Our journey begins in Cairo, where the hum of the city meets the calm of the Nile.

On arrival, you’ll be welcomed by our local representative before passport control and escorted through the priority fast-track lane, helping you clear formalities with ease before continuing to baggage claim and your transfer to the hotel.

Settle into your riverside hotel, where palm-framed views set the scene for our journey. Those arriving early may join an optional walking tour in Cairo (available to prebook on request).

As the sun slips beneath Cairo’s skyline, join your Signature Guide for a welcome reception and dinner overlooking the Nile. An elegant introduction to the timeless allure of Egypt.

Accommodation: Sheraton Cairo Hotel

Signature Experience: Join your Signature Guide to explore the Grand Egyptian Museum, the most comprehensive and impressive museum on Ancient Egypt anywhere in the world. Your guide’s intimate knowledge of the exhibits means you’ll take the quietest route possible, while their expert insight reveals stories of the pharaohs and sets the scene for our adventure. Continue to the Giza Plateau, visiting the Sphinx and the Pyramids, again taking the quietest route and time so you’ll avoid the crowds. Step inside Khufu’s pyramid, enjoying private vehicle transport within the site, away from others.

Lunch is served with a front-row seat to the Great Pyramid. Return to Cairo to relax for the evening or ask your Signature Guide for their recommendations on a great dinner spot.

Accommodation: Sheraton Cairo Hotel

Signature Experience: Trade city edges for open desert in Wadi Al-Hitan, the Valley of the Whales. We ride by 4×4 across the sands to 40m-year-old whale fossils exposed in golden silence.

Continue to Tunis village for lunch at Kom El-Dikka, a farm-to-table restaurant specialising in Egyptian and Lebanese cuisine.

Return to Cairo as the Nile catches the evening light.

Accommodation: Sheraton Cairo Hotel

Fly south to Luxor, where ancient Thebes waits beyond the Nile. On arrival, we travel north to Dendera, where the Temple of Hathor, dedicated to the cow goddess of the same name, glows with carved constellations and painted ceilings.

You’ll have free time to wander or grab some lunch before we continue on to visit the East Bank as dusk falls over Luxor Temple, the columns glowing gold beside the river.

Accommodation: Malkata House

Today is your Signature Day, inviting you to shape the experience around your interests and connect more deeply with Luxor’s ancient past. You could:

• Rise before dawn for a hot-air balloon flight over the West Bank, floating above temples and farmland before a farm breakfast (4am-7am)
• Trace the lives of queens, nobles and princes at the Valley of the Queens, Queen Hatshepsut’s terraced temple and the richly painted Tombs of the Nobles (7.30am-12.30pm)
• Spend an evening at Luxor Museum, where a thoughtfully curated collection of sculpture, jewellery and royal treasures brings ancient Thebes into intimate focus (5pm-8pm)
• Cycle through Luxor’s rural landscape, following quiet tracks between mud-brick homes, palm groves and fertile fields shaped by the Nile (4pm-5pm)

Accommodation: Malkata House

Signature Experience: The West Bank brings a privileged exploration of the Valley of the Kings, the vivid reliefs of Medinet Habu, and Howard Carter’s House, still preserved in 1922 anticipation, where you’ll uncover stories from the Golden Age of Egyptology.

After, we journey to Esna, where we step aboard our Signature Stay, the Safiya, a private dahabiya, which recalls the golden age of Nile travel. With just 10 suites and shaded decks made for slow afternoons, it invites relaxation.

Enjoy a late lunch on deck as sails catch the wind and the river carries you toward the heart of Egypt.

Accommodation: Aboard the Safiya

Enjoy breakfast on deck as the dahabiya drifts toward El Kab, where ancient mud-brick walls and painted tombs and shrines rise from the desert.

Walk through the temples and tombs of El Kab, one of Egypt’s most unique settlements, exploring vast walls, vivid tombs, and temples that reveal the earliest echoes of a civilisation.

Sail onward to Edfu to visit the grand Temple of Horus, among the best preserved in Egypt, then unwind on board as the current sets the pace. Dinner is a special moonlit barbecue on the shoreline.

Dinner is a special moonlit barbecue, laughter low over the water.

Accommodation: Aboard the Safiya

Step ashore at Bisaw Island, where life follows the rhythm of the river. Meet women baking traditional sun bread, and join fishermen in their narrow boats, learning how the Nile shapes every day.

Share simple moments with local families at Bishaw Island village, discovering daily life through warm conversation, an encounter that reveals the soul of the Nile.

Sail onward to El Silsila, where sandstone once left the cliffs to build Egypt’s greatest temples.

Explore the ancient quarry and the rock-cut temple of Horemheb, where shrines and inscriptions echo the artistry of an empire.

Return to Safiya for a quiet evening on deck, the river drifting silver in the dusk.

Accommodation: Aboard the Safiya

Walk through the columned halls of Kom Ombo Temple and visit the Crocodile Museum, a unique riverside exhibition, as you uncover how divine balance and the might of the Nile shaped Egypt’s spiritual life.

Back on board, join the chef for an easy-going cooking demonstration. As you near Aswan, there’s time for a refreshing swim before a starlit farewell dinner on deck, during which you’ll enjoy some of the food you helped to prepare earlier.

Accommodation: Aboard the Safiya

Before taking your complimentary departure transfer to the airport, linger in the morning light, letting the river settle into memory. This chapter may close, but Egypt’s stories and the spirit of the Nile will remain with you.

Alternatively, extend your stay and continue your journey of discovery. Speak with your Signature Collection travel expert to explore the possibilities.