11-Day Easter Holiday: Nile Cruise & Red Sea

Our representative greets you once you are through passport control at Cairo Airport, and you are driven to your hotel, roughly an hour. When you have had a chance to freshen up, a private guide and driver collect you for an evening in the city.

The Cairo Tower lift takes you to the top for a view across the lights, and then you stroll into the Khan el-Khalili bazaar and sit down for tea at a traditional cafe. The outing is about four hours. Dinner is not included.

You have two half-day visits with a private Egyptologist, each with hotel pickup and a private air-conditioned car. First comes the Giza plateau, where you see the Great Pyramids, the Sphinx and the Valley Temple, with a coffee or tea stop, over about four hours.

The second visit is the Egyptian Museum, entered without the ticket queue, with Old and Middle Kingdom masterpieces, papyri and animal mummies, again about four hours. The Mummies Room is not on the ticket. Lunch is not arranged, so you can eat in the gap between the two visits.

Your morning is a guided stroll of three to four hours through the medieval city. You walk along Al-Muizz Street, with its mosques and old gateways, and finish in the Khan el-Khalili bazaar. An Egyptologist goes with you, and a private car picks you up and brings you back. The afternoon is yours.

As the light softens you go to the river for a sunset sail in a felucca, the traditional Nile sailing boat, before returning to your hotel.

You are driven from your Cairo hotel to the airport for the flight south to Aswan, at a time set by the airline. A driver meets you in Aswan, and the first of four days of cruise sightseeing begins, with an English-speaking Egyptologist guide, entrance fees and transport all included. You visit Philae Temple, the High Dam and the Unfinished Obelisk before moving into your cabin.

On this first evening you go to the Philae sound and light show, with a motorboat across to Agilkia Island; the ticket is included. Meals on board are full board.

Easter Sunday in the western calendar is today, 28 March 2027, and you celebrate it on the Nile. No Easter service or event is planned in the itinerary, so what you get is the river itself. The ship heads north, and you go ashore at Kom Ombo, a double temple for the crocodile god Sobek and the falcon god Horus, standing above the water on the bank.

Your Egyptologist, the ticket and the transport are included. The afternoon is for the sun deck and the passing palm groves.

The ship continues towards Luxor, and you disembark at Edfu to visit the Temple of Horus, among the best-preserved temples in the country. When you reach Luxor you are taken to Luxor Temple and then to Karnak, the vast temple complex whose features include the Sacred Lake. Your Egyptologist, the tickets and the transport are all included. Tonight is your last aboard.

You leave the ship after breakfast and cross the river to the West Bank with your Egyptologist. The Valley of the Kings comes first, with three tombs on your ticket, followed by Hatshepsut's mortuary temple at Deir el-Bahari and a stop at the Colossi of Memnon. After that a private air-conditioned car takes you from Luxor to El Gouna, a journey of about 5 to 6 hours.

This is a long day, so have water and a snack within reach. You reach your hotel on the Red Sea in the evening.

You are picked up at your El Gouna hotel and driven to a boat that you share with other guests, for a trip of around eight hours altogether. Paradise Island gives you a sunbed and parasol, and a guide leads the group snorkelling, with mask, snorkel and fins supplied. Lunch comes on board with soft drinks and water, and the marine park fees are paid.

You are back at the hotel in the evening, which is welcome after yesterday's drive from Luxor.

A gentler day. A local English-speaking guide and a shared air-conditioned minibus show you Hurghada over about four hours, taking in the marina, a mosque, the old town and a market, with bottled water provided. The rest of the day is free for the hotel, the lagoon or the pool.

For your last full day the boat is for your party alone. A captain and crew take you out from Hurghada for about seven hours to the islands and reefs, with a guide for the snorkelling and equipment supplied. Lunch on board comes with soft drinks and water, and the marine park fees and private hotel transfers are covered. The pace is yours, within what the captain advises on the day.