Egypt 7-Day Luxury Private Tour

Welcome to Egypt. Your representative meets you at Cairo Airport and your private driver takes you to your hotel, where you can settle in and rest after the flight. Nothing is planned today, so take the evening gently. If you arrive in good time, a quiet dinner overlooking the Nile is an easy way to begin. Your local team is on hand for anything you need, and your Egyptologist will be in touch to go over tomorrow’s plans.

Meet your private Egyptologist after breakfast and start early at the Pyramids of Giza, before the heat and the crowds. Walk around the Great Pyramid of Khufu, take in the view of all three pyramids from the desert plateau, and stand in front of the Great Sphinx. Later, a drive of about 40 minutes brings you to Saqqara and the Step Pyramid of Djoser, the oldest of Egypt’s pyramids, along with beautifully carved tombs nearby. You are back at the hotel by mid-afternoon for a swim or a rest.

After a slow breakfast, spend the morning at the Grand Egyptian Museum with your Egyptologist. The grand staircase is lined with colossal statues, and the galleries hold the complete treasures of Tutankhamun, shown together for the first time, including his gold mask and chariots. Your guide picks the highlights so you never feel rushed. Lunch is easy to find on site, and the afternoon is yours: the hotel pool, a spa treatment, or a coffee with a view of the pyramids.

A morning flight of about an hour brings you to Luxor, ancient Thebes. Check in to your hotel on the Nile and rest over lunch. In the afternoon your guide takes you to Karnak, a vast complex of temples built over two thousand years, where the forest of columns in the great hypostyle hall is hard to forget. Finish at Luxor Temple as the sun goes down and the floodlights come on. Dinner is at your leisure, perhaps on a terrace by the river.

Cross the Nile in the cool of the morning to the Valley of the Kings, where the pharaohs of the New Kingdom were buried in tombs cut deep into the hills. Your ticket covers several tombs, and the colors of the painted walls still look fresh. Continue to the terraced temple of Queen Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahari, then stop at the Colossi of Memnon on the way back. You return to the hotel by early afternoon, with the rest of the day free by the pool or the river.

Early risers can float over the west bank in a hot-air balloon at sunrise, an optional extra we can arrange. After breakfast your guide takes you to Medinet Habu, the mortuary temple of Ramesses III, where the carvings and painted ceilings are some of the best preserved in Egypt. It is a quieter site and a lovely way to say goodbye to Luxor. In the afternoon you fly back to Cairo, about an hour, for your final night. If you have energy, Khan el-Khalili is lively in the evening.

Enjoy a last breakfast at your hotel. Depending on your flight time, there may be a little time to relax before your private driver takes you to Cairo Airport. On the way you may catch the Citadel’s domes and minarets on the skyline. We say goodbye there and hope you leave with the Nile, the pyramids and the temples of Luxor still fresh in your mind.