Nile Adventure
(11 days)

A Grand Private Tour of Egypt
Including a Nile Cruise – Boarding Luxor

All transfers are on a private basis. Private touring in Cairo, Tanis, Suez, Bubastis and Alexandria.

A good look at Cairo, with a foray into Fayoum Oases and of course a cruise along the Nile. Visit the Lair of Rameses: Tanis, modern San El Hagar – famed in the film Raiders of the Lost Ark as the resting place of the Ark of the Covenant. Come and tour Bubastis, capital of the 22nd and 23rd dynasties. In Bubastis, the cat was more than a king, it was honored as a goddess.

Day 1: CAIRO – Daily Arrival – Choose your own date – Subject to cruise and air space availability
This is a private tour:
Cairo Airport: upon arrival, our local representative will greet you at the airport and whisk you to your hotel. Visa may be issued upon arrival at Cairo Airport.

VIP Meet & Greet Upon arrival at Cairo Airport
Visa issued locally in Cairo (for a limited number of nationalities) no photos required. Our representative greets you at the airport and whisks you to your hotel. Visa will be issued upon arrival at Cairo Airport for a limited number of citizens such as: American, Australian, NZ, EU, Canadian, EU Singaporean and Japanese citizens. You are responsible for having your passport in order valid at least for 6 month beyond the date of your arrival in Cairo. Our local rep. will meet you with a sign that carries your name, and will be waiting for you with the prepaid visa stamps to proceed to the passports control to stamp your passports and then you claim your luggage. After you clear the passport and customs formalities and exit the terminal, our local representative will escort you by private vehicle to the hotel. Welcome fruit basket & Egyptian pastry awaits you in your room with our compliments.

DAY 2: CAIRO  (BL)
On your first full day in Egypt we show you the Egyptian Museum including the “Mummies Room” and King Tut’s Gold Treasure Pavillion. Lunch is included at Naguib Mahfouz or Hadaik El Azhar restaurant, on to Al-Azhar Park and El Darb El-Ahmar, then the Citadel of Saladin, and Mohammed Ali Mosque, made of alabaster, then wander through the alleys of the charming Khan El-Khalili Bazaar district. The Agha Khan Development Network The Azhar Park Project in old Islamic Cairo and the Conservation and Revitalization of Darb al-Ahmar historical treasures.

DAY 3: CAIRO – (BL)
After breakfast, drive to the edge of Cairo. We are now in Giza – stand in awe in front of the Sphinx, and the mighty Pyramids of Giza. Complimentary short camel ride is included to allow you a photo with the Pyramids in the background Time is limited, so please do not go for what the camel driver tries to convince you, i.e. go for a long ride around the Pyramids. Lunch is included at the Mena House. After lunch we head for Memphis & Sakkara, visiting some of the Mastabas and Zoser Step-Pyramid as well as the Serapeum Stop at Haraniya before we head back to your hotel.

DAY 4: Luxor – Board your Nile Cruise (BLD)
We fly to Luxor (or Aswan), domestic air ticket is always included, transfers are on a private basis.

From the airport, we proceed to cross the Nile to the West Bank:
We tour today the magnificent tombs in the Valley of the Kings, including Tut-Ankh-Amon’s tomb, and the great temple of Queen Hatshepsut, we stop at the Colossi of Memnon as well.

Afterward, we’ll continue on to Deir El Medinah: to get a totally different perspective on ancient Egyptian life, at the ancient workers’ settlement of Deir el-Medinah. While most of the imposing stone monuments and sites of Egypt honor the lives and after-lives of royalty, Deir el-Medinah gives us unique and surprising insights into the ordinary citizens who constructed and decorated the tombs.

Here we’ll see the excavated homes shared by laborers with their domestic animals. These quarters were surprisingly large, with three good-sized rooms, courtyard, kitchen, and even storage cellars. While ancient Egypt might not have been a workers’ paradise, we’ll see that artisans and builders were highly regarded in their community. We are proud to be the only operator to offer regular visits to this singular ancient settlement in its tour and cruise programs.

Back to the cruise to check-in: Welcome drink is served upon arrival on board, get ready for a delicious lunch. Welcome fruit basket & Egyptian pastries await you in your cabin.

We visit the great temples of Luxor and Karnak, then return to our Nile cruiser in time for afternoon tea. In the evening we attend a sound & light show at Karnak (Bring your jacket).

DAY 5: Grand Day Cruising  (BLD)
Full day sailing the Nile, we pass through Esna locks, an on to Edfu where we dock for the night.

DAY 6: EDFU – KOM OMBO – ASWAN – Nile Cruising (BLD)
In Edfu, we board horse-drawn carriages for the ride to the Temple of Horus. Returning to our ship, we set sail for Kom Ombo. We explore the twin Temples of Haroeris and Sobek at Kom Ombo, then sail south to Aswan. In the evening, there’s a jolly galabia party aboard.

DAY 7: ASWAN – Nile Cruising (BLD)
After breakfast we start our visit to the awesome Aswan dams, and next an ancient granite quarry complete with an unfinished obelisk, the Nubian Museum, then board a motor launch to visit the Island Temple of Philae, dedicated to the Ancient Goddess ISIS. Isis is portrayed regally, as a queen seated on a throne (which may be the meaning of her name), often holding her son Horus as a baby. Other images show her with broad, magnificent gilded wings able to protect the world. Isis, the great Mother Goddess. Come explore her mystery in timeless Egypt when you Travel in Style!

Be our guest, if you wish, on a complimentary short camel caravan to a near by Nubian Village for tea with the locals.

After lunch we board a graceful felucca and cruise among the islands, returning to our ship in time for tea. In the evening, we take a short ride by motor launch to the Temples of Philae, on an island in the Nile, for a sound-and-light show which explains the Nile’s endless history.

DAY 8: CAIRO – Home Hosted Family dinner (BLD)
After breakfast we check out. Our touring done, we return by air to Cairo (all domestic flights are always included in our rate). In Cairo on to your hotel remainder of the day at leisure. Transfers are ALWAYS on a private basis, private air-conditioned vehicle, private chauffeur. Lunch is included at your hotel.

Complimentary Dinner is included at a local home:
Meet the locals: This evening we’ll venture where few ordinary visitors ever tread… right into the homes of some of the people of Cairo! You’ll be invited to a family dinner, and while you enjoy wholesome home-cooked specialties, you’ll learn about and appreciate the outlook, aspirations, and way of life of your hosts. Be assured, as curious as you may be about your new friends, they’re sure to have questions about your own background. Once the ice is broken, you’ll enjoy a lively evening, and find that you have more in common than you ever suspected. Of course, if you prefer, you may enjoy a quiet evening with your travel companions by letting us know your preferences. You may wish to bring token gifts to exchange with the host family (T shirt, small souvenirs of your home town).

DAY 9: CAIRO – El Fayoum (BLD)
On Desert Safari for the Day – Fayoum Oases – And you thought the Pyramids were old. We leave Cairo by sunrise (private air conditioned car/driver/guide): Full day Fayoum Oases including: Hawara Pyramid, El Lahoun Pyramid, Ruins of Karanis, drive by Lake Qarun, lunch is included at a local restaurant.

The wilds of the desert begin right on the outskirts of Cairo, and continue for hundreds of miles to the east and west, through sands, rock, mountains, oases, and a surprising variety of scenery and inhabitants.

Join us for a day ranging across the desert like modern nomads. In place of camels, we’ll travel in comfortable, reliable four-by-four Toyota Land Cruisers. Your guide and drivers will meet you at your hotel, and soon you’ll leave bustling Cairo behind as you undertake the drive toward the Oasis of El Fayoum, 150 kilometers to the southwest. Hard as it is to believe, a great inland sea once covered these sands. It was a holy reserve of sacred crocodiles, symbolized by the god Sobek.

We’ll visit the temple of Kom Oshim, drive over ancient lake beds, and alongside the waters of today’s Fayoum Lake to reach the fishermen’s village of Chak Chouk. There we’ll stop for a lunch of fish caught fresh that morning. There will be time to wander the village lanes and discreetly watch the everyday activities of baking flatbread, irrigating crops from the lake’s waters, and bringing in the catch. We’ll also include the craft and pottery museum where the best works of local artisans are on display.

Then it’s into our four-by-fours again, for an off-road adventure! We’ll head alongside and across desert washes, between dunes, and over ancient lake beds for 35 kilometers to the Valley of the Whales (In Arabic: Wadi-El-Hitan). Incredibly, these great mammals once thrived – almost forty million years ago- in waters surrounded by sands. We’ll stop and gaze in amazement at their fossilized remains alongside smaller sea creatures that remain in stone. This valley was discovered in 1936, by the German geologist George Schweinfurth in the northwestern corner of Wadi El-Rayan.

The valley provides evidence of one of the major changes in this mammal evolution has been declared by the UNESCO to be a World Heritage Site. It is believed that these land based whales once had feet that may have helped them somewhat while ashore. A team from the University of Michigan discovered in the late 80’s that these Zeuglodon whales did have rudimentary feet, this was a startling discovery, suggesting that whales of Wadi -El-Hitan had recently started living in water as well, these whales were not related to any of the whales we have today, rather a more slender body and may grow up to 75 feet long. Several skeletons of whales are exposed in the sand. George Schweinfurth named this extinct specie the Zeuglodon Isis Whales.

In the evening, you’ll return to your hotel in Cairo. Land transportation in air-conditioned four-wheel-drive Toyota Land Cruiser with the services of driver and English-speaking driver. Lunch is included enroute. Dinner is included at your hotel back in Cairo.

DAY 10: Tanis – Suez Canal (B. Lunch Box)
Breakfast is included at the hotel, lunch box will be prepared by your chef with bottled water.

To the Lair of Rameses and the Suez Canal
Venture where few visitors have gone before, away from trafficked pathways and neatly packaged tours, to the legendary capital of Rameses II, the Great. So unusual is this full-day adventure, and so select are the people who take it, that special permits are required from the Egyptian Department of Antiquities. And if this opportunity is not enough to whet your appetite, we’ll round out a spectacular day with a journey forward through the centuries, to the modern wonder of the Suez Canal.

Arrange your wake-up call… we’ll be heading out from Cairo at 6 a.m. on our day of discovery. We’ll make our way through busy streets, and beyond, to the fertile farmlands of the Nile Delta, seemingly unchanged since the time of the pharaohs, watered by a web of canals running from the life-giving Nile, worked by villagers with hand tools and the aid of camels and donkeys. We’ll pass through Zagazig, a bustling cotton and grain farming center, and stop at nearby Bubastis, capital of the 22nd and 23rd dynasties. Here, the cat was more than a king, it was honored as a goddess, and sacred cats were buried in chambers that lie behind an Old Kingdom Chapel. Parts of temples erected by Osorkon II and Nectanebo II also remain.

But this is only prologue…. We’ll continue to Tanis – modern San El Hagar – famed in the film Raiders of the Lost Ark as the resting place of the Ark of the Covenant. Tanis was the capital of Smendes, founder of the 21st Dynasty, a grand center whose rich remains include the main temple of Amun, and a royal Necropolis with the only Pharaonic burials never touched by ancient tomb raiders. There are even artificial lakes contained by limestone blocks.

So grand was Tanis that many believe that it was the capital of Rameses the Great. Among the layers of cities and palaces might lie the site of the Pharaoh’s court that was built by the labor of the ancient Hebrews. before Moses led them out of Egypt.

Tanis is a restricted site because of its ongoing excavations and its intact burial chambers that are still yielding treasures and understanding of the ancients. It will be your privilege to make your own discoveries as one of the few to tread these stones. Because our path is away from the usual routes of visitors, we will travel with provisions, including a box lunch, and of course, bottled water.

After our discovery of Tanis, we’ll journey northeastward through the delta and across the centuries to a wonder of the modern world. The Suez Canal opened in 1869 to international celebration that included the commissioning of the opera Aida, after ten years of excavation that employed more than a million laborers. The canal was the technological feat of its day, connecting the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea, cutting trade routes to the East in half, and changing the course of history. Even today it is the mainstay of Egypt’s economy, its neutrality guaranteed by treaty.

We’ll visit Ismailia, where the historic Canal headquarters are located. We’ll soak up the atmosphere of worldwide commerce passing through this sash of the sea, and conjure up the international intrigues of bygone days, as we take a break for tea and sandwiches at a local establishment. If time permits, we’ll see the fortifications of the Bar Lev line, held by Israel after the Six Day War of 1967, and demolished by water cannon in 1973 in a surprise Egyptian attack.

After a day of encounters with ancient and modern history, we’ll continue on our way back to Cairo.

DAY 11: DEPARTURE (B)
Our representative escorts you to the airport for your homeward flight. Bon Voyage! Add an extra day in Cairo.

Dress Code: What to Pack. Clothing on Board the Nile Cruise.

Rates are per person in USD$ from JFK, add on is available from most major cities.
	Deluxe – A Marriott/Hyatt or similar	Deluxe – B Hilton Sheraton or similar
Triple Occupancy	$ 4485.00	$ 4091.00
Double Occupancy	$ 4795.00	$ 3350.00
Single Occupancy	$ 5995.00	$ 5505.00

• Please add a 15% supplement for: Christmas / New Year’s and Easter weeks
• Children 2-up to 12 years of age: Discount 30%

Your tour includes:

• All airfares in Egypt, with taxes in economy class.
• All touring on a private basis, private air-conditioned vehicle, private chauffeur, private Egyptologist guide including on the Nile cruise.
• All transfers in Egypt always on a private basis: private air-conditioned vehicle, private chauffeur.
• Hotel accommodations, including tax and service charges.
• Nile cruise; the sequence of sights visited between Aswan and Luxor is subject to change according to vessel requirements, and the cruise may begin in either Aswan or Luxor.
• Meals as indicated in the tour itinerary: B = continental breakfast; L = set-menu lunch; D = set-menu dinner.
• Bottled water (one per person) delivered to your cabin daily while on board the cruise.
• Guided sightseeing by private air-conditioned motor coach or car as per itinerary, including all entrance fees.
• Complimentary Lonely Planet travel guidebook to Egypt
• Sample Deluxe boats: M/S Adonis, M/S Mojito, M/S Monaco, M/S Monte Carlo, M/S Beau Soleil, Queen of Hansa, M/S Solitaire.
• All meals and shore Excursions while on board the cruises.
• Complimentary welcome drink upon arrival on board the cruises. Complimentary welcome fruit basket awaits you in your cabin, on board your Nile cruise.
• Tea or coffee with every meal while on board the cruise.
• Meals as indicated in the tour itinerary: B = continental breakfast; L = set-menu lunch; D = set-menu dinner.
• Bottled water (one per person) delivered to your cabin daily while on board the cruise.
• Cairo Guided sightseeing by private air-conditioned motor coach or car as per itinerary, including all entrance fees.
• VIP Arrival Hall At Cairo Airport
  Visa issued locally in Cairo (for a limited number of nationalities) no photos required. Our representative greets you at the airport and whisks you to your hotel. Visa will be issued upon arrival at Cairo Airport for a limited number of citizens such as: American, Australian, NZ, EU, Canadian, EU Singaporean and Japanese citizens. You are responsible for having your passport in order valid at least for 6 month beyond the date of your arrival in Cairo. Our local rep. will meet you with a sign that carries your name, and will be waiting for you with the prepaid visa stamps to proceed to the passports control to stamp your passports and then you claim your luggage. After you clear the passport and customs formalities and exit the terminal, our local representative will escort you by private vehicle to the hotel. Welcome fruit basket & Egyptian pastry awaits you in your room with our compliments.

Not included:

• Travel Insurance
• Any item of personal nature, i.e. laundry, phone calls. etc.
• Any item that’s not specifically listed in the “inclusions”

Deluxe – A:
Cairo Hotels: Conrad / Hyatt / Cairo Marriott or similar
Nile Cruise: M/S Monaco. M/S Mojito, or similar

Deluxe – B:
Cairo Hotels: Hilton, Sheraton or similar
Nile Cruise: M/S Lady Diana. M/S Florence, or similar