12-Day Cairo, Nile Cruise & Marsa Alam Holiday

Our representative greets you in the terminal and takes you to a waiting car for the drive of around an hour into the city. After you have checked in, you go down to the Nile for a felucca ride at sunset, in the traditional wooden sailing boat. That is all that is planned for the day, so you can unwind after the journey and choose your own supper.

Your Egyptologist and driver pick you up at the hotel for around eight hours of Cairo's best-known sights, with the guide, vehicle, entrance fees and lunch all arranged. You start on the Giza Plateau with the three pyramids and the Sphinx, then drive across the city for lunch with a view.

The afternoon belongs to the Egyptian Museum on Tahrir Square, and a pause for tea or coffee gives you a breather between galleries before the return to your hotel.

This is the day that shows how Egypt's pyramids developed. Your private English-speaking Egyptologist takes you first to Saqqara and its Step Pyramid, then to Memphis, the old capital, and finally to Dahshur, where the Bent Pyramid and the Red Pyramid rise from the sand. Tickets, bottled water and lunch at a local restaurant are included. Expect about eight hours in total from pick-up to drop-off.

You are driven to Cairo Airport for the flight of about an hour to Aswan, where a car takes you to the Nile. Sightseeing from here forms your cruise package, and an English-speaking Egyptologist, the entrance fees and the transport are all part of it. You visit the High Dam, see the Unfinished Obelisk left in its quarry, and cross by boat to Philae, the temple of Isis.

In the late afternoon you join the ship, settle into your cabin and dine on board. The airline sets the flight time, so the order of the afternoon may change.

The ship travels downstream today, with a stop at the Temple of Kom Ombo, a twin temple to the gods Sobek and Horus standing on a bend in the river. Your Egyptologist leads the visit, and the entrance fee and transport are already covered. The rest of the day is yours: the sun deck is the place to watch palms, fields and villages go past. Breakfast, lunch and dinner are served on board.

This is the busiest day on the river. With your Egyptologist you go to the Temple of Edfu, then to Luxor Temple, and on to Karnak and its Sacred Lake. After dark you return to Karnak for the Sound and Light Show, a performance lasting two hours, with admission included. Timings depend on where the ship is, and the cruise team will confirm them on board. You spend a final night on the ship.

Having breakfasted, you leave the ship and go to the West Bank with your Egyptologist. You visit the Valley of the Kings, where your ticket covers three tombs, then Hatshepsut's terraced temple at Deir el-Bahari and the Colossi of Memnon. Your cruise ends here, and a private vehicle drives you east through the desert to the coast.

It is a demanding day, as the sightseeing and the drive sit side by side, so carry water and something to eat. You arrive at your Marsa Alam hotel in the evening.

An easy first morning on the coast. A shared boat collects you at the hotel and spends around five hours at Marsa Mubarak, a calm bay with seagrass where green turtles often feed. Mask, snorkel and fins come with the trip, together with tea, coffee and bottled water. The turtles are wild, so we cannot promise you will see one, though many people do.

You are free to relax at the hotel for the rest of the day.

A shared air-conditioned vehicle drives you to the harbour, where you board a shared boat for Samadai, a horseshoe-shaped reef known as the Dolphin House. The outing takes about eight hours. You snorkel inside the lagoon, where spinner dolphins tend to rest by day. The marine park fee, a life jacket, mask, snorkel and fins, and lunch on the boat are included.

A sighting is likely but, with wild dolphins, never guaranteed.

A day of around nine hours out of the hotel. A shared vehicle drives you into Wadi El Gemal National Park, a landscape of hills, mangroves and open shoreline, and onward to the beach at Sharm El Luli. The water is clear and shallow, so you can swim and snorkel with your guide close by. Lunch is on the beach.

The national park fee, the snorkelling kit and bottled water are all included, and you are back at the hotel in the evening.

The morning is yours to swim or sleep in. Late in the day a shared vehicle picks you up for around five hours in the desert inland from Marsa Alam. You ride a camel, share a Bedouin dinner with tea and water, and see a sky far darker than the coast allows. It cools quickly after sunset, so wear something warm. The outing is a ride and a meal, and you sleep at your hotel as usual.