on what's open when you travel) for Tutankhamun's gold, then into Khan El Khalili in the evening for dinner — a bazaar that's been trading spices, silver, and copperware since the 1300s. Sit down for tea at El Fishawy, a café that's been open, more or less continuously, since 1773. The night is at your Cairo hotel.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eDAY 2 — Fayoum — Waterfalls, Whale Valley \u0026amp; Magic Lake\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA change of pace out of Cairo entirely, on a long day trip to Fayoum. First stop is Wadi El Rayan, a protected desert basin holding two connected lakes and Egypt's only waterfalls, then on to Medawara Mountain and Wadi El Hitan, the Valley of the Whales — a UNESCO World Heritage site where the fossilized skeletons of some of the earliest whales, animals that still had legs, lie exposed in the desert rock.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLunch is out here in the desert. The afternoon finishes at Magic Lake, where the color shifts with the light, before the drive back to Cairo in the evening. The night is at your Cairo hotel.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eDAY 3 — Citadel, Islamic Cairo \u0026amp; Coptic Cairo\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA day inside Cairo itself, starting at the Citadel of Saladin, built in the 1170s and still the high point most of the city is seen from — its Ottoman-era mosque, added by Muhammad Ali in the 1830s, has a skyline of domes and minarets modeled on Istanbul rather than Cairo's older mosques.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFrom there it's Islamic Cairo, the medieval core of gates, mosques, and covered markets, then Coptic Cairo — one of the oldest continuously inhabited Christian quarters anywhere, with churches built into and over far older Roman fortifications. Dinner is on a Nile dinner boat, a slow loop past the city lit up after dark. The night is at your Cairo hotel.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eDAY 4 — Flight to Luxor\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA transfer to Cairo Airport for a short flight south to Luxor, arriving with the Nile Valley's different pace already noticeable — quieter, greener, slower than Cairo. Check in to your hotel, with the rest of the day free before tomorrow's temples.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eDAY 5 — Abydos, Dendera \u0026amp; Boarding the Cruise\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAbydos, one of Egypt's oldest sacred cities, holds the Temple of Seti I — its wall carvings among the best-preserved reliefs anywhere, still holding traces of their original color in places. Dendera's Temple of Hathor is a short drive further, with an astronomical ceiling and a set of crypts you can climb down into.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBack in Luxor by early afternoon, you check out of the hotel and board the Nile cruise ship — the pace of the trip changes here, the boat doing the work instead of a bus. Dinner and the night are on board.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eDAY 6 — Luxor East and West Banks\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eKarnak Temple is the big one: roughly 200 acres, built up over some 2,000 years by more than 30 pharaohs, with a hypostyle hall of 134 columns so large it changes the light and sound around you. Luxor Temple sits closer to the river, smaller and more contained, and lit up after dark in a way that makes the evening visit worth planning for if timing allows.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn the afternoon you cross to the West Bank, where the pharaohs stopped building visible monuments and started hiding their tombs instead. The Valley of the Kings holds over 60 tombs cut into the hillside, Tutankhamun's among them. Hatshepsut's mortuary temple rises out of the cliff face in three broad terraces, and the Colossi of Memnon — two 18-meter seated statues — are what's left standing of a mortuary temple that mostly didn't survive. By evening the boat is underway, sailing south toward Esna and Edfu.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eDAY 7 — Edfu, Kom Ombo \u0026amp; Sailing to Aswan\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEdfu's Temple of Horus is the best-preserved temple in Egypt, largely because it spent centuries buried under desert sand and silt before excavation uncovered it whole — the falcon god's statue still stands guard at the entrance. Kom Ombo is unusual: a double temple split symmetrically down the middle, one half dedicated to the crocodile god Sobek, the other to Horus. Both stops are short shore excursions from the boat, usually by horse-drawn carriage from the dock at Edfu.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe ship keeps sailing through the afternoon and into Aswan, the Nile narrowing and the granite hills closing in as the desert starts to feel closer to the water.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eDAY 8 — Abu Simbel\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAn early start for Abu Simbel — it's a three-hour drive each way, which is why most people leave before dawn. Ramesses II built the Great Temple with four 20-meter statues of himself at the entrance, angled so that twice a year, in February and October, sunlight reaches all the way into the inner sanctuary. The Small Temple next to it, dedicated to his wife Nefertari, is one of the rare ancient Egyptian monuments where a queen's statues stand the same height as the king's.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eYou're back at the boat by early afternoon for lunch and a slower rest of the day — dinner and the night are back on board, still docked at Aswan.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eDAY 9 — Aswan\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eYou check out of the cruise ship this morning — bags off, last breakfast on board — then spend the day seeing Aswan itself, a different register of Egypt, Nubian rather than pharaonic in feel even with three and a half thousand years of temples nearby. The High Dam, finished in 1970, is what created Lake Nasser and rescued Abu Simbel from being flooded; the Unfinished Obelisk, abandoned mid-carving in ancient granite quarries after a crack appeared, shows exactly how the Egyptians cut stone at that scale. Philae Temple, dedicated to Isis, was moved stone by stone to Agilkia Island in the 1970s to save it from the same rising water — you reach it by boat.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe afternoon slows down with a felucca sail around Elephantine Island and a visit to a Nubian village, brightly painted houses and a different language from the Arabic spoken further north. Dinner and the night are at a hotel in Aswan.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eDAY 10 — Flight to Cairo\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA last Aswan breakfast, then the transfer to the airport for the short flight north to Cairo — the Nile Valley behind you, the city's noise and scale a contrast after days of temples and the quiet of the boat.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe rest of the day is free — lunch and time to rest before the trip's last full day in the capital. Dinner and the night are at your Cairo hotel.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eDAY 11 — Departure\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA last Cairo breakfast, then the transfer to the airport for departure. Eleven days, the Nile Valley end to end, and a desert day trip to Fayoum in between.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003ePrice Includes\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAll accommodation per itinerary (hotels + Nile cruise cabin)\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eEnglish-speaking Egyptologist guide throughout\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eEntrance fees to all sites listed\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eMeals as noted (full board on cruise, breakfast at hotels)\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eBottled water during touring\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eDoes Not Include\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAll transfers and internal transport (4x4, cruise ship); domestic flights, Cairo–Luxor and Aswan–Cairo\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eInternational flights\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eEgypt entry visa\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eOptional activities (hot-air balloon, private guide upgrade)\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eTravel insurance\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eTipping \/ gratuities\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003ePersonal expenses\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eDrinks beyond bottled water\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003ePrice\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e$2,750 USD \/ €2,354 EUR \/ 139,900 EGP\u003c\/strong\u003e per person. Indicative rate at today's exchange rate — contact us to confirm current pricing for your group and season.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Dune Raider Adventure","offers":[{"title":"Per Person","offer_id":43234713403454,"sku":"DRA-11D-FE","price":2750.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0677\/3538\/8222\/files\/product-01-mobile_9f31f234-ec70-47a1-a96a-f5bfb82b5016.jpg?v=1787828692"},{"product_id":"12-day-full-egypt","title":"12-Day Full Egypt: Cairo, Nile Valley \u0026 Grand Circuit","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003ePyramids, Old Cairo, and the full Nile Valley\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe \u003cstrong\u003e12-day Full Egypt tour\u003c\/strong\u003e gives Cairo two extra days over the classic 10-day route — Saqqara's Step Pyramid and Memphis, a felucca sail from the Citadel of Saladin, and a full day of Islamic and Coptic Cairo — before the same Nile cruise from Luxor to Aswan and Abu Simbel, with an Egyptologist guide throughout.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eDAY 1 — Cairo Arrival, Giza \u0026amp; Khan El Khalili\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eYour flight lands in Cairo and a Dune Raider driver is waiting past customs with your name on a sign. From the airport it's straight to the Giza plateau, first stop before the day's heat sets in: the Great Pyramid of Khufu, the last of the ancient Seven Wonders still standing, built around 2560 BC from over two million blocks of limestone, and you can walk right up and put a hand on it. The Sphinx sits a short walk away, worn down by four and a half thousand years of wind.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFrom Giza it's the Egyptian Museum (or the Grand Egyptian Museum, depending on what's open when you travel) for Tutankhamun's gold, then into Khan El Khalili in the evening for dinner — a bazaar that's been trading spices, silver, and copperware since the 1300s. Sit down for tea at El Fishawy, a café that's been open, more or less continuously, since 1773. The night is at your Cairo hotel.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eDAY 2 — Saqqara \u0026amp; Memphis\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA short drive from Cairo to Saqqara: the step pyramid of Djoser, built around 2650 BC and generally considered the oldest large stone building on earth, a couple of centuries older than Giza's pyramids and arguably where the whole idea of pyramid-building started.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA stop at Memphis follows, once the capital of unified Egypt for most of the Old Kingdom; what's left of it now sits mostly in an open-air museum, including a fallen colossus of Ramesses II. The evening is free to explore Cairo on your own before dinner. The night is at your Cairo hotel.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eDAY 3 — The Citadel of Salah El-Din \u0026amp; a Felucca on the Nile\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA lighter day inside Cairo, built around the Citadel of Salah El-Din (Saladin), begun in the 1170s as a fortress against the Crusades and still the high point most of the city is seen from. The Ottoman-era Mosque of Muhammad Ali, added in the 1830s, has a skyline of domes and minarets modeled on Istanbul rather than Cairo's older mosques — the alabaster interior alone is worth the climb up.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn the afternoon, a felucca sail on the Nile — no engine, just wind and the river, a slow way to see the city from the water. Dinner and the night are at your Cairo hotel.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eDAY 4 — Flight to Luxor\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA transfer to Cairo Airport for a short flight south to Luxor, arriving with the Nile Valley's different pace already noticeable — quieter, greener, slower than Cairo. Check in to your hotel, with the rest of the day free before tomorrow's temples.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eDAY 5 — Abydos, Dendera \u0026amp; Boarding the Cruise\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAbydos, one of Egypt's oldest sacred cities, holds the Temple of Seti I — its wall carvings among the best-preserved reliefs anywhere, still holding traces of their original color in places. Dendera's Temple of Hathor is a short drive further, with an astronomical ceiling and a set of crypts you can climb down into.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBack in Luxor by early afternoon, you check out of the hotel and board the Nile cruise ship — the pace of the trip changes here, the boat doing the work instead of a bus. Dinner and the night are on board.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eDAY 6 — Luxor East and West Banks\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eKarnak Temple is the big one: roughly 200 acres, built up over some 2,000 years by more than 30 pharaohs, with a hypostyle hall of 134 columns so large it changes the light and sound around you. Luxor Temple sits closer to the river, smaller and more contained, and lit up after dark in a way that makes the evening visit worth planning for if timing allows.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn the afternoon you cross to the West Bank, where the pharaohs stopped building visible monuments and started hiding their tombs instead. The Valley of the Kings holds over 60 tombs cut into the hillside, Tutankhamun's among them. Hatshepsut's mortuary temple rises out of the cliff face in three broad terraces, and the Colossi of Memnon — two 18-meter seated statues — are what's left standing of a mortuary temple that mostly didn't survive. By evening the boat is underway, sailing south toward Esna and Edfu.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eDAY 7 — Edfu, Kom Ombo \u0026amp; Sailing to Aswan\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEdfu's Temple of Horus is the best-preserved temple in Egypt, largely because it spent centuries buried under desert sand and silt before excavation uncovered it whole — the falcon god's statue still stands guard at the entrance. Kom Ombo is unusual: a double temple split symmetrically down the middle, one half dedicated to the crocodile god Sobek, the other to Horus. Both stops are short shore excursions from the boat, usually by horse-drawn carriage from the dock at Edfu.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe ship keeps sailing through the afternoon and into Aswan, the Nile narrowing and the granite hills closing in as the desert starts to feel closer to the water.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eDAY 8 — Abu Simbel\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAn early start for Abu Simbel — it's a three-hour drive each way, which is why most people leave before dawn. Ramesses II built the Great Temple with four 20-meter statues of himself at the entrance, angled so that twice a year, in February and October, sunlight reaches all the way into the inner sanctuary. The Small Temple next to it, dedicated to his wife Nefertari, is one of the rare ancient Egyptian monuments where a queen's statues stand the same height as the king's.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eYou're back at the boat by early afternoon for lunch and a slower rest of the day — dinner and the night are back on board, still docked at Aswan.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eDAY 9 — Aswan\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eYou check out of the cruise ship this morning — bags off, last breakfast on board — then spend the day seeing Aswan itself, a different register of Egypt, Nubian rather than pharaonic in feel even with three and a half thousand years of temples nearby. The High Dam, finished in 1970, is what created Lake Nasser and rescued Abu Simbel from being flooded; the Unfinished Obelisk, abandoned mid-carving in ancient granite quarries after a crack appeared, shows exactly how the Egyptians cut stone at that scale. Philae Temple, dedicated to Isis, was moved stone by stone to Agilkia Island in the 1970s to save it from the same rising water — you reach it by boat.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe afternoon slows down with a felucca sail around Elephantine Island and a visit to a Nubian village, brightly painted houses and a different language from the Arabic spoken further north. Dinner and the night are at a hotel in Aswan.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eDAY 10 — Flight to Cairo\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA last Aswan breakfast, then the transfer to the airport for the short flight north to Cairo — the Nile Valley behind you, the city's noise and scale a contrast after days of temples and the quiet of the boat.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe rest of the day is free — lunch and time to rest before the trip's last full day in the capital. Dinner and the night are at your Cairo hotel.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eDAY 11 — Islamic Cairo, Coptic Cairo \u0026amp; a Nile Dinner Cruise\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCairo's older Islamic quarter fills the morning: medieval gates, mosques, and madrasas built up over centuries under the Fatimids, Mamluks, and Ottomans, most of it still standing and still in use. Coptic Cairo follows, one of the oldest continuously inhabited Christian quarters anywhere, its old churches and the Ben Ezra Synagogue tucked into narrow lanes near the old Roman fortress walls.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDinner tonight is on a Nile dinner boat, a slow loop past the city lit up after dark and a fitting last evening on the river before the trip winds down. The night is at your Cairo hotel.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eDAY 12 — Departure\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA last Cairo breakfast, then the transfer to the airport for departure. Twelve days, the pyramids to Old Cairo to the full Nile Valley — safe travels, and let us know how the trip went.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003ePrice Includes\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAll accommodation per itinerary (hotels + Nile cruise cabin)\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eEnglish-speaking Egyptologist guide throughout\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eEntrance fees to all sites listed\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eMeals as noted (full board on cruise, breakfast at hotels)\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eBottled water during touring\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eDoes Not Include\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAll transfers and internal transport; domestic flights, Cairo–Luxor and Aswan–Cairo\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eInternational flights\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eEgypt entry visa\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eOptional activities (hot-air balloon, private guide upgrade)\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eTravel insurance\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eTipping \/ gratuities\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003ePersonal expenses\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eDrinks beyond bottled water\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003ePrice\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e$3,000 USD \/ €2,568 EUR \/ 152,619 EGP\u003c\/strong\u003e per person. Indicative rate at today's exchange rate — contact us to confirm current pricing for your group and season.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Dune Raider Adventure","offers":[{"title":"Per Person","offer_id":43234713796670,"sku":"DRA-12D-FE","price":3000.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0677\/3538\/8222\/files\/product-01-mobile_c9182518-6a6f-4e27-9494-742ec6f7763c.jpg?v=1787828607"},{"product_id":"13-day-full-egypt","title":"13-Day Full Egypt: Alexandria to Aswan Grand Journey","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003ePyramids, the Mediterranean coast, and the full Nile Valley\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis \u003cstrong\u003e13-day Full Egypt tour\u003c\/strong\u003e is Dune Raider Adventure's only classic itinerary that reaches the Mediterranean — El Alamein's WWII battlefields and Alexandria's Roman catacombs and library, two nights on the coast, before the same Nile cruise from Luxor to Aswan and Abu Simbel that anchors the rest of the Full Egypt range.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eDAY 1 — Cairo Arrival, Giza \u0026amp; Khan El Khalili\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eYour flight lands in Cairo and a Dune Raider driver is waiting past customs with your name on a sign. From the airport it's straight to the Giza plateau, first stop before the day's heat sets in: the Great Pyramid of Khufu, the last of the ancient Seven Wonders still standing, and the Sphinx beside it, worn down by four and a half thousand years of wind.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFrom Giza it's the Egyptian Museum (or the Grand Egyptian Museum, depending on what's open when you travel) for Tutankhamun's gold, then into Khan El Khalili in the evening for dinner — a bazaar trading spices, silver, and copperware since the 1300s. Sit down for tea at El Fishawy, open more or less continuously since 1773. Check in and settle in; the night is at your Cairo hotel.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eDAY 2 — El Alamein \u0026amp; the Road to Alexandria\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWest along the coast road to El Alamein, site of the decisive 1942 battle that stopped Rommel's advance into Egypt. The El Alamein Military Museum lays out the campaign with tanks and equipment from both sides, and the war cemeteries nearby — Commonwealth, German, Italian — are a quieter, harder stop, row after row of headstones from a battle that turned the whole North African campaign.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFrom there it's on to Alexandria, Egypt's second city and, for over a thousand years, its capital — Greek-founded, Roman-ruled, and still the country's window on the Mediterranean. Check in and settle in for two nights on the coast.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eDAY 3 — Alexandria — Citadel, Library \u0026amp; Catacombs\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA full day inside Alexandria, starting at the Citadel of Qaitbay, a 15th-century fort built from the fallen stone of the Pharos Lighthouse — one of the ancient world's Seven Wonders — right on the site where the lighthouse itself once stood. From there, the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, the modern library built to evoke the legendary ancient one, its reading room a single sweeping disc of a space.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn the afternoon, the Catacombs of Kom El Shoqafa, a three-level tomb complex cut into the rock in the 2nd century AD that mixes Egyptian, Greek, and Roman styles in a way that shows up nowhere else in the country, followed by Pompey's Pillar, a 27-metre red granite column that's outlasted almost everything built around it. The night is at your Alexandria hotel.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eDAY 4 — Flight to Luxor\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBack along the coast road to Cairo Airport for a flight south to Luxor, the Mediterranean traded for the Nile Valley in the space of an afternoon. Check in to your hotel, with the rest of the day free before tomorrow's temples — a good evening to walk the Corniche and get your bearings.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eDAY 5 — Abydos, Dendera \u0026amp; Boarding the Cruise\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAbydos, one of Egypt's oldest sacred cities, holds the Temple of Seti I — its wall carvings among the best-preserved reliefs anywhere, still holding traces of their original color in places. Dendera's Temple of Hathor is a short drive further, with an astronomical ceiling and a set of crypts you can climb down into.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBack in Luxor by early afternoon, you check out of the hotel and board the Nile cruise ship — the pace of the trip changes here, the boat doing the work instead of a bus. Dinner and the night are on board.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eDAY 6 — Luxor East and West Banks\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eKarnak Temple is the big one: roughly 200 acres, built up over some 2,000 years by more than 30 pharaohs, with a hypostyle hall of 134 columns so large it changes the light and sound around you. Luxor Temple sits closer to the river, smaller and more contained, and lit up after dark in a way that makes the evening visit worth planning for if timing allows.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn the afternoon you cross to the West Bank, where the pharaohs stopped building visible monuments and started hiding their tombs instead. The Valley of the Kings holds over 60 tombs cut into the hillside, Tutankhamun's among them. Hatshepsut's mortuary temple rises out of the cliff face in three broad terraces, and the Colossi of Memnon — two 18-meter seated statues — are what's left standing of a mortuary temple that mostly didn't survive. By evening the boat is underway, sailing south toward Esna and Edfu.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eDAY 7 — Edfu, Kom Ombo \u0026amp; Sailing to Aswan\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEdfu's Temple of Horus is the best-preserved temple in Egypt, largely because it spent centuries buried under desert sand and silt before excavation uncovered it whole — the falcon god's statue still stands guard at the entrance. Kom Ombo is unusual: a double temple split symmetrically down the middle, one half dedicated to the crocodile god Sobek, the other to Horus. Both stops are short shore excursions from the boat, usually by horse-drawn carriage from the dock at Edfu.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe ship keeps sailing through the afternoon and into Aswan, the Nile narrowing and the granite hills closing in as the desert starts to feel closer to the water.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eDAY 8 — Abu Simbel\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAn early start for Abu Simbel — it's a three-hour drive each way, which is why most people leave before dawn. Ramesses II built the Great Temple with four 20-meter statues of himself at the entrance, angled so that twice a year, in February and October, sunlight reaches all the way into the inner sanctuary. The Small Temple next to it, dedicated to his wife Nefertari, is one of the rare ancient Egyptian monuments where a queen's statues stand the same height as the king's.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eYou're back at the boat by early afternoon for lunch and a slower rest of the day — dinner and the night are back on board, still docked at Aswan.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eDAY 9 — Aswan\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eYou check out of the cruise ship this morning — bags off, last breakfast on board — then spend the day seeing Aswan itself, a different register of Egypt, Nubian rather than pharaonic in feel even with three and a half thousand years of temples nearby. The High Dam, finished in 1970, is what created Lake Nasser and rescued Abu Simbel from being flooded; the Unfinished Obelisk, abandoned mid-carving in ancient granite quarries after a crack appeared, shows exactly how the Egyptians cut stone at that scale. Philae Temple, dedicated to Isis, was moved stone by stone to Agilkia Island in the 1970s to save it from the same rising water — you reach it by boat.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe afternoon slows down with a felucca sail around Elephantine Island and a visit to a Nubian village, brightly painted houses and a different language from the Arabic spoken further north. Dinner and the night are at a hotel in Aswan.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eDAY 10 — Flight to Cairo\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA last Aswan breakfast, then the transfer to the airport for the short flight north to Cairo — the Nile Valley behind you, the city's noise and scale a contrast after days of temples and the quiet of the boat.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe rest of the day is free — lunch and time to rest before the trip's last full day in the capital. Dinner and the night are at your Cairo hotel.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eDAY 11 — Saqqara \u0026amp; Memphis\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBack to Cairo's outskirts for a day among Old Kingdom ruins, starting at Saqqara: the step pyramid of Djoser, built around 2650 BC and generally considered the oldest large stone building on earth, a couple of centuries older than Giza's pyramids and arguably where the whole idea of pyramid-building started.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA short stop at Memphis follows, once the capital of unified Egypt for most of the Old Kingdom; what's left of it now sits mostly in an open-air museum, including a fallen colossus of Ramesses II. Free evening back in Cairo — a good chance to rest before the trip's last full day. The night is at your Cairo hotel.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eDAY 12 — Islamic Cairo, Coptic Cairo \u0026amp; a Nile Dinner Cruise\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCairo's older quarters fill the day: the Citadel of Saladin, its Ottoman-era mosque looking out over the whole city, then Islamic Cairo's medieval gates and mosques, and Coptic Cairo's old churches and synagogue — one of the oldest continuously inhabited Christian quarters anywhere.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDinner tonight is on a Nile dinner boat, a slow loop past the city lit up after dark and a fitting last evening on the river before the trip winds down. The night is at your Cairo hotel.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eDAY 13 — Departure\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA last Cairo breakfast, then the transfer to the airport for your departure flight. Thirteen days, the Mediterranean coast and the full Nile Valley end to end — safe travels, and let us know how the trip went.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003ePrice Includes\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAll accommodation per itinerary (hotels + Nile cruise cabin)\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eEnglish-speaking Egyptologist guide throughout\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eEntrance fees to all sites listed\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eMeals as noted (full board on cruise, breakfast at hotels)\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eBottled water during touring\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eDoes Not Include\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAll transfers and internal transport (private A\/C vehicle, cruise ship); domestic flights, Cairo–Luxor and Aswan–Cairo\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eInternational flights\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eEgypt entry visa\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eOptional activities (hot-air balloon, private guide upgrade)\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eTravel insurance\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eTipping \/ gratuities\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003ePersonal expenses\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eDrinks beyond bottled water\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003ePrice\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e$3,250 USD \/ €2,782 EUR \/ 165,337 EGP\u003c\/strong\u003e per person. Indicative rate at today's exchange rate — contact us to confirm current pricing for your group and season.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Dune Raider Adventure","offers":[{"title":"Per Person","offer_id":43234714812478,"sku":"DRA-13D-FE-ALX","price":3250.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0677\/3538\/8222\/files\/product-01-mobile_8a559753-41f5-4566-b3d2-dc29874271b1.jpg?v=1787828505"},{"product_id":"13-day-full-egypt-program-2","title":"13-Day Full Egypt (Relaxed Pace): Cairo to Aswan Grand Tour","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003ePyramids, Old Cairo, and the full Nile Valley\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis \u003cstrong\u003e13-day Full Egypt tour (Program 2)\u003c\/strong\u003e spreads the classic Cairo-to-Aswan circuit over an extra day compared to the 12-day version, with a slower boarding of the Nile cruise, a full Karnak and Luxor Temple day before crossing to the West Bank, and the same Saqqara, Citadel, and Islamic\/Coptic Cairo stops — an Egyptologist guide throughout.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eDAY 1 — Cairo Arrival, Giza \u0026amp; Khan El Khalili\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eYour flight lands in Cairo and a Dune Raider driver is waiting past customs with your name on a sign. From the airport it's straight to the Giza plateau, first stop before the day's heat sets in: the Great Pyramid of Khufu, the last of the ancient Seven Wonders still standing, and the Sphinx beside it, worn down by four and a half thousand years of wind.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFrom Giza it's the Egyptian Museum (or the Grand Egyptian Museum, depending on what's open when you travel) for Tutankhamun's gold, then into Khan El Khalili in the evening for dinner — a bazaar trading spices, silver, and copperware since the 1300s. Sit down for tea at El Fishawy, open more or less continuously since 1773. Check in and settle in; the night is at your Cairo hotel.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eDAY 2 — Saqqara, Memphis \u0026amp; a Felucca on the Nile\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA short drive from Cairo to Saqqara: the step pyramid of Djoser, built around 2650 BC and generally considered the oldest large stone building on earth, a couple of centuries older than Giza's pyramids and arguably where the whole idea of pyramid-building started.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA stop at Memphis follows, once the capital of unified Egypt for most of the Old Kingdom; what's left of it now sits mostly in an open-air museum, including a fallen colossus of Ramesses II. In the afternoon, a felucca sail on the Nile back in Cairo — no engine, just wind and the river, a slow way to end a day of ancient stone. The night is at your Cairo hotel.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eDAY 3 — The Citadel of Salah El-Din\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA lighter day inside Cairo, built around the Citadel of Salah El-Din (Saladin), begun in the 1170s as a fortress against the Crusades and still the high point most of the city is seen from. The Ottoman-era Mosque of Muhammad Ali, added in the 1830s, has a skyline of domes and minarets modeled on Istanbul rather than Cairo's older mosques — the alabaster interior alone is worth the climb up.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe ramparts look out over the whole of Cairo, minarets and rooftops running to the horizon in every direction. Free time in the afternoon before dinner and the night at your Cairo hotel.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eDAY 4 — Flight to Luxor\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA transfer to Cairo Airport for a short flight south to Luxor, arriving with the Nile Valley's different pace already noticeable — quieter, greener, slower than Cairo. Check in to your hotel, with the rest of the day free before tomorrow's temples.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eDAY 5 — Abydos \u0026amp; Dendera\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAbydos, one of Egypt's oldest sacred cities, holds the Temple of Seti I — its wall carvings among the best-preserved reliefs anywhere, still holding traces of their original color in places. Dendera's Temple of Hathor is a short drive further, with an astronomical ceiling and a set of crypts you can climb down into.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBack in Luxor by early afternoon, with the evening free — a good night to walk the Corniche and get your bearings before the cruise begins tomorrow. The night is at your Luxor hotel.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eDAY 6 — Board the Cruise, Karnak \u0026amp; Luxor Temple\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAfter breakfast, transfer down to the Nile cruise ship and check in — the pace of the trip changes here, the boat doing the work instead of a bus. Karnak Temple is the big one: roughly 200 acres, built up over some 2,000 years by more than 30 pharaohs, with a hypostyle hall of 134 columns so large it changes the light and sound around you.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLuxor Temple sits closer to the river, smaller and more contained, and lit up after dark in a way that makes an evening visit worth planning for if timing allows. Lunch and dinner are on board tonight.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eDAY 7 — Luxor West Bank \u0026amp; Sailing to Edfu\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn the morning you cross to the West Bank, where the pharaohs stopped building visible monuments and started hiding their tombs instead. The Valley of the Kings holds over 60 tombs cut into the hillside, Tutankhamun's among them. Hatshepsut's mortuary temple rises out of the cliff face in three broad terraces, and the Colossi of Memnon — two 18-meter seated statues — are what's left standing of a mortuary temple that mostly didn't survive. By evening the boat is underway, sailing south toward Esna and Edfu.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eDAY 8 — Edfu, Kom Ombo \u0026amp; Sailing to Aswan\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEdfu's Temple of Horus is the best-preserved temple in Egypt, largely because it spent centuries buried under desert sand and silt before excavation uncovered it whole — the falcon god's statue still stands guard at the entrance. Kom Ombo is unusual: a double temple split symmetrically down the middle, one half dedicated to the crocodile god Sobek, the other to Horus. Both stops are short shore excursions from the boat, usually by horse-drawn carriage from the dock at Edfu.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe ship keeps sailing through the afternoon and into Aswan, the Nile narrowing and the granite hills closing in as the desert starts to feel closer to the water.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eDAY 9 — Abu Simbel\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAn early start for Abu Simbel — it's a three-hour drive each way, which is why most people leave before dawn. Ramesses II built the Great Temple with four 20-meter statues of himself at the entrance, angled so that twice a year, in February and October, sunlight reaches all the way into the inner sanctuary. The Small Temple next to it, dedicated to his wife Nefertari, is one of the rare ancient Egyptian monuments where a queen's statues stand the same height as the king's.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eYou're back at the boat by early afternoon for lunch and a slower rest of the day — dinner and the night are back on board, still docked at Aswan.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eDAY 10 — Aswan\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eYou check out of the cruise ship this morning — bags off, last breakfast on board — then spend the day seeing Aswan itself, a different register of Egypt, Nubian rather than pharaonic in feel even with three and a half thousand years of temples nearby. The High Dam, finished in 1970, is what created Lake Nasser and rescued Abu Simbel from being flooded; the Unfinished Obelisk, abandoned mid-carving in ancient granite quarries after a crack appeared, shows exactly how the Egyptians cut stone at that scale. Philae Temple, dedicated to Isis, was moved stone by stone to Agilkia Island in the 1970s to save it from the same rising water — you reach it by boat.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe afternoon slows down with a felucca sail around Elephantine Island and a visit to a Nubian village, brightly painted houses and a different language from the Arabic spoken further north. Dinner and the night are at a hotel in Aswan.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eDAY 11 — Flight to Cairo\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA last Aswan breakfast, then the transfer to the airport for the short flight north to Cairo — the Nile Valley behind you, the city's noise and scale a contrast after days of temples and the quiet of the boat.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe rest of the day is free — lunch and time to rest before the trip's last full day in the capital. Dinner and the night are at your Cairo hotel.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eDAY 12 — Islamic Cairo, Coptic Cairo \u0026amp; a Nile Dinner Cruise\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCairo's older quarters fill the day: the Citadel of Saladin, its Ottoman-era mosque looking out over the whole city, then Islamic Cairo's medieval gates and mosques, and Coptic Cairo's old churches and synagogue — one of the oldest continuously inhabited Christian quarters anywhere.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDinner tonight is on a Nile dinner boat, a slow loop past the city lit up after dark and a fitting last evening on the river before the trip winds down. The night is at your Cairo hotel.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eDAY 13 — Departure\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA last Cairo breakfast, then the transfer to the airport for your departure flight. Thirteen days, the pyramids to Old Cairo to the full Nile Valley — safe travels, and let us know how the trip went.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003ePrice Includes\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAll accommodation per itinerary (hotels + Nile cruise cabin)\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eEnglish-speaking Egyptologist guide throughout\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eEntrance fees to all sites listed\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eMeals as noted (full board on cruise, breakfast at hotels)\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eBottled water during touring\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eDoes Not Include\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAll transfers and internal transport (private A\/C vehicle, cruise ship); domestic flights, Cairo–Luxor and Aswan–Cairo\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eInternational flights\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eEgypt entry visa\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eOptional activities (hot-air balloon, private guide upgrade)\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eTravel insurance\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eTipping \/ gratuities\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003ePersonal expenses\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eDrinks beyond bottled water\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003ePrice\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e$3,250 USD \/ €2,782 EUR \/ 165,337 EGP\u003c\/strong\u003e per person. Indicative rate at today's exchange rate — contact us to confirm current pricing for your group and season.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Dune Raider Adventure","offers":[{"title":"Adult","offer_id":43234717040702,"sku":"DRA-13D-FE-P2-ADT","price":3250.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Kid","offer_id":43242415325246,"sku":"DRA-13D-FE-P2-KID","price":3250.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0677\/3538\/8222\/files\/product-01-mobile.jpg?v=1787672863"}],"url":"https:\/\/duneraideradventure.com\/collections\/full-egypt-grand-tours.oembed","provider":"Dune Raider Adventure","version":"1.0","type":"link"}