Five days on the MS Farida from Luxor to Aswan, with three tombs in the Valley of the Kings, the carriage ride at Edfu and the motorboat to Philae included.
An English-speaking representative meets you and takes you to the ship in a private air-conditioned vehicle. Check in before lunch, then out to the East Bank. Karnak is the largest religious structure ever built, made for Amun and added to over centuries; you walk the Avenue of Sphinxes past towering columns, carved hieroglyphs and the sacred lake. Luxor Temple follows, aligned with Karnak and at its best in the golden light of late afternoon.
Across the Nile after breakfast. In the Valley of the Kings you go into three tombs, among them those of pharaohs including Tutankhamun, decorated from floor to ceiling. The Temple of Queen Hatshepsut is next, its terraces rising against the limestone cliffs, and there is a photo stop at the Colossi of Memnon, which have stood there for over 3,000 years. Lunch on board as the ship sails for Edfu through the Esna Lock.
Breakfast while sailing to Edfu, then ashore and a horse-drawn carriage to the Temple of Horus, one of the best-preserved in Egypt, with towering pylons and relief work still crisp. Lunch on board as the ship moves on to Kom Ombo, the temple built for Sobek the crocodile god and Horus the Elder, where the small museum on site holds the mummified crocodiles. The boat continues towards Aswan through the afternoon.
You wake at Aswan. The High Dam comes first, then a motorboat out to the Temple of Philae, built for Isis and standing on its own island above the old dam. The Unfinished Obelisk in the granite quarries closes the morning and explains, better than any completed monument, how the ancient stonecutters actually worked. Lunch back on board, then a free afternoon on the sundeck or in the town.
Breakfast, then you disembark and are transferred to Aswan Airport or the train station.