| Duration |
6 Days / 5 Nights |
|---|---|
| Tour Location |
Cairo / Luxor / Aswan / Abu Simbel |
| Tour Type |
Daily Tour |
| Pickup |
Cairo Airport |
This 6-day Egypt tour package connects Cairo, Luxor, Aswan, and Abu Simbel by flight and private vehicle, one continuous overland itinerary. You begin at the Giza Pyramids and the Grand Egyptian Museum, fly to Luxor for the Valley of the Kings and Karnak Temple, travel by train to Aswan for Philae Temple and the High Dam, then reach Abu Simbel on Day 5 before flying back to Cairo. The definitive 6-day Egypt grand tour covering all 4 iconic destinations by flight and overland — the master general itinerary for first-time Egypt visitors. If you’re comparing more holiday styles, explore our Egypt Vacation Packages for additional travel inspiration.
Day 1 opens in Cairo with a Nile dinner cruise on arrival. Day 2 covers the Great Pyramids of Giza, the Valley Temple of Khafre, the Great Sphinx, and the Grand Egyptian Museum before an afternoon flight to Luxor. Day 3 moves through Luxor's West Bank, the Valley of the Kings, the Temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahari, and the Colossi of Memnon, then crosses to the East Bank for Karnak Temple and Luxor Temple. Day 4 travels south by first-class train to Aswan: the Aswan High Dam, the Unfinished Obelisk at the ancient granite quarries, and Philae Temple by boat on its island site. Day 5 is an early-morning road journey to Abu Simbel, the twin rock-cut temples of Ramesses II, and Nefertari carved into the cliff face above Lake Nasser, followed by a direct flight back to Cairo. Day 6 is the departure from Cairo International Airport.
Only on this route
Your Tripidays representative meets you at Cairo International Airport and transfers you directly to your hotel. This evening begins your 6-day Cairo, Luxor, Aswan, Abu Simbel tour package with a dinner cruise on the Nile.
Your first evening in Egypt unfolds on the water, with traditional music, live performance, and Egyptian dishes as Cairo's lit skyline shifts across the surface of the Nile. The river has been the city's backdrop for 5,000 years; this is the cleanest way to arrive in it.
Dinner
Your guide collects you after breakfast for the short drive to Giza. In the afternoon, you transfer to Cairo Airport for your flight to Luxor, where a representative meets you on arrival.
Stand at the base of the Great Pyramid, and you'll understand why no written description has ever been adequate at 146 metres tall when built, it held the record as the world's tallest structure for nearly 4,000 years. Your guide will position you for the full three-pyramid view before moving closer.
You'll step inside one of the best-preserved Old Kingdom temples in Egypt, its walls cut from monolithic blocks of pink granite and alabaster that fit so precisely that the joints are barely visible. The stillness inside is disorienting after the open plateau, this is where the pharaoh's body was purified before burial.
Walk to the limestone terrace below the Sphinx, and you'll see what photographs flatten: the full scale of a monument 73 metres long, carved from a single ridge of bedrock around 2500 BCE.
Your guide leads you through the world's largest archaeological museum, opened on the Giza Plateau in 2023 and home to over 100,000 artefacts, including the complete treasures of Tutankhamun's tomb displayed together for the first time in history.
Breakfast & Lunch
Your guide meets you after breakfast for a full day covering both banks of the Nile at ancient Thebes, the West Bank tombs and temples in the morning, Karnak and Luxor Temple in the afternoon.
You'll descend into royal tombs cut 30 metres into the limestone cliffs of the Theban Hills, where the painted ceilings and walls have held their colour for over 3,000 years with almost no fading. Each tomb follows a different astronomical programme. Your guide will read the ceiling of whichever one you enter and explain what the pharaoh was navigating.
From the outside, it looks like three collonaded terraces pressed into the cliff face; inside, the painted reliefs recording Hatshepsut's divine birth and her trade expedition to Punt are among the most detailed narratives surviving from ancient Egypt.
You'll pass these two seated figures of Amenhotep III, each 18 metres high, each cut from a single block of quartzite sandstone on the road between the Valley of the Kings and the river. They have stood here since 1350 BCE; the northern colossus was famous in antiquity for emitting a sound at dawn that Greek and Roman travellers travelled specifically to hear.
Enter through the Avenue of Sphinxes, and your guide will walk you into the Hypostyle Hall, 134 columns, the largest reaching 21 metres, covering an area the size of a cathedral nave. Karnak was continuously built, expanded, and modified by successive pharaohs for more than 2,000 years, and the layering of that ambition is visible in every wall.
The approach along the processional sphinx avenue at dusk, as the floodlights come on against the sandstone pylons, is one of the most composed views in Egypt. Built primarily by Amenhotep III and Ramesses II, the temple sits at the heart of modern Luxor, and you'll find an Ottoman mosque still functioning inside its First Court — built in the 13th century before excavators confirmed what lay beneath.
Breakfast & Lunch
After breakfast, you check out and board a first-class train south to Aswan, where your guide meets you on arrival. The afternoon covers three sites before an overnight in the city.
Your guide drives you to the top of the dam wall, 3,830 metres long and 111 metres high, so you can stand between Lake Nasser to the south and the Nile Valley to the north and understand the scale of what this structure has changed.
At the ancient granite quarries north of Aswan, you'll crouch beside an obelisk still attached to the bedrock, 42 metres long, the largest ever attempted in ancient Egypt, abandoned when a crack appeared during cutting around 1500 BCE.
A short motorboat takes you across the reservoir to Agilkia Island, where the Temple of Isis was dismantled block by block between 1972 and 1980 and rebuilt 20 metres higher to save it from the rising waters of Lake Nasser. You'll arrive at a temple that sits directly on the water's edge, the colonnaded forecourt reflects in the reservoir on calm mornings, and the reliefs inside are among the most complete surviving examples of Ptolemaic sacred art.
Breakfast & Lunch
An early checkout with breakfast boxes prepared for the journey. Your guide and driver collect you before dawn for the road south to Abu Simbel, returning to Aswan in time for your afternoon flight to Cairo.
You'll arrive as the site opens, when the four colossal seated figures of Ramesses II, each 20 metres tall, cut directly into the sandstone cliff face above Lake Nasser, are in early-morning light before the tour groups arrive. The interior runs 63 metres into the mountain, its walls covering every surface with battle reliefs from the campaign at Kadesh in 1274 BCE; your guide will identify the king in his chariot and explain what he was claiming.
Breakfast & Lunch
After breakfast, your Tripidays representative transfers you to Cairo International Airport for your departure. If you're visiting during the festive season, you may also enjoy browsing our Christmas Egypt Holiday options for additional holiday departures and seasonal experiences.
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.
The package includes two domestic flights (Cairo–Luxor and Abu Simbel–Cairo), a first-class train from Luxor to Aswan, 5 nights' accommodation across three cities, a private Egyptologist guide throughout, all entrance fees, daily breakfast, and lunch on touring days. Abu Simbel is a guaranteed included day, not an optional add-on.
This is the only 6-day package in this range that covers all four destinations, Cairo, Luxor, Aswan, and Abu Simbel — within a single overland itinerary, with Abu Simbel built in as a guaranteed day rather than a paid upgrade. For a different travel style covering the same three core cities, see the Cairo Nile Cruise Holiday Tour.
Traveling to Abu Simbel typically takes about 3.5 hours by road. The tour begins early in the morning to ensure cooler weather and a less crowded experience at the site.
Travel is by a combination of domestic flights and ground transport: a flight from Cairo to Luxor on Day 2, a first-class train from Luxor to Aswan on Day 4, a private road transfer from Aswan to Abu Simbel on Day 5, and a direct flight from Abu Simbel back to Cairo the same afternoon. There is no single long overland road segment — movement between cities is purposefully efficient.
Yes — two domestic flights are included: Cairo to Luxor on Day 2, and Abu Simbel to Cairo on Day 5. No flight supplements apply for either route.
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All things you should know before visiting Egypt & Beyond
Tripidays Egypt Tours has been offering an exceptional range of Egypt tours, vacation packages, Nile cruises, day trips, and shore excursions tailored to meet the diverse interests of travelers worldwide for over 45 years.
