The call to prayer drifts across the Nile as your taxi pulls up to the Four Seasons Hotel Cairo at Nile Plaza. Your river-view suite is ready. Three nights here anchor the Cairo leg. Next morning, a private guide meets you at Giza before the crowds arrive. You stand at the base of Khufu’s pyramid and feel the scale of it. The Egyptian Museum follows — go straight to Tutankhamun’s gold death mask. That afternoon, walk Khan el-Khalili. Bargain for spices, watch the coppersmiths work, drink tea.
An EgyptAir flight delivers you to Aswan in under two hours. The Sofitel Legend Old Cataract Aswan sits above the First Cataract, its terrace facing the Nile. Check in, then take a short motorboat to Philae Temple. The columns rise straight out of the water. That evening, board a felucca. Your Nubian host poles you across to his village. You eat ful and rice on a rooftop while kids play in the lane below.
The Sanctuary Sun Boat IV departs the next morning. Cabins are compact and well-appointed; the sun deck is where you’ll spend your time. Kom Ombo comes first — a double temple split between Sobek the crocodile god and Horus the falcon. Your guide reads the surgical instruments carved into the wall. Edfu Temple follows, the best-preserved in Egypt. Walk the hypostyle hall; the paint still holds color in places. Each evening, dinner is served on deck as the banks slide past in the dark.
The boat docks at Luxor on day three of the cruise. A car takes you to the Sofitel Winter Palace Luxor, a colonial property set in two acres of garden. That night, attend the sound and light show at Karnak Temple — the scale of the complex only becomes clear after dark. The following morning, cross to the West Bank. Valley of the Kings, Hatshepsut’s mortuary temple, the Colossi of Memnon. Return to Luxor Temple at dusk; the columns are lit amber and the crowds have thinned.
An EgyptAir flight returns you to Cairo for one final night at the Four Seasons. Alp Travel Co. has arranged a private dinner cruise on the Nile. The city lights run along both banks. You order mezze and watch the bridges pass overhead. It is a clean, unhurried way to close the trip.
