Ten days pairing Cairo and Luxor with four nights aboard the Akhnaton Dahabiya, a small sailing boat that stops at El Kab, Gebel El Silsila and Daraw.
You are met at Cairo International Airport, assisted through the arrival procedures and driven to your hotel in a private, air-conditioned vehicle. The rest of the day is free.
A private guided tour of the Giza Plateau after breakfast: the pyramids of Cheops, Chephren and Mykerinus, then the Sphinx and the Valley Temple beside it. The afternoon is spent at the Egyptian Museum among its collections.
Check out after breakfast and fly to Luxor, where your guide meets you for the East Bank. The Karnak complex comes first, layered with centuries of building, followed by Luxor Temple in the centre of town.
Across the Nile to the royal necropolis: the Valley of the Kings, where pharaohs including Ramses and Tutankhamun were buried, the Temple of Hatshepsut cut into the cliffs at El-Deir El-Bahari, and a stop at the massive Colossi of Memnon before returning for a relaxed evening.
Breakfast, check out, and a drive of about an hour south to Esna, where the Akhnaton Dahabiya is waiting. You visit the Esna Temple and walk through the local markets before boarding, then sail gently towards El Kab, an ancient site known for its rock-cut tombs.
You wake up on the river. After breakfast the boat sails to Edfu for the Temple of Horus, then continues to Wadi El Shat, where there is a guided walk through quiet villages and desert paths before anchoring for the night beside a small island.
A morning on deck as the dahabiya sails to Gebel El Silsila, where you go ashore to see rock-cut chapels dedicated to Seti I, Ramesses II, Merenptah and Horemheb, and the sandstone quarries that supplied the stone for Egypt's great temples. Kom Ombo and its double temple follow before you moor at Maniha.
The boat sails to Daraw, long a meeting point for camel traders coming up from Sudan, where you can walk through the market and the village streets. From there to Koubania, a Nubian village near Aswan set among citrus and mango gardens, for a last evening on the water.
Breakfast on board, then you disembark at Aswan and transfer to the airport for the flight to Cairo, where your representative meets you and takes you to your hotel. The last evening is yours.
Breakfast at the hotel and a transfer to Cairo International Airport for your flight home.