9 Nights - Ultimate Luxury Egypt Cruise & Tour

Day 1

November 30, 2025

Welcome to Cairo

Dinner at the hotel. Meals D

Upon international arrival, you’ll be met by our lovely Cairo-based staff inside Passport Control who will assist you with all the immigration formalities– from obtaining your included visa on arrival through baggage claim and customs. You’ll be transferred from the airport for check-in to the 5-star Le Meridien Airport Hotel across from the International Terminal. Settle into your comfortable Le Meridien guestroom and enjoy the rest of this arrival day at leisure.

Day 2

December 1, 2025

Luxor and SOLEIL Nile Cruise

Meals B+L+D

Fly to Luxor from Cairo & welcome aboard the luxurious SOLEIL CLICK HERE for BROCHURE
After an early breakfast at the Le Meridien, you’ll be taken to the airport for your flight to Luxor where you’ll board the luxurious and intimate, super luxurious NEW SOLEIL, docked privately away from other ships. Settle into your spacious and stylish luxury stateroom and then join your fellow passengers for lunch in the ship’s inviting restaurant.
In mid-afternoon, you’ll go ashore to visit two of Egypt’s celebrated sites of antiquity, beginning with the great Karnak Temple. With our skilled Egyptologist leading the way, you’ll stand before its massive pillars and admire the grand Hypostyle Hall; encompassing more than 50,000 square feet, this is the largest hall of any temple in the world. Your sightseeing continues at the nearby Luxor Temple, built in the 14th century BC and connected to the Karnak complex by the awe-inspiring, newly restored Avenue of Sphinxes. The temple walls of Luxor are embellished with skillful carvings of the Gods of Karnak accompanied by a festival procession of priests, musicians, dancers and sacred cows. With keen insight from our Egyptologist, today’s sightseeing offers a fascinating look into the culture and beliefs of ancient Egypt. Return to the ship for Tea in the Lounge, with time to refresh before this evening’s welcome cocktail reception and a la carte dinner.

Day 3

December 2, 2025

The West Bank of the Nile + Valley of Kings

Meals B+L+D

The SOLEIL enjoys privileged private docking facilities along the Nile, allowing you to step off efficiently and easily - going ashore apart from the cluster of other ships and their passengers.

Focusing on the amazing sites of the West Bank, you’ll begin your exploration early this morning in the fabled Valley of Kings. Here, the pharaohs of the 18th Dynasty abandoned the pyramid tradition of Dahshur and Giza in favor of tombs built deep in the mountainside. Each pharaoh also constructed a mortuary temple at the edge of the valley; some distance away from the actual tombs. Sixty-four ancient Egyptian rulers are buried here, but only a handful of the temples remain, including Madinat Habu - the tomb of Ramses III with its impressive exterior walls. The fabled final resting place of King Tutankhamen and the fabulously decorated tomb of Ramses VI are also among the highlights awaiting our exploration here in the Valley.

Also fascinating, we’ll visit the ancient Egyptian village of Deir el-Medina. More than 3,000 years ago during the New Kingdom period, this community was home to the thousands of artisans and laborers who constructed the tombs and temples in the Valley of Kings. In addition to this unusual archaeological site, your morning sightseeing also includes the Colossi of Memnon, two towering statues of Amenhotep III that stand like guards along the road to the Valley of Kings.

Return to the ship at midday and enjoy lunch onboard as our luxury vessel continues its journey toward Esna. This afternoon, you might wish to be on deck as the Darkum traverses through the Esna Locks. Afternoon tea and passing vistas of the Nile Valley landscapes with their small village hamlets and timeless scenes of life highlight the afternoon. Dinner will be served this evening as we continue navigating up the Nile toward Edfu.

Day 4

December 3, 2025

Edfu + Kom Ombo

Meals B+L+D

After breakfast and a leisurely morning onboard, you’ll join our engaging Egyptologists ashore in Edfu to explore the Temple of Horus, considered by many scholars to be the best-preserved cult temple in all of Egypt. Built in the Ptolemaic era between 237 and 57 BCE, later than many of the other sites along the Nile, it is still a stunning example of traditional Pharaonic architecture and ranks as the second largest temple in Egypt – after the great Karnak Temple. Rich in design, intricate in detail and ingenious in its massive construction, the extraordinary quality of every element here attests to the paramount importance of the falcon-headed Horus.

Return to the ship and enjoy lunch onboard as we chart a course for Kom Ombo. Throughout this pleasant afternoon of cruising the Nile, you can retreat to your stateroom or delight in the passing scenery as you enjoy the convivial company of your fellow passengers, either in the air-conditioned lounge or on deck. Following afternoon tea, you’ll step off at our ship’s private pier to explore the Temple of Kom Ombo. Built on a picturesque bend in the Nile, where crocodiles used to sun themselves, this unusual dual-deity temple of the Ptolemaic Period is dedicated to both Haroeris (one of the oldest forms of the falcon-headed God Horus) and, appropriately enough, the fearsome Crocodile God Sobek. Return to ship with time to refresh before dinner.

Day 5

December 4, 2025

Aswan

Meals B+L+D

In the afternoon after lunch, the remarkable High Dam at Aswan is an achievement that belongs to modern Egypt. With enriching insight and narration, you’ll explore this engineering marvel; completed in 1970 at a cost of about $1 billion, it spans more than 2 miles and towers 300 feet. This excursion also includes a visit by boat to the Temple of Philae, rescued from the rising waters of Lake Nasser after the completion of the High Dam. Now situated on a lovely island, the earliest elements of this impressive complex include a small temple built around 370 BCE and dedicated to the Goddess Isis.

We’ll board another comfortable motorboat for a brief but scenic journey to visit the Nubian Museum. Designed by the award-winning Egyptian architect Mahmoud al-Hakim, the building reflects traditional elements of Nubian architecture; inside, its carefully curated exhibits include temple, tomb and dwelling artifacts from the ancient Nubian civilization that thrived here along Nile River as far back as 2000 BCE.

Following our exploration, we’ll return to our Nile cruiser for a delightful dinner.

Day 6

December 5, 2025

Fly Aswan to Cairo

Meals B+L+D

Transfer to Giza and the luxurious NEW Hyatt Regency West Hotel just 7 kilometers from the Great Pyramids and the New Grand Egyptian Museum with dinner and overnight at the hotel.

Day 7

December 6, 2025

Early Pyramids + Mummies + Museums.

Meals B+L+D

After an extensive buffet breakfast at the St. Regis, meet your TOP Egyptologist guide in the lobby at 8am to head to Dahshur, south of Cairo, to explore the two pyramids, the ’bent’ pyramid and the ‘red pyramid,’ that served as architectural and engineering models for the Grand Pyramids of Giza that you’ll see tomorrow. At nearby Sakkara, you’ll see the world’s oldest standing stone structure, the impressive Step Pyramid of King Zoser. You’ll also be among the few to admire the vibrant drawings and inscriptions in the 4,000-year-old Tomb of Mehu – opened recently for specially arranged visitors for the first time in many decades.

The ancient world comes to life today as you explore with our expert Egyptologist, setting out from the Hyatt Regency this morning for Giza and the Great Pyramids. Behold these spectacular structures from the Wonders of the Ancient World in a variety of ways and thrill to the watchful gaze of the Sphinx.

Enjoy lunch before a 3-hour tour through the new Grand Egyptian Museum. With our Egyptologist as a private guide, we’ll enter the expansive galleries of the Grand Egyptian Museum, the largest archeological museum in the world. For the first time, the artifacts of Ancient Egypt’s four main Periods are on display at the same time in this colossal edifice.

You will return to the hotel with time to refresh before dinner.

Day 8

December 7, 2025

Extraordinary Sites of Antiquity

Meals B+L+D

The ancient world comes to life today as you explore with our expert Egyptologist, setting out from the Hyatt Regency this morning for a visit to Cairo’s newest city-center showplace, a newly designed underground repository of the mummies and sarcophagi of the twenty greatest pharaohs during the golden age of Egyptian antiquity, including Ramses II and Queen Hatshepsut. Underground like the tombs you’ll soon see in the Valley of the Kings, each mummy is dramatically lit and displayed in its own room with a description of major events during their reigns. It’s very impressive.
Following a lovely Egyptian lunch, we’ll proceed to Old Cairo and the monumental Rafai Mosque near the towering Citadel. Purpose built as a magnificent mosque and a mausoleum for Egyptian royalty, we’ll visit the tomb chambers of the last Egyptian monarch, King Farouk, and the last Shah of Iran who could not be returned to his home country following expulsion during the Revolution.

Day 9

December 8, 2025

Your Tour Ends

Meals B

Today the tour ends after breakfast, and you will be transferred to the Cairo International airport for your flight back to the USA.