EGYpT Tour
In 2027, three of Egypt’s most iconic historic properties will become Mandarin Orientals for the first time. The Shepheard in Cairo, one of the country's most legendary addresses, has been restored and returned. The Winter Palace in Luxor, where Agatha Christie dined during her husband’s excavation seasons, is now fully reimagined. And the Old Cataract in Aswan, where Christie wrote Death on the Nile, and where Hercule Poirot stays in the novel. Novel Travels has designed this journey around that moment.
Novel Travels is proposing a literary group journey timed to that opening year, built around four books that share the same terrain: Fiona Davis’s The Stolen Queen, Marie Benedict’s Daughter of Egypt, Agatha Christie’s Death on the Nile, and Lynne Olson’s Empress of the Nile, the biography of the woman who actually saved Abu Simbel, Philae, and the Temple of Dendur from the rising Aswan floodwaters. All four ask the same question Egypt has been asking for three thousand years: whose history survives, and who decides? The Mandarin Oriental collection is the thread that holds the journey together.
Day 1
ARRIVAL IN CAIRO
Afternoon: Private transfer to Mandarin Oriental Shepheard. Time to settle in, take in the Nile from the terrace, and begin to feel the city.
Evening: Walk the Nile Corniche as the light fades, then dinner at Bab El Nil overlooking the river.
Day 2
THE PYRAMIDS, THE SPHINX, AND THE CAMEL
Morning: Private tour of the Giza plateau with a dedicated Egyptologist: Khufu’s Great Pyramid, Khafre’s Pyramid, the Solar Boat Museum. Camel ride to the panoramic overlook.
Afternoon: The Great Sphinx. Lunch at 9 Pyramids Lounge.
Evening: Back at the Shepheard, the evening is yours. The rooftop terrace overlooking the Nile is the right place to decompress after a day at Giza.
Day 3
THE EGYPTIAN MUSEUM AND HIDDEN HISTORIES
Morning: Private tour of the Egyptian Museum: the royal mummies, the jewelry of queens, the early 20th-century excavation records. All of it runs directly through all three novels.
Afternoon: Old Cairo: the Coptic Museum, the Hanging Church, Ben Ezra Synagogue. Late afternoon in Khan el-Khalili Bazaar, with tea at El Fishawy. Lunch at Abou El Sid.
Day 4
fly to luxor
Afternoon: Arrive in Luxor and make your way to Luxor Temple as the sun starts to drop. The lighting here, golden, dramatic, full of shadow, is unlike anything else in Egypt.
Evening: Dinner at the 1886 Restaurant at Mandarin Oriental Winter Palace. The room itself is worth the trip.
Day 5
VALLEY OF THE KINGS AND QUEENS
Morning: Valley of the Kings: Tutankhamun’s Tomb and Ramses VI, with a private guide to move at your pace.
Afternoon: Valley of the Queens: Nefertari’s Tomb, widely considered the most beautiful tomb in Egypt. Lunch at Al Marsam Restaurant. Felucca sail at sunset.
Evening: Dinner at the Winter Palace, then an unhurried evening in the hotel’s gardens or the Royal Bar. After two full days in the tombs, the pace of the hotel is the right counterweight.
Day 6
hot air balloon and hatshepsut
Early Morning: Hot air balloon over the West Bank as dawn breaks: temples, tombs, and the Nile from above.
Late Morning: Temple of Queen Hatshepsut, one of ancient Egypt’s most powerful rulers and one of history’s most systematically erased.
Afternoon: Artisanal workshops: alabaster carving, textile weaving, papyrus artistry.
Late Afternoon and Evening: An early start earns a slower close. The Winter Palace spa, a long swim in the garden pool, or simply the terrace with a Pimm’s as the Nile light changes. This is what the hotel was made for.
Day 7
edfu, kom ombo, and arrival in aswan
En Route: Temple of Horus at Edfu, the best-preserved temple in Egypt. Then Kom Ombo, the unusual double temple dedicated to two gods, with its adjacent Crocodile Mummy Museum.
Evening arrival in Aswan.
Evening: Settle into the Old Cataract as the sun drops behind the Nile. Sundowners on the terrace, watching the feluccas catch the last light, is the classic way to arrive here. It is one of the best evenings in Egypt.
Day 8
philae temple and the nubian village
Morning: Philae Temple, reached by boat: a temple dedicated to Isis that was painstakingly dismantled and moved stone by stone to save it from the rising waters of the Aswan High Dam.
Afternoon: Nubian Village tour: a living culture with its own ancient history, distinct from pharaonic Egypt and deeply worth understanding on its own terms.
Day 9
abu simbel
Morning: Fly or drive to Abu Simbel. The twin temples of Ramses II and Queen Nefertari, carved directly into the cliff face, are among the most significant things Egypt offers.
Afternoon: Return to Aswan. The rest of the day is genuinely yours - the spa at the Old Cataract, a felucca on the Nile, or simply the terrace with your book. Abu Simbel asks something of you; the afternoon is the recovery.
Day 10
return to cairo and departure
Morning: Morning flight back to Cairo. Time permitting: a private perfume atelier, gold shopping in the Khan, or a hands-on cooking class before your departure flight.