15-Day Egypt Holidays

Not for travellers who want the full picture – 15 days lets you fully unwind, move at a relaxed pace through Cairo, the Nile cruise, Abu Simbel, three Red Sea beach days and Alexandria. Every segment gets proper time rather than feeling like a sprint between airports.

Alexandria is the Mediterranean counterweight to pharaonic Upper Egypt – the Greco-Roman, Ptolemaic and early Christian capital that shaped two thousand years of Mediterranean history. The Catacombs of Kom el-Shoqafa, Pompey's Pillar, the Bibliotheca Alexandrina and the seafront corniche are entirely different in mood from the Nile Valley sites. For a 15-day holiday it adds a register the shorter itineraries simply don't have time for.

Private 15-day Egypt holidays start around £2,900 per person at 5-star with Nile cruise + Red Sea + Alexandria included. Mid-range (4-star hotels, 5-star ship) runs £4,200–£6,000. Premium tier (suite hotels, dahabiya, Oberoi-class ships) is £7,400–£13,000 per person – the ultra-luxury 15-day anchor sits around £5,050 pp ground-only. Add 25–35% for Christmas, New Year and the school half-terms.

Yes – at 15 days the itinerary is almost always tailor-made. Common customisations: swap the Red Sea segment for Sinai (Dahab, St Catherine's, Mount Sinai), replace the Nile cruise with a Lake Nasser cruise via Wadi el-Seboua, add Siwa Oasis (Cleopatra's Spring, salt lakes, Temple of the Oracle), or extend to 17 days with a Sinai monastery overnight. Send your priorities and the Cairo planner shapes the holiday around them.

October to March is the strongest window – comfortable Cairo / Luxor / Aswan temperatures, calm Red Sea water, and the White Desert nights are coldest but clearest in December and January. April works neatly for Easter and lines up with one of the prettiest weather windows in Upper Egypt. We avoid running 15-day southern itineraries in July and August (Aswan and Abu Simbel hit 40–46°C); Cairo plus Mediterranean variants run year-round.