Dubai Attractions
- Dubai Museum
- Gold & Spice Souks
- Jumeirah Mosque
- Burj Al Arab
- Burj Khalifa
- Dubai Mall
- Dubai Desert
| Duration |
10 Days / 9 Nights |
|---|---|
| Tour Location |
Dubai / Cairo / Aswan / Abu Simbel / Luxor |
| Tour Type |
Daily Tour |
| Pickup |
Cairo Airport or Dubai Airport |
This 10 day mid range tour is one of our most popular options for travelers looking to explore multi country packages, combining Egypt and Dubai across two distinct itineraries. Spend three days in Dubai discovering the Burj Khalifa, enjoying a Dubai Desert Safari, and sailing on a Marina Dhow Dinner Cruise before flying to Egypt for seven days of exploration through Cairo, the Pyramids of Giza, the Grand Egyptian Museum, and a three-night Nile Cruise from Aswan to Luxor with a dedicated excursion to Abu Simbel. It is the only 10 day Egypt and Dubai trip that combines a classic Nile Cruise from Aswan to Luxor with Abu Simbel's temples and Dubai's iconic desert safari in one seamless itinerary. Accommodation includes comfortable hotels in Dubai and Cairo plus a Nile Cruise vessel, with domestic flights between Cairo and Aswan and between Luxor and Cairo included.
Day 1 is arrival in Dubai with a private hotel transfer. Day 2 moves through Al Fahidi Fort, the Dubai Museum, an Abra ride on Dubai Creek, the Gold and Spice Souks, Jumeirah Mosque, Burj Al Arab, Burj Khalifa, Dubai Mall, and ends on the Dubai Marina Dhow Dinner Cruise. Day 3 is the Desert Safari: 4x4 dune bashing, sandboarding, camel ride, and a Bedouin camp BBQ dinner. Day 4 is the transition breakfast in Dubai, flight to Cairo, private transfer, and an evening Nile Dinner Cruise. Day 5 covers the Giza Plateau: the Great Pyramids of Giza, the Great Sphinx, the Valley Temple of Khafre, and the Grand Egyptian Museum. Day 6 is the domestic flight from Cairo to Aswan, boarding the Nile Cruise vessel, followed by the Aswan High Dam, Philae Temple, and the Unfinished Obelisk. Day 7 is Abu Simbel by air from Aswan, returning to the cruise for the sail past Kom Ombo Temple. Day 8 stops at the Temple of Edfu before sailing to Luxor for the Karnak Temple Complex and Luxor Temple. Day 9 covers the West Bank: Valley of the Kings, Temple of Hatshepsut, and Colossi of Memnon, then the domestic flight from Luxor to Cairo. Day 10 is departure from Cairo International Airport.
Only on this route

Your guide meets you at Dubai International Airport and transfers you directly to your hotel in a private air-conditioned vehicle. Settle in, orient yourself to the city's geography, the Creek to the north, Downtown to the south, the desert fringe visible in every direction, and rest before three full days begin tomorrow. Arriving in Dubai marks the beginning of a balanced 10 day journey through the UAE and Egypt, although travelers with less time can also explore our budget 8 day Egypt & Dubai vacation.

Three distinct zones of Dubai in one day, moving from the 18th-century creek district in the morning to the world's tallest tower in the afternoon and the marina at night.

Your guide walks you into the oldest surviving structure in Dubai, a low coral-and-gypsum fortress built in the 1780s to defend the creek settlement. Four watchtowers and walls that absorbed heat rather than reflected it are a physical argument for why Dubai was built here and not elsewhere.

Inside Al Fahidi Fort, the displays reconstruct the pearl-diving economy that sustained Dubai before oil with life-sized dioramas of souk life, barasti palm-frond houses, and the sea-trading routes that connected this coast to India and East Africa. The contrast with what you will see by nightfall is the sharpest in the city.

Your guide boards a traditional wooden abra with you for the crossing of Dubai Creek, the tidal inlet that divided Deira from Bur Dubai for centuries. The crossing takes under five minutes and costs next to nothing; the view of the dhow-building yards and the spice warehouses on the far bank has changed less than anything else in this city.

Walk the covered lanes of the Gold Souk, 300-plus retailers packed into a few narrow streets, holding an estimated ten tonnes of gold on display at any given time. Cross the creek side, and the Spice Souk opens with sacks of dried rosebuds, frankincense, saffron threads, and the sharp cut of cardamom in the air.

Your guide pauses at the white-stone exterior of the Jumeirah Mosque for photographs; the building's twin minarets and Fatimid-influenced symmetry are best read from the pavement opposite, where the scale becomes clear against the surrounding residential streets.

At the Jumeirah Beach road, the Burj Al Arab's sail-shaped silhouette rises 321 metres from its artificial island. Your guide positions you at the public viewing point on the beach for photographs; the building's cantilevered helipad extending from the 28th floor is visible from this angle in a way it is not from anywhere closer.

You take the high-speed elevator to the observation deck on the 124th floor of the Burj Khalifa, rising 452 metres before the deck opens and the Dubai grid spreads out beneath you. The tower reaches 828 metres total at 160 floors; it is still the tallest building on earth by a margin of more than 200 metres over its nearest rival.

Enter Dubai Mall through the aquarium entrance: a 10-million-litre tank holding more than 33,000 aquatic animals suspended behind the largest acrylic panel in the world at 32.88 metres wide. The mall's 1,200 stores, ice rink, and waterfall atrium extend from here across a footprint larger than 50 football fields.

The evening ends on a traditional wooden dhow moving slowly through the Dubai Marina canal, a waterway flanked by 200-plus residential towers that was entirely desert in 2003. Dinner is a buffet served on deck; the skyline's reflection on the water is unobstructed for most of the 90-minute circuit.

Breakfast, Dinner

Your guide collects you from the hotel in the late afternoon for a 4x4 drive to the Lahbab dunes. Enjoy an exciting desert safari, followed by a BBQ dinner at a traditional desert camp before returning to your hotel.

The vehicles stop at the dune line, and tyre pressure drops before the ascent. Weight redistribution is the difference between traction and getting stuck on slopes 100 metres or more in height. Your driver runs the ridgelines with the setting sun low and directly behind, the vehicle's shadow stretched long across the sand below.

Your guide hands you a board and points to the face of the dune. Sandboarding is faster than it looks, and the sand's temperature after 4 pm is manageable underfoot. The camel ride that follows is slow, deliberate, and several feet higher than you expect; Bedouins covered 40 kilometres a day on these animals for centuries, carrying trade goods between the Gulf coast and the interior.

The camp is fully operational at dusk, with Arabic coffee and dates at the entrance, henna artists, falconry display, Tanoura spinning performers, and a fire at the centre of the seating area.

Breakfast, Dinner

Breakfast at the Dubai hotel, then check out. Your guide transfers you to Dubai International Airport for the flight to Cairo, the leg that connects the UAE section of this 10 day Egypt and Dubai tour to the Egyptian section. Your Tripidays representative meets you at Cairo International Airport and transfers you to your hotel in Giza.

In the evening, your guide boards a river cruise vessel with you on the Nile in central Cairo. The city's illuminated bridges, the Cairo Tower lit against the west bank. Live music and a traditional Tanoura performance run through dinner; the Nile here is more than 800 metres wide and the current almost imperceptible from the deck.

Breakfast, Dinner

The three sites that define why the Egypt leg of this Egypt and Dubai Nile Cruise tour runs seven days, not three.

Stand before the legendary Great Pyramids of Giza, built more than 4,500 years ago as royal tombs for the pharaohs Khufu, Khafre, and Menkaure.

Visit the mysterious Great Sphinx, the massive limestone statue guarding the pyramids with the body of a lion and the face of a pharaoh.

Through the passage beside the Sphinx, the Valley Temple of Khafre is built from the same pink Aswan granite used for its internal floor, 200 tonnes per block in places, fitted without mortar to tolerances of less than a millimetre. Your guide shows you where the 23 statues of Khafre once stood in the T-shaped hall; only fragments remain, but the floor plan makes the ritual function legible.

The Grand Egyptian Museum opens with the atrium and its colossal statue of Ramesses II, 11 metres of red quartzite standing at the base of the grand staircase. The collection runs to 100,000 artefacts across 5 kilometres of display space; the Tutankhamun galleries alone hold over 5,000 objects from his tomb in the Valley of the Kings, including the solid gold death mask and the two innermost coffins.

Breakfast, Lunch

Early breakfast and checkout from your Cairo hotel. Your guide transfers you to Cairo International Airport for the domestic flight to Aswan, the southernmost city on this 10 day Egypt and Dubai itinerary, 879 kilometres up the Nile from Cairo.

Visit the impressive Aswan High Dam, a modern engineering achievement that transformed Egypt’s agriculture and economy.

A short motorboat ride delivers you to the island of Agilkia, where the Philae Temple stands, relocated stone by stone between 1972 and 1980 to save it from the rising waters of Lake Nasser. The temple complex is dedicated to Isis, goddess of healing and magic; its hypostyle hall, birth house, and Kiosk of Trajan occupy an island so small that the Nile is visible from every corner of the precinct.

In the northern granite quarries of Aswan, an obelisk that would have stood 42 metres tall, the largest ever attempted, remains attached to the bedrock where a crack stopped its extraction 3,500 years ago. Your guide shows you the tool marks and the workers' graffiti cut into the granite surface; the obelisk explains more about how these monuments were made than any finished one in Egypt.

Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

An early departure by air from Aswan is followed by the road journey to Abu Simbel, approximately three hours each way. After returning to Aswan, board your Nile Cruise and sail to Kom Ombo to visit Kom Ombo Temple before continuing to Edfu for the overnight stay.

Visit the magnificent Abu Simbel Temples, built by Ramses II and famously relocated by UNESCO to save them from flooding.

Explore the unique Kom Ombo Temple, dedicated to both Sobek, the crocodile god, and Horus, the falcon god.

Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

The vessel docks at Edfu in the morning. The Temple of Edfu is visible from the river landing the entrance pylon's two towers rise 36 metres above the surrounding town. The boat continues north to Luxor. This is the final stretch of the Nile Cruise route; the river broadens toward Thebes, and the limestone cliffs of the West Bank become visible to the left.

Visit the remarkably preserved Temple of Edfu, dedicated to Horus, the falcon-headed god. Built during the Ptolemaic period (237–57 BCE), it remains one of the finest examples of ancient Egyptian temple architecture, with intricate hieroglyphics and reliefs telling myths and rituals.

Discover the magnificent Luxor Temple, founded around 1400 BCE by Amenhotep III and expanded by Ramses II. This stunning site was a center of ancient religious festivals and is famed for its majestic statues, grand colonnades, and richly carved hieroglyphs that come alive at sunset.

Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Final morning on the Nile Cruise vessel. Breakfast and checkout, then visit Karnak Temple and the West Bank of Luxor, where the ancient Egyptians buried their dead facing the setting sun. After completing the visits, transfer to Luxor Airport for your included flight back to Cairo.

Explore the immense Karnak Temple Complex, the largest religious site ever constructed in ancient Egypt, built over 2,000 years by pharaohs from the Middle and New Kingdoms. Walk among colossal statues, towering obelisks, and sacred halls that reflect the spiritual heart of ancient Thebes.

Explore the legendary Valley of the Kings, the royal burial ground of Egypt’s most powerful pharaohs, including Tutankhamun. Carved deep into the desert cliffs, the tombs are adorned with intricate hieroglyphics and colorful murals depicting the journey to the afterlife.

Visit the spectacular Temple of Hatshepsut, built for Egypt’s remarkable female pharaoh on the west bank of the Nile. This architectural masterpiece, with its terraces and colonnades carved into towering limestone cliffs, celebrates Hatshepsut’s reign and her divine connection to the gods.

Marvel at the colossal Colossi of Memnon, two 18-meter-high statues of Pharaoh Amenhotep III that have stood guard over Thebes for more than 3,000 years. These iconic stone guardians were believed by ancient Egyptians to sing at sunrise and symbolize the eternal protection of the royal necropolis.

Breakfast, Lunch

Breakfast at your Cairo hotel. Your guide transfers you to Cairo International Airport for your onward international departure, concluding your 10 day Egypt and Dubai trip with a Nile Cruise. If you prefer a longer Gulf experience beyond Dubai, you can also discover the luxury 12 day Egypt, Dubai & Abu Dhabi tour, which adds Abu Dhabi's world-famous landmarks to the itinerary.

Breakfast
* 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.
This tour covers 3 nights in a Dubai hotel with a Desert Safari and Marina Dhow Dinner Cruise, then 7 days in Egypt including the Pyramids of Giza, Grand Egyptian Museum, a 3 night Nile Cruise from Aswan to Luxor, a full day at Abu Simbel by air, and Luxor's West Bank temples. Private guides, domestic Egypt flights, and all listed entrance fees in both countries are included.
No other 10 day mid range Egypt and Dubai itinerary combines a classic Nile Cruise from Aswan to Luxor with Abu Simbel as a guaranteed full-day excursion and a Dubai Desert Safari in the same package, three flagship experiences across both countries, without the longer duration or luxury pricing of competing tours.
The tour covers the most iconic landmarks, including:
The Safari runs into the Lahbab dunes on the edge of the Rub' al Khali. 100-metre dune faces reached by 4x4 from central Dubai in under an hour with sandboarding, camel riding, and a Bedouin camp evening that includes a BBQ dinner and Tanoura performance under a desert sky unobscured by city light.
The ideal months are October to April, when the weather in both Egypt and Dubai is comfortable for sightseeing, desert adventures, and Nile Cruises. Tripidays ensures the best timing for each activity to maximize your experience.

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