Egyptian Desert Safari

Tour description

Alongside its monuments and temples, Egypt also boasts some stunning desert scenery and we visit several different regions on this tour. We get away from the tourist trail and see fossilised whale skeletons resting on the desert sands, the wildlife surrounding a freshwater desert lake, and the weird rock formations in the White Desert. Two separate desert camps are included making for a truly memorable experience.

After arriving in Cairo, we start the tour by heading to the Fayoum region with a stop en-route to tour the Meidum Pyramid, one of the very first attempts at pyramid building. Fayoum is home to Egypt's most fertile soils and we'll see a wide range of agriculture irrigated by an ancient system of canals and water wheels.

We visit some of the interesting sites in Fayoum and then drive out past Wadi Rayan and into the desert to Wadi Hitan, home to the Valley of the Whales. This World Heritage Site is considered to be the most important place in the world to see fossilised whale skeletons and to see how they evolved. It is also surrounded by stunning desert cliffs and scenery and we are very keen to encourage responsible tourist visits here. We spend a night in traditional Bedouin style tents at the foot of the cliffs here and enjoy a hearty local meal before drifting to sleep.

We explore the site on foot the next morning, and then drive back to the Wadi Rayan protected area, where a wide range of wildlife can be found surrounding a beautiful freshwater desert lake and one of the few true springs oases in Egypt.

Next we head out into the Western deserts and the lush green oasis of Bahariya. We tour some of the interesting sites in the Oasis, including the symmetrically shaped Pyramid Mountain, and then board 4x4 jeeps and head out into the desert. We stop at the strange Crystal mountain and head off-road into the White Desert with its strange, unearthly rock formations and vast open plains. Our night spent camping under the stars here is a real highlight of any visit to Egypt.

We finish our safari by driving through the Black Desert to see the famous "flowers of the desert" before arriving in Farafra, the smallest and most peaceful of the desert oases, where we see traditional houses and an ancient way of life.

On returning to Bahariya, we can explore the town further and enjoy a relaxing dip in one of the hot spring that dot the oasis. You then return to Cairo to finish the tour.

If you would like to do some sightseeing in the Nile Valley along with the desert sections of this tour, then please check our Pharaohs & Deserts tour.