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| Nile Crown |
Day 1: Cairo
“Your Egypt Tours” representative will meet and assist you at Cairo International Airport and handle all your procedures through passport control, luggage area and customs formalities. After that, you will be transferred to your hotel on a private air-conditioned vehicle. Overnight in Cairo.
Optional night activity:
Egyptian Cultural Dinner Nile cruise and Show
Day 2: Cairo
After breakfast at your hotel, step back in time to the days of ancient Egypt on a private tour of the Great Pyramids of Giza and Sphinx and the Egyptian Museum. With your own private Egyptologist guide to lead the way on this private tour, you can determine the amount of time you would like to spend at each of the sites you visit.
The Giza Plateau is about 30 minutes from Cairo, where your qualified Egyptologist guide will provide a fascinating introduction to each of the three pyramids: Cheops, Khafre and Menakaure. You will have free-time to enter the burial chambers of the pyramids (optional, for an additional cost); however, you guide is not permitted to enter with you. You can also go on a camel ride (optional, for an additional cost). After visiting the pyramids, you will continue across the plateau for a photo opportunity of the three pyramids rising from the sand with the Cairo skyline in the background.
A short drive to the city side of the plateau finds you standing at the feet of the Sphinx, for thousands of years the enigmatic symbol of Egypt. Also in Giza you may visit the Solar Boat Museum (optional, for an additional cost), home to the remarkably well preserved funerary boat of Khufu.
Following your tour of the Giza Pyramids, you will visit the Egyptian Museum. Housing over 250,000 Egyptian artifacts, the Egyptian Museum attracts millions of visitors a year. The highlight is the priceless treasures of King Tutankhamun.
His 6-gold gilded coffins dominate the main hall while his magnificent gold mask is the star attraction. Your Egyptologist guide will introduce you to the most important pieces before allowing you to have free time to explore the museum at leisure. Here you may also visit the “Royal Mummies Room” to learn about the process of mummification in ancient Egypt (optional, for an additional cost). You will have the opportunity to visit a Papyrus Institute to learn about how to make papyrus paper.
You will then go back to your hotel. Overnight in Cairo.
Day 3: Luxor – Nile Cruise
After breakfast at your hotel, you will check out from hotel then you will be transferred to Cairo Airport to catch your flight to Luxor, you will be met and assisted by your Egyptologist guide who will take you to check in and board your cruise for the next 4 nights. After checking in, you will be accompanied by your Egyptologist guide to visit the Karnak Temples, which is the largest place of worship ever built. Its ancient name “Ipet-isut” means “the most sacred of places.” The temple, or, more correctly, the complex of temples, was built over more than 2,000 years by generation after generation of pharaohs. Within the complex, you will find the great “Hypostyle Hall” which is an incredible forest of giant pillars. Thereafter, you will visit the Luxor temple which was built by Amenhotep III and Ramses II for rituals and festivals and is dedicated to the god Amen. Dinner and overnight on board the Nile cruise.
Day 4: Luxor – Nile Cruise
After breakfast on board the Nile cruise, you will then proceed to the West Bank of the river Nile to visit the two colossal statues (Colossi of Memnon). Following this, you will visit the Valley of the Kings, where the magnificent tombs were discovered. Here you will have a chance to visit the tomb of King Tutankhamen (optional, for an additional cost). Continue the tour to visit the Hatshepsut temple at El Deir El Bahary. This impressive temple is dedicated to the Queen Hatshepsut. You will then go back to the cruise ship for lunch. Following afternoon tea on the cruise ship, you will have free-time at leisure. Overnight on board the Nile cruise.
Optional night activity: Sound and Light Show at the Temple of Karnak
Day 5: Aswan – Nile Cruise
After breakfast on board the Nile cruise, you will visit the well-preserved Ptolemaic Temple dedicated to Gods Horus at Edfu. You will then sail to Kom Ombo to see the Temple of Sobek, dedicated to the crocodile-headed God of fertility and creator of the world. Following your sightseeing tour, you will have lunch on board your cruise. You will continue sailing to Aswan. Dinner and overnight on board the Nile cruise.
Day 6: Aswan – Nile Cruise
After breakfast on board the Nile cruise, enjoy a day of sightseeing in Aswan. There you will be met and assisted by your Egyptologist guide who will take you to an exciting tour of the world famous High Dam, an engineering miracle built in the 1960s. Thereafter, you will visit the Unfinished Obelisk, the beautiful Temple of Philae, which is devoted to the goddesses Isis and Hathor. After your sightseeing tour, you will sail around Elephantine Island on a local felucca boat (a traditional Egyptian sail boat). In the afternoon, visit to a Nubian village and have traditional lunch with a family. Dinner and overnight on board your Nile cruise.
Day 7: Aswan, Abu Simbel, Cairo
After breakfast on board the Nile cruise, you will disembark from your Nile cruise. (Optional trip: $99.00 US Dollars per person.) You then will go on a private air-conditioned vehicle to visit the impressive Temples of Ramses II in Abu Simbel. The complex is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site known as the "Nubian Monuments," which run from Abu Simbel downriver to Philae (near Aswan). The twin temples were originally carved out of the mountainside during the reign of Pharaoh Ramesses II in the 13th century BC, as a lasting monument to himself and his queen Nefertari, to commemorate his alleged victory at the Battle of Kadesh, and to intimidate his Nubian neighbors. However, the complex was relocated in its entirety in 1968, on an artificial hill made from a domed structure, high above the Aswan High Dam reservoir.
The relocation of the temples was necessary to avoid their being submerged during the creation of Lake Nasser, the massive artificial water reservoir formed after the building of the Aswan High Dam on the Nile River. Abu Simbel remains one of Egypt's top tourist attractions. With your qualified Egyptologist as your guide, you will enjoy a personalized visit to the temples of Abu Simbel. With its four rock-hewn pharaohs, your guide will explain the history behind this magnificent site, including how the temples were discovered by accident in 1813. Due to the large number of visitors to Abu Simbel, guides are not permitted inside either of the two temples you will visit.
Following your visit to Abu Simbel, you will return to Aswan Airport for return to Cairo. Once you arrive in Cairo, you will be met and assisted at the airport and be taken to your hotel for check-in. In the afternoon, you will visit the Christian heritage in Coptic Cairo, including the Hanging Church. This basilica church was named for its location on top of the south gate of the Fortress of Babylon. The church became the center of the Christian Church of Egypt. You will then continue to Khan el Khalili Bazaar where you will enjoy free-time to stroll through the maze of streets and try your luck bargaining with the shop owners for a souvenir of your trip to Egypt or have a cup of tea at the famous coffee shop “El Fishawy.” After the conclusion of your tour, you will be taken back to your hotel for drop-off. Overnight in Cairo.
Day 8: Cairo
After breakfast at your hotel, you will check out and transfer to Cairo International Airport for your final departure.
Tour includes:
- Meet-and-assist services upon arrival and departure
- All transfers on private air-conditioned vehicles
- Accommodation in Cairo at 5-star hotel (Fairmont Nile city http://www.fairmont.com/nilecity) for 3 nights, breakfast included
- Accommodation on 5-star deluxe cruise ship for 4 nights on full-board basis (Nile Style Cruise http://www.premiere-cruises.com/NileCruises.html or Nile Premium http://www.nilepremium.com/nile-ingles.html)
- All sightseeing tours in Cairo, Luxor, Aswan and, Alexandria including Egyptologist guide, entrance fees, and transfers
- Portage when needed
- All taxes and service charge
Tour does not include:
- Gratuities/Tipping (Recommended). In Egypt, tipping is not an obligation but a sign of appreciation for good service. That being said, tips are expected from people that serve you—e.g., driver, waiter, train conductor, bellman, cruise ship staff, etc. The average tip is $10-$20 US dollars per day—this amount should cover everyone. So we advise you to carry change. If you don’t want to deal with the tipping, you can give your guide a total sum in advance of all tipping requirements for your trip that your guide will dispense throughout the trip.
- International airfare
Entry visa to Egypt
- Any optional tours and shows not mentioned in the itinerary: Sound and Light show at the Temples of Karnak in Luxor and Egyptian Cultural Dinner Nile cruise and Show in Cairo
- Entrance fees to: the Solar Boat Museum (50 EGP), chambers of the pyramids (100 EGP for the Great Pyramid; 30 EGP for the Third Pyramid), the Royal Mummies Room (100 EGP), Tutankhamen’s tomb (100 EGP)
- Meals except where indicated
Important notes:
- Prices are based on double occupancy. Also, prices are valid around the except during Christmas, New Year’s Eve & Easter Feasts. Moreover, rates could be changed without prior notice, shall the government increase taxes.
- You must have a valid passport to enter Egypt. (You must have at least 06 months of validity beyond your scheduled return date.)
- You can issue your domestic flight with your international one to get it cheaper. Incase you could not, we can handle it so do not worry at a
- Accommodation in these hotels subject to Availability
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