Aswan in Three Days: The Gentlest City in Egypt

Aswan is where the Nile widens, slows and fills with granite islands, and where Egypt stops feeling frantic. It is the one city in the country people consistently wish they had given more time.

Day one: the essentials

Philae Temple by motorboat, the High Dam, and the Unfinished Obelisk. Half a day, comfortably.

Spend the afternoon on the corniche and get on a felucca before sunset.

Day two: Abu Simbel

Three hours south by road, and worth every minute. Leave before dawn to arrive ahead of the coaches.

If time matters more than money, fly — it turns a twelve-hour day into five.

Day three: the slow one

A Nubian village on Elephantine Island, the botanical gardens on Kitchener's Island, and the Old Cataract terrace for tea if you can stretch to it.

This is the day people remember.