Eleven days for families: four nights in Cairo, three on a five-star Nile cruise and three all-inclusive in Hurghada, with the beach at the end.
A representative meets you at the terminal at Cairo International Airport, helps with immigration and luggage, and drives the family to your 5-star hotel in a private vehicle. The rest of the day is for the pool and for letting everyone find their feet.
A private guided morning at the Great Pyramids of Giza — Cheops, Chephren and Mykerinos — with a camel ride out into the sand, which is reliably the part children remember. The Great Sphinx and the Valley Temple follow, and with them the explanation of what mummification was actually for. Lunch at a good local restaurant, then the Grand Egyptian Museum, where the exhibits are designed to be walked through rather than read at.
A flight south to Aswan, a quiet city on a wide stretch of river. The Temple of Philae comes first, built for Isis on its island. Then a motorboat out to a Nubian village, where the houses are painted in strong colours, the crafts are made in front of you and some households still keep young Nile crocodiles — worth seeing, worth not touching. You board the boat afterwards for lunch and the afternoon on deck.
Sailing north to Kom Ombo Temple, the double temple built for Sobek the crocodile god and Horus the Elder, with real mummified crocodiles in the museum next door. Lunch on board, then Edfu, where a horse-drawn carriage takes you from the mooring to the Temple of Horus — the pylons are enormous and the carving is legible enough to follow a story from.
The boat reaches Luxor and you cross to the West Bank. In the Valley of the Kings you walk down into the tombs themselves, painted from floor to ceiling; Tutankhamun's own is available on a separate ticket. The Temple of Hatshepsut comes next, cut straight into the cliff face, and then the Colossi of Memnon. Back on board for lunch and an afternoon on the river.
Disembarkation, then Karnak — giant columns, a sacred lake and an avenue lined with sphinxes — followed by Luxor Temple in the middle of the city. In the afternoon a private vehicle takes you to Hurghada on the Red Sea, about four hours, and you check in to an all-inclusive resort with pools, water sports and beach access.
Nothing scheduled. The pool, the beach, sandcastles. Optional extras include snorkelling, banana-boat rides, and a glass-bottom boat for anyone who wants to see the reef without getting in the water.
Another open day. A desert safari, a first scuba lesson, the resort's own children's programme, or the spa — in most families all four happen at once.
A flight north after breakfast and back to your hotel. The evening is free: a Nile dinner cruise is the usual optional extra, or the cafés nearby, or nothing.
The National Museum of Egyptian Civilization first, which tells the story in order from prehistory to the present and holds the royal mummies in a purpose-built gallery — a good counterweight to a week of temples. Then the Citadel of Salah El-Din, the fortress above the city, and the Muhammad Ali Mosque inside it, where the view over Cairo is the reward for the climb.
Breakfast, then a representative transfers you to Cairo International Airport for your flight home.