Depart USA on a scheduled flight to Cairo, all meals and beverages served on board flight.

Arrive Cairo, where you will be met by our representative who will help you with your immigration and customs formalities, later you will be transferred to your hotel, the luxurious Mena House Oberoi Hotel, for an overnight.

Breakfast, then start your sightseeing by visiting the Pyramids of Giza. Cheops (Khufu) Pyramid, largest of the three, was built in the 3rd Dynasty about 2690 BC, and is one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. In front of the Pyramid of Chephren (Khafre), we find the Sphinx carved from a single piece of stone. It is a lion with a Pharaoh's head thought to be a portrait of the pharaoh Chephren (Khafre). Enjoy a camel ride by the Pyramids area, then continue your tour visiting the Egyptian Museum, famous for its antiquities from Egypt's Pharaonic period, which dates back some 50 centuries and includes the fabulous treasures of King Tut-Ankh-Amon. Afternoon excursion to Old Cairo, visiting the very Old Coptic Churches and the Oldest Jewish Synagogue of Beni Ezra. Continue your visit to the Citadel of Salah El-Din, the Mohammed Ali Mosque and the Medieval Bazaars of Khan-El-Khalili, where you can bargain for your jewelry and hand-tooled leather items. Return to your hotel for an overnight. (B)

Breakfast, then you will be met and transferred to Cairo Airport for your flight to Aswan. Upon arrival at Aswan airport, you will be met and transferred to embark your cruise ship. Later you will visit by "Felucca" the Elephantine Island, the Mausoleum of Agha Khan and the Botanical Gardens. Lunch, dinner and overnight on board ship. (B, L, D)

Aswan: The Temple of Isis at Philae

Breakfast, then visit the Unfinished Obelisk at the Ancient Granite Quarries, and the High Dam. Lunch, then cruise to Kom-Ombo. Visit the Ptolemaic temple of Kom-Ombo, which was dedicated to two Gods: The Crocodile God Sobek and the Falcon-headed God Haroeris. Sail to Edfu. Dinner and overnight on board. (B, L, D)

Breakfast, then visit the temple of Horus (237 BC), the best preserved Egyptian temple in existence. Lunch. Sail to Esna and visit the temple of Khnum. Continue to Luxor. Dinner and overnight on board ship. (B, L, D)

Luxor: Karnak Temple

Breakfast, then cross the Nile to visit the Necropolis of Ancient Thebes. Explore the valleys of the Kings and Queens where tombs of 64 Pharaohs and 57 Queens have been discovered, and enter some of the most important burials. Visit the temple of Queen Hatshepsut and the Colossi of Memnon. Lunch. Afternoon a visit to the temple of Karnak, which took over 1500 years to build and is considered the world's largest religious complex. Then visit the temple of Luxor, which was started by Amenhotep III, and completed by Ramses II.  Disembark your cruise ship, where you will be met and transferred to your hotel, the luxurious Cairo Marriott, for an overnight.  (B, L)

Breakfast, and morning at leisure. PM You will be met by our representative and transferred to Cairo Airport, where you will be helped with your check-in and immigration formalities for your flight to Kenya. (B)

Arrive Nairobi where you will be met and transferred to the city. Check-in at the luxurious and fashionable Norfolk Hotel. Later that same morning, you'll enjoy a safari briefing from our professional guide. In the afternoon you'll be escorted to the Karen Blixen homestead, where the movie "Out of Africa" was filmed. See Kenya at the turn of the century in its simple splendor amidst some of the most beautiful gardens in Africa. Afterwards, you'll visit Giraffe manor, where the endangered Rothchild Giraffe is protected, before returning to the city in the late afternoon. (B)

Breakfast and today you take some time to meet and learn about some of the peoples of Kenya. Boarding your safari minibus, we drive north of Nairobi into the Kikuyu highlands, where much of the country's produce is grown, plus its important exports of pineapple, tea and coffee. This beautiful agricultural area also has the largest open-air market. The Karatina Kikuya Market brings people from all over the highlands together. You'll stop at a local refreshment center and then tour the market, learning about the area's produce with many opportunities for buying locally fabricated crafts and socializing with the people. Afterwards you'll continue to the town of Nanyuki in Kikuyuland, where we've arranged for a special tour of the private Weavers Association, a benevolent women's organization that recruits and trains young girls in the art of weaving the area's time wool.  The organization has developed ecologically sound ways to die the wool that are patented worldwide. Weavers produce shawls, rugs, wall hangings and a variety of other woven goods and create jobs for hundreds of area women. Lunch at the Troutbeck Inn in the mountains, enjoying freshly caught trout fish before continuing in the afternoon to Samburu National Park. Then you game drive into Larsen's luxury permanent tented camp for dinner and overnight. (B, L, D)

Kenya: Deluxe Tented Rooms

Breakfast and the excitement begins with your first dawn game drive in one of Kenya's most famous big game parks. Samburu is a beautiful national park, wrapped around the great Ewaso Nyiro river which cuts a swathe of jungle through the great Northern Frontier Desert. The game is abundant, rare and beautiful, including the reticulated giraffe, the most handsome of the long-necked mammals. You'll also see the rare Grevy's zebra and blue-legged Somali ostrich. Samburu is known for its vast herds of elephants. Transfer to your luxurious permanent tented camp that is situated right on the river, where you can often watch elephants frolicking and bathing. In between the morning and afternoon game drives you'll have the option of taking a camel ride into a local Samburu village. (B, L, D)

Elephants of Samburu

Breakfast and drive back up Mt. Kenya and arrive at the world famous Mt. Kenya Safari Club for lunch, tea, dinner and overnight. During your free afternoon, a wide variety of options are available from horseback safaris, trout fishing, golf, tennis and a full range of beauty and spa services. Created by William Holden and now a world-class resort, the safari club's rooms, gardens and public areas are the most elegant in Kenya. (B, L, D)

Breakfast and a quick and spectacular flight over the great Rift Valley and its many lakes brings you to Kenya's best game park, the Massai Mara. As your flight arrives, you'll be met by your private driver and a landrover and taken to one of the Mara's most exclusive permanent tented camps, the Mara Safari Club. In the afternoon, you'll enjoy your first game drive in this fantastic wilderness area. (B, L, D)

Breakfast and three game drives are included today, in the club's exclusive landrovers. Visit a local Maasai village. The Mara is several hundred square miles of gently rolling grassland plains, filled with big game. The density of lion in the Mara is greater than anywhere else in Africa. You'll see numerous herbivores like impala, topi, wildebeest and zebra, sometimes in groupings of thousands. In addition to lion, there are many cheetah and leopard. The Mara never fails to satisfy the most demanding game viewing expectations and is one of the most beautiful places in East Africa.  (B, L, D)

Your last day of the Safari ends with a grand finale. You'll be waken up before dawn and driven over the veld at night through the great activity of the predawn hunts. At sunrise, you'll board a beautiful gondola (hot air balloon) and start rising over the great herds of the Mara silently into the sky. The ride lasts about an hour, travelling with the gentle western winds. Few animals look up, so you have a remarkable opportunity to get close and watch the animals without disturbing them. The balloon lands where fate places it and track vehicles immediately set out a beautiful champagne breakfast at that very spot where the balloon lands and you enjoy the luxury of the early explorers as uniformed waiters serve you an elegant meal. Afterwards, we take a game drive back to the camp. Later you will be transferred to the airstrip for a quick flight back to Nairobi. Arrive Nairobi where you will be met by our representative and transferred to the Norfolk Hotel. Balance of day at leisure or for last minute shopping. Overnight. (B)

Kenya: View the beautiful wildlife from a hot-air balloon

Breakfast and later you will be met and transferred to Nairobi Airport for your departure flight back home. (B)

Arrive back in the USA.