Egypt Short Breaks Itinerary: What to See in 3, 4, or 5 Days
November 19, 2025
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about Egypt Short Breaks Itinerary: What to See in 3, 4, or 5 Days
From:
$1000
4.9
Tour Details
| Duration |
8 Days / 7 Nights |
|---|---|
| Tour Location |
Hurghada / Luxor / Edfu / Kom Ombo / Aswan |
| Tour Type |
Daily Tour |
| Pickup |
Hurghada Airport |
Magical 8 Days Hurghada Stay and Nile Cruise Tour
This 8 day Nile cruise & Hurghada all inclusive tour combines two separate holidays into one continuous itinerary: four nights sailing from Luxor to Aswan on a Nile cruise with a private Egyptologist, followed by three nights at a 5 star Hurghada Red Sea resort. The tour departs from Luxor, no Cairo leg, no cross country transfers, making it one of the most convenient Egypt holiday packages for visitors seeking more Egypt tours.
The itinerary begins with two nights in Hurghada for beach relaxation and optional snorkeling on the coral reefs, then transfers by private vehicle to Luxor on Day 3 to board the cruise. Day 3 covers Karnak Temple and Luxor Temple on the East Bank. Day 4 moves to the West Bank: the Valley of the Kings, the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahari, and the Colossi of Memnon. Day 5 sails to Edfu for the Temple of Edfu, dedicated to Horus and one of Egypt's best-preserved temples, then continues to Kom Ombo for the dual-deity Kom Ombo Temple and its adjacent Crocodile Museum. Day 6 arrives in Aswan for the Aswan High Dam and the Temple of Philae on Agilkia Island. Day 7 disembarks in Aswan and returns to Hurghada by 1st class train to Qena, then private vehicle, with a final night by the Red Sea before departure on Day 8.
Why Book This Tour
- The only 8 day all-inclusive tour combining a full Luxor-to-Aswan Nile cruise with a Hurghada stay
- No Cairo routing required — arrive and depart directly through Hurghada
- Private licensed Egyptologist guide included for every sightseeing day
- All entrance fees included for every temple, tomb, and attraction in the itinerary
- Private air-conditioned transportation throughout the entire journey
- First-class train travel included from Aswan to Qena
- Flexible itinerary customization available before departure
- 24/7 Tripidays support throughout your stay in Egypt
- Verified hotels and cruise vessels selected for quality and comfort
Included
- Meet and assist with the Tripidays representative at the Hurghada airport
- 4 Nights of accommodations on Nile Cruise
- 3 Nights of accommodations in Hurghada hotel
- Private licensed Egyptologist guide throughout the tour
- Private air-conditioned transportation for all transfers and touring
- All entrance fees to every attraction listed in the itinerary
- Meals are provided as mentioned in the itinerary
- First-class train ticket from Aswan to Qena
- Bottled water during tours and transfers
- Our assistance during your stay
- All Taxes and Charges
Excluded
- International flights to and from Egypt
- Egypt entry visa fees
- Travel insurance
- Personal expenses and souvenirs
- Tips for guides, drivers, and cruise crew
- Optional Hurghada diving and snorkeling excursions
- Optional glass-bottom boat trips and water activities
- Abu Simbel excursion
- Cruise cabin or hotel room upgrades
Highlights
Luxor Attractions
- Karnak Temple
- Luxor Temple
- Valley of the Kings
- Temple of Hatshepsut
- Colossi of Memnon
Aswan Attractions
- Aswan High Dam
- Philae Temple
- Unfinished Obelisk
- Edfu Temple
- Kom Ombo Temple
Itinerary
A Tripidays representative meets you at Hurghada International Airport and transfers you by private air-conditioned vehicle to your Red Sea hotel. After check-in, dinner is served at the hotel restaurant. Starting on the Red Sea before boarding a Nile cruise is a signature feature of many 8 day Egypt Nile and beach packages, giving travelers time to unwind before exploring Egypt's ancient wonders.
Hurghada Red Sea Coast
Your first evening puts you directly on one of the Red Sea's most accessible stretches of coastline, with the water visible from the hotel terrace. The resort sits on a bay where coral reefs begin just metres offshore, the same reefs you can explore the following day.
Meals
Dinner
The day is entirely unscheduled, the only free day built into this 8 day Nile Cruise Hurghada all inclusive itinerary before the ancient sites begin. Travelers comparing romantic Red Sea and Nile itineraries, including a Cairo Honeymoon Nile Cruise Hurghada experience, often appreciate having a dedicated resort day before beginning the sightseeing portion of the journey.
Free Day in Hurghada
Step off the beach, and you're already above one of the Red Sea's most intact coral systems; your guide can arrange snorkeling or a glass-bottom boat excursion on request. The reefs here run parallel to the shore for kilometres, which means you cover more marine life in an hour than most dedicated diving resorts offer in a half-day.
Meals
Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
After breakfast, your private vehicle departs Hurghada for Luxor, roughly a three-hour drive through the Eastern Desert. On arrival, you board your Nile cruise ship, settle into your cabin, and head directly to the East Bank temples before the afternoon crowd thins.
Karnak Temple
Your guide walks you into the Hypostyle Hall of Karnak Temple, where 134 sandstone columns rise to 21 metres and block out the sky in every direction. Construction here ran for more than 2,000 years, longer than the entire span of European cathedral building, which is why no single pharaoh's hand fully explains what you're standing inside.
Luxor Temple
You visit after dark, when floodlights turn the Avenue of Sphinxes and the twin pylons of Ramses II into something that reads more like a stage set than a ruin. The temple was built by Amenhotep III around 1400 BCE and sits so close to the modern town that locals walked through it as recently as the 19th century.
Meals
Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
Breakfast is served onboard as the cruise moors on the West Bank, the ancient necropolis of Thebes, directly opposite the living city of Luxor across the Nile.
Valley of the Kings
Step into the Valley of the Kings, where the walls are still painted in the original pigments used by artisans working under Ramses II and Seti I. The valley holds 63 known royal tombs, though your visit typically covers three, enough to understand the scale of what was buried here over five centuries.
Temple of Hatshepsut
Explore the stunning Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut, the architecture and the geology are so precisely aligned that the building looks carved from the mountain rather than built against it. Hatshepsut ruled Egypt for over 20 years in the 15th century BCE, and this mortuary temple is still the clearest evidence of how she chose to be remembered.
Colossi of Memnon
Stop at the Colossi of Memnon, each 18 metres tall, which have held their position on the Theban plain for more than 3,400 years, outlasting the entire mortuary temple they once guarded, which has almost entirely disappeared. You pass them on the road back to the cruise; they are bigger in person than any photograph prepares you for.
Meals
Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
Breakfast is served onboard as the cruise sails south from Luxor toward Edfu, following the same river route featured in a classic Nile Cruise from Luxor to Aswan, but enhanced here with a Red Sea beach extension before and after the sailing experience. The evening ends with a galabeya party on board as the ship continues to Kom Ombo.
Temple of Edfu
From the outside, the two towers of the pylon look like a fortress gate; inside, the transition from desert glare to the cool dark of the hypostyle hall takes a moment to adjust to. Dedicated to Horus, the falcon god, and completed in 57 BCE, Edfu is the best-preserved major temple in Egypt, and the hieroglyphic texts on its walls are still sharp enough to read.
Kom Ombo Temple
The temple sits directly on a bend in the Nile, so one half of the facade faces the water and catches the afternoon light while the other falls into shadow, an effect that makes more sense when you learn the building was designed for two gods simultaneously, Sobek the crocodile and Horus the Elder, each with their own symmetrical sanctuary.
Meals
Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
The cruise docks in Aswan after breakfast, the southernmost point of the itinerary, where the Nile narrows between granite boulders, and the pace of the city is noticeably slower than in Luxor.
Aswan High Dam
Your guide explains the engineering decisions made in the 1960s that reshaped the entire Nile Valley: the dam stopped the annual floods that had defined Egyptian agriculture for 5,000 years, created Lake Nasser, one of the world's largest reservoirs, and forced the relocation of 22 ancient monuments, including Abu Simbel. Standing on the dam wall, you can see both the reservoir and the river simultaneously.
Philae Temple
You reach the Philae temple by short motorboat across the channel to Agilkia Island, where UNESCO reassembled it block by block after the original Philae Island was permanently submerged by the reservoir in the 1970s. Dedicated to Isis, the temple complex remained an active place of worship into the 6th century CE, making it one of the last functioning ancient Egyptian temples before Christianity closed it.
Meals
Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
After breakfast, you disembark the cruise in Aswan and board a 1st class train to Qena, then transfer by private air-conditioned vehicle to Hurghada. You check in to your Red Sea hotel in time for lunch and have the afternoon free by the water. Families looking for multi-destination Egyptian vacations often compare this itinerary with a Family Cairo Luxor Hurghada Beach Tour, although this route focuses exclusively on Upper Egypt and the Red Sea without adding a Cairo stay.
Meals
Breakfast, Lunch
After breakfast and check-out, your private vehicle transfers you to Hurghada International Airport for your departure flight at the end of the itinerary.
Departure
Our team will escort you to Hurghada Airport for your departure flight, marking the end of your 8 day Egypt itinerary with Hurghada an unforgettable journey through ancient wonders and Red Sea bliss.
Meals
Breakfast
Notes:
* You can let us know if you'd like to customize your tour itinerary to meet your needs. We value your input and aim to accommodate your requirements.
Frequently Asked Questions
This tour includes 3 nights at a Hurghada resort on an all-inclusive basis, 4 nights on a Nile cruise from Luxor to Aswan on a full-board basis, a private Egyptologist guide at every site, all transfers by private vehicle, 1st class train from Aswan to Qena, and entrance fees to all nine attractions in the itinerary. International flights, visa, travel insurance, and tips are not included.
This is the only 8 day tour that combines a full Luxor-to-Aswan Nile cruise with a Hurghada Red Sea stay without routing through Cairo. Hurghada is both your arrival and departure point, removing a full day of unnecessary cross country travel. Every other itinerary at this duration that includes Hurghada either adds Cairo at the front or uses a domestic flight to bridge the distance.
The 4 night cruise sails south from Luxor, stopping at the Temple of Edfu and Kom Ombo Temple before arriving in Aswan, where you visit the Aswan High Dam and Philae Temple. Luxor sightseeing, Karnak Temple, Luxor Temple, Valley of the Kings, Hatshepsut Temple, and the Colossi of Memnon take place on Days 3 and 4 at the start of the cruise.
On Day 7, you disembark the cruise in Aswan, board a 1st class train to Qena, and then transfer by private air-conditioned vehicle to Hurghada, typically arriving in time for lunch. The train journey is included in the tour price. This routing avoids backtracking through Luxor and is the most direct land connection between Aswan and the Red Sea coast.
No domestic flights are included in this itinerary. All intercity transport uses private road transfers and a 1st class train (Aswan to Qena). The Hurghada Luxor leg on Day 3 and the Aswan Hurghada return on Day 7 are both covered by ground transport, included in the tour price.
What to Pack
Hat
Backpack
Comfy Shoes
Powerbank
Medical Kit
Comfy Clothes
Sunglasses & Sunscreen
Personal Hygiene Products
Valid Passport For 6 Months
Tour Locations
Tour Prices
From Jan 2026 to Apr 2026
- Solo $2440
- 2 - 4 Pax $1460
- 5 - 8 Pax $1290
- 9 - 16 Pax $1255
From May 2026 to Sep 2026
- Solo $2045
- 2 - 4 Pax $1230
- 5 - 8 Pax $1035
- 9 - 16 Pax $1000
From Oct 2026 to Dec 2026
- Solo $2520
- 2 - 4 Pax $1505
- 5 - 8 Pax $1310
- 9 - 16 Pax $1290
Xmas 21 Dec - 7 Jan Easter 29 Mar - 11 Apr
- Solo $3130
- 2 - 4 Pax $1840
- 5 - 8 Pax $1635
- 9 - 16 Pax $1610
Hurghada:
Mercure Hurghada or similar
Cruises:
MS Radamis II – MS Royal Ruby I – MS Medea – MS Nile Quest or similar
From Jan 2026 to Apr 2026
- Solo $2505
- 2 - 4 Pax $1495
- 5 - 8 Pax $1300
- 9 - 16 Pax $1275
From May 2026 to Sep 2026
- Solo $2105
- 2 - 4 Pax $1265
- 5 - 8 Pax $1070
- 9 - 16 Pax $1035
From Oct 2026 to Dec 2026
- Solo $2555
- 2 - 4 Pax $1530
- 5 - 8 Pax $1335
- 9 - 16 Pax $1310
Xmas 21 Dec - 7 Jan Easter 29 Mar - 11 Apr
- Solo $3175
- 2 - 4 Pax $1865
- 5 - 8 Pax $1655
- 9 - 16 Pax $1635
Hurghada:
Swiss Inn Resort – Continental or similar
Cruise:
MS Royal Isadora – MS Blue Shadow II – MS Nile Style – MS Concerto Plus or similar
From Jan 2026 to Apr 2026
- Solo $3980
- 2 - 4 Pax $2345
- 5 - 8 Pax $2140
- 9 - 16 Pax $2115
From May 2026 to Sep 2026
- Solo $3275
- 2 - 4 Pax $1945
- 5 - 8 Pax $1735
- 9 - 16 Pax $1715
From Oct 2026 to Dec 2026
- Solo $4485
- 2 - 4 Pax $2645
- 5 - 8 Pax $2440
- 9 - 16 Pax $2405
Xmas 21 Dec - 7 Jan Easter 29 Mar - 11 Apr
- Solo $5405
- 2 - 4 Pax $3175
- 5 - 8 Pax $2955
- 9 - 16 Pax $2935
Hurghada:
Marriott Beach Resort – Hilton Hurghada Plaza or similar
Cruises:
MS Acamar – MS Movenpick Royal Lotus – MS Le Fayan – MS Esplanade or similar
From Jan 2026 to Apr 2026
- Solo $5530
- 2 - 4 Pax $3255
- 5 - 8 Pax $3035
- 9 - 16 Pax $3000
From May 2026 to Sep 2026
- Solo $6005
- 2 - 4 Pax $3520
- 5 - 8 Pax $3300
- 9 - 16 Pax $3275
From Oct 2026 to Dec 2026
- Solo $6070
- 2 - 4 Pax $3565
- 5 - 8 Pax $3345
- 9 - 16 Pax $3310
Xmas 21 Dec - 7 Jan Easter 29 Mar - 11 Apr
- Solo $7405
- 2 - 4 Pax $4335
- 5 - 8 Pax $4105
- 9 - 16 Pax $4080
Hurghada:
Pickalbatros Palace Resort – KaiSol Romance Resort or similar
Cruises:
MS Farah – MS Historia Nile Cruise – MS Tamr Henna – Sonesta Moon Goddess or similar
