Experience Egypt with Intrepid: Cairo, Alexandria & the Nile

Travelling with Intrepid

Your Intrepid tour leader travels with the group throughout, helping things run smoothly and sharing useful recommendations for meals, free time and optional activities along the way. They also bring more context to the history and customs behind each stop, while free time in Aswan, Luxor and Cairo gives you space to explore at your own speed.

Highlights

• Stand before the Pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx, then explore the collections inside the Grand Egyptian Museum.

• Head to Alexandria for the underground Catacombs of Kom el Shoqafa, Bibliotheca Alexandrina and Fort Qaitbey beside the Mediterranean.

• Visit the historic desert monasteries of Wadi El Natrun before travelling south to Aswan by overnight sleeper train.

• Experience Nubian culture over dinner with a local family after visiting Philae Temple, which stands on an island in the Nile.

• Travel to Abu Simbel, where four enormous statues of Ramses II guard temples carved into the rock, before beginning a three-night Nile cruise.

• Explore Luxor’s ancient Theban sites, including Karnak, the Valley of the Kings, Tutankhamun’s tomb and the Temple of Hatshepsut.

Cairo and Alexandria

Cairo is where the journey begins and ends, placing the Pyramids, Sphinx and Grand Egyptian Museum at the start before returning later for the lanes, shops and food stalls of Khan el-Khalili. Egypt’s capital can feel enormous at first, so travelling with a tour leader helps connect its ancient sites with the busy modern city around them.

A full day in Alexandria brings a very different setting. Egypt’s second city faces the Mediterranean and carries layers of Greek, Roman and Egyptian history. Go underground into the Catacombs of Kom el Shoqafa, visit the modern library inspired by the ancient Library of Alexandria and stop at Fort Qaitbey, built beside the harbour where the Pharos lighthouse once stood.

Aswan and Abu Simbel

The overnight train takes the group south to Aswan, where the Nile narrows between islands and granite riverbanks. The atmosphere is calmer than Cairo, with traditional felucca sailing boats on the water and Nubian communities forming an important part of local life.

Visit Philae Temple by boat, then spend an evening in a Nubian village, sharing dinner with a local family and learning more about their culture. From Aswan, travel to Abu Simbel, close to Egypt’s southern border, where the vast temples of Ramses II were carved directly into the mountainside.

Cruising the Nile

Board the cruise in Aswan for three nights travelling north towards Luxor. Meals are included on board, with time between visits to sit on deck and watch the Nile’s villages, farmland and desert banks pass by.

The route includes Kom Ombo Temple, an unusual riverside complex divided between two gods, Sobek and Horus. The ship continues past Edfu and through the Esna Locks before arriving in Luxor, with an optional visit to Edfu Temple available along the way.

Luxor

Luxor stands on the site of ancient Thebes and has one of the world’s greatest concentrations of temples and royal tombs. On the East Bank, explore the vast Karnak complex, built and expanded by generations of pharaohs over more than two thousand years.

Cross to the West Bank for the Valley of the Kings, where the pharaohs were buried in tombs cut deep into the rock. Entry to three tombs and the tomb of Tutankhamun is included, followed by the Temple of Hatshepsut, built into the cliffs at Deir el-Bahari. The journey then returns to Cairo by air for one final evening in the capital.

Terms and Conditions

Economy flights from Dublin to Cairo via Frankfurt, departing 10/02/2027, and a complimentary arrival transfer. The 11-night Experience Egypt tour with Intrepid includes seven nights in hotels, three nights aboard a Nile cruise boat and one night in a two-berth cabin on the overnight sleeper train. The tour includes 11 breakfasts, three lunches and five dinners, along with private vehicle travel, an internal flight, the Nile cruise and a felucca sailing trip. Eighteen included experiences cover the Pyramids of Giza and Sphinx, Grand Egyptian Museum, Alexandria, Wadi El Natrun, Philae Temple, a Nubian village dinner, Abu Simbel, Kom Ombo, Karnak, the Valley of the Kings, Tutankhamun’s tomb, Hatshepsut Temple and Khan el-Khalili. Return economy flights from Cairo to Dublin via Frankfurt are included. Based on two adults.

11 nights from €3,300 per person