Day by dayيومًا بيوم
- Day 1 — Arrive Cairo. Nothing scheduled.
- Day 2 — Grand Egyptian Museum in the morning; Giza plateau from mid-afternoon.
- Day 3 — Saqqara, Memphis and Dahshur. Leave by 8am.
- Day 4 — Islamic Cairo: Citadel, Sultan Hassan, Al-Muizz Street, Khan el-Khalili. Coptic Cairo if you have energy.
- Day 5 — Fly to Luxor. Karnak and Luxor Temple. Board the cruise.
- Day 6 — West Bank at opening: Valley of the Kings, Hatshepsut, Colossi. Sail to Esna.
- Day 7 — Edfu's Temple of Horus; Kom Ombo in the late afternoon.
- Day 8 — Aswan: Philae, the High Dam, the unfinished obelisk, felucca at sunset.
- Day 9 — Abu Simbel by air or road; back to Aswan.
- Day 10 — Fly Aswan to Cairo and home.
Swaps and variationsبدائل
| Reverse it | Cairo, fly to Aswan, sail downstream to Luxor, fly home from Luxor. A night shorter on the boat and usually cheaper. |
|---|---|
| Balloon | Add a sunrise flight on Day 6 — pickup around 4am, back for the West Bank. Details. |
| Drop Saqqara | Only if you must. It's the best day in Cairo after Giza. |
| Swap Abu Simbel | For an extra Aswan day with Nubian villages if the 3am start doesn't appeal. |
| Add Dendera | If you're doing Luxor from a hotel rather than a cruise. |
| Beach finish | Turn this into 14 days by flying from Aswan to Hurghada. 14 day version. |
Making it workضبط التفاصيل
Book the cruise first — it's the fixed point everything else works around. Then internal flights, then Cairo hotels. Fly rather than drive between Cairo and Luxor or Aswan; the road takes a day each way and saves little.
Best months are October, November, March and April. In December and January bring a jacket for cruise evenings and early West Bank mornings.
Common questionsأسئلة شائعة
Is 10 days enough for Egypt?
It's the ideal length for a first visit — Cairo, Luxor, a Nile cruise, Aswan and Abu Simbel, all at a reasonable pace.
Should the cruise be at the start or the end of 10 days?
The end, after Cairo. It gives the trip a chronological shape — Old Kingdom pyramids first, New Kingdom temples second — and finishes somewhere restful.
Can I add the Red Sea to a 10 day Egypt trip?
Not comfortably. Four nights on the coast pushes the trip to fourteen days; anything shorter doesn't register as a rest.
How much of a 10 day trip is travel?
Two internal flights, each about an hour, plus your international flights. Everything else is short transfers, which is why flying between cities matters.