Best Luxury Egypt Tours: 15-Day Nile Cruise & Siwa Oasis

Welcome to Egypt. You are met on arrival and driven privately to the Kempinski Nile Hotel, the five-star riverside hotel in Garden City, on the banks of the Nile. Rest through the afternoon, then meet your Egyptologist and fellow travellers over a welcome dinner, as your guide introduces a journey that will take you from the Pyramids to the desert and the Nile.

Begin at Saqqara with the Step Pyramid of Djoser, the pyramid of Unas with its carved hieroglyphs, the decorated mastaba of Kagemni and the Imhotep Museum. After lunch, return to Giza. Dinner is served at the Kempinski Nile Hotel after a full and memorable day among the first great monuments of stone.

Spend a full day at the Grand Egyptian Museum, the largest museum in the world devoted to a single civilisation. Climb the Grand Staircase lined with royal statues and explore the Tutankhamun galleries, where more than five thousand objects are displayed together for the first time. Finish with the 4,500-year-old Khufu Solar Boat. Lunch is served at the museum, with an evening free.

Drive north to Alexandria, the city of Alexander the Great and Cleopatra. Visit the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, the Catacombs of Kom el-Shoqafa and the Citadel of Qaitbay, built on the site of the ancient Lighthouse, with a seafood lunch overlooking the harbour. Continue west past El Alamein to Marsa Matrouh and its white beaches for the night at Jaz Almaza Beach Resort.

Leave the coast and head south across the Western Desert, a drive of about four hours through open sand and rock. Arrive in Siwa, an oasis of date palms, olive groves and salt lakes close to the Libyan border, where Berber culture still survives. Watch the sunset turn the palm groves gold from Taziri Ecolodge, built of salt rock and palm wood, followed by dinner in the oasis.

Visit the Temple of the Oracle of Amun, where Alexander the Great came to be declared son of the god, and the mud-brick ruins of Shali Fortress. See the tombs cut into the Mountain of the Dead. In the afternoon, a 4x4 drive takes you deep into the dunes of the Great Sand Sea to Bir Wahed, a hot spring among the sand, for a swim and a desert sunset.

A slower day in the oasis. Visit Fatnas Island, ringed by palms on the edge of a salt lake, and the Siwa House Museum, which shows traditional oasis life, crafts and jewellery. In the afternoon, float in the turquoise salt pools of Zeitoun, as buoyant as the Dead Sea, then enjoy a final dinner in Siwa beneath a sky full of desert stars.

A long but scenic day of travel back to Cairo, crossing the desert to the coast and following the road east towards the capital, in a private vehicle with comfortable stops and lunch along the way. Arrive in the evening at the Waldorf Astoria Cairo Heliopolis for a quiet night, before flying south the next morning to the river and the temples of Luxor.

Fly to Luxor and board MS Le Fayan in time for lunch. In the afternoon, explore Karnak, the largest temple complex ever built, with the Great Hypostyle Hall and its 134 columns, then walk the Avenue of Sphinxes to Luxor Temple as the light softens over the river. Return to the ship for dinner and your first night on the Nile, with your Egyptologist on board throughout.

Cross to the West Bank for the Valley of the Kings, entering royal tombs with your guide, their walls painted with scenes of the journey through the afterlife. Visit the Colossi of Memnon and the Temple of Hatshepsut against the cliffs of Deir el-Bahari. Back on board for lunch as the ship sails south through the Esna Lock, with afternoon tea on the sun deck and dinner as you moor at Edfu.

Ride by horse-drawn carriage to the Temple of Horus at Edfu, the best preserved temple in Egypt. Sail on to Kom Ombo for its double temple shared by Sobek and Haroeris, and the Crocodile Museum beside it. Spend the afternoon on the sun deck as the ship continues towards Aswan, then dress in a traditional galabeya for a festive dinner with Egyptian music on board.

Set off early for Abu Simbel, where Ramses II carved his great temple, and a smaller one for Queen Nefertari, into the mountainside, moved block by block in the 1960s to escape Lake Nasser. Return to Aswan for lunch on board. In the afternoon, a motorboat carries you through the granite islands of the First Cataract to a Nubian village, where a local family welcomes you for tea.

Leave the ship after breakfast and visit the Unfinished Obelisk, still lying in its granite quarry. Take a short boat ride to the island Temple of Philae, dedicated to Isis and rebuilt stone by stone on Agilkia Island. In the afternoon, fly to Cairo and return to the Waldorf Astoria Cairo Heliopolis, where your group gathers for a farewell dinner.

Spend a last full day in Cairo. Visit the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square, home to the great royal statues of the Old Kingdom, then the Citadel of Saladin and its Alabaster Mosque above the old city. Lunch at the Naguib Mahfouz Cafe, named after Egypt's Nobel Prize winning novelist, then wander the lanes of Khan el-Khalili, the bazaar of lanterns, spices and silver.

A private breakfast by the Nile closes one of the best luxury Egypt tours in our collection. Take your time over a final coffee overlooking the river, or a last walk along the Corniche if your flight leaves later in the day. A private transfer takes you to Cairo International Airport, where our team assists you through check-in. We hope to welcome you back to Egypt soon.