Luxury Egypt Adventure Tour: Sahara to the Red Sea

Egypt’s capital Cairo blends shiny modern towers with ornately carved, ancient minarets – and combines monuments of the past with a palpable sense of adventure.

The city is arranged on the banks of the Nile River, and a journey to the top of Cairo Tower is the best way to appreciate the layers of history showcased by buildings like the seventh-century Mosque of Ibn Tulun and rococo-style Habib Pasha El Sakakini Palace.

Explore on riverside walks, cruise in a traditional felucca sailboat and discover the backstreets and markets of Downtown Cairo on a private night tour.

Heading south from Cairo, your Egypt adventure tour takes you into the Sahara, where a sea of sand dunes rolls under endless clear skies. Your base for active experiences here is Fayoum, an oasis city with sugar cane plantations and salt lakes.

Hike around, and up, the giant dunes of Wadi El Rayan, home to rare desert waterfalls. See prehistoric whale skeletons in the museum at Wadi Al Hitan, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Try sandboarding down the dunes, and cover great swathes of the desert on exhilarating jeep tours.

Active holidays in Egypt offer a different way to travel through the country’s ancient landscapes. On the banks of the Nile, Aswan is a dramatic tangle of granite cliffs, boulders and tall dunes, home to rock-hewn temples and the Unfinished Obelisk, dating from the 15th-century BC.

During your time here, delve deeper into your otherworldly surroundings on a kayaking tour, paddling past Philae Temple and the brightly painted houses of the Nubian Village. You can also cruise around islands and past desert dunes in a traditional felucca sailboat.

The Red Sea is known for its long coastline of burnished gold beaches, each one a launchpad for adventures in and out of the water. 

Here, private Egypt adventure tours will take you snorkelling around vivid coral reefs. Board a boat for scuba diving in deeper waters with shipwrecks and take stand-up paddleboards to quiet coves.

On dry land, explore the fishing village of Dahab, hike around the black sand dunes and mineral springs of Safaga and ride quad bikes among tall dunes in the Red Sea Coastal Desert.