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Escorted group tours may save you a few dollars but with 16 to 18 tourists traveling together, even though perhaps led by an experienced travel director, will give you a mass perception of the sites and monuments you came to see. Nowhere else is having the monuments explained  to you in an intimate one-on-one setting more important than on a tour of the Classical Egypt.

Undeniably, tailor-made tour, an independent travel style touring per your own specific preferences, is the way to go, assuring you not only the best coverage of the key sites but also off-the-beaten-path destinations where few tourists venture.

For some, the Egypt experience may include only Cairo and the pyramids on the Giza Plateau. True Egypt experience, however, lies far beyond and shouldn’t be missed. So what will it take to see the best of Egypt?

With four or five days to spare, all you can hope for to see of Egypt is Cairo and the pyramids of Giza Plateau. The fascinating tour of Islamic Cairo usually covers the ancient Citadel, a spectacular medieval fortress perched on a hill above the city, and then the fascinating Khan El-Khalili Bazaar, said to be the largest bazaar in the Middle East.

Near Cairo on Giza Plateu are the Great Pyramids, their classical shape is what most of us associate with mention of Egypt. The tour usually includes the 5,000 year old Solar Boat, the Sphinx and the Valley Temple.  With the Papyrus Institute, to learn how paper is made, and tour of the Step Pyramid of Sakkara, may be a camel ride and there is just enough time to get a taste of Egypt.

To experience the Egypt’s monuments in depth you need to venture down south, to Luxor and Aswan, and for that you need at least eight days.

In Luxor we ferry across the Nile to the West Bank. Here we visit the Valley of the Kings where “The Book of the Dead” funerary texts are exquisitely painted or carved into walls. We go on to visit the Valley of the Queens and selected tombs of the Nobles. Finally we proceed to the East Bank of Luxor where is located the Temple of Karnak, Egypt’s largest and most complex temple, built over a period of 2000 years.

From Luxor we continue to Egypt’s sunniest city, an ancient town of Aswan, with its distinctively African atmosphere. And yet further south is Abu Simbel, claimed to be one the most magnificent temples in the world.

By now you have started to scratch more but hardly all that Egypt has to offer. Then there is Alexandria, quite on the opposite end, at the mouth of the Nile. There is Coptic Egypt to be seen, not just the Classical Egypt, and Mount Sinai and St. Catherine Monastery are another distinct side-tour to include in your Egypt itinerary.  Speaking of the remote and unique and if you want to sample all of Egypt’s riches, you must take a desert safari, a Nile cruise, or at least felucca ride on the Nile (but it’s not the same), and last venture out to the beaches of the Red Sea.

Remember, to make the best of your tour of Egypt you need to travel on a custom-designed itinerary, as there is so much to see and so much to learn, hence make the best of your time, plan your journey wisely.