8 Days Egypt Solar Eclipse Tour

Your guide meets you inside Cairo International Airport, helps with arrival formalities and accompanies you to your hotel in a private air-conditioned vehicle. The rest of the day is yours to rest and adjust after the flight. Your guide will run through the week with you before leaving, including the plan for eclipse morning, so you know exactly how the days fit together. Overnight in Cairo.

After breakfast you head to the Giza plateau to stand in front of the Great Pyramids of Giza, built for Cheops, Chephren and Mykerinos. You will also visit the Sphinx Statue and the Valley Temple, where the granite blocks still carry the marks of the men who set them. In the afternoon you continue to the Grand Egyptian Museum, the vast modern home of the Tutankhamun collection, with your Egyptologist to guide you through the galleries that matter most. Overnight in Cairo.

A morning flight takes you south to Aswan, where the pace of the trip changes. You visit the High Dam of Egypt and then cross by motorboat to the island temple of Philae, rescued from the rising water and rebuilt stone by stone on higher ground. In the afternoon you board your five-star Nile cruise ship and settle in as the river traffic drifts past. Lunch and dinner are served on board. Overnight aboard the cruise in Aswan.

The ship sails north while you have breakfast on the sun deck. You stop at the Kom Ombo Temple, the unusual double temple shared between Sobek the crocodile god and Haroeris, then continue to the Edfu Temple, the best preserved temple in Egypt and the one that shows most clearly how these buildings were meant to be experienced. Both visits are timed to avoid the worst of the afternoon heat. Overnight aboard the cruise.

You reach Luxor, the ancient city of Thebes and the place the whole trip is built around. Today you explore the East Bank: the enormous Karnak Temple with its forest of columns in the Great Hypostyle Hall, and the Luxor Temple, best seen late in the day when the light drops and the colonnade throws long shadows. Your guide will also confirm the timings and the meeting point for eclipse morning. Overnight in Luxor.

This is the day the itinerary exists for. On 2 August 2027 the path of totality crosses Egypt and passes almost directly over Luxor, giving the city just over six minutes of total darkness. It is the longest totality available on easily reachable land for the rest of the century, and the next comparable one is generations away.

You leave early for a prepared viewing site outside the city with an open horizon, away from street lighting and crowds. Shade, seating, water and certified solar viewing glasses are provided, and your guide talks you through each stage, from first contact through to the moment the sun disappears and the temperature drops. The rest of the day is deliberately left free. Overnight in Luxor.

You cross to the West Bank for The Valley of the Kings, where the tombs of the New Kingdom pharaohs are cut deep into the rock and the painted ceilings still hold their colour. You continue to the Temple of Hatshepsut, rising in terraces against the cliff, and stop at the Colossi of Memnon on the way back. In the evening you fly to Cairo. Overnight in Cairo.

Breakfast at your hotel, then a private transfer to Cairo International Airport in time for your flight home. If your departure is late, your guide can arrange a final few hours in the city, from the old streets around Khan al-Khalili Cairo to a quiet last look at the river. End of services.