Nine days that go past Aswan into Nubia: Giza and Luxor, then Philae, Kalabsha Temple, the Nubian Museum, a Nubian village and Abu Simbel.
You are greeted at Cairo International Airport, helped through the arrival formalities and driven to your hotel in a private air-conditioned vehicle. The rest of the day is free.
The Giza Plateau after breakfast — the pyramids of Cheops, Chephren and Mykerinos, the Great Sphinx and the Valley Temple. After a local lunch you continue to the Egyptian Museum.
An early transfer to Cairo Airport and a flight to Luxor, where your guide takes you to the vast Karnak complex and then to Luxor Temple, unusually well preserved and right in the middle of the modern town.
Breakfast on board, then across to the west for the Valley of the Kings and its royal tombs cut deep into the rock, followed by the Temple of Hatshepsut standing in terraces against the cliff, and finally the towering Colossi of Memnon. You return to the boat for lunch and sail south towards Edfu.
A horse-drawn carriage takes you to the Temple of Horus at Edfu, one of the best-preserved temples in Egypt. You sail on to Kom Ombo and its twin temple, divided between Sobek and Horus the Elder, then continue towards Aswan.
The Nubian day. You start at the Temple of Philae on Agilika Island, built for Isis, then cross to Kalabsha Temple — a Nubian building that, like Philae, was taken apart and rebuilt on higher ground after the High Dam was built. The Nubian Museum in Aswan sets out that whole history properly, and the day ends in a Nubian village on the riverbank, among painted houses and gardens.
An early disembarkation and the drive south to Abu Simbel, where the colossal temples of Ramses II and Nefertari are cut straight into the mountainside. Afterwards you transfer to Aswan Airport for the flight to Cairo.
A morning at the Grand Egyptian Museum beside the Giza Plateau, holding one of the most impressive collections of Egyptian material anywhere, before returning to your hotel.
Breakfast at the hotel, then a transfer to Cairo International Airport for your flight home.