10-Day Egypt Tour: Cairo, Luxor, Aswan and Abu Simbel

This is the right trip for you if you want the whole of ancient Egypt in one pass and you would rather not repack every night. Ten days, nine nights, one plan: Cairo, a four-night Nile cruise, Aswan, Abu Simbel.

Most first-time visitors from the United States try to solve Egypt as a puzzle of connections: Cairo to Luxor, Luxor to Aswan, Aswan to Abu Simbel and back, each leg separated by long desert road or a domestic flight nobody explains. This itinerary already solves it. You fly Cairo to Luxor, sail the stretch between Luxor and Aswan instead of driving it, reach Abu Simbel by road the way local operators do, and fly back to Cairo for a last day at Saqqara. Sixteen sites and temples, and no morning wondering how you get to the next one.

It suits travelers who have one long-haul trip in them this year and want it to count: couples, parents with grown children, retirees who want a real Egyptologist rather than a recording, and solo travelers who would rather not negotiate Egyptian domestic logistics alone. It is private, with no fixed departure date. You pick the dates and we build the ten days around them.

Trip at a glance

Ten days and nine nights: four in Cairo, four aboard a Nile cruise boat, one in a hotel in Aswan. The route runs Cairo, Luxor, Edfu, Kom Ombo, Aswan, Abu Simbel and back: the full north-to-south arc of ancient Egypt, not a Cairo trip with a temple bolted on.

• Duration: 10 days, 9 nights
• Route: Cairo, Luxor, Edfu, Kom Ombo, Aswan, Abu Simbel, Cairo
• Nights: 4 in Cairo, 4 on the Nile cruise, 1 in Aswan
• Sites and temples: 16, entries already paid
• Style: private, no fixed group departure
• Guide: a licensed Egyptologist, working in English, on every visit
• Domestic flights: Cairo to Luxor and Aswan to Cairo, included
• International flights: not included and not sold by us

Three things separate it from the standard ten-day product. The cruise runs four nights rather than three, which buys an unhurried Valley of the Kings morning. Abu Simbel gets its own day with a hotel night in Aswan afterward, not a six-hour round trip stacked on top of a flight. And we publish what every monument gate costs, further down this page.

One planning note that matters more for Americans than anyone else: nothing is scheduled on day 1. Nonstop New York to Cairo is a little over ten hours, Cairo sits seven hours ahead of US Eastern, and arrival day is deliberately empty so Giza is not spent half-asleep.

What is included and what is not

Included

Transfers and transport

• Meet and greet at Cairo International Airport, before the immigration line
• Every transfer on the trip, private, in an air-conditioned vehicle
• Domestic flight Cairo to Luxor
• Domestic flight Aswan to Cairo
• Road transfer Aswan to Abu Simbel and back
• Motorboat across to the island for the Temple of Philae
• Horse carriage from the mooring to the Temple of Horus at Edfu
• You can swap a domestic flight for a road sector, agreed when we build the program

Accommodation

• 4 nights in a Cairo hotel
• 4 nights aboard a Nile cruise boat, Luxor to Aswan
• 1 night in a hotel in Aswan

Meals

• Breakfast every morning in the hotels
• Full board on the cruise: breakfast, lunch and dinner, all four days

Guiding

• A licensed Egyptologist with you on every visit, from Giza to Abu Simbel
• Guiding in English throughout, in person. Not an audio device, not a translated group

Monument entries, one line per gate, already paid

• Giza plateau: the pyramids of Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure, the Great Sphinx and the Valley Temple
• The Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square
• The Grand Egyptian Museum
• The Karnak temple complex
• Luxor Temple
• The Valley of the Kings, three tombs
• The temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el Bahari
• The Temple of Horus at Edfu
• The Temple of Kom Ombo
• The Temple of Philae at Aswan
• The temples of Abu Simbel
• The necropolis of Saqqara
• The Citadel of Saladin and the Mosque of Muhammad Ali
• The Aswan High Dam
• The Colossi of Memnon, free to enter
• Khan El Khalili bazaar, free to enter

Extras

• Help with airport formalities on arrival and departure
• A WhatsApp line answered from Egypt, on Egyptian time, throughout the trip

Not included

• Your international flights to and from Cairo. We do not sell, book, quote or coordinate the international flight. You buy it yourself and send us the times so we can build the transfers around it.
• The Egypt entry visa. 30 USD single entry, 65 USD multiple entry, applied for at the government portal visa2egypt.gov.eg before you fly, or bought at Cairo airport on arrival.
• The interior of the Great Pyramid of Khufu. 1,500 EGP per person, roughly US$30, paid at the ticket office on the day. The plateau itself, Sphinx included, is already covered.
• Tips for your guide, your drivers and the cruise crew.
• Drinks at the hotels and on the cruise, including bottled water from the boat bar.
• Optional excursions such as the Nubian village visit, a felucca hour, a camel ride at Giza or a sound and light show. Extra cost, priced when you ask.
• Travel insurance. We do not sell it and it is not in the price. See the insurance question below: for a US traveler this is the line that can cost real money.
• Personal spending: laundry, souvenirs, phone data, anything at the bar.

If something is not on either list, it is included. There is no third list and no charge added when you arrive.

Day by day

Day 1: Arrive in Cairo

Our representative meets you inside the terminal at Cairo airport, before immigration, holding your name, and handles the entry formalities and the visa desk if you skipped the e-Visa. Then a private transfer to your hotel. Nothing is scheduled after that, on purpose: you have crossed at least seven time zones, and sleep beats a first evening out.
Meals: none scheduled. Night: hotel in Cairo.

Day 2: The Giza pyramids and the Sphinx

Onto the plateau in the morning, while the light is low and the heat has not arrived. Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure at close range, the Great Sphinx, and the Valley Temple where pharaohs were prepared for burial. There is a panoramic stop for the classic three-pyramid photograph, an optional camel ride, and a guide who keeps answering as long as you keep asking.
Meals: breakfast. Night: hotel in Cairo.

Day 3: Old Cairo and the two museums

Museums and alleyways. First the Grand Egyptian Museum, where the colossal statue of Ramesses II stands in the atrium, then the Egyptian Museum on Tahrir Square, which holds much of the Tutankhamun material. In the afternoon the Citadel of Saladin and the Mosque of Muhammad Ali, then Khan El Khalili, where nobody expects you to pay the first number you hear.
Meals: breakfast. Night: hotel in Cairo.

Day 4: Fly to Luxor and board the cruise

A short domestic flight to Luxor, then straight to the boat that is your hotel for the next four nights. The afternoon belongs to the east bank: Luxor Temple, then Karnak, both dedicated to Amun-Ra, with the avenue of sphinxes and the hypostyle hall of 134 columns. If the river is the part you want, we sell it alone as a five-day Nile cruise from Luxor to Aswan, which excludes internal flights.
Meals: breakfast at the hotel, lunch and dinner on board. Night: Nile cruise.

Day 5: The Theban necropolis, west bank

An early start that earns itself. The Valley of the Kings holds the painted tombs of the New Kingdom pharaohs, and the color on those walls does not look three thousand years old; your ticket covers three tombs. Then the terraced temple of Queen Hatshepsut against the cliff at Deir el Bahari, and the Colossi of Memnon. The boat then casts off for Edfu.
Meals: breakfast, lunch and dinner on board. Night: Nile cruise.

Day 6: Edfu and Kom Ombo

At Edfu, the Temple of Horus, the best preserved in Egypt and the only major one that still has its original roof. You arrive by horse carriage from the mooring, which is the local way and slightly ridiculous in the best sense. In the afternoon the boat stops at Kom Ombo, a double temple built in perfect symmetry for Sobek the crocodile and Haroeris. Then night sailing toward Aswan.
Meals: breakfast, lunch and dinner on board. Night: Nile cruise.

Day 7: Aswan, the High Dam and Philae

Aswan is the gentler Egypt, the Nubian one. You visit the High Dam, which ended the Nile floods and created Lake Nasser, then take a motorboat to the island where the Temple of Philae, dedicated to Isis, was cut apart and rebuilt block by block to escape the rising water. The afternoon is free for a felucca hour or an optional Nubian village visit.
Meals: breakfast, lunch and dinner on board. Night: Nile cruise.

Day 8: Abu Simbel by road

A very early departure, around 4 a.m., because it is roughly three hours by road toward the Sudanese border and you want the temples before the heat turns serious. Breakfast is arranged around the early start. Ramesses II cut two temples into the rock here, his own and one for Queen Nefertari, and the four seated colossi stand about sixty-five feet high. Back in Aswan by midday.
Meals: breakfast. Night: hotel in Aswan.

Day 9: Back to Cairo and Saqqara

A domestic flight north to Cairo and one last history lesson at Saqqara, where the Step Pyramid of Djoser began the pyramid age about 4,700 years ago. Doing it at the end is deliberate: after a week of polished monuments you see Saqqara for what it is, the first attempt.
Meals: breakfast. Night: hotel in Cairo.

Day 10: Breakfast and departure

Breakfast at the hotel and a private transfer to Cairo International Airport with time to spare for your flight home. If your departure is late, tell us and we will put something short in front of it rather than leave you in a lobby.
Meals: breakfast. Night: none, the trip ends.

What the entrance tickets are worth

These are the 2026 published gate fees, per person, from the official Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities ticketing platform. They are already paid inside your price, so you hand over nothing at the gate.

Gate	Fee (EGP)	Approx. USD
Giza plateau: pyramids and the Sphinx	700 EGP	US$14
Egyptian Museum, Tahrir Square	550 EGP	US$11
Karnak temple complex	600 EGP	US$12
Luxor Temple	500 EGP	US$10
Valley of the Kings, three tombs	750 EGP	US$15
Temple of Hatshepsut	440 EGP	US$9
Temple of Horus, Edfu	550 EGP	US$11
Temple of Kom Ombo	450 EGP	US$9
Temple of Philae	550 EGP	US$11
Abu Simbel temples	822 EGP	US$17
Saqqara necropolis	600 EGP	US$12
Total already paid for you	6,512 EGP	US$131

The Egyptian pound column is the real figure; the dollar column is an approximation at 1 USD = 49.79 EGP and it drifts, so treat it as a guide rather than a quote. Ministry fees are reviewed periodically and can change. The Grand Egyptian Museum, the Citadel of Saladin and the Aswan High Dam are also included, but their gate fees are not printed here because we publish only figures we have verified officially.

One entry sits deliberately outside the table. Going inside the Great Pyramid of Khufu is a separate 1,500 EGP ticket, about US$30, and it is not included. It is a low, hot, steep climb up a cramped passage to an empty granite chamber. Some find it unmissable and some regret it about forty steps in. Decide on the day.

How much this trip costs

From US$1,897 per person, double occupancy. That is the starting point: two people sharing a room, three-star hotels and a three-star cruise boat, with both domestic flights and every monument entry in the itinerary already inside it.

At the other end, the identical ten days with five-star hotels and a five-star cruise boat in high season comes to about US$2,984 per person. Same route, same guide, same tickets. What changes is where you sleep and which month you go.

What moves the number, in the order it usually matters:

• Hotel and boat category. The biggest lever by a distance, and it accounts for most of the spread above.
• Season. October through April is high season, with Christmas and New Year the peak inside the peak. June through August is cheapest and hottest, with southern Egypt regularly above 100F.
• Party size. Guiding and private vehicles are priced per trip rather than per head, so four traveling together pay less each than two.
• Single occupancy. Prices here are per person sharing a double. Solo travel means a single supplement on the room and the cabin, and the amount depends on category and date, so we quote it rather than guess.
• Road instead of air. Swapping a domestic flight for an overland sector is agreed when we build the program and it changes the price.
• Extra nights. A night in Cairo at the front for jet lag, or at the back before a long flight home, is common and inexpensive.

If ten days is more than you have, the seven-day Egypt itinerary and the eight-day version with the Nile cruise cover similar ground at a different depth, while the twelve-day program goes further and slower. Compare them on the Egypt tour packages page, or take Abu Simbel as a standalone day trip if that is the only piece you are missing.

There is no online checkout here and nothing to pay today. Send your dates and we come back with a written quote in dollars for your party and category. Message us on WhatsApp at +20 103 229 5513 or use the enquiry form on this page, and we reply the same day.

Frequently asked questions

Is Egypt safe for American travelers right now?

Check it yourself rather than take our word for it. The State Department keeps a live advisory for Egypt at travel.state.gov, and levels change, so we point you there rather than quote a number that may be stale. Egypt has been at Level 2, exercise increased caution, with a do-not-travel carve-out for the Northern and Middle Sinai. None of our itineraries goes near Sinai. This one runs the Nile corridor, hundreds of miles away.

Do I need a visa, and how much does it actually cost?

30 USD for single entry, 65 USD for multiple entry. Other numbers circulate, including 25 USD, which is out of date, and higher consulate figures, which are a different service with a handling fee. Apply at the government portal visa2egypt.gov.eg before you fly and you land with the approval in your email. If you buy on arrival, bring clean US dollar cash: desks refuse worn, torn or pre-2009 notes.

Do you book my flight from the United States?

No. We do not sell, book, quote or coordinate international flights, and you should be careful with any Egyptian operator that claims otherwise. You buy your own ticket to Cairo and keep your miles, your seat choice and your own change rules. Send us the flight number and times and we build the transfers around them. The flights inside Egypt are ours to arrange and are included.

Are the domestic flights really included, and can I go by road instead?

Both are included: Cairo to Luxor on day 4, Aswan to Cairo on day 9. The alternative is a very long drive or an overnight train at both ends, and those hours come out of the temples. If you would rather do a sector overland, say so and we build it that way. Our standalone cruises, the two-day Luxor tour and the Abu Simbel excursions exclude internal flights entirely.

How rough is the jet lag, and why is nothing scheduled on day 1?

Cairo runs seven hours ahead of US Eastern and ten ahead of Pacific. Nonstop from New York is a little over ten hours; from the West Coast you are usually connecting, which puts door to door past twenty hours. That is why day 1 is empty. Giza on day 2 is a morning on sand and stone in strong light, and two hours of airplane sleep ruins it.

How much should I tip, and in what currency?

You already tip at home, so the question is how often and to whom. The Egyptologist guide is tipped per day, per couple, and is the largest tip of the trip. The driver gets less, at the end of a sector. The cruise normally runs one crew box at the end, and housekeeping is small and daily. Restroom attendants at Karnak expect a small coin, which is the job, not a hustle. Use pounds for the small ones and dollars for the guide.

Can I drink the water, and how do I avoid getting sick?

Do not drink the tap water and do not brush your teeth with it. Sealed bottled water is sold everywhere and costs very little; if you want a cooler kept in the vehicle, tell us when you book. The rest is the usual advice, which works: no ice outside a good hotel, no raw salad, fruit you peel yourself. Carry tissues, because the big sites often have no paper.

What should I wear, especially as a woman?

Lightweight cotton, sunscreen and shoes you can walk on sand and broken stone in. From October to April the evenings turn cool, so bring a light jacket for the cruise deck; in summer the south goes past 100F. At the temples, shoulders and knees covered is the comfortable choice, as much for the sun as for anyone's opinion. For a mosque, women cover hair, shoulders and knees and everyone removes their shoes, so keep a scarf in the day bag. Hair covering is not required anywhere else.

Do I need travel insurance? My US health plan covers me at home.

It almost certainly does not cover you in Egypt. Most US plans, and Medicare in particular, provide little or no coverage abroad, and there is no reciprocal arrangement of the kind European travelers rely on. We do not sell insurance and it is not in your price, so this is not a sales pitch. Look for medical treatment abroad, medical evacuation and trip cancellation. Evacuation is the one people skip and the one that matters.

Should I bring dollars or Egyptian pounds, and will my cards work?

Bring US dollars in cash for the visa and for tipping, and draw pounds from an ATM for daily spending. ATMs are reliable in Cairo, Luxor and Aswan but not at Abu Simbel or on the boat, so take cash out before you go south. Cards work in hotels, better restaurants and larger shops, but not in the bazaar, at a felucca, or for anything sold from a table.

Why book with an Egypt-based operator

We are in Egypt, and that shows up in unglamorous ways. When a domestic flight time moves, the person changing your guide's schedule is in the same country as your guide, on the same clock, not a reseller in another time zone emailing a supplier who emails a driver. When you message the WhatsApp line at 11 p.m. Cairo time, someone who can fix the problem reads it.

It also means we operate this trip rather than resell it. The guide is ours, the vehicle arrangements are ours, the boat relationship is ours. Much of what is sold in the United States as an Egypt tour is a booking passed down a chain, and every link adds margin and subtracts information. That is why we can publish the gate fees above: we buy those tickets.

Some honest limits, since trust is the point of this section. We are an Egyptian company, so we do not hold the UK or US seller-of-travel protection schemes, which exist for sellers established in those countries. That is one more reason to buy your international flight and your insurance yourself. On reviews we claim only what we can show: 12 real reviews left on WhatsApp and Facebook, about the agency and about our Egyptologist Shady Said rather than about this specific itinerary. We attach no star rating to individual trips, and there is no invented testimonial on this site. You can read the real ones in full.

Ready to price it? Send your dates and party size and we come back the same day with a written quote in dollars, with hotel and boat categories named. Use the form on this page, message WhatsApp, or go through our contact page.