Eight days for families: four nights in Cairo and three on a five-star Nile boat, with a camel ride at Giza, tombs in the Valley of the Kings and a free day.
A representative meets you at Cairo International Airport and deals with the visa and luggage, then a private air-conditioned transfer to a family-friendly hotel. The rest of the day is for the pool, or dinner with the city below you.
A private guided morning on the Giza Plateau, standing under the Pyramids of Cheops, Chephren and Mykerinos, then the Great Sphinx and the Valley Temple, where the beliefs behind all of it get explained. A camel ride near the pyramids is included and is usually the day's high point for anyone under twelve. Lunch at an Egyptian restaurant, then the Egyptian Museum, for the gold of King Tutankhamun and the mummies.
A flight south after breakfast. The Temple of Philae comes first, built for Isis on a green island in the Nile, then the High Dam of Egypt. You board the boat for lunch and free time on the sundeck, and in the afternoon visit a Nubian village, where the colour of the houses, the music and the storytelling make it the least museum-like hour of the trip.
Breakfast on board as the boat sails to Kom Ombo Temple, the rare double temple built for Sobek the crocodile god and Horus the Elder, with ancient surgical tools carved on one wall and mummified crocodiles in the museum. On to Edfu, and a horse-drawn carriage to the Temple of Horus, one of the best-preserved in Egypt. Dinner on board and stargazing from the upper deck, which this far south is worth staying up for.
Into the Valley of the Kings, where royal tombs were cut deep into the mountain for pharaohs including Ramses and Tutankhamun. The Temple of Hatshepsut follows, rising out of the cliffs in three terraces, and then the Colossi of Memnon, which are all that survives above ground of the temple they once guarded. You transfer to your hotel in Luxor afterwards.
The East Bank after breakfast. Karnak is one of the largest temple complexes ever built and is a good place to let children simply wander between the columns. Luxor Temple follows, with the Avenue of Sphinxes running up to it. A flight to Cairo later in the day and a transfer to your hotel.
Deliberately unstructured. Stay at the hotel, or take an optional tour: the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization, an Egyptian cooking class, or the Cairo Tower for the view over the whole city. Khan al-Khalili Bazaar is the place for anything anyone wants to take home.
Breakfast, then a representative takes you to Cairo International Airport for your flight home.