Treading Through Time
Programme Overview
Duration: 6 days
An incentive itinerary taking in many of Egypt's major highlights, ideal for larger corporate groups.
Highlights: Cairo, Luxor, Aswan, Esna.
Arrive Cairo
Arrival at Cairo International Airport (based on night arrival)
An English-speaking tour coordinator will be waiting inside the airport to assist you through customs, holding a sign with the group name. There will be private Immigration service at the airport to ensure fast and easy arrival formalities. Visas will be issued upon arrival, with pre-purchase arranged by your representatives.
An Egyptian flower will be presented to the ladies, while moist scented towels will be presented to all guests. Your representatives will assist the group with obtaining their luggage, after which you will board a modern, air-conditioned bus to drive through Cairo to your selected hotel. A private luggage van will take all of the luggage from the airport to the hotel.
Because of the late time of your arrival, instead of dinner tonight you will find a welcome platter in your room, with assorted finger-foods, sandwich, fresh fruit, and chilled mineral water. A selection of honey-soaked oriental desserts and baklava will be the perfect finishing touch to your midnight snack.
Note: If you arrive before 10pm, a casual buffet dinner can be arranged instead.
Overnight: TBC
Meal Plan: D
Cairo
After breakfast, you will visit the Pyramids of Giza, the only present-day survivors of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, built as giant tombs for the mummies of the pharaohs Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure. View the enigmatic Sphinx, with its lion’s body and man’s head, who guards the necropolis.
Enjoy lunch at the docked boat Le Pacha 1901, after which you will continue to the Egyptian Museum. Your Egyptologist will escort you today on a fascinating tour of 7,000 years of Egyptian history. The museum houses the world’s greatest collection of ancient Egyptian artefacts, including 12 rooms filled with golden treasures from the world-famous tomb of the boy-king Tutenkhamun.
Your tour today also includes a chance to enter the Mummies Room, a specially-built area dedicated to the mummies of ancient royal kings and queens, including the mummy of ancient Egypt’s greatest Pharaoh, Ramses II.
You will then be taken back to the hotel to freshen up for dinner at Khan El Khalili Garden at Mena House Hotel, overlooking the Pyramids. The Mena House Hotel was originally a royal hunting lodge used by Khedive Ismail, the King of Egypt, as a guesthouse for himself and his guests while on hunting trips in the desert or during visits to the Pyramids of Giza. With the opening of the Suez Canal, he enlarged the guesthouse to receive international royal guests. Empress Eugenie was one of them as was Albert, Prince of Wales.
Enjoy a pre-dinner cocktail and canapés, before sitting down to a deluxe set menu with top French cuisine. Entertainment will be provided by an Egyptian Takht band to play Egyptian music, or a classical string quartet.
Overnight: TBC
Meal Plan: B,L,D
Cairo - Aswan
After breakfast, transfer to Cairo Airport for your flight to Aswan.
Upon arrival in Aswan you will be transferred to a 5-star deluxe Nile cruise boat, the “Sun Boat IV”, moored in our private dock in Aswan.
On the way to the boat your Egyptologist guide will escort you to visit the Aswan High Dam, Egypt’s contemporary example of building on a monumental scale.
A group of musicians will meet you at the gate of the dock to give you a warm Egyptian musical welcome to Aswan. On board, you will be welcomed by the reception staff who will offer you chilled fruit juice while assisting with your check-in.
Exact entertainment schedules during your cruise are adjusted according to the needs of each group and the exact sailing schedule of the boat, and, therefore, the day of each feature is subject to change. However, every cruise on the Sun Boat IV will include:
A colourful “galabeyya party” which gives each guest the opportunity to dress up in traditional Egyptian dress and dance to Arabic music.
A belly dancer, accompanied by a whirling dervish show in Luxor.
A lecture accompanied by a slide show, by your Egyptologist guide.
Menus are changed on a seasonal basis to enable the Chef to use the freshest ingredients at all times. However, the following is applicable to every cruise:
Most meals are served in the restaurant. However, at least one barbecue lunch (while sailing) will be served on deck (weather permitting).
Afternoon tea includes a range of teas and herbal infusions, fresh coffee and a selection of freshly baked, homemade cake, cookies and finger food
Mineral water, tea and coffee are included on a complimentary basis during meals.
After lunch, take a short motorboat ride to the romantic and majestic Philae Temple on the Island of Agilka. When you return to your cruise, a relaxing afternoon tea will be served in the lounge.
Tonight you will be greeted by your boat manager, who will introduce you to the boat staff and review on-board facilities and your cruise programme for the next few days. Complimentary Egyptian juices will be served, together with a selection of canapés, followed by a buffet dinner.
Overnight: On board Sun Boat IV in Aswan
Meal Plan: B,L,D
Aswan – Esna
After breakfast, you will visit the Temple of Kom Ombo, dedicated to the crocodile-god Sobek. The temple stands at a bend in the Nile where in ancient times sacred crocodiles basked in the sun on the riverbank.
Return to your boat for lunch on board, while you cruise to Edfu to visit the Temple of Horus – the largest and most completely preserved Pharaonic, albeit Greek-built, temple in Egypt.
While you are on your tour, an Egyptian dress will be placed in your cabin for you to wear it at tonight’s Egyptian night, and to keep as a souvenir from Egypt. Afternoon tea will be served onboard while you cruise to Esna.
Tonight’s dinner will be an “Egyptian Night” costume party for all guests, with a chance to dress up in traditional Egyptian “galabeyas”. Dinner will be a lavish buffet of Egyptian specialties, followed by oriental music and dancing for everyone.
Overnight: On board Sun Boat IV in Esna
Meal Plan: B,L,D
Esna - Luxor
After an early breakfast you will cross the Nile by a motorboat to catch your bus on the West Bank of Luxor.
The ancient Egyptians stopped building pyramids as royal tombs after robbers stole all the treasures inside, and instead they started burying their royalty in secret tombs at Thebes, today’s West Bank of Luxor. Go there to explore the Valley of the Kings, where New Kingdom pharaohs were buried in hidden tombs which have maintained their richly painted hues and were filled with treasures for use in the afterlife.
Optional: Tomb of King Tutankhamun
At the Valley of the Kings, retrace the steps of Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon and enter the small tomb of the famed boy-king Tutankhamun, where you will see scenes from the Egyptian “Book of the Dead” on his burial chamber walls. For centuries the entrance was hidden by debris, safeguarding its discovery until 1922. Although Tutankhamun was not an important pharaoh, the unprecedented treasures found inside ensured his place in history. Tut’s treasures are now in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.
The Mortuary Temple of Queen Hatshepsut, Ancient Egypt’s only female pharaoh, rises out of the desert in a series of brilliant white terraces set against limestone cliffs. The temple was an important religious and funerary site, dedicated to the cults of Hathor, the cow goddess of beauty and love, and Anubis, god of the dead and mummification. After Hatshepsut’s death, her jealous stepson and successor Tuthmosis III defaced her temple images in an attempt to erase her memory forever.
Enjoy a brief stop at the famed Colossi of Memnon, two immense statues of Amenhotep III which, in Pharaonic times, guarded the entrance to his once great temple.They were renamed by the ancient Greeks after the Trojan hero Memnon. The Greeks attributed the mournful cry once emitted by the statues at dawn to their sorrowful loss of Memnon at the hands of Achilles. During the Roman period, the site became a resort spot where many prominent travellers left their own graffiti carved into the sandstone.
Return to the boat for lunch. This afternoon your Egyptologist will guide you on a tour of the East Bank of Luxor, starting with the strikingly graceful Temple of Luxor dedicated to the god Amun.
Return to your cruise for afternoon tea and to freshen up for tonight’s gala dinner at Habu Temple, the great memorial temple of Ramesses III and is the best preserved of all mortuary temples of Thebes. It is called the Mansion of Millions of Years of User-Maat-Re Meriamun, the throne name of Ramesses III, "United with Eternity in the Possession of Amun in Western Thebes." It contains more than 75,350 sq ft of decorated surfaces across its walls
Upon arrival at the temple, the March of Opera Aida will play in the background from inside the temple, as you make your way from the outer gate to the first pylon. Candles and fire torches will be placed both sides of the alley. As you pass through the entrance gates, the courtyard will be dark. Suddenly, parts of the temple will begin to be stunningly lit, illuminating each majestic pylon, obelisk, group of pillars, one after the other. On arrival at the central court inside the temple complex, Pharaonic cocktails and Egyptian canapés will be served by waiters in Ancient Egyptian costume. After the cocktail, walk to the tent to enjoy a five course set menu dinner.
Overnight: On board Sun Boat IV in Luxor
Meal Plan: B,L,D
Luxor - Depart Cairo
After breakfast, you will be transferred to the airport for your flight to Cairo.
Upon arrival at Cairo Airport, you will be met by your tour coordinator who will transfer you to the international terminal and assist you with check-in for your flight back home.
Meal Plan: B