16-Day Egypt Holiday: Cairo, Upper Egypt & White Desert

Your driver meets you in the arrivals hall at Cairo Airport and takes you to your hotel, where you can rest after the flight. In the evening you are collected for a Nile dinner cruise: around two hours on the river with a buffet and a live show, and Cairo's lights along both banks.

A full day with your Egyptologist, of which the Giza visit takes 4 to 6 hours. You begin on the plateau with the pyramids of Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure and the Great Sphinx. After lunch you head to the Grand Egyptian Museum for the Tutankhamun collection and the monumental statues of the Old and New Kingdoms. The guide, entrance fees and vehicle are all part of the price.

Today holds two visits. First comes the Citadel of Saladin, the hilltop fortress from which Cairo was ruled for centuries. After that you spend around four hours at the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization, taking in its main exhibition hall and the Royal Mummies Hall, with a set lunch nearby. Your Egyptologist, the entrance fees and the private vehicle are included.

Today you head south of Cairo to see the earliest pyramids. At Saqqara stands the Step Pyramid of King Djoser. Memphis, Egypt's first capital, has an open-air museum with a colossal statue of Ramses II. At Dahshur you find the Bent Pyramid and the Red Pyramid. Guide, entrance fees and vehicle are included; lunch is not, but your guide can recommend a place to stop.

You are taken to Cairo Airport for the flight to Aswan, and the sightseeing is fitted around the airline's schedule. In Aswan your guide shows you the High Dam, the Unfinished Obelisk and, by boat, Philae Temple on its island, then a Nubian village. Guide, entrance fees and transport are included. Aswan is your base for three nights.

This is a full day on the road to Abu Simbel, so you set off early. Ramses II had the Great Temple and the smaller temple of Nefertari carved into the cliff, and both were lifted to higher ground in the 1960s as Lake Nasser filled. The entrance fees, an English-speaking guide and transport are included. You are back at your Aswan hotel in the evening.

Lunch is not included, so your guide can suggest a stop.

A gentler day on the water. Your private motorboat takes you to Elephantine Island, with its ruins and Nubian houses, and on to the Aswan Botanical Garden on Kitchener's Island. The rest of the day is yours, to stroll the corniche or rest before the road to Luxor.

You travel north from Aswan to Luxor with two stops along the way. The double temple at Kom Ombo is shared by the crocodile god Sobek and the falcon god Horus, and sits right on the riverbank. The Temple of Horus at Edfu is among the best-preserved in Egypt. A guide, entrance fees and the vehicle are included, and you reach Luxor for four nights.

With your Egyptologist you explore Karnak, Egypt's largest temple complex and its forest of columns, then Luxor Temple beside the river. You finish at the Luxor Museum and the Mummification Museum. The guide, the entrance fees and transport between the sites are included.

You cross to the West Bank, where the pharaohs were buried. The stops are the Valley of the Kings, Hatshepsut's mortuary temple at Deir el-Bahari, the Colossi of Memnon, Medinet Habu and the Valley of the Queens. It is a full day, mostly in the open air with little shade. Your guide, the entrance fees and the vehicle are included.

A full day out from Luxor to two temples to the north. Dendera is dedicated to Hathor and has a celebrated zodiac ceiling; Abydos holds the temple of Seti I and was a holy place of Osiris. You travel in an air-conditioned vehicle with your Egyptologist. Entrance fees are included, as is lunch at a local restaurant and a bottle of water each.

A transfer takes you to Luxor Airport for the flight to Cairo; the airline sets the times, and the day is built around them. In Cairo you spend about eight hours with your Egyptologist at the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square, Coptic Cairo, Islamic Cairo and the Khan el-Khalili bazaar, with lunch at a local restaurant. Entrance fees to the listed sites are included.

The two-day White Desert trip starts today. A private vehicle takes you from Cairo to Bahariya Oasis, where a local desert driver-guide meets you with a 4x4. You drive across the Black Desert, stop at Crystal Mountain and reach the White Desert in time for sunset among its chalk formations. Lunch and dinner are provided.

The night is spent in a simple camp with a tent, mattress, sleeping bag and blankets, and shared facilities. We confirm the camp arrangements and the final price for the desert part with you before you pay.

You wake in time for sunrise over the White Desert and have breakfast at the camp. The 4x4 and then your private vehicle bring you back to Cairo and your hotel. The afternoon is free, so you can rest, shop or simply get the sand out of your shoes.

You spend about ten hours in the Fayoum, a green oasis to the south-west of Cairo. The stops are Lake Qarun, the lakes and waterfalls at Wadi El Rayan and the old waterwheels of Fayoum city. You have a private English-speaking guide and a private vehicle, and lunch at a local restaurant is included. It makes a calm last full day before you fly home.