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Choose from our collection below of 5* Luxury Nile cruise boats and 5* Luxury hotels in Luxor.
11 Guided Excursions included (NO HIDDEN EXTRAS) with our highly experienced PhD qualified English-speaking Egyptologist-Guide
If you have already settled on a Nile cruise but want longer than a week in Egypt, Mystical Egypt is the most generous Nile cruise and Luxor stay we sell. It is our longest Nile cruise and Luxor stay, and every extra night goes into Luxor.
Mystical Egypt is a 14-night Nile cruise and Luxor stay: 7 nights aboard a 5-star cruise vessel sailing from Luxor to Aswan and back, followed by 7 nights in a Luxor hotel. Prices start from £2285 per person, including flights, transfers and taxes, with Monday departures from Gatwick, Heathrow or Manchester.
What separates this 2-week format from a shorter break is pace. On a 10 or 11-night package, the Luxor stay is a pleasant coda; here it is half the holiday. You finish the cruise with the headline sites already behind you, then have 6 clear days to revisit the West Bank, take an unhurried morning at Karnak, or do very little at all beyond a pool and a river view. It suits travellers who would rather see fewer things properly than tick off a compressed highlights tour.
We have specialised in Egypt and nothing else for over 30 years, and that focus is why we describe ourselves as the UK’s leading Nile cruise specialist: we can talk about individual vessels and hotels rather than generic star ratings. Our team has personally inspected the 5-star Nile cruise boats we sell and the hotels we place guests in for the Luxor half. We trade as Co-op Travel Services Ltd, hold Accredited Body Membership of the Co-operative Travel Consortium, and are members of ABTA (P7508) with ATOL number 12904. Our UK call centre is open 7 days a week, 9 am to 9 pm, on 0800 041 8400.
7 nights in Luxor means you can return to the West Bank more than once and reach the tombs before the mid-morning coaches arrive. That single fact is the reason this itinerary exists.
Luxor sits on both banks of the Nile at what was once Thebes. The East Bank is the living city, where Karnak’s hypostyle hall and the avenue of sphinxes running towards Luxor Temple were built and rebuilt across centuries of pharaonic rule. Cross the river, and the character changes completely: cultivated fields give way abruptly to desert cliffs, and behind them lie the royal tombs, the mortuary temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahri terraced into the rock face, the artisans’ village of Deir el-Medina, and Medinet Habu with its painted reliefs still holding colour.
Days 9 to 14 are at leisure, on either half board or bed and breakfast, so you decide the shape of each one. A longer stay lets you go back for the tombs you skipped the first time, spend a proper hour in Luxor Museum rather than a rushed 20 minutes, take the local ferry across for a few pounds, watch the sun come up over the Theban hills, and then take an afternoon off entirely. From May to September, the heat dictates the day, and a fixed base is the only sensible way to handle it: out at dawn, back before noon, out again at dusk. A moving cruise itinerary cannot offer that flexibility. We will match you to one of our Luxor hotels based on whether you want a Nile-facing pool, a corniche location, or a quieter setting out of town. If a week feels longer than you need, Enchanting Egypt pairs the same 7-night cruise with 4 nights in Luxor, and we also offer a 7-night cruise with 3 nights in Luxor.
Depart UK. Upon arrival met and transferred from Luxor International Airport to your Nile cruise boat. Dinner on board or for late arrivals a light snack will be served. Overnight in Luxor.
Breakfast on board, early morning visit to the West Bank, including the Colossi of Memnon, Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens, burial sites for many of the most powerful and successful pharaohs and high priests, as well as the Temple of Hatshepsut.
Breakfast and lunch are on board whilst continuing the journey south before sailing to Kom Ombo to visit the temple before dinner. Unlike many others in Egypt, this temple was dedicated to two gods; the Southern section is dedicated to Sobek, the crocodile-headed man, god of fertility, and the Northern section to the Falcon-headed god Horus. There is also a fascinating crocodile museum to visit, which has many artefacts and mummified crocodiles. Sail to Aswan and overnight in Aswan.
After breakfast, visit the High Dam in Aswan, built between 1960-1971 to provide electricity to the villages along the Nile, the Unfinished Obelisk and the Temple of Isis on Philae Island. Lunch on board and afternoon at leisure with an opportunity to revisit the Temple of Philae for an **optional sound & light show in the evening (priced at approx. £55pp).
After breakfast, there is the option of a morning at leisure or an early morning **optional visit to Abu Simbel (priced at approx. £120pp by road or £280pp by air). This impressive temple, built by Rameses II stands on the banks of Lake Nasser. After lunch on board, there is a relaxing boat trip around Elephantine Island to the Botanical Gardens on General Kitchener Island. Dinner and overnight in Aswan.
Morning at leisure. Lunch on board and then set sail to Kom Ombo. After a brief stop at Kom Ombo, continue sailing and overnight.
After lunch, you will be taken by coach to visit the ‘world’s largest and greatest open-air museum’ known as Karnak Temple, which covers a large area of land and includes several temples, the largest of them being the Temple of Amun. Then, drive a short distance to Luxor Temple. Originally, the temple was joined to Karnak by a long avenue of Sphinxes, many of which can still be seen today. Returning to the boat for Dinner on board. Overnight in Luxor.
**Optional early morning balloon ride for the adventurous (priced at approx. £110pp). Breakfast on board followed by check-out and onward transfer to your hotel in Luxor.
Time to relax and enjoy the many fascinating sights and sounds of Luxor, stroll through the colourful streets of Luxor. A wide range of optional excursions is available.
Transfer to Luxor airport for your return flight to the UK.
Please note: the order or content of your itinerary may be amended due to lock closures, low water levels or any other unforeseeable circumstances.
Give our UK Egypt team your travel dates, preferred airport, and Luxor hotel board basis, and we will price your Mystical Egypt Nile cruise and Luxor stay in full, including optional excursions such as Abu Simbel, the balloon flight, or the Philae sound and light show, so you can see the real total before you commit. Call us, or send an enquiry through our contact form, and one of our Egypt specialists will get back to you with a costed itinerary.
The cruise is a 7-night round trip: you sail south from Luxor to Aswan and return to Luxor, so the holiday starts and ends in the same city, and the transfer to your Luxor hotel afterwards is short. There are no internal flights and no second airport to negotiate.
11 guided excursions are included, each led by an English-speaking Egyptologist guide. Your first full day crosses to the Theban necropolis for the Valley of the Kings, the Valley of the Queens, the Temple of Hatshepsut, the Colossi of Memnon, and Medinet Habu. Sailing south brings Kom Ombo, and at Aswan the programme covers the Temple of Philae, the High Dam, and a boat trip around Elephantine Island, with a stop at the Unfinished Obelisk in the ancient granite quarries. Back in Luxor at the end of the cruise, you visit Karnak and Luxor Temple on the East Bank. Having a guide who can read the wall reliefs matters more than most people expect; the difference between looking at a tomb and understanding one is a person who can translate the cartouches.
Sailing days follow a comfortable rhythm. Excursions leave early while the temples are cool and the light is low, the vessel sails through the middle of the day, and the afternoon belongs to the sundeck as the riverbank moves past. The cruise is full board, and an all-inclusive drinks upgrade is available at £199 per person. Optional extras can be added locally: Abu Simbel from approximately £120 per person by road or £280 per person by air, the Philae sound and light show from approximately £55 per person, and a hot air balloon over Luxor from approximately £110 per person. If you want to compare vessels and durations across our wider range of Nile cruise holidays, our team can talk you through the differences.
The lead-in price of £2285 per person covers return flights from Gatwick, Heathrow or Manchester, all airport and hotel transfers, taxes, 7 nights full board on a 5-star cruise vessel, 7 nights in Luxor on half board or bed and breakfast, and 11 guided excursions with an English-speaking Egyptologist guide. Drinks on the cruise, optional excursions, and personal spending are extra.
Mystical Egypt runs to 14 nights in total, split 7 and 7: the first 7 nights are spent cruising from Luxor to Aswan and back, and the following 7 nights are spent in a Luxor hotel. With flights, that gives 15 days from departure to arrival home. Departures are on Mondays.
A full week in Luxor gives you time for the sites that the included excursions do not reach and for the ones you want to see twice. Guests can use the days for the Luxor Museum, Deir el-Medina, the local ferry crossing, the souk, a felucca hour on the Nile, or an early balloon flight, from approximately £110 per person. Half-board and bed-and-breakfast options both leave evenings free for the corniche restaurants.
You board in Luxor and sail south, calling at Kom Ombo en route to Aswan, then cruise back north to Luxor, where the cruise ends. Because it is a round trip rather than a one-way sailing, there is no internal flight or long road transfer between the cruise and your Luxor hotel.
The cruise is full board as standard, so all meals are included. An all-inclusive drinks package can be added for £199 per person, covering drinks on board for the 7 cruise nights. The Luxor hotel is booked separately on a half-board or bed-and-breakfast basis, whichever you prefer.
October to April is the most comfortable window, when daytime temperatures in Luxor and Aswan are warm rather than punishing, and sightseeing is easy at almost any hour. December and January are the coolest months and the busiest at the tombs. May to September brings serious heat, which suits travellers happy to be out at dawn and back at the pool by midday, something the 7-night Luxor base makes straightforward. Departures are on Mondays, so tell us your preferred month, and we will check availability.
Yes. The Luxor duration is amendable, and we regularly sell the same 7-night cruise with 3 or 4 nights in Luxor instead of 7. If you want longer still, tell us, and we will price it. Reducing the stay lowers the cost; extending it adds hotel nights without changing the cruise element.
We are an ABTA member (membership number P7508) and hold ATOL number 12904. ATOL protection applies to flights and flight-inclusive holidays, but not to non-flight holidays and travel services. Because Mystical Egypt is sold with flights from Gatwick, Heathrow, or Manchester, your booking is ATOL protected.
Classic Holidays when selling travel arrangements is a trading name of Co-op Travel Services Ltd. Classic Holidays is an Accredited Body Member of Co-operative Travel Consortium. (ABTA P7508, ATOL 12904).
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All of the flights and flight-inclusive holidays on this website are financially protected by the ATOL scheme but ATOL protection does not apply to non-flight holiday and travel services offered on this website. Classic Holidays will provide you with information on the protection that applies in the case of each holiday and travel service offered before you make your booking. If you do not receive an ATOL Certificate then the booking will not be ATOL protected. If you do receive an ATOL Certificate but all parts of your trip are not listed on it, those parts will not be ATOL protected. Please see our booking conditions for information, or for more information about financial protection and the ATOL Certificate go to: www.caa.co.uk
