Welcome to Egypt, the birthplace of history where the grand legacy of the Pharaohs leaves the history books and stands proudly before you under the golden desert sun.
Egypt • 14 Days • Exclusively Private
Clients who want Egypt in its entirety. The pyramids, the Nile, the temples of Upper Egypt, the Red Sea, and the desert oasis of Siwa, one of the most remote and beautiful corners of North Africa. Built for travelers with the time and the appetite to go beyond the expected and return home having seen a country that most people only scratch the surface of.
Upon arrival in Cairo, you will be met inside the terminal by your Solaya representative who will assist with immigration procedures, luggage collection, and airport formalities through a personalized meet and greet service.
Afterwards, transfer by private air-conditioned vehicle to your hotel for check-in and time to rest after your journey. Depending on your arrival time, the remainder of the day is at leisure.
Some places earn their reputation. The Giza Plateau is one of them. As you approach, the scale of the Great Pyramid asserts itself slowly and then all at once, three million blocks of limestone rising from the desert floor with a precision that still confounds modern engineers.
Your private Egyptologist guides you through the complex, bringing context to every stone. You will stand before the Sphinx as the city hums behind it, one of the great juxtapositions of the ancient and the modern, and climb to the panoramic viewpoint where all three pyramids align in a single frame that no photograph has ever fully captured.
Lunch follows at a restaurant positioned directly facing the Pyramids, one of Cairo's great dining vantage points.
The afternoon moves to the Grand Egyptian Museum, the largest archaeological museum in the world. Your Egyptologist continues the story through the most complete collection of Tutankhamun artifacts ever assembled in one place.
A morning flight south to Aswan, one of Egypt's most quietly beautiful cities, where the desert meets the Nile in shades of gold and amber.
Your first stop is the Philae Temple, dedicated to the goddess Isis and relocated stone by stone to its current island to save it from the rising waters of Lake Nasser. Your Egyptologist brings its mythology to life against the backdrop of the water surrounding it on all sides.
As the afternoon light softens, you board a traditional felucca for a sunset sail on the Nile. No motorboat, no commentary, no agenda. Just the river, the wind, and the light fading slowly over Aswan.
You check into your Nile cruise as the evening settles, your floating home for the next three nights. Full board from this point, with the river moving quietly beneath you.
Today the river sets the agenda. The cruise sails north through one of the most ancient landscapes on earth, and there is nothing required of you except to be present.
For those who want to go further, an optional early morning flight to Abu Simbel is available. The twin temples of Ramesses II and Nefertari, carved directly into the mountainside over three thousand years ago and relocated in their entirety in the 1960s, are among the most extraordinary monuments in the ancient world. A short and comfortable flight south over Lake Nasser, and you are standing before them as the morning light hits the facade. Those who make the journey never regret it.
The evening brings a stop at Kom Ombo, a rare double temple dedicated simultaneously to Sobek the crocodile god and Horus the falcon god. Visited as the sun drops and the temple illuminates against the darkening sky, it is one of those quiet, unhurried moments on the Nile that stays with you long after the trip ends.
An early morning departure by private vehicle to Edfu, home to the Temple of Horus, the best-preserved ancient temple in Egypt. Arriving before the crowds, you move through its towering pylons and darkened inner chambers with your Egyptologist, the air cool and still, the carvings impossibly detailed.
You return to the cruise as it continues its sail toward Luxor through the afternoon.
The evening is reserved for Luxor Temple, and this is the right way to see it. Illuminated after dark, the columns rise from the ground like a forest frozen in stone, the hieroglyphs catching the light in ways that daylight never reveals. One of the great night experiences in Egypt and one that most visitors miss entirely.
The West Bank of Luxor in the morning light, the most concentrated collection of ancient monuments anywhere on earth.
Karnak Temple first, the largest religious complex ever built, expanded by successive pharaohs across thirteen centuries. Your Egyptologist gives you the thread that connects it all.
The Valley of the Kings follows, where Egypt's greatest rulers were buried deep in the limestone cliffs. Then Medinet Habu, the vast and undervisited mortuary temple of Ramesses III, and a photo stop at the Colossi of Memnon, the two enormous seated figures that have watched over the floodplain for over three thousand years.
Midday brings one of the most quietly memorable moments of the journey. You are welcomed into a local West Bank family home for lunch, a curated experience that offers a glimpse into daily life on this side of the Nile that no monument can give you. Simple food, genuine hospitality, a table that feels entirely removed from the tourist trail.
A private drive east through the desert toward Hurghada, where the landscape shifts from ancient stone to open coastline and the Red Sea appears on the horizon in shades of turquoise that feel almost impossible after days among the monuments. Check into your resort as the sun sets over the water. Dinner at the resort.
The morning is yours. The Red Sea at your doorstep, a sun lounger, a coffee, and no agenda.
The afternoon moves into the Eastern Desert for a quad bike safari across the dunes, the silence of the landscape broken only by the engine and the wind. The desert here is a different world from the Nile Valley, raw, open, and entirely its own.
The evening gathers around a dinner under the desert sky, with an oriental show that draws on Egypt's rich musical and folkloric traditions. A fitting close to a day that moved between two of Egypt's most elemental landscapes.
Today belongs entirely to the water.
A morning boat trip out onto the Red Sea, one of the world's great diving and snorkeling destinations, its coral reefs home to an extraordinary density of marine life. You drift above a world of color and movement that feels entirely removed from everything that came before it on this journey.
The afternoon is yours to spend as you choose. The resort, the beach, a last swim in water this clear and this warm.
An early morning flight back to Cairo.
Morning in Coptic Cairo, where you will visit the Church of St. Sergius and Bacchus, Abu Serga, built over the cave where the Holy Family sheltered during their flight into Egypt. Nearby the Ben Ezra Synagogue, one of the oldest in Egypt, its worn interior holding layers of history that stretch back long before Cairo was Cairo.
The afternoon opens with a guided walk through Al Muizz Street, one of the most remarkable stretches of medieval Islamic architecture in the world, a living corridor of mosques, mausoleums, and merchant houses that has barely changed in five hundred years.
Lunch is taken at a rooftop restaurant above the street, with the minarets of old Cairo rising on every side and the city spreading out below in every direction. One of the great Cairo lunch positions.
The day ends in Khan el Khalili, a bazaar trading continuously since the 14th century. Loud, alive, and entirely itself.
A chartered flight west from Cairo into one of Egypt's most extraordinary landscapes. Siwa Oasis sits deep in the Sahara, closer to Libya than to Cairo, a world of date palms, mud brick ruins, and salt lakes that has been sheltering travelers and oracles for thousands of years. Alexander the Great made the journey here. So did the Oracle of Amun. So will you.
On arrival, transfer to your ecolodge, a property built from the landscape itself, kershef and palm wood rising from the desert floor in the traditional Siwan way.
Lunch at the lodge.
The afternoon moves to the salt lakes, where the water sits so still and so reflective that the sky doubles itself in the surface. Refreshments and snacks as the light shifts toward evening and the desert turns every shade of gold and amber it knows.
You return to the lodge as darkness settles. The hot spring awaits, thermal water under an open sky filled with more stars than most people have ever seen in one place. Dinner at the lodge.
After breakfast, a guided walk through the ruins of Shali Fortress, the ancient mud brick citadel that was the heart of Siwa for centuries, dissolving slowly back into the earth after a devastating rainstorm in 1926. Your guide gives you the history of a city that existed in almost complete isolation from the rest of Egypt for most of its life.
The Mountain of the Dead follows, a limestone hill riddled with rock-cut tombs from the 26th Dynasty and the Greco-Roman period, its walls painted with scenes that feel entirely removed from the grand temples of the Nile Valley.
The Temple of Amun comes next, where Alexander the Great was declared the son of the god in 331 BC, one of the pivotal moments in ancient history played out in this quiet corner of the Sahara. A walk through the local market, where Siwan women's silver jewelry, hand-woven baskets, and embroidered textiles are among the finest craft traditions in Egypt.
Lunch at a local restaurant in the heart of Siwa.
The afternoon is yours to rest at the lodge.
As the sun begins to drop, your guide takes you to a hidden vantage point above the lake, a spot known to very few visitors, where the sunset over the water and the date palm groves below is one of the most quietly extraordinary views in Egypt.
Candlelight dinner at the lodge.
A relaxed morning at the lodge. For those who want to move, an optional bicycle tour through the city and its surrounding palm groves is available, a gentle ride through one of the most peaceful landscapes in North Africa.
Lunch at the lodge.
The afternoon belongs to the Great Sand Sea, one of the largest sand dune fields on earth. A 4x4 safari deep into the dunes, the scale of the landscape almost impossible to process from inside a vehicle. Sandboarding follows on slopes that drop steeply into the valleys between the dunes, a genuinely exhilarating close to the afternoon.
As darkness falls, a private camp appears in the desert, lanterns lit, a table set, dinner prepared under an open sky with no light pollution for hundreds of kilometers in any direction. One of those evenings that is very difficult to describe and very easy to remember.
You return to the lodge after dinner.
A final morning in Siwa. Time for a last walk through the market, picking up the silver, the textiles, and the olive oil that Siwa is known for throughout Egypt.
A chartered flight back to Cairo and transfer to your hotel.
The evening is yours. A last dinner in Cairo, at a table of your choosing.
This morning belongs to you. A late breakfast, a slow coffee, a last look at the city.
When the time comes, your Solaya team handles everything. Luggage, transfer, and airport assistance that takes the friction out of leaving.
Egypt will do the rest of the work of staying with you.
