Egypt Itinerary Help/critique

[OlderNotYetWiser]

Please could you assess this itinerary for 2 adults for an Egypt trip in March 2026. We have about 14 days to play with timewise, and want to do a Dahabiya cruise rather than one of the bigger boats. We will be using an agency, but are building the itinerary to suit ourselves.

Is there anything missing we should see, or changes you would suggest? We haven't got Alexandria in this, and thought about Hurghada for a couple of days then decided maybe we should spend more time at sites instead.

Thanks!

• Arrive at night Cairo
• Saqqara/Dashur/Giza pyramids
• Egyptian Museum, Coptic Cairo
• Aswan flight early morning, Philae temple, unfinished obelisk, felucca ride to Ahga khan, Plantation island and the Old cataract hotel
• Abu Simbel (potentially flight rather than road), then onto Dahabiya cruise
• Daraw, Kom Ombo, El selsela,
• Bisaw Island, Temple of Horus
• Esna temple the onto to Luxor- Karanak and Luxor temple
• Colossi of Memnon, Carter house, Valley of the Kings, Hapshepsut temple
• Valley of the queens, deir el medina, Habu temple,fly back to Cairo
• Cairo- citadel, mosques, medieval tour, Khan el Khalili market
• Wadi Hitan whales, Rayan valley, Tunis Village, Qasr el Sagha temple back to Cairo
• Grand Egyptian Museum, Egyptian Life museum
• Either fly back or quiet day in Cairo
• Fly home

Looks fine to me.
I've done the basic Nile trip Luxor to Aswan & back twice, adding on time in Cairo & Luxor.
The second time we added a cruise on Lake Nasser to include Abu Simbel.
We didn't go to Alexandria, & had no interest in the tourist resorts.
Both trips were tailor-made.

A "quiet day in Cairo" is presumably relaxing at your hotel. Personally, we preferred to relax back at home.

Enjoy, I'd love to go again.

That looks pretty full on to me. I’ve seen a lot of those sites on different trips but always combined with beach/pool/diving. We did a similarly busy tour around Sri Lanka years ago and were crying out for a lazy day reading by the pool after a while. Remember that it will be pretty hot, even in March. If you’re happy with the pace it looks amazing.

Thank you @oncemoreuntothebeachdearfriends - yep I wondered about having a day before we travel back chilling at the hotel so we can have a day in the garden/at a pool with a slight lie in before we get an early flight home the next day. We might skip this and just head back.

@Chickoletta it is full on but I'm not sure we will get the chance to go back so want to make the most of it when we are there. I did look at a couple of nights at the beach but figured we should just go full on and recover after we get back home 🫣.

I'm just seeing about maybe doing the cruise the other way round so we get an extra day on the dahabiya.

Thanks both. I am very excited!!

That's very busy, makes me feel incredibly lazy for spending my two week Egypt holiday slumped on a sun lounger with a book and an endless stream of Piña Coladas. We went in January and it was still 30° most days so be ready for the heat!

It looks great though, and other than a lazy day I don't think you're missing anything! hope you have a lovely time!

Did similar a couple of years ago. Do you know what dahabiya company you are looking at? We were with Nour El Nil which picks you up from Luxor and then drives you to Esna where you sail to Aswan. Worth checking that as it may affect the itinerary. We did Cairo (all that you mentioned), internal flight to Luxor, all that Luxor has to offer, then dahbiya down the Nile to Aswan and then Abu Simbel.