How a Tailor-Made Egypt Trip Is Planned, Step by Step

A tailor-made Egypt trip is planned in writing. You send your dates, who is traveling, the pace you like, the hotels you have in mind and what matters most. A written proposal follows, naming the route, hotels and room types, any Nile vessel, what is and is not included, the full price and the terms. Nothing is booked until you accept it and it is confirmed in writing.

Planning a tailor-made Egypt trip: the steps at a glance

A private journey on this site moves through the same stages every time, from a first message to a trip confirmed in writing.

1. You send a request. Your dates, who is traveling, the pace you like, the hotels or Nile vessel you have in mind and what matters most. Sending it costs nothing and is not a booking.
2. You receive a written proposal. It names the route, the hotels and room types, any Nile vessel, what is included and what is not, the full price and the terms.
3. You adjust it. The length, the hotels and the pace can change before you confirm, subject to availability.
4. You accept, and it is confirmed in writing. Only then is anything booked. No payment is taken with a request.
5. You sort out what sits outside the journey. International flights and the Egypt visa are not part of the land journeys, domestic flights are booked and paid separately, and tips are not included.
6. You arrive. A representative meets you at the airport, and on land your guide, vehicle and driver are for your group alone.

What to send in your first message

A first message does not need to be final. It needs enough for a proposal that names real hotels for real dates. Five points cover it:

• Dates. Arrival and departure, or the month and the number of nights you have. Hotels and Nile vessels are offered subject to availability, so dates come first.
• Who is traveling. The number of adults, the ages of any children and how many rooms or cabins you need.
• Pace. Full days at the sites, or a slower rhythm with time at the hotel or on deck.
• Hotels and the Nile. The level you want, Luxury or ultra-luxury, any hotel you already have in mind, and whether you prefer a Nile cruise ship, a dahabiya or no Nile days at all.
• What matters. The sites you care about most, anything you would rather skip, the language you want your guide to speak (English, Portuguese, German or Spanish) and any date you want to mark, such as an anniversary.

Send them through the contact page. If one of the luxury Egypt journeys is close to what you want, name it: every journey is a starting point, not a fixed package. If you have not settled these points yet, the guide to luxury travel in Egypt takes each decision in turn.

Using a journey as the starting point

The journeys on the site run from 5 to 11 days, and each length covers a different part of the country.

Any of them can be made longer, shorter or slower before you confirm.

What the written proposal contains

The proposal is the document you decide on. It names, in writing:

• the route;
• the hotels and the room types;
• any Nile vessel, cruise ship or dahabiya;
• what is included and what is not;
• the full price;
• the terms.

Because each hotel and vessel is named, you can look every one of them up before you accept. The proposal also shows where your trip is private and where it is shared. On land the guide, the vehicle and the driver are for your group alone. On a Nile cruise ship the ship is shared with other guests, and the guided visits are private where the journey lists private guided sightseeing. A dahabiya is shared with its other guests unless your group charters the whole boat.

Included and not included

The inclusions follow the same pattern across the journeys, and two items are never included.

How the proposal is adjusted

Every journey is a starting point. Before you confirm, its length, hotels and pace can be adjusted, subject to availability. Changes that fit this rule include:

• adding or removing nights;
• exchanging one hotel for another;
• a slower pace, with fewer visits in a day;
• quoting the whole journey at the ultra-luxury level, which any Luxury journey can be.

Two limits apply. The Winter Palace in Luxor is closed for restoration until 2027, so it is not offered; the Old Cataract in Aswan is open while renovation work continues. And visits beyond the standard ticket need separate permits: they are included only once confirmed in writing and are never promised in advance.

When the trip is booked

Nothing is booked when you send a request, and no payment is taken with it. The trip is booked only after you accept the proposal and it is confirmed in writing. Until then you can ask for another version, compare options or decide not to go, and the request has cost nothing.

Bookings are made with Egypt Today Travel, a Cairo travel agency licensed by Egypt's Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, Category A, license no. 1947. The questions worth asking any company before you book are in how to choose a luxury Egypt tour company.

The ultra-luxury option

Any Luxury journey can be quoted at the ultra-luxury level. What changes is the properties and who follows your trip, compared in full in luxury or ultra-luxury: what is the difference.

A vessel is proposed only where it sails the journey's own length and direction. A whole dahabiya can also be booked as a private dahabiya charter for one group where a vessel is free for the dates; the route between Esna and Aswan stays the same. The ultra-luxury journeys show this level in full.