Essences of Egypt with Oases & the White Desert

Welcome to Cairo. Our team meets you inside the terminal, assists with the visa and baggage, and takes you to your hotel. The rest of the day is yours: rest after the flight or take a first walk through a city of more than twenty million people.

Leave the city behind on the road west into the Western Desert, about four and a half hours to Bahariya. After lunch, a dip in a natural hot spring among the palm groves. Dinner and night in the oasis.

Switch to 4x4 vehicles with a local Bedouin guide. Cross the Black Desert, dotted with volcanic hills, stop at Crystal Mountain and drive down into the Agabat valley. In the late afternoon you reach the White Desert, where chalk formations shaped like mushrooms and birds turn pink and orange at sunset. Dinner around the fire and a night at camp under the stars.

Wake up early to watch the sun rise over the white rocks; few places in Egypt are this silent. After breakfast at camp, drive back through Bahariya to Cairo. Check-in at your hotel.

The day you have been waiting for. Your guide takes you to the plateau of Giza to see the pyramids of Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure up close, then to the panoramic viewpoint where all three line up against the desert. Finish at the Great Sphinx and the Valley Temple of Khafre. Afternoon free.

Optional: entry inside a pyramid (extra ticket) or an afternoon at Saqqara and Memphis.

Morning flight from Cairo to Luxor and embarkation on your Nile ship. Afternoon visit to Karnak and the Temple of Luxor. Dinner and overnight on board.

Crossing to the West Bank, the city of the dead. You visit three tombs in the Valley of the Kings, the temple of Queen Hatshepsut and the Colossi of Memnon. Back on board, the ship passes through the Esna lock and sails on to Edfu.

Optional: sunrise balloon flight over the Theban necropolis.

A horse-drawn carriage takes you to the Temple of Horus at Edfu, the most complete temple in Egypt, with its roof and pylon still standing. Lunch while sailing past palm groves and mud-brick villages, then a sunset visit to Kom Ombo, the double temple of Sobek and Haroeris, and its small museum of mummified crocodiles. The ship continues to Aswan.

Morning visit to the High Dam, which created Lake Nasser, and the Unfinished Obelisk still lying in its granite quarry. A motorboat then takes you to the island temple of Philae, dedicated to Isis and moved stone by stone to save it from the rising waters. The afternoon is free; we recommend a felucca sail around Elephantine Island and the Aga Khan Mausoleum.

Breakfast on board and disembarkation in Aswan. Transfer to the airport for your flight home, connecting in Cairo.