How to plan the ultimate adventure in Egypt, from Cairo to the Red Sea

With millennia-old pyramids, hallowed temples and intricately painted tombs worthy of an art gallery, Egypt has a mindboggling amount of history on show. Some of the first threads of human civilisation started here over 5,000 years ago, and Egyptians still call their country umm al dunya — mother of the world.

Egypt offers the opportunity to time-travel like few other places. The past seems to keep careful watch over the present. The Pyramids of Giza — the last survivor of the original seven wonders of the ancient world — overlook cacophonous Cairo, the third-largest metropolis in Africa and the biggest in the Middle East. South along the River Nile, a temple built more than 3,400 years ago stands in the centre of the modern city of Luxor, which was once ancient Thebes.

The Nile flows through the hearts of most of Egypt’s major cities. This blue-green ribbon keeps the ever-encroaching biscuit-coloured desert at bay, coaxing lush plant life amid the Saharan sands. Fly in a hot-air balloon over the west bank of Luxor to see just how abruptly the desert reasserts its dominance over riverbanks lined with date palms and green grasses. Or travel like royalty, following in the footsteps of legendary pharaohs and their armies and merchants, on a scenic multi-day cruise along the Nile, making the temples and tombs between riverside Luxor and Aswan easily accessible.

Egypt’s extensive pharaonic history takes centre stage for most travellers, but even more adventure awaits on a different waterfront, to the east along the Red Sea in the Sinai Peninsula. The three Abrahamic faiths — Christianity, Islam and Judaism — put great credence in stories said to have unfolded in the mountains of the Sinai. Most famously, Moses is supposed to have received the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai, and listened to God at the burning bush, where he was instructed to lead the Israelites out of Egypt.

These high peaks make a stunning backdrop for surfacing snorkellers and for scuba divers returning from explorations of the Red Sea. Beneath the water’s surface, a bountiful aquarium of sea turtles, sharks and neon-bright fish dart around flourishing coral reefs that sprout along the sea floor and scale the vertical walls. Witnessing the wildlife of the Red Sea is one of the world’s great underwater experiences, and pairing it with a Nile cruise allows travellers to experience the broad range of Egyptian adventures.

Start point: CairoEnd point: Abu SimbelDistance travelled: 725 milesAverage length: 10 days

Herodotus, the 5th-century BCE Greek historian, famously called Egypt the ‘gift of the Nile’, but perhaps that description doesn’t go far enough. Egypt would be almost nothing without it. The river, the longest in the world, isn’t simply a watery artery stretching nearly 1,000 miles across the length of the country — it’s a genuine lifeline, and one of the world’s earliest civilisations wouldn’t have started here without its life-giving properties.

Ancient Egypt’s major temples and cities were located along the Nile’s fertile banks, called Kemet (‘the black land’) by its inhabitants. The fact that the river flows from south to north was key to the Egyptians’ worldview, with its focus on the daily journey of the sun between the horizons. The desert fringes on the Nile’s west bank — symbolically associated with the land of the dead — are where you’ll find most of the country’s tombs and pyramids. The ancient Egyptian idea of paradise, the ‘Field of Reeds’, was but a heavenly version of the real-life abundance of greenery along the Nile. Today, some 95% of Egyptians still live within a few miles of the water.

This itinerary, following the Nile’s course upriver on a boat cruise, has been travelled since the days of the pharaohs, and it remains the most popular way to explore Egypt, hitting all of the country’s major historic sites. To escape the crowds, slow down — linger longer in Luxor, dig deeper in Cairo and relax in Aswan. Egypt hides many more treasures beyond the Pyramids of Giza and the Valley of the Kings for travellers who take the time to seek them out.

1. CairoDive into Egypt’s chaotic capital. The Pyramids of Giza are the stars of the show, and the nearby Grand Egyptian Museum will be a blockbuster when it finally opens. For now, marvel at the 20 royal mummies at the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization and find the gold death mask of Tutankhamun, housed in the Egyptian Museum on Tahrir Square until the GEM is ready.

2. LuxorTake the train (around 10 hours, daytime or sleeper) to Luxor, built atop the ancient capital of Thebes. Big-hitters at this UNESCO site include the Luxor Temple and religious complex of Karnak, and the tombs of pharaohs in the Valley of the Kings outside town. Other nearby sites include the Ramesseum, whose giant statues inspired the poem ‘Ozymandias’, and the temple of the female pharaoh Hatshepsut.

3. EdfuBoard a cruise boat in Luxor and spend the best part of the day sailing the Nile, with scenes of desert dunes and a shoreline punctuated with date palms unspooling outside your cabin. The standard first stop 70 miles upriver is Edfu, a tiny town with a well-preserved temple.

4. Kom OmboThe Nile crocodile takes centre stage at Kom Ombo, another 40 miles or around five hours’ sailing from Edfu. Half of the unique ‘double’ temple is dedicated to Sobek, the crocodile-headed god of pharaonic power and fertility, and an intriguing museum of mummified crocodiles awaits at the end of your visit.

5. AswanAll cruises dock at Aswan, after two nights on board en route from Luxor. The Nile is at its most fascinating here. Take a felucca (small sailboat) to Gharb Soheil, a brightly painted village home to a few thousand Nubians, an Indigenous group that has lived in the region since pharaonic times. For sunset, have a drink on the terrace of the Old Cataract Hotel, made famous by Agatha Christie, who wrote part of Death on the Nile here.

6. Abu SimbelAbu Simbel sits on the shore of Lake Nasser, created by the construction of the Aswan High Dam in 1970. The temples were rescued from rising waters by moving them stone by stone to higher ground. Twice a year, the sun still illuminates the figure of Ramses II and two of the three gods in the temple’s inner sanctum.

Start point: Sharm el-SheikhEnd point: NuweibaDistance travelled: 250 milesAverage length: 7 days

Egypt’s best-known body of water is a river, but the Red Sea that stretches along the country’s eastern coast guarantees some thrilling aquatic adventures of its own. Suitable for all levels of underwater explorers, from snorkellers to advanced scuba divers, the Red Sea is a technicolour dream world beneath its surface. There are a huge number of endemic fish — including species of elegant highlighter-yellow butterflyfish, neon parrotfish and shy clownfish lingering in finger-like anemones — and thriving coral reefs.

Sprawling resorts have taken up much Red Sea real estate around Sharm el-Sheikh, but the development and crowds thin out as you travel north. Just a few miles inland from the coast, Sinai’s interior reaches for the sky, a sacred land of pilgrimage and revelations still lived in by long-established Bedouin tribes. Hiking trails climb to mountain summits and wind through valleys carved with centuries of graffiti left by visitors from the Nabataeans (of Petra fame) to the Crusaders, leading to secret wild swimming pools and small waterfalls.

This itinerary hits Egypt’s superlative highs and lows — from the country’s loftiest peaks to its deepest dive sites — as it traces the eastern edge of Sinai and traverses the peninsula’s biblically connected mountains.

1. Sharm el-SheikhWhen you need a break from sun, sand and snorkelling, Sharm has a couple of worthy distractions. The Sharm el-Sheikh Museum — the only such collection on the peninsula — has a digestible assortment of artefacts that span Egypt’s history from the pharaohs to the Bedouin. At the heart of the Old Market, which, despite its name, is quite new, the Sahaba Mosque looks like it could have come from the drawing board of Gaudí, with spiralling brick columns and honeycombed minarets.

2. Ras Mohamed National ParkAt the southernmost tip of Sinai, Egypt’s first national park is blessed with incredible dive sites. Vertical reef walls have names that hint at the types of species scuba divers and snorkellers can see: Jackfish Alley, Eel Garden, Shark Observatory and Anemone City. Divers with advanced certifications can check the shockingly large concentration of shipwrecks and the contents that have spilled out on the sea floor. Sleep in a canvas tent on the beach within the park boundaries at Bedouin-owned Bedawi Eco Camping.

3. DahabA chilled hangout spot for a curious mix of nomadic types — of both the digital and Bedouin varieties — Dahab is Egypt’s most laid-back destination. Whitewashed cafes draped with colourful Bedouin-style rugs line the crescent-shaped bays, where flippered snorkellers waddle past remote workers clacking away on laptops. North of town, the Blue Hole is infamous for its underwater tunnel, the Arch, which has seen a number of fatalities over the years; it is a safe and popular spot for responsible snorkelling and diving outside of that.

4. St CatherineSacred to Christians, Jews and Muslims, the UNESCO-listed area around St Catherine’s contains the world’s oldest continuously lived-in Christian monastery, watched over by majestic mountains that are some of the tallest in the country. No matter your religious beliefs, join a night-time pilgrimage, arriving to witness sunrise from the summit of Mt Sinai, or Jebel Musa (Mt Moses) in Arabic. Add on a day or more to walk with the local Jebeliya Bedouin through the neighbouring valleys that few outside visitors make time to see.

5. NuweibaA small town with a laidback vibe and quiet golden beaches, one of Nuweiba’s main attractions is Dar Jan. A passion project by a couple who left the big smoke of Cairo, the nine-acre organic farm north of town is unlike elsewhere on the peninsula. Travellers can join creative workshops, including organic agriculture and outdoor survival skills, and spend artsy afternoons of pottery, meditation and mosaic-making. You can stay overnight, too.