Which Egypt itinerary is right for you? Our six private journeys, compared

By Islam Hussein, journey designer at Sillage Égypte · Last updated October 2026

The quick answer

Sillage's six private luxury journeys run from four days in Cairo to sixteen days across the whole country, priced from €2,190 to €11,650 per person, based on two travellers.

• First trip, short calendar: Egypt in Brief.
• The classic ten days, no boat: The Grand Tour.
• The river at the centre: The Complete Egypt.
• Monuments, then the sea: The Nile & the Red Sea.
• Everything, Siwa included: Beyond the Nile.

Every journey is private throughout, the Egyptian visa is arranged and included, and every one is a starting point a designer adapts to you.

The six journeys, side by side

Prices are per person as listed in September 2026, for two travellers or more, in luxury hotels. Every journey is available all year round; peak periods and high-demand dates carry a supplement, and a designer confirms the exact price in the proposal. Domestic flights within Egypt are included.

Every serious Egypt itinerary question is really two questions: how many days do you have, and which Egypt are you visiting — the city, the river, the desert, the sea, or several at once? A luxury Egypt itinerary can be built around any of those answers, and ten days is only the most-asked version.

Sillage Égypte publishes six signature journeys, two short and four grand. Each is private throughout: your own car, your own certified Egyptologist from first day to last, no shared groups, no scheduled departures. We stay only in high-end hotels; where a destination has none in that category, as at Abu Simbel, we use the best category available there. This page compares all six, including which one is the wrong answer for which traveller, because a journey you adapt together will beat a package you accept. All six live on the journeys page; here is what each is for.

Cairo, Two Views: the four-day answer

Cairo, Two Views is for travellers with four days and one city: the stopover done properly, the first half of a longer week, or Cairo taken seriously on its own. It is four days and three nights, private throughout, from €2,190 per person.

The two views are the Nile and the pyramids: the river that made the city, and the plateau that outlived everything built beside it. Four unhurried days with your own Egyptologist cover both, along with the Grand Egyptian Museum and the layered medieval city, in a way a rushed fortnight rarely manages. Cairo rewards depth more than speed, which makes this the right answer more often than people expect.

It is the wrong answer if your heart is set on Luxor; four days cannot be honest about both. How to adapt it: extra nights for the museum at full length, slower mornings in the old quarters, or a day shaped around a single quarter.

Egypt in Brief: the first-timer's six days

Egypt in Brief is the first visit with a cautious calendar: six days and five nights, Cairo and Luxor, from €4,675 per person. It gives you the two essential Egypts, the city and the monuments, without the internal sprawl that breaks longer trips apart.

It suits first-timers who want the pyramids, the museum, Karnak and the west bank inside a single week, and returning travellers adding Egypt to a wider region. It does not include the river as a place to stay: you cross it, you do not sleep on it. Travellers who dream of waking mid-water should read on to The Complete Egypt.

How to adapt it: a third Luxor night for the tombs at a slower pace, a west-bank morning timed to the opening hour, flight times moved so the days breathe.

The Grand Tour: the 10-day luxury Egypt itinerary

The Grand Tour is the 10-day luxury Egypt itinerary for travellers who want the country's spine without a boat: Cairo, a night at Abu Simbel, Aswan, then Luxor. It is ten days and nine nights from €5,850 per person.

Abu Simbel is always reached by air, never by the long desert road. Cairo to Aswan is by domestic flight, Aswan to Abu Simbel by air, then Aswan to Luxor overland by private car through Kom Ombo and Edfu. The overland leg is the point: the car stops at temples at hours the river fleets cannot reach, and the night at Abu Simbel buys you the temples in evening light and at dawn, before the coaches arrive.

It is for boat-sceptics, photographers, and anyone who likes temples arrived at sideways. It is the wrong answer for travellers who measure a great trip in nights on water; for them, the next journey.

How to adapt it: swap a car leg for a flight, add Red Sea days at the end, or let the designer slide the week around your dates.

The Complete Egypt: thirteen days, the river at the centre

The Complete Egypt is the once-trip: thirteen days and twelve nights across Cairo, Luxor, five nights on a private dahabiya between Esna and Aswan, and Abu Simbel, with the pyramids kept for the last day. It is from €7,500 per person.

It is for travellers doing Egypt properly, perhaps once: the river at the centre, the boat chartered for your party alone, and moorings the larger ships cannot reach.

The pyramids come last by design, and the design is worth explaining. After nearly two weeks of learning to read walls with your Egyptologist, you arrive at Giza with trained eyes — the reverse of the itineraries that open with the plateau and work down from there. (Some travellers prefer the plateau first, and we plan that version too; our 2027 eclipse journey, for example, is reordered around the dahabiya's dates, with the pyramids earlier in the week.)

It is the wrong answer only for travellers who need the sea as well; that is the next one. How to adapt it: shorten the river to three nights, reverse the direction, add the Red Sea as a coda.

The Nile & the Red Sea: monuments, then the sea

The Nile & the Red Sea is the fortnight with a holiday attached: thirteen days and twelve nights, with four nights on the river among the monuments, then four nights by the sea. It is from €7,999 per person.

It suits families most of all (children who have snorkelled all morning forgive a temple all afternoon) and any traveller who knows the sea half is the half most itineraries forget to give you. The rhythm matters: monuments first, sea second. In our experience the reverse rarely works, because it is hard to enjoy Karnak knowing the water is tomorrow.

How to adapt it: sea nights moved up or down, the four sea nights split between two shores, or the river leg shortened when the calendar is tight.

Beyond the Nile: sixteen days, the whole country

Beyond the Nile is the grand journey in the old sense: sixteen days and fifteen nights across Cairo, Alexandria, Siwa and the Great Sand Sea, then six nights on the river from Aswan to Luxor, with Abu Simbel reached by air. It is from €11,650 per person.

It is for second trips and once-a-decade travellers: the Egypt beyond the postcard, a Mediterranean city, an oasis of salt lakes and springs, a desert crossing, and then the river as the long finish. Honest counsel: it is the wrong answer for a first visit on a ten-day calendar, because the country's spine deserves those days and the spine is The Grand Tour's. But for travellers who have already stood at the plateau, or who have the time to do all of it once and properly, nothing we publish goes further.

How to adapt it: desert legs trimmed for pace, the oasis taken slower, springs and salt lakes slotted to the hours the light is kindest.

Choosing between them

Two questions decide it.

Boat or no boat?

• Waking on the water is the point: The Complete Egypt (five dahabiya nights), Beyond the Nile (six river nights), or The Nile & the Red Sea (four river nights, then four by the sea).
• It is not: The Grand Tour overland, or Egypt in Brief.

Which Egypt, or how many?

• The city only: Cairo, Two Views.
• City and monuments, short: Egypt in Brief.
• The country's spine, no boat: The Grand Tour.
• The river at the centre: The Complete Egypt.
• Monuments plus a beach: The Nile & the Red Sea.
• The whole map, desert included: Beyond the Nile.

If you are still between two, that is what a journey designer is for. The choice is a conversation, not a commitment. Season matters too: the summer heat changes which journey is comfortable, so read when to go to Egypt before you settle on dates.

Frequently asked questions

The takeaway

Six journeys, one method: start from the published frame that matches your days and your Egypt, then adapt it with a designer until it fits. The costliest mistake is choosing a journey for its length alone; the right question is which Egypt — city, river, desert, sea — you are actually going to see. Send a sentence through Plan your journey, free and without obligation, and a named journey designer will reply within 24 hours with a private proposal shaped around you.