Egypt Tour 11 Day Cairo & Alexandria Nile Cruise & Abu Simbel Hotel & Flight Inc

Ancient Egypt rewards a full itinerary. I like the way this trip pairs Cairo’s pyramids and museums with a four-night Nile cruise, and I like that Abu Simbel, Alexandria, Luxor, and Aswan are all included. The main drawback is pace: you cover a lot of ground in 11 days, with several flights, early starts, and long sightseeing days.

This is a private tour for your own group, with hotel pickup, private vehicles, domestic flights in the schedule, and an Egyptologist guide. The package costs $2,793 per person, which can be fair value once you count 10 nights of accommodation, most meals, transport, admissions, and airport assistance. Still, confirm exactly which flights are covered before paying, since the listed inclusions describe the route but do not clearly spell out international airfare.

Key points at a glance

• Four nights on the Nile: Cruise between Luxor and Aswan with buffet lunches, daily dinners, and temple visits along the river.
• The great sights are covered: Giza, the Egyptian Museum, Karnak, the Valley of the Kings, Philae, Abu Simbel, and Alexandria all appear on the route.
• Private tour format: Only your group participates, with private transfers and transport by private vehicle.
• Strong airport support: Staff meet you on arrival, help with formalities, and transfer you to your Cairo hotel.
• Ten nights included: Six nights are at a five-star Cairo hotel and four nights are on a deluxe Nile cruise.
• A fast-moving schedule: You gain breadth, but you give up free time and will need energy for long sightseeing days.

What this 11-day Egypt route gets right

Egypt can be awkward to arrange on your own. The major sights are spread across several cities, internal flights need coordination, and the Nile cruise timetable affects everything around it. This package takes care of the main links between Cairo, Luxor, Aswan, and Alexandria.

I especially like the order of the trip. You begin with Cairo’s most famous monuments, then move into the ancient temples and tombs of Upper Egypt. The cruise provides a slower middle section, while Abu Simbel gives you one of the trip’s biggest finales before Alexandria adds a Greek and Roman chapter.

The arrival service is another useful touch. Look at Egypt Tours meets you at the airport, assists with arrival formalities, and takes you to the hotel. One person who helped with trip planning was named Ahmed, and the communication was described as quick and clear. That kind of contact matters when you are coordinating flights, hotels, guides, and a cruise in one country.

The tradeoff is that this is a sightseeing marathon, not a relaxed holiday. Cairo alone receives four full touring days if you count the arrival and departure structure, but you also move to Luxor, cruise south, fly back to Cairo, and make a long Alexandria excursion. You will see a lot. You will not have much spare time.

Days 1 and 2: Cairo arrival, Giza, and the Egyptian Museum

Your first day is deliberately simple. Staff meet you at the airport, help with the arrival process, and transfer you to your Cairo hotel. There is no scheduled sightseeing, which is sensible after an international flight.

Day two opens with the Pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx. You have about three hours here, with admission included. The scale is hard to grasp until you are standing beside the stone blocks, and the Sphinx gives you the familiar image of Egypt from a closer, more human angle.

Your guide is important at Giza because the site can feel like a string of photo stops without context. Ask about the different pyramid builders, the role of the plateau, and how the Sphinx fits into the royal complex. Take your own time for photographs, but keep an eye on the group schedule.

The Egyptian Museum follows, with another three-hour visit. Its collection contains about 120,000 ancient Egyptian objects, though only some are on display at any one time. You could spend days here, so the value of the guide is in helping you choose what deserves your attention.

Expect a full day of major sights rather than a slow introduction to Cairo. The pyramids are open-air and exposed, while the museum requires sustained concentration. Comfortable shoes, water, and a willingness to keep moving will help.

Day 3: Saqqara and Memphis beyond the postcard pyramids

Day three shifts away from Egypt’s most famous monument and toward the earlier stages of pyramid building. At Saqqara, the Step Pyramid of Djoser rises in six levels and is associated with Imhotep. It is regarded as Egypt’s earliest major stone structure, making the site important even if the shape is less instantly familiar than Giza.

The visit lasts about three hours and includes admission. Saqqara helps you see the pyramid as an evolving architectural idea rather than a finished symbol that appeared all at once. Your guide can explain how the Step Pyramid developed from earlier mastaba tombs.

Memphis follows for about an hour. The ancient capital is now largely archaeological remains, but the enormous statue of Ramses II and the alabaster sphinx of Hatshepsut provide a clear sense of its former importance.

I like this day because it adds historical depth to the Giza visit. The drawback is that the sites are less visually complete, so you need to listen and imagine more. If you only want intact monuments, Giza may feel more immediately rewarding. If you want to understand how royal architecture changed, Saqqara and Memphis are essential.

Day 4: Cairo’s Islamic and Christian quarters

The fourth day covers three very different parts of Cairo. At the Citadel of Saladin, you see a medieval Islamic fortification on Mokattam Hill. The site is preserved and was once valued for its fresh breeze and wide views across the city.

You have about an hour at the Citadel. That is enough for an introduction, but not for a detailed study of every building. The stop works best as a historical and architectural counterpoint to the pharaonic sites.

Next comes Khan Al-Khalili, Cairo’s major bazaar district. Allow yourself to enjoy the atmosphere, but keep your shopping expectations realistic. The market is a tourist attraction as well as a place used by local shoppers, and prices require attention. If you want to buy something, agree on the price before committing.

Coptic Cairo completes the day. The area includes the Babylon Fortress, the Coptic Museum, the Hanging Church, the Greek Church of St. George, and other historic churches. This is a valuable reminder that Egypt’s story did not end with the pharaohs or the Roman period.

Each stop receives about an hour. That keeps the day efficient, but it also means you will get an overview rather than a slow, detailed visit. I would use the guide’s explanations to decide which places you want to return to if you later gain free time in Cairo.

Days 5 and 6: Luxor’s temples, tombs, and royal monuments

After breakfast on day five, you check out and transfer to Cairo Airport for the flight to Luxor. The itinerary then turns to the east bank, beginning with Karnak Temple and Luxor Temple.

Karnak receives about two hours. This vast complex was dedicated mainly to Amun and grew over many centuries. Its scale is the point: courtyards, columns, gateways, and sacred spaces reveal how much religious and royal power was concentrated here.

Luxor Temple receives about an hour. Unlike Karnak, it sits within the modern city of Luxor, which gives the visit a more immediate connection to present-day life. The temple was built around 1400 BCE and was known in ancient Egyptian times as the southern sanctuary.

Day six moves to the west bank and the Valley of the Kings. Admission includes access to three of the tombs, but Tutankhamun’s tomb requires a separate ticket. The ticket arrangement matters because many people arrive expecting the famous tomb to be part of the standard entry.

The Valley contains 63 known tombs, though the condition and access of individual tombs vary. The painted walls are vulnerable to humidity, carbon dioxide, friction, and other effects of heavy visitation. Follow the site rules and do not use flash photography where it is prohibited.

The Temple of Hatshepsut is also included. Its broad terraces and cliff setting make it one of Luxor’s most memorable monuments, while its story adds a strong political angle. Hatshepsut ruled as king and commissioned the temple as a funerary monument. The Colossi of Memnon provide a shorter stop at two huge statues of Amenhotep III.

One odd detail in the schedule is that the Temple of Hatshepsut is listed with only one minute. Treat that as a timing error rather than a meaningful visit length, and confirm the actual program with the operator. The temple deserves more than a quick roadside glance.

Days 7 and 8: Cruising to Aswan and reaching Abu Simbel

The four-night deluxe Nile cruise is the central feature of the trip. It gives you a hotel that moves between major sites, with full-board service described as buffet lunch and dinner each day on the boat. Breakfast is included throughout the tour, and drinks are not included, so budget separately for beverages.

Day seven includes Kom Ombo and Edfu. Kom Ombo is unusual because it is a double temple. One section honored Sobek, the crocodile god, while the other was linked to other deities including Horus. The divided layout makes the temple easy to understand, even for visitors who are new to Egyptian religion.

The visit is scheduled for about two hours. Edfu follows with three hours at the Temple of Horus. Built during the Ptolemaic period, it is one of Egypt’s best-preserved ancient monuments, partly because desert sand covered it after the old pagan cult ended.

Edfu’s intact roof and strong reliefs make it especially atmospheric. I find it one of the most satisfying temple stops on the route because you can read the structure as a complete building rather than a partial ruin.

Day eight begins with Abu Simbel, reached from Aswan. The two rock temples stand near Lake Nasser, about 230 kilometers southwest of Aswan and close to the Sudanese border. Their scale and setting make this one of the trip’s major highlights.

The temples were cut into the rock for Ramses II and are among Egypt’s most recognizable monuments. You have about three hours at the complex, enough to appreciate the facades, interior chambers, and location without rushing through in a few minutes.

The same day includes Philae Temple, also for about three hours. Philae was a major center for the worship of Isis and remained important through the pharaonic, Greek, Roman, and Byzantine periods. Its monuments were moved block by block from Philae Island to Agilika Island during a UNESCO rescue project after the original site was threatened by rising water.

That relocation is not a minor footnote. It explains why Philae feels both ancient and carefully preserved. A boat transfer is implied by the island setting, but the package details do not specify whether that boat cost is separate, so ask before departure.

Day 9: Returning to Cairo after the cruise

After breakfast, you check out of the cruise and fly back to Cairo. A private transfer takes you to the hotel, leaving time to rest.

This is a practical buffer between Upper Egypt and the Alexandria excursion. Do not count it as a major sightseeing day. Its real value is giving you a hotel room and a pause after several days of temples, tombs, and cruise schedules.

Day 10: Alexandria’s Greek, Roman, and medieval remains

The final touring day heads to Alexandria. The city adds a different layer to Egypt, with monuments connected to Greek, Roman, Christian, and Islamic periods.

At the Catacombs of Kom El Shoqafa, you see an underground funerary complex regarded as one of the Seven Wonders of the Middle Ages. The visit lasts about an hour and provides a striking contrast to the open-air temples farther south.

Pompey’s Pillar follows. Despite its name, the column is a Roman monument at the Serapeum of Alexandria, and it is the largest of its type outside Rome and Constantinople. The stop also lasts about an hour.

The Ancient Roman Amphitheater is another one-hour visit. Much of the structure is ruined, but the galleries and surviving remains help show how Roman public entertainment worked in Egypt.

Qaitbay Fortress completes the city’s major sights. Built in the 14th century by Sultan Qaitbay to defend Alexandria from Ottoman advances, it occupies a narrow arm of land reaching into the harbor. Its position gives the visit a strong sense of place, even though the fortress did not prevent the Ottoman takeover in 1512.

Alexandria is one of the tour’s best additions because it breaks up the usual Cairo and Nile route. The limitation is time. Three one-hour archaeological stops plus the fortress give you an introduction, not a full look at the city.

What the $2,793 price includes

The price is easiest to judge as a bundle. You receive:

• Six nights at a five-star Cairo hotel
• Four nights on a deluxe Nile cruise
• Breakfast each day
• Cruise lunches and dinners
• Four additional listed dinners
• Eight listed lunches
• Admissions to the scheduled sites
• An Egyptologist guide
• Private vehicles and round-trip private transfers
• Hotel and port drop-off
• Airport assistance
• A private tour for your group

For a first visit, that removes many of the hardest pieces to arrange. You are not merely buying entrance tickets. You are paying for transfers between cities, cruise coordination, guides, hotel nights, and assistance when you arrive.

The package is less attractive if you prefer to travel slowly, choose your own restaurants, or spend long hours at one museum. Drinks are excluded, and the exact flight inclusions should be confirmed. Ask about cabin location too. One complaint involved a cabin near the ship’s engine, so request a quieter room away from the motor if that matters to you.

Who should book this Egypt tour?

I would recommend it to a first-time visitor who wants the main monuments without handling every transfer alone. Families can also benefit from the private format, though children must be accompanied by an adult and the schedule is demanding.

It suits people who value guidance and structure. The best parts of Egypt can be difficult to interpret without context, and the Egyptologist is present at the main sites. At the same time, guide quality can shape the experience, so ask in advance who will lead your group and what language support is available.

I would be more cautious if you want a slow, independent trip. The route is packed, several visits last only about an hour, and the Cairo to Luxor, Aswan to Cairo, and Alexandria movements leave little room for spontaneous stops.

The overall rating is 4.1 from seven published ratings, with especially strong praise for communication, airport help, organization, and staff support. There are also complaints about a noisy cruise cabin and guides who seemed less motivated. Those mixed points are useful: the operator appears strong at logistics, but you should confirm cabin placement and guide arrangements rather than assume every element will be equally polished.

Should you book it?

Book this tour if you want Egypt’s headline sights, a Nile cruise, Abu Simbel, and Alexandria in one carefully organized trip. The private format, included transport, and airport assistance are worth real money, especially on a first visit.

Skip it if you need unscheduled afternoons or dislike early starts and frequent changes. Before booking, confirm the domestic and international flight details, ask for a cabin away from the engine, and check which drinks, boat transfers, and optional tickets cost extra. With those points settled, $2,793 can offer solid value for a very full first look at Egypt.

FAQ

How long is the Egypt tour?

The tour lasts approximately 11 days and includes 10 nights of accommodation.

Which cities are included?

The route includes Cairo, Luxor, Aswan, and Alexandria, with Abu Simbel visited from the Aswan area.

How many nights are spent on the Nile cruise?

You spend four nights on a deluxe Nile cruise.

Are meals included?

Breakfast is included each day. The cruise includes buffet lunch and dinner, and the package also lists eight lunches and four dinners. Drinks are not included.

Is this a private tour?

Yes. Only your group participates, and private vehicles and round-trip private transfers are included.

Is an Egyptologist guide included?

Yes. A qualified Egyptologist guide accompanies the scheduled sightseeing portions of the tour.

Is admission to the main attractions included?

Yes. Admission is included for the listed visits, including Giza, the Egyptian Museum, Karnak, the Valley of the Kings, Abu Simbel, Philae, and the Alexandria sites. Tutankhamun’s tomb is specifically excluded from the standard Valley of the Kings ticket.