Luxury holidays in Egypt – A wonderful way to see some of antiquity’s finest treasures.

I first came to Egypt on a trip from Tunisia, where I had been staying at the time. I stayed where I could afford, and caught my first glimpse of the Pyramids after an intriguing battle with Cairo’s public transport system.

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I saw plenty, and the memories stayed with me, but when I went back and was guided by an expert, I realised how much I had missed. The stories of the pharaohs who had built these monuments (or perhaps, to be more accurate, the millions of slaves who did), add a sense of wonder and context to the experience.

So, too, did staying in a place like the Mena House – a hotel which used to be the palace of Egypt’s ruler in the 19^th century, sat just half a mile from the Pyramids. The views are exceptional, the service and setting something else.

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This, to me, is what marks out a luxury holiday in Egypt as being such a wonderful experience.

Egypt’s treasures are central to any visit – but how you experience them matter. If your guiding, your accommodation and even your time simply relaxing doing nothing complement the sights that you see, it turns a good trip into a great one.

And of course, it is not just in Cairo that you can make those subtle changes to infuse luxury into the trip. Upgrading from a cruiser on the Nile to a charming sailing boat like a dahabiya is one such time. Taking the watery route to Abu Simbel and seeing the temples approach over the horizon rather than flying in with the rest of the visitors is another. Or going down into a tomb in the Valley of the Kings which has been opened just for you – another fresh way to see the country. A suite overlooking the Red Sea, with the coral just a jump off the jetty away, is another still.

Whatever you choose, there’s no shortage of options to make a trip to Egypt a luxurious one.

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Luxury Egypt holidays – There’s any number of ways to experience a luxury holiday to Egypt – in fact, the flexibility that you can have is part of the luxury.

The first time I went to Egypt in my early twenties I had only a loose idea in my mind of what I was going to do. I had a flight to Cairo booked, a couple of nights at a hotel, and thereafter, I was going to work it out as I went along.

The first stop was the Great Pyramids of Giza – but it was only after that I discovered the pyramid sites of Saqqara and Dashur, so I went and took those in as well.

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And so it was as I got to learn about the country and fall in love with it – a few things I had heard were too exciting to miss – and a few others which were pleasant surprises along the way.

Nowadays, when I’m arranging a luxury trip, the planning is everything. We can discuss the things you’ve always wanted to see, and I can make additional suggestions to give your experience a little something extra.

And, of course, when it comes to a luxury trip, we know exactly which hotels and guides can keep that vision together from the start to the end of your journey!

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Lake Nasser cruises – everyone’s first thought when it comes to spending time on the water in Egypt is to get on the Nile and explore the area around Luxor and Aswan, which takes in some true treasures of antiquity.

But it is not the only option.

South of Aswan lies Lake Nasser, the world’s largest man-made lake, backed up by the Aswan Dam. It is a remarkable construction, which prevents the Nile from flooding annually and provides Egypt’s power supply.

It threatened to come at huge cost, however. The water level south of Aswan would rise sharply, and the temples on low-lying land would be submerged and lost forever.

In the 1960s that sparked a remarkable worldwide initiative to salvage these treasures for future generations – several temples remain today, and it is these that you see on a Lake Nasser cruise.

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For me, that’s one of the big attractions of taking a cruise journey south. It’s not just the way that the likes of the Valley of the Lions or the Kiosk of Kertassi look today; it’s the lengths that restoration teams went to keep them – be it rebuilding them piece by piece on higher ground, or even, in one case, moving the whole structure upwards on rail lines.

The other great advantage is the tranquility. The Nile is many wondrous things, but with so many people keen to explore them, quiet is often not one of them. Lake Nasser is underexplored, and your boat tends to spend the days alone, in peace on the still waters.

But none of this can compare to the moment that your journey culminates. Abu Simbel’s temples appear on the horizon. They are just as they were millennia ago. There is a mere smattering of people there. No experience in Egypt quite matches it.

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