8-Day Abu Simbel Sun Festival 2024 Tour

DAY 1 – Arrive in Egypt for your Tour, Cruise and Sun Festival at Abu Simbel

When you arrive at Cairo International Airport for your Abu Simbel Sun Festival tour and cruise, one of our friendly tour representatives will be waiting for you at the airport. After giving you a warm welcome, he will then assist you in any way he can, and will escort you to the hotel where you will be spending the night.

When you reach the hotel, our tour representative will ensure that you enjoy a smooth and hassle-free check-in. After this, he will review your tour itinerary with you, and also confirm a pick-up for the next day’s tours. With all the formalities taken care of, you will then be left on your own to enjoy the remainder of the day as you wish.

DAY 2 – Giza Pyramids, Egyptian Museum, and Khan El-Khalili

Day 2 of your Abu Simbel tour package will see you visiting some of very best historical attractions, including the Great Pyramids of Giza, the Egyptian Museum, and the famous Khan El-Khalili Bazaar.

Begin your day with a good breakfast at the hotel, and then, at the time which was confirmed with you, will be picked up from your hotel, and you will be driven to the Giza Plateau to see the iconic Giza Pyramids, the Sphinx, and the Valley Temple.

If you would to enter one of the pyramids and/or visit the area’s Solar Boat Museum, please let your guide know, and he will be happy to assist with getting admission tickets. These are both optional activities, and are therefore not included in the price of your Abu Simbel Sun Festival package.

After a truly remarkable morning, you will then be taken to a good local restaurant for some lunch and a bit of a rest. After this, it will be time for you to visit the famous Egyptian Museum which is home to thousands of artifacts relating to Egypt’s fascinating history. Not surprisingly, it is home to the world’s largest collection of artifacts from Ancient Egypt.

No matter in which direction you look when you are in the museum, you will be absolutely fascinated, and the same applies when you visit an area in the museum called the Treasures Room. This room houses nearly all of the ancient artifacts that were recovered from the tomb of King Tutankhamen when his tomb was discovered sealed and intact in the Valley of Kings on Luxor’s West Bank in the early 1920s.

While you are still at the museum, you will also have the option of visiting the museum’s Mummies Room where you can view a number of real mummies which are on display in specially designed enclosures. If you want to go in and see the mummies, a separate admission ticket for the Mummies Room is required. This can be purchased at the museum on the day of your visit.

Next, you will then be taken to see and explore one of Cairo’s most colorful and most enchanting attractions, the vibrant Khan el-Khalili Bazaar. This bustling bazaar has been around ever since the 14th century, and it is fair to say that no visit to Cairo is complete without a visit to Khan el-Khalili Bazaar. Even if you have no intention of doing any shopping, it is a wonderful place for some people-watching while you sit and some refreshments.

Finally, after a wonderful day out, your guide and driver will take you back to your hotel where you will be spending this night of your Abu Simbel Sun Festival tour as well.

Meals Included: Breakfast and Lunch

DAY 3 – Flight to Luxor, Cruise Embarkation and Luxor Sightseeing Tour

Enjoy another good hotel breakfast, and then at the time which was confirmed with you yesterday, our tour representative will meet you at the hotel; he or she will assist you with check-out, and then they will escort you to the airport where you will be boarding a short flight to Luxor. When you land in Luxor you will again be met at the airport and then transferred to the dock where you will board your Nile River cruise ship in time for a very pleasant on-board lunch.

After lunch, you will be taken to see 2 famous attractions on Luxor’s West Bank: Karnak Temple and Luxor Temple. Karnak, which is often referred to as Karnak Temple, was in fact a small city of temples and various other structures. The site covers more than 5,000 square meters, and despite the fact that only ruins remain, it is one of the most visited ancient monuments in Egypt. The Giza pyramids and Sphinx receive the most visitors, with Abu Simbel and Karnak probably sharing second place in terms of visitor numbers.

After your tour, your guide will then escort you back to the ship in time for dinner and you will spend this night of your amazing Abu Simbel Sun Festival trip on the water at Luxor.

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner

DAY 4 – Luxor West Bank Tour and Cruise to Edfu

Next, you will head to the Luxor West Bank to visit another 3 incredible ancient sites: Valley of the Kings; the mortuary Temple of Queen Hatshepsut, and the Colossi of Memnon.

When you were in Cairo, you had the pleasure of seeing all the wonderful artifacts which were recovered from the Tomb of King Tutankhamen while you were at the Egyptian Museum, and today when you visit Valley of the Kings, you will be able to see the actual tomb itself, along with many other tombs. To date, more than 60 tombs have been discovered in this vast royal necropolis.

Please take note that admission tickets for King Tutankhamen’s tomb need to be purchased in person at the site. For this reason, your Abu Simbel Sun Festival package does not include admission to the tomb. It is also worth noting that King Tutankhamen’s tomb is not always open, and even when it is, only a limited number of tickets are allowed to be sold each day, resulting in very long queues.

After Valley of the Kings, you will then head to an area called El-Deir El-Bahari to see the truly amazing 15th-century BC mortuary temple which was built on the orders of Pharaoh Hatshepsut of the New Kingdom.

Finally, you will be taken to see the Colossi of Memnon, and then it will be time for you to return to your cruise ship for some lunch. After lunch, you will then sail to Edfu so you will have the rest of the day to enjoy as your wish. Enjoy dinner and a wonderful night’s sleep on the water at Edfu.

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner

DAY 5 – Edfu and Kom Ombo Temples

Shortly after you have finished eating breakfast, you will be disembarking again, this time to visit the Temple of Horus at Edfu. This is a fantastically well-preserved temple that never fails to amaze those who visit it. For more than 2,000 years this temple was buried beneath the sand and because of this, it is the best-preserved ancient cult temple ever discovered.

After spending some time at the temple, you will return to the ship and it will sail to Kom Ombo. On arrival, you and your group will enjoy another excursion, this time to see the twin Temples of Kom Ombo.

While one could argue that this complex consists of a solitary temple, it is in fact two temples in one, with one being a mirror image of the other. In every other way, both temples are 100% identical, and the reason for this is because the site was dedicated to two different gods. In order to avoid any risk of upsetting one of the gods, both temples had to be the same. One was dedicated to Sobek the crocodile god, while the other was dedicated to Haeroris.

After your tour, you will return to the cruise ship for lunch, and then it will sail to Aswan. There are no further excursions today, so you will have the remainder of the day to enjoy as you wish. This night of your cruise will be spent on the water at Aswan.

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner

DAY 6 – Sun Festival at Abu Simbel Temples

The 6th day of your amazing Abu Simbel Sun Festival package begins very early, at around 00h30, at which point you will start making your way to the ancient rock-cut Abu Simbel Temples of King Ramses and his wife, Queen Nefertari for the Abu Simbel Sun Festival.

The Sun Festival at Abu Simbel starts just as the sun begins to rise, and the sun’s rays penetrate the Great Temple’s inner sanctorum and illuminate the “Holiest of Holy,” a small room containing four statues: Ptah, Amun-Ra, Ra-Horakhty, and one of Ramesses himself.

This only occurs twice every year, and on these two days of the year, the sun’s rays enter this small room, and three of the four statues emerge from the dark, while the fourth statue, that of Ptah, the god of darkness, remains hidden in the dark. Once the sun has passed, all four statues once disappear into the darkness.

After witnessing this spectacular event, you will head outside the temple where you will then be entertained with some performance done by various Nubian folklore groups. Thousands of people visit Abu Simbel Temples every year, but only a select few get the opportunity to witness this incredibly special event which has become known as the Abu Simbel Sun Festival.

After your visit to Abu Simbel, you will then return to Aswan, arriving back on board the ship in time for lunch. This night of your cruise will once again be spent on the water in Aswan.

NOTE:- The drive from Aswan to Abu Simbel takes approximately 3-hours each way.

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner

DAY 7 – Aswan Sightseeing and Transfer to Cairo

Enjoy a good breakfast on the ship, and then it will be time for final disembarkation. After disembarking, you will be taken to see 2 famous attractions in Aswan, including the Unfinished Obelisk, and the absolutely amazing Temple of Philae which was dedicated to two goddesses, Isis and Hathor.

Like a number of other ancient structures in the region, Philae Temple was painstakingly moved in its entirety to its current location. Had it not been rescued, it would have been lost forever to the rising waters of Lake Nasser following the construction of the Aswan High Dam.

After your tour, you will be transferred to Aswan Airport  to board a short flight back to Cairo. You will be met at the airport and then transferred to the hotel where you will be staying for the last night of your tour.

Meals Included: Breakfast

DAY 8 – Your Egypt Tour, Cruise and Sun Festival at Abu Simbel Package Ends

Unfortunately, all good things come to an end, and today marks the end of what can only be described as an unforgettable experience. Enjoy a good breakfast at the hotel as well as some free time if your flight schedule allows for it.

At the appropriate time, our tour manager and a driver will pick you up at the hotel, and they will then escort you to Cairo International Airport. Once again, you will be assisted in any way possible and then it will sadly be time for everyone to say their goodbyes so that you can proceed through immigration in time for your flight back home.

Meals Included: Breakfast

Inclusions – What is included in your Sun Festival Package:

• Meet and assist service at all arrivals and departures
• Customer Service assistance throughout your Abu Simbel Sun Festival vacation
• All transfers and tours in clean and modern air-conditioned vehicles
• Domestic flight tickets from Cairo to Aswan and from Luxor to Cairo
• Hotel accommodation for 3 nights in Cairo (bed and breakfast)
• Accommodation for 3 nights on board 5-Star Nile Cruise (full board)
• Any other meals as specified in the itinerary
• All tours mentioned in the Abu Simbel Sun Festival itinerary
• Admission tickets for all attractions mentioned in the itinerary
• Free bottled water during your tours and excursions
• All service charges and taxes

NOTE: All tours in Cairo are private tours. Aswan, Luxor and Nile cruise tours are group tours

Exclusions – What is not included in your Sun Festival and Nile Cruise Package:

• International airfare
• Entry visa for Egypt
• Admission tickets for the pyramid in Cairo; the Mummies Room at the Egyptian Museum, and King Tutankhamen’s tomb at Valley of the Kings
• Optional tours mentioned or not mentioned in the itinerary of our Sun Festival at Abu Simbel tour
• Personal expenses
• Tipping kitty.

Please contact us for exact dates and our most up to date prices for our Abu Simbel Sun Festival Tour. We can be contacted via email, live chat or by calling our toll-free telephone number.