Honeymoon In Greece and Egypt , Legends of the Greece and The Nile, 15 day tour of classical Greece and a Nile Cruise

DAY 2 - Sunday-Private Tour of : ATHENS (BL)
On your first morning in Athens we show you the top sights: the Acropolis and its museum, the Temple of Olympian Zeus, Hadrian's Arch, the Theater of Dionysus, and more. Private air-conditioned vehicle , private chauffeur , private guide. Lunch is included in a charming local restaurant . In the afternoon we take you for a walk through the historical Plaka district .

DAY 3 - Monday - MYCENAE, EPIDAURUS & Olympia (BD)
After breakfast we'll escort you to the tour terminal; we are passing by the Olympic Stadium of the 2004 Olympics main venue. We continue for the Corinth Canal (brief stop). Drive to EPIDAURUS and visit the Ancient theatre, world famous for its outstanding acoustics. Proceed to NAUPLIA (short stop) and through the plain of Argos arrive to MYCENAE. Visit the archaeological site and the Tomb of Agamemnon. In the afternoon (optional stop for souvenirs) depart for OLYMPIA, the birth place of the Olympic Games, through the cites of Tripolis and a brief stop at MEGALOPOLIS . Overnight stay in Olympia.
First class hotels : Europa or similar . Tourist class : Ilis or similar

DAY 4 - Tuesday - Delphi (BD)
Visit the archaeological site with the Temple of Zeus, the Temple of Hera, the altar of the Olympic flame, the Stadium and the archaeological Museum. Depart via PATRAS (short stop) to RION, cross the Corinthian bay by the new bridge to ANTIRION. Pass by the city of NAFPAKTOS and from there on, along the coastal road to DELPHI, known in ancient times as the navel of the world. In the afternoon visit the picturesque mountain village of ARACHOVA. Overnight stay in Delphi. First class hotels : Amalia or similar . Tourist class : Hermes or similar

DAY 5 - Wednesday - DELPHI - Kalambaka (BD)
Visit the archaeological site, and, the MUSEUM of Delphi. Depart for KALAMBAKA via Central Greece (short stop by Lamia). Overnight stay in Kalambaka (a small town built at the foot of the majestic gray rocks and crowned by the METEORA Monasteries).

DAY 6 - Thursday - Meteora & ATHENS (B)
Leave in the morning for nearby Meteora to visit the BYZANTINE MONASTERIES. Return to Athens passing the heroic monument of Leonidas at THERMOPYLAE

DAY 7- Friday - ATHENS, CAIRO (BD)
Our Athens-based personnel will take you to the airport to catch your flight for Cairo, air fare is included in our rate , economy class, tax included, in Cairo our local staff whisks you through the excitement and hubbub of the terminal, and onward through the desert to your hotel .
Visa fee is included, issued upon arrival for EU , American, Japanese and Australian, NZ citizens, passports must be valid for at least 6 month beyond the date of arrival. You are responsible for your passport being valid & in order.

Visa will be issued upon arrival. As you exit the gate, you will pass through a door or two , down some stairs , then walk for 2-5 minutes , until you pass the duty free shops, at the end of a wide corridor , you will see the security officers. There you will be met by a local representative, who will be holding a sign with the name you prefer to use for the sign .
Our local representative will then take your passport to obtain a stamp from the cashier / bank window and escort you to speak with the passport officer. He will escort you through another last check on your passport as you exit the passport control, into customs area, he will assist you in collecting your luggage and clearing customs . After exiting the terminal, our local representative will escort you (private vehicle) to the hotel . Dinner is included at the hotel . If your flight arrives late after 11 PM , and you wish to have a room service, then the pre-set menu will be provided as room service without any additional charge to you .

DAY 8 - Saturday - CAIRO (BLD)
Today, you'll explore the wonders of the Egyptian Museum, with its treasures of the ancient pharaohs: mummies, statuary, precious stones and metals. Travellers have long come to Cairo just to gaze on these sights, but your day has just started. You'll also see the Citadel of Saladin and the alabaster mosque of Mohammed Ali. In Giza, on the edge of the desert, you'll gaze in awe at the mysterious Sphinx and the Pyramids , for those interested a complimentary ticket is included for entry to the King's chamber inside the Pyramid, you must be physically fit to be able to climb.

DAY 9 - Sunday - ASWAN- Board your Nile Cruise
Camel Caravan - Nubian Village (BLD)
Our Cairo personnel will escort you to the airport to board your flight to Aswan in Upper Egypt. You'll arrive in time to take lunch aboard your Nile cruiser. Welcome fruit basket awaits you on board.
We'll have the opportunity to experience Egypt at its most authentic, as we sail the Nile in a graceful felucca. If you wish, try your hand at camel riding! We'll take a traditional caravan to enjoy tea with Nubian villagers. In the evening your guide will call on you for a horse-drawn carriage ride throughout Aswan souks and the water front.

DAY 10 -Monday - ASWAN, KOM OMBO (BLD)
After breakfast on board, we'll visit the dams at Aswan, including the High Dam, a modern wonder in this ancient land. At the ancient granite quarry, we'll see an obelisk left unfinished, then board a launch on Lake Nasser to visit the Temples of Philae, rescued from rising waters. Back aboard our cruiser, we'll sail northward down the Nile at a stately pace, disembarking for a visit to Kom Ombo, the twin temple dedicated to the crocodile river god, Sobek. Cabin amenity : 2 Large bottled water.

DAY 11 - Tuesday- EDFU, ESNA (BLD)
Horse-drawn carriages or vans meet us at riverside to take us through Edfu to the Temple of Horus, best-preserved in all of Egypt. Later, we'll cruise to Esna, and by evening, we'll be in fabled Luxor. Cabin amenity: Egyptian Sweets platter.

DAY 12-Wednesday - LUXOR (BLD)
We'll cross the Nile to view an array of ancient splendors: the tomb chambers of the Valley of the Kings; including King Tut's Tomb, the imposing tomb-temple of Queen Hatshepsut in the Valley of the Queens; and the Colossi of Memnon.

Afterward, we'll continue on Luxor's west bank to get a totally different perspective on ancient Egyptian life, at the ancient workers' settlement of Deir el-Medinah. While most of the imposing stone monuments and sites of Egypt honor the lives and after-lives of royalty, Deir el-Medinah gives us unique and surprising insights into the ordinary citizens who constructed and decorated the tombs.

Here we'll see the excavated homes shared by laborers with their domestic animals. These quarters were surprisingly large, with three good-sized rooms, courtyard, kitchen, and even storage cellars. While ancient Egypt might not have been a workers' paradise, we'll see that artisans and builders were highly regarded in their community. We are proud to be the only operator to offer regular visits to this singular ancient settlement in its tour and cruise programs.

Evening farewell dinner & a belly dance show: Complimentary Galabya will be delivered to your cabin with our compliments.

DAY 13 -Thursday - LUXOR, CAIRO, Home Hosted Dinner (B)
We'll visit the imposing Great Temple of Amon at Karnak and the great Temple of Luxor before heading to the airport to catch our flight to Cairo. After we settle you into your hotel, you'll have your last opportunity to experience the excitement of this great city and, of course, do some last-minute shopping.
Complimentary Dinner is included at a local home:
Meet the locals, you may wish to bring token gifts to exchange with the host family ( T shirt , small souvenirs of your home town):
This evening we'll venture where few ordinary visitors ever tread . . . right into the homes of some of the people of Cairo l! You'll be invited to a family dinner, and while you enjoy wholesome home-cooked specialties, you'll learn about and appreciate the outlook, aspirations, and way of life of your hosts. Be assured, as curious as you may be about your new friends, they're sure to have questions about your own background. Once the ice is broken, you'll enjoy a lively evening, and find that you have more in common than you ever suspected. Of course, you may enjoy a quiet evening with your travel companions, by letting us know your preferences.

DAY 14 - Cairo Fayoum - (BL)
On Desert Safari for the Day - Fayoum Oases - And you thought the Pyramids were old

The wilds of the desert begin right on the outskirts of Cairo, and continue for hundreds of miles to the east and west, through sands, rock, mountains, oases, and a surprising variety of scenery and inhabitants.

Join us for a day ranging across the desert like modern nomads. In place of camels, we’ll travel in comfortable, reliable four-by-four Toyota Land Cruisers. Your guide and drivers will meet you at your hotel, and soon you’ll leave bustling Cairo behind as you undertake the drive toward the Oasis of El Fayoum, 150 kilometers to the southwest. Hard as it is to believe, a great inland sea once covered these sands. It was a holy reserve of sacred crocodiles, symbolized by the god Sobek.

We’ll visit the temple of Kom Oshim, drive over ancient lake beds, and alongside the waters of today’s Fayoum Lake to reach the fishermen’s village of Chak Chouk. There we’ll stop for a lunch of fish caught fresh that morning. There will be time to wander the village lanes and discreetly watch the everyday activities of baking flatbread, irrigating crops from the lake’s waters, and bringing in the catch. We’ll also include the craft and pottery museum where the best works of local artisans are on display.

Then it’s into our four-by-fours again, for an off-road adventure! We’ll head alongside and across desert washes, between dunes, and over ancient lake beds for 35 kilometers to the Valley of the Whales ( In Arabic : Wadi-El-Hitan) . Incredibly, these great mammals once thrived - almost forty million years ago- in waters surrounded by sands. We’ll stop and gaze in amazement at their fossilized remains alongside smaller sea creatures that remain in stone.
This valley was discovered in 1936 , by the German geologist George Schweinfurth in the northwestern corner of Wadi El-Rayan.

The valley provides evidence of one of the major changes in this mammal evolution has been declared by the UNESCO to be a World Heritage Site. It is believed that these land based whales once had feet that may have helped them somewhat while ashore . A team from the University of Michigan discovered in the late 80's that these Zeuglodon whales did have rudimentary feet , this was a startling discovery , suggesting that whales of Wadi -El-Hitan had recently started living in water as well , these whales were not related to any of the whales we have today , rather a more slender body and may grow up to 75 feet long. Several skeletons of whales are exposed in the sand. George Schweinfurth named this extinct specie the Zeuglodon Isis Whales .

In the evening, you’ll return to your hotel in Cairo. Land transportation in air-conditioned four-wheel-drive Toyota Land Cruiser with the services of driver and English-speaking driver. Lunch is included

DAY 15 -Friday - RETURN HOME (B)
Our Cairo-based staff escorts you to the airport for your flight home. Bon Voyage.

Deluxe Nile Cruises : Monaco , Monte Carlo , Mojito , Beau Soleil , Florence. Adonis or similar
First Class : Nile Dream ,Lady Diana , Ruby or Similar

For PRIVATE GUIDE/CAR/DRIVER for Nile Cruise Shore Excursions:
For the full duration of the Nile Cruise & shore excursions: please add $ 250 per person .This supplement doesn't apply when you have at least 6 guests in your party, as you'll have always your own private car/driver/guide.

All of our Nile cruise vessels are fully air conditioned. Onboard dress is casual except at dinner, when smart casual is the rule. Lightweight cotton and other natural fiber clothing is best, with swimsuits and sun hats for the sundeck and pool. Bring a light sweater or light jacket for cool mornings and evenings, but most days are warm to hot, with very little rain. Comfortable walking shoes are essential for shore excursions.

The Great Pyramid of Cheops . . . Are You Up to the Adventure?

A journey into the heart of the Great Pyramid is a real-life Indiana Jones adventure. But it can also be a taxing and frightening one.

You'll follow claustrophobic passages cut into the heart of the pyramid, feel the pull of the mass of stone directly above. For better or worse, you have placed yourself in the hands of the engineering expertise of the ancients.

As you continue along the unventilated passages, the oxygen becomes depleted, the air becomes noticeably warmer and more pungent. The ascent of steep stairways consumes more energy than you imagined, and you find yourself short of breath. Lighting is dim, every footstep must be carefully calculated. Low passageways repeatedly oblige you to advance while bent down, and your muscles protest. Where walls disappear into the dark above, you feel wedged into a shaft. Despite warnings, and your own resolve, claustrophobic feelings are hard to suppress.

Finally, you behold the King's Chamber at the heart of the Great Pyramid. The effort to reach it has made the reward more exhilarating than you imagined. If only you can face the return.

Is the King's Chamber for you? If you're not used to bending and regular exercise, you might find the challenge beyond your capabilities. Turning back is more difficult the farther you go, and the experience could leave you aching for days afterwards.

Be realistic about yourself, your abilities, and your disposition. And remember that there are many other rewarding sights and adventures at Giza, without the physical challenge and risks of the King's Chamber.

The decision is up to you.

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Legends of Greece and the Nile

A Grand 15 day mediterranean Tour : Exploring Greece by land and Egypt on a Nile Cruise

Rate includes:

Legends of Greece and the Nile A Grand 15 day mediterranean Tour : Exploring Greece by land and Egypt on a Nile Cruise

Rate includes:

Legends of Greece and the Nile

A Grand 15 day mediterranean Tour : Exploring Greece by land and Egypt on a Nile Cruise