Welcome to Museum Tours
Grand Odyssey
Photo - Kmt/Forbes
ITINERARY
Day 1, Saturday
If you have chosen us to arrange your international air travel, you
will depart New York on EgyptAir at 6:30 pm for your overnight flight
to Egypt.
Day 2, Sunday
Upon your arrival in Cairo you will be
met by a Museum Tours representative, who will assist with checked
luggage, passport control and customs. Your private limousine will
then take you through Cairo and across the Nile river to the five-star
hotel, Mena House (where you'll be staying in the grand, old
wing), located at the base of the pyramids, in time for a welcome
meal. The rest of the day is free to relax and get over your jet lag.
B, L - in flight
D - Mena House
Hotel - Mena House
Day 3, Monday
After
breakfast, a short ride will take you from the hotel to the pyramids.
You will visit the Pyramids at Giza. Explore inside the Great Pyramid
of Khufu, visit the Solar Boat museum, and the ageless Sphinx of Khafra
with its valley temple. After lunch, at a restaurant near the hotel,
you can return to the hotel to relax, or, if you have the energy,
join your guide for a return to the Giza Plateau for a walking tour,
to visit the Pyramids of Khafra and Menkara, with the remains of their
mortuary temples, and the Tombs of Qar and Idu.
B, D - Mena House
L - Peace Restaurant
Hotel - Mena House
Departing New York any day of the year, this tour offers the best
of Egypt in Victorian Luxury, including Sailing the Nile on our historic
dahabeyah, the NeferuRa.
COMMENTS
This very special private tour is offered at a very
fair price. It has been designed primarily for the first or
second time visitor to Egypt, who has the time and desire to gain
an in-depth appreciation for this ancient culture, yet wants to experiance
Egypt in a grand style on a private tour. Through a unique confluence
of circumstances we have been able to secure a limited number or rooms
in the three finest hotels in Egypt, along with the best possible
experience for traveling on the Nile, for a very special, once in
a lifetime experience. One in which the accommodations will contribute
as much to your enjoyment as the sites we'll visit. It is a 15 day,
14 night, trip which includes visits to the most important and famous
pharonic monuments in Egypt as well as a number of impressive, but
lesser visited places. There are also brief visits to the most important
Islamic, Coptic and Jewish sites in Cairo. The highest standard of
quality is maintained throughout, including stays in the most historic
five star Victorian hotels in Egypt; the old wing of the Mena House,
the Old Winter Palace Hotel in Luxor and the Old Cataract Hotel in
Aswan. And it includes a cruise aboard the historic dahabeyah, NeferuRa.
For
a FREE color brochure,
email us and leave your name and address and
indicate the tour you are interested in, Grand Odyssey. Please include
the word "Egypt" in the subject line.
If, in addition, you would like
to reserve space on this trip, just say so and we will sent you information,
plus save you a place for 30 days. Then if you should decide to participate,
you will be sure of having a spot. Of course, you are under no obligation.
Day 4, Tuesday
You will visit the ancient necropolis at Saqqara
for the entire morning. Sites include the Step Pyramid of Djoser (the
world's first pyramid), the Pyramid of Teti with its pyramid
texts, the causeway of Unis, the Tomb of the Brothers and the
Mastaba tomb of Meruka. After a late lunch you will be driven to the
ancient capital of Memphis with its magnificent and beautiful Colossus
of Ramses before heading to the airport to catch your evening
flight to Luxor, where you will transfer to the deluxe and historic,
five-star Old Winter Palace Hotel .
B - Mena Hotel
L - Saqqara Palm
Club Restaurant
D - Winter Palace Hotel
Hotel - Old Winter Palace
Day 5, Wednesday
After an early breakfast you will cross the
Nile to visit the West Bank. You will begin your day by visiting the
workers village at Dier el Medina and the Tomb of Sennedjem , one
of the best preserved tombs in all of Egypt. While you might choose
to take the bus, if you are truly ambitious you will have the opportunity
to hike over the hills, following a 3,500 year old workers trail,
to the Valley of the Kings where you will visit several of the most
interesting tombs open to the public, including the Tombs of Thutmose
III, Rameses VI and Tutankhamen. You will finish your day with a visit
to Dier El Bahri and the Temple of Hatshepsut , and the Colossi of
Memnon , the giant statues of Amenhotep III. After returning
to your hotel the remainder of the day is free to enjoy the sights
and sounds of Luxor.
B, D - Winter Palace
L - Toutankhamun
Hotel
- Old Winter Palace
Day 6, Thursday
After a drive through town you
will visit Karnak Temple , the largest temple complex in the
world. We've allowed allowing ample time for a guided tour and just
wandering around. This will be followed by a visit to the small but
magnificant Luxor Museum . Theafternoon is free to explore the
town, visit the bazaar or just relax. After an early dinner
you will go to Luxor Temple for a spectacular after-dark tour.
B,
L, D - Winter Palace
Hotel - Old Winter Palace
Day 7, Friday
Today
you will return to the West bank to catch the sights missed two days
ago. Your schedule will include the Valley of the Queens , including
the beautiful and touching tomb of Khaemwaset, a son of Rameses III,
who died in childhood. you will also have time to visit the Ramesseum
, the mortuary temple of Rameses II (known as Rameses the Great),
and Medinet Habu , the best preserved of the New Kingdom temples.
About mid afternoon you will be driven to Esna where you will see
the emple before boarding the historic dahabeyah, NeferuRa, your
home for the next four nights.
B, L - Winter Palace
D - NeferuRa
Hotel
- NeferuRa
Day 8, Saturday
This morning you will begin sailing toward
Aswan, arriving at Edfu around dusk.
B, L, D - NeferuRa
Hotel - NeferuRa
Day 9, Sunday
Horse drawn
carriages will take you from the dock to the stupendous, Ptolemaic
Temple of Horus ,
the best preserved temple on the Nile. After
visiting the temple you will set sail once again. Our
boat should
reach Gebel Silsila , the ancient sandstone quarries, with its many,
fascinating rock
cut chapels, late this afternoon.
B, L, D - NeferuRa
Hotel - NeferuRa
Day 10, Monday
After sailing all day, you will visit
the twin Temples of Horus , the falcon headed god, and Sobek ,
the
crocodile god, at Kom Ombo .
B, L, D - NeferuRa
Hotel - NeferuRa
Day
11, Tuesday
This morning you will disembark and your van will take
you to Aswan where you will board a falucca to visit the Botanical
Gardens on Kitchener's Island and the archaeological digs on Elephantine
Island. You will return in time for a late lunch and transfer to the
grand Victorian Old Cateract Hotel. Your afternoon is free.
B - NeferuRa
L, D - Old Cararact Hotel
Hotel - Old Cataract Hotel
Day 12, Wednesday
After an early breakfast, you will fly to visit the fabled temples
at Abu Simbel built by Ramses II, for himself and his favorite wife,
Nefertari. In the afternoon
you can relax while you sail in a
falucca to visit and explore the 6th and 12th dynasty nobles tombs
on the West Bank before returning to your hotel in
time for afternoon
tea on the balcony.
B, L, D - Old Cararact Hotel
Hotel - Old Cataract
Hotel
Day 13, Thursday
You will begin the day with a short drive to visit
the New Nubia Museum, one of Egypt's newest and finest. You will then
visit the ancient granite quarry with its Unfinished Obelisk of the
female Pharaoh, Hatshepsut.. Finally you will take a short motorboat
ride to Agilka Island, new site of the Temple of Isis at Philae, considered
by many to be the most beautiful temple in all Egypt.
B, L -
Old Cataract Hotel
D - Aswan Moon
Hotel - Old Cataract Hotel
Day 14,
Friday
Today is free until you are taken to the airport to catch
your plane back to Cairo where you will check into the Nile Hilton
Hotel, located next to the Egyptian Museum. Dinner in the famed
Khan el Khalili bazaar will complete your day.
B, L - Old
Cataract Hotel
D - Khan el Khalili
Hotel - Nile Hilton Hotel
Day 15,
Saturday
The entire morning will be spent at the Egyptian Museum with
the Treasures of Tutankhamen and the Royal Mummy Room . After lunch
you will explore Old Cairo and learn about its Christian (Coptic)
and Jewish past. A visit to the Citadel of Saladin and the Alabaster
Mosque will complete your day.
B, L, D - Nile Hilton
Hotel - Nile
Hilton Hotel
Day 16, Sunday
You leave Cairo and return to New York
and then home.
B - Nile Hilton Hotel
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NOTES: B=Breakfast, L=Lunch, D=Dinner
The right
is reserved to substitute carriers or hotels should it be deemed necessary
or desirable to do so. Items in the itinerary are subject to schedule
changes. Specific activities are subject to availability at the time
of the tour and we cannot be held responsible for monuments that are
closed or otherwise unavailable. In this case, substitute activities
will be made available whenever possible.
The golden mask of Tutankhamun
The historic dahabeyah, NeferuRa