High Country Golf & Tennis Outting

10-Day Legendary Nile

DAY 01 – JUNE 22, 2011: CAIRO (B)

Our local staff whisks you through the excitement and hubbub of the terminal, and onward through the desert to your hotel near the fabled Nile. Venture out amid the spice shops, cafes, and peddlers from bygone days, modern-day professionals, and an unforgettable array of sights, sounds, and aromas.

DAY 02 – JUNE 23, 2011: CAIRO, HOME HOSTED DINNER (BLD)

Today, you'll explore the wonders of the Egyptian Museum, with its treasures of the ancient pharaohs: mummies, statuary, precious stones and metals. Travelers 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.

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 03 – JUNE 24, 2011: ASWAN - Abu Simbel - Nile Cruise (BLD)

Our Cairo personnel will escort you to the airport to board your flight to Abu Simbel via Aswan in Upper Egypt.

ABU SIMBEL

For some Abu Simbel is the highlight of their Egyptian adventure. Flying over Lake Nasser, watching the sky lighten and the sacred sunrise above the horizon. We reach the great temples while the air is clean, clear and cool, and the sun's light still golden; just right for photographs.
In the larger temple, colossal figures of Ramses are seated with the gods and attended by his queen and daughters.

The smaller temple is dedicated to Queen Nefertari, who appears as Hathor, the goddess of love, joy and fertility, symbolized by the benevolent cow. We explore this fine temple in the quiet of the morning, admiring their ancient aura and artistry, after which we fly back to Aswan your Nile Cruise

You'll arrive in time to take lunch aboard your Nile cruiser. 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.

DAY 04 – JUNE 25, 2011: 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, and 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.

DAY 05 –JUNE 26, 2011: 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.

DAY 06 –JUNE 27, 2011: LUXOR (BLD)

We'll cross the Nile by ferry and continue overland to view an array of ancient splendors: the tomb chambers of the Valley of the Kings; the imposing tomb-temple of Queen Hatshepsut in the Valley of the Queens; and, on the way back to the ferry landing, the Colossi of Memnon.

DAY 07 – JUNE 28, 2011: LUXOR (B)

We'll visit the imposing Great Temple of Amon at Karnak and the great Temple of Luxor before checking in at your Luxor hotel. Evening Sound & Light show at Karnak.

DAY 08 – JUNE 29, 2011: LUXOR, CAIRO (BD)

After breakfast, head 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. Dinner included at the hotel

DAY 09 – JUNE 30, 2011: 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 lakebeds 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 10 – JULY 01, 2011: FLY TO ATHENS (B)
Our Cairo-based staff escorts you to the airport for your flight to Athens

SERVICES INCLUDED

All arrival / departure assistance & transfers
All entrance & sightseeing per program
04nights in CAIRO hotel (B.B basis)
04nights Nile Cruise (F.B basis)
01 night LUXOR HOTEL (B.B basis)
taxes, fuel surcharges, security fees included
Licensed Egyptologist escort /guide
Excursion to Abu Simbel by privet car
Domestic AIRFARE Cairo Aswan/ Luxor / Cairo
01 over day - Fayoum Oases by Toyota Land Cruiser
All services fees and local taxes

Not including

· Visa entry for Egypt.

· Personal items.

· Tipping.

· Any other items not mentioned.

· Dinner Show Per Person 60 $

· Any optional tours.

· Air tickets to Athens