8-Day Luxury Cairo and Dahabiya Nile Cruise Tour

Your flight lands in Cairo, where an Aten Tours representative meets you at the airport and handles the arrival formalities so you're not navigating them alone.

From there, your private guide and driver take you by air-conditioned vehicle to a 5-star hotel in Cairo.

Check-in is quick and arranged in advance, so you can rest after the flight or start settling in before tomorrow's sightseeing.

The rest of the evening is free, with dinner on your own at the hotel or nearby. Overnight in Cairo.

After breakfast, your private guide and driver take you to the Giza Pyramids Complex, built around 2600 BC and home to the Great Pyramid of Khufu, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World and the only one still standing.

Nearby, the Great Sphinx sits carved from a single limestone outcrop, its face linked to Pharaoh Khafre.

From here, you head to the Grand Egyptian Museum, where more than 5,000 artifacts from Tutankhamun's tomb are on permanent display, along with the 11-meter colossus of Ramses II. Lunch is at a local restaurant between stops.

If you'd rather spend an extra hour at the museum and less at the Sphinx, just tell your guide, the day bends around what your group wants to see. Return to your hotel in Cairo for the evening. Overnight in Cairo.

After breakfast, check out and fly from Cairo to Luxor, where your Egyptologist guide is waiting to begin the East Bank leg of the tour.

The first stop is Karnak Temple, a 247-acre complex built up over nearly two thousand years and dedicated to the Theban triad of Amun, Mut, and Khonsu, with a hypostyle hall of 134 massive columns.

From there, you board your Dahabiya and settle into your cabin over lunch. The afternoon is free to relax on deck before an evening visit to Luxor Temple, connected to Karnak by the restored Avenue of Sphinxes. Dinner and overnight aboard the Dahabiya.

Breakfast on board, then your guide and private vehicle take you to the West Bank. The Valley of the Kings holds 63 known tombs cut into the hillside, including those of Tutankhamun, Seti I, and Ramses II, with painted burial chambers from the New Kingdom.

From there, Hatshepsut Temple rises in three terraced levels against the cliffs at Deir el-Bahari, built for one of the few women to rule Egypt as pharaoh.

On the way back, you stop at the Colossi of Memnon, two 18-meter seated statues of Amenhotep III that once guarded his mortuary temple. Return to the Dahabiya for lunch, then the boat sails south toward Esna and Edfu. Dinner and overnight aboard the Dahabiya.

Breakfast on board, then a short horse-carriage ride takes you into Edfu to visit the Temple of Edfu, built between 237 and 57 BC and one of the best-preserved temples in Egypt, dedicated to the falcon god Horus.

Back on the Dahabiya, lunch is served as the boat sets off toward Kom Ombo. This unusual double temple, built between 180 and 47 BC, is split into matching halves for the crocodile god Sobek and the falcon god Haroeris, with carved medical instruments still visible on the temple walls.

Your guide walks you through both sides before you return to the boat for the overnight sail toward Aswan. Dinner and overnight aboard the Dahabiya.

Breakfast on board as the Dahabiya arrives in Aswan, then your private guide takes you to see the Aswan High Dam, completed in 1970 to control Nile flooding and generate electricity, holding back the waters of Lake Nasser.

From there, a short boat ride crosses to Philae Temple, relocated stone by stone to Agilkia Island after the dam's construction, dedicated to Isis and among the best-preserved temples from the Ptolemaic period.

Your guide explains the relocation project alongside the temple's mythology, so you leave with the engineering story as well as the ancient one. Return to the Dahabiya for lunch and an afternoon at leisure. Dinner and overnight aboard the Dahabiya.

Breakfast boxes are provided for an early start, then your private guide and vehicle take you to Abu Simbel Temples, built by Ramses II and completed around 1264 BC to mark his victory at the Battle of Kadesh and the peace treaty that followed, the first recorded in history.

The two temples, dedicated to Ramses himself and to his queen Nefertari, were relocated in the 1960s to save them from the rising waters of Lake Nasser, along with Philae.

Back in Aswan, lunch is at a local restaurant before your flight to Cairo. On arrival, you're transferred to a 5-star hotel for the night. Overnight in Cairo.

After breakfast, check out of your hotel, then your private driver takes you to Cairo International Airport in time for your international flight home. This is the final day of your 8-day luxury Cairo and Dahabiya Nile cruise tour.