A tailor-made Egypt holiday starts from your dates, not from a departure calendar. You tell us how long you have, what you want to see and how you like to travel; we build the route, the hotels, the guides and the transport around that, and revise it until it fits. Everything is private — your own Egyptologist, your own driver, your own vehicle — and the itinerary can still change while you are in the country.
Dates, how many of you, roughly how long, and anything non-negotiable — a Nile cruise, Abu Simbel, a particular hotel, a wedding anniversary. If you do not know yet, say what you do know. Most first messages are two lines and that is enough to start.
We come back with a day-by-day route: which cities, in what order, which sites on which mornings, which hotels, and how you move between them. It is written to be argued with rather than accepted — the point of the first draft is to find out what you actually want.
Swap a site, add a day, drop the early start, change the hotel tier, split the group for an afternoon. Revisions are part of the process, not an extra. Nothing is booked until the route is one you are happy with.
Once you are travelling, the itinerary is still yours. If a site holds your attention you stay longer. If the heat wins, the afternoon becomes a swimming pool. Your guide and driver are with you throughout and can rearrange the day without phoning a head office in another country.
Almost everything is negotiable: dates, pace, hotels, which sites, how much driving, whether there is a cruise. Three things are not. Entry hours at ticketed sites are set by the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities. Restricted-access visits — the Osiris Shaft, Wahtye's Tomb, Abdeen Palace, the Great Pyramid outside public hours — need permission granted per party and per date, so they need notice. And Abu Simbel is a fixed three-hour drive each way from Aswan however the rest of the day is arranged.
Tailor-made costs more per day than a fixed departure and is worth it for a specific kind of traveller: people with limited days who want them used well, returning visitors who have already done the standard route, families travelling at different speeds, and anyone whose interest is narrower than "Egypt" — Old Kingdom architecture, Coptic Cairo, textiles, birdlife on the Nile. If you want the classic route on set dates at the lowest price, a packaged tour is the honest answer.
For October to April — the high season — three to six months ahead is sensible. Nile cruise cabins and the smaller dahabiyas sell out first because the boats are small, and Abu Simbel flights are limited. Outside those months six to eight weeks is usually enough. Restricted-access site visits are the exception in any season: those are booked around the permission, not around the hotel.
A packaged tour follows a fixed itinerary on set dates, usually with a group. A tailor-made trip is built around you — your dates, your pace, your interests and your budget — with a private guide and driver throughout. Nothing is shared, and the route can still change while you are travelling.
Egypt’s sites carry little on-site interpretation — the Valley of the Kings has almost no signage. A licensed Egyptologist supplies the context the monuments don’t, handles ticketing and access, and sets the pace. It is the difference between seeing the sites and understanding them.
Guides must hold a licence from the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, which requires a university degree in Egyptology, archaeology or a related field. Book through a licensed operator rather than arranging privately at the site, where licences are rarely checked.
Do carry small notes for tipping, ask before photographing people, and remove shoes entering a mosque. Don’t drink tap water, don’t photograph military or police sites, and don’t accept unsolicited “help” at monuments — it is almost always a paid approach.