Ten private days: three nights in Cairo, three on a five-star Nile cruise and three all-inclusive in Hurghada, with the same Egyptologist guide throughout.
A representative is waiting at Cairo International Airport to take you through the formalities, then a private transfer to your 5-star hotel in the middle of the city. Settle in and rest.
Your private Egyptologist meets you after breakfast for the Giza Plateau: the Great Pyramids of Cheops, Chephren and Mykerinos, and the Sphinx. A camel ride around the pyramids is included and gives you the view from out in the sand rather than from the road. The afternoon goes to the Grand Egyptian Museum, Egypt's newest and most advanced archaeological museum, with lunch at a chosen local restaurant in between.
Check out after breakfast and fly south. Your guide takes you to the Temple of Philae, built for Isis on its island in the Nile, and then you board the five-star boat for lunch. It stays moored at Aswan for the evening.
A morning's sailing to Kom Ombo Temple, shared between Sobek the crocodile god and Horus the Elder in two mirrored halves. Then on to Edfu, where a horse-drawn carriage runs from the mooring to the Temple of Horus, among the best-preserved in Egypt. Dinner on board.
You arrive at Luxor, ancient Thebes, and cross straight to the West Bank. The Valley of the Kings holds tombs cut deep into the hillside, their corridors painted with hieroglyphs that have held their colour for three thousand years; Ramses II and Seti I are both buried here, and Tutankhamun's tomb can be entered when it is open. The Temple of Hatshepsut follows, terraced against the cliffs at Deir el-Bahari and built by the most powerful female ruler Egypt produced. The morning finishes at the Colossi of Memnon, two statues that have stood over the Theban necropolis for more than 3,000 years and are more impressive for being weathered. Lunch back on board, and the afternoon on the sun deck.
Disembarkation after breakfast, then Karnak, one of the largest religious complexes in the world, and Luxor Temple, once joined to it by the Avenue of Sphinxes. In the afternoon a private vehicle takes you across to Hurghada on the Red Sea, and you check in to your all-inclusive beach resort.
The beach, the resort, or the water. Optional excursions include snorkelling, diving, and the boat trip out to Giftun Island.
Another day with nothing in it. The sun, the spa, or the quiet — after a week of monuments, the quiet is usually what people take.
A transfer to Hurghada Airport after breakfast and a short flight north. You are met on arrival and taken back to your hotel, with the final evening free.
Breakfast and check-out, then a representative transfers you to Cairo International Airport for your onward flight.