Trip Days
1 Days
Type
Historical
Difficulty
easy
Location
Luxor
Transportation
air conditioned Tourist Class Mini Van
Description
Luxor Highlights from Cairo By Flight
Enjoy a full day tour to discover the Ancient capital of Egypt : Luxor, formerly called Thebes. All the temples and ancient monuments scattered on both banks of the Nile river make this city a real open-air museum. Temple of Hatcheptsut, Valley of the Kings, Colossi of Memnon, Karnak temple… these are so many wonders that will not fail to impress you.
Day 1
Early in the morning our representative will pick you up from your hotel to Cairo airport for your flight to Luxor.
Your egyptologist guide will wait for you at Luxor in order to reach the West bank of Luxor : the first step of your day.
Discover first the valley of the Kings, a symbol of pharaohs’ glory. This valley was chosen by the pharaohs to be their royal necropolis after the Pyramids of the lower Egypt were stripped of their treasure. The site contains 63 tombs excavated in the rock of the mountain, the most famous one is that of the young king Tutankhamun.
Adventure yourself inside a royal tomb and examine the colored scenes on the walls, these give you insights on the beliefs and funerary rites of Ancient Egyptian. Here you understand that to get prepared for death is the first goal of a pharaoh, therefore, the tomb was for each king the great achievement of his life. The royal tombs are until now a great witness of the prestige and greatness of the pharaohs.
Continue your excursion with the Memorial Temple of Hatchepsut. Arriving to the site, the impressive cliff will not miss to captivate your eyes. But it’s at the foot of this masterpiece of nature that remains the real wonder : Hatshepsut temple. The external architecture match perfectly with the refined cliff, the building seems to have been sculpted into the rock. Once inside the temple, you are able to examine on the walls, scenes that tell the story of the female pharaohs that has made Egypt strong and wealthy under her reign. You can notice that many figures have their face damaged, these are representations of Hatshepsut that Tutmosis III wanted to get rid of. Indeed after her death Tutmosis III became king and finally took revenge on his stepmother that had stolen the power from him. Actually, he did everything to erase the name of Hatshepsut from history : he ruined the face of some of her statues, destroyed her cartouches or removed them.
Last site in the West bank : the colossi of Memnon. Massive, proudly standing, and the gaze fixed toward the Nile, the two colossi of Memnon were the guardians of Amenhotep’s memorial temple. This complex was the vastest and the most sumptuous in Egypt, here Amenhotep was venerated as a god. After an earthquake of 27 BC, the remaining part of one of the colossi was believed to sing at the time of sunrise. But this sound disappeared after the renovations. The several earthquakes and floods took away this prodigious temple. Today the area is a vast archaeological research site, still guarded by the two great colossi.
Have lunch in a nice local restaurant.
Continue your day with the visit of the two glorious temples of the East bank of the ancient Thebes. Get into Karnak temple : the vastest Ancient temple dedicated to the Theban triad Amun, Mut and their son Khonsu. Karnak temple was connected to Luxor temple by an alley of sphinx which was used during the Opet Festival : the statues of the Theban triad were carried in procession from Karnak Temple to Luxor Temple so that Amun-Ra (the solar shape of god Amun) meets Amun-Min (the shape of Amun in Luxor Temple). The ancient complex is composed of three precincts, only the one of Amun-Ra is accessible to the public. Make your way through the papyrus field of the hypostyle hall. The 134 columns shaped like papyrus will not miss to impress you. The walls will captivate you with their colored engravings and hieroglyphs. At the back of Amun-Ra precinct : a charming sacred lake of natural spring water that was used by the priests to purify themselves before entering the temple. The whole complex was built and developed during more than 2000 years. Hence, about thirty Pharaohs have contributed to the construction of the building, making it unique by its size, its degree of elaboration and the diversity of styles.
End your day with Luxor temple : this is the perfect time to enjoy the splendor of the Ancient architecture highlighted by the shimmering rays of the setting sun. Enter the site facing the immense pylon of Ramses II, his monumental colossi and of course the unique obelisk since the other was given to France by the viceroy Mehmet Ali. Once a year, during the flood season of the Nile, the temple used to welcome the statues of the Theban triads for the Beautiful Feast of Opet. During 12 days, several rituals and celebrations used to take place in the temple. Here, Mut renewed every year her marriage with Amun and gave birth again to Khonsu. This rebirth ceremony radiated on the Pharaoh, who could thus renew his power above whole Egypt. The site also hosts a roman chapel and a mosque that you can still admire on the top of the ancient columns of the temple.
Here ends your amazing tour, your guide will transfer you to the airport in order to take your flight back to Cairo. There our representative will wait for you to take you back to your hotel in Cairo.
Included
- Flight 2 ways Cairo – Luxor – Cairo
- Egyptology guide
- Transportation in tourist class mini Van
- Lunch
- Taxes
Exclude
- Entrance fees tickets
- Tipping
Payment
Available way of payment:
Paying through our secure online gate payment (Pay-fort) one of amazon’s companies, fully secured system.
If you wish to pay via bank transfer please send us an email to info@bobmarleytravels.com
Once we receive your payment your trip will be automatically confirmed.
Cancellation
Free cancellation two weeks prior your arrival time.
Any time of cancellation during the 12 days before your trip starts, 40% of your total payment will be nonrefundable.
One week before the trip starting the amount you will pay is nonrefundable. In case you are not happy with our services and we didn’t deliver it the way it should be, fragmentary amount will be refunded.
Best price grantee policy
In case you will find other cheaper travel agency, please consider:
1- Date of arrival and departure
2- Same accommodation stander
3- Same historical sightseeing
4- Transportation type
5- Same includes and excludes
6- If the other travel agency includes 24 hour tour leader service.
If you can provide us all this evidence, we will gladly make you 50$ cheaper than what you found.
Safety & Security
We strongly recommend the use of a neck wallet or money belt while travelling, for the safe keeping of your passport, air tickets, cash and other valuable items. In case of going to your activity please keep your valuable stuff with you not to leave them in your car, please leave them in your safe box in your hotel. Your personal belongs it’s your full responsibility. Please make sure to not listen or accept any invitation for a drink or so from a stranger in the street, it’s always end up with a problem, have fun with your travel mates and your local friends. In case you would like to buy something or make shopping please get the best advice from your group leader or tour guide to avoid any misunderstanding.
Insurance
Bob Marley Travels are not responsible for your travel insurance, please make sure that you arrange your insurance before you start your travel.
Activities out of your program
Please contact your local guide for more information on available tours and excursions to make sure you are in a safe hands and having always the straight word. no heading cost and no extra charge because you might meet street scammers and offer you cheaper prices, but then you will always find a tricky and aggressive way and most of the time they take from you more money, this can end up having unhappy experience in Egypt and our aim is to make our guest happy and satisfied.
Trip walking or driving distance
Please be aware that there are long driving hours on this tour. You can refer to the trip overview for more information on estimated travel times. Please note that any times mentioned are approximations only to give you an idea of the journey lengths and the actual time taken will depend on public transport timetables and road conditions. A mix of private and public transport is used throughout this trip, prepare yourself for some fun long rides.
Pocket money
We recommend you to carry on your pocket daily from 20 to 50 USD or what equals in EGP, depends on your personal needs, please consider your own spending habits when it comes to allowing for drinks, shopping and tipping, please also remember the following specific recommendations when planning your trip, also many places in Egypt are not accepting credit card but only in cash.
Meals
Eating is a big part of traveling fun and get to know country’s culture. Travelling with Bob Marley Travels will experience a lot of different local type of food which we include everyday lunch in your program with variety of different local meals. Most of the time dinner are not included which we give you more flexibility in deciding what and with whom to eat. It also gives you more flexibility in your budget, the food generally is cheap in Egypt. Our groups tend to eat together to let you enjoy each other’s company. Your tour leader will be able to suggest the best of all restaurants during your trip.
Local flights
Please make sure to attach your passport copy with your final confirmation in order to book the flight tickets. Internal flight tickets are issued locally and will be given to you prior to the flight departure. Domestic carriers for internal flights in Egypt will be Egypt Air or Nile Air. Flight information will not be available until a couple of days prior to the tour departure. Contact us for more details on your flights. The domestic flight maximum weight allowance is 20 kg.
Tipping
Tipping in Egypt known as “baksheesh” is a way of life in the Middle East. Locals themselves usually tip who provides them with service. It is customary and even expected to tip small service providers. To make things as easy as possible and avoid hassling, Bob Marley Travels has developed a tipping attitude where your tour leader will collect a contribution from everybody at the start of your tour and use this to tip anybody who has provided services to the group as a whole. A guideline for tipping is minimum $4 USD per day per person, you can pay in USD or the equivalent local currency (preferably local currency). If you feel that any service provider failed in maintaining or delivering good service, please bring it immediately to the attention of your tour leader to be able to improve our service partners and so a deduction of tips can take place. To not confuse you how much to tip the Tour Guide so we suggest you tip minimum 3$ per person per day, and at the end of the day it’s not a mandatory option.
Feed back
Your tour leader is 24 hours with you if there’s anything you are not happy about, please let him/her know immediately. If you have an issue with the tour leader himself please call our emergency number 24/7 service. After you get back home safely, we would appreciate very much hearing from you! Your feedback is so important to us to be able to improve our service’s quality to the next friend or family member with Bob Marley Travels. Please take a few moments giving us your feedback and help other travelers with your experience through our website, just by sending us an email on info@bobmarleytravels.com and let us know what to improve in which point.
