There's a tiny window of opportunity -- a tiny one -- when you can limit your costs to an affordable level for one of the indispensable trips of anyone's lifetime: to Egypt. The ancient civilization of Egypt is so vital to view, so memorable and instructive, that every person should experience it at some point. And yet despite the low costs of Egypt itself (a remarkably cheap country for room and meals), the tour-packaging industry has made hardly any effort at all to bring about the kind of bargain rates created for numerous popular destinations.

That absurdly limited period of time is December 1 to December 11, when Sunny Land Tours (tel. 800/783-7839; www.egypthotdeals.com) charges only $999 per person for round-trip air on Egyptair between New York and Cairo, round-trip airport-to-hotel transfers, and five nights at the quite elegant, 300-room Oasis Hotel near the Pyramids, with buffet breakfast daily and a half-day city tour of Cairo including the Egyptian Museum. The price goes up to $1,149 for departures in January, and to $1,299 in November, February and March.

Except for Sunny Land's air-and-land package limited to five nights in Cairo (and don't bad-mouth that short a stay; five nights in Cairo is itself an exceptional cultural and historical opportunity), all other packages to Egypt combine 3 or 4 nights in Cairo with 3 or 4 nights visiting the extraordinary antiquities of "upper Egypt" (Aswan, Luxor, AbuSimbel), for a price of $1749 or $1870 per person. On its "Budget Cruncher" program, Misr Travel, the more-or-less official, state-owned tour company of Egypt (tel. 800/223-4978 or 212/332-2600; www.misrtravel.org), offers October-through-February departures on Egyptair round-trip to Cairo, three nights at the Movenpick Pyramids Hotel in Cairo, sightseeing tours in Cairo, the Pyramids, and the exotic Khan al Khalili Bazaar, and a three-night Nile cruise (full board) to and from Upper Egypt, for $1749 per person, double occupancy. Another Egypt specialist, Travel Egypt (tel. 877/778-3497; www.travelegypt.com) of Alpharetta, Georgia (of all places), brings you round-trip air (from November through March), three nights in Cairo, round-trip overnight sleeper train to upper Egypt, and a three-night Nile Cruise, for what works out (air plus land) to around $1,870 per person.

Far better than any of these, if you have the time, is the program staying for 10 nights in Egypt, and yet costing only $1730 per person, from Djoser Travel (tel. 877/356-7376 or 484/595-0480; www.djoserusa.com), the distinguished Dutch company doing business in the U.S., consisting of round-trip air between New York and Cairo, 9 nights at four-star hotels in both Cairo and upper Egypt (Aswan and Luxor), one night on a sleeper train to upper Egypt and a return flight from upper Egypt to Cairo, and the lecture services of a licensed Egyptologist at various points. Same arrangements from Miami or Los Angeles: $1950.

Try the Djoser tour if you can; but if you can leave between December 1-11, book the $999 Cairo Super-Saver from Sunny Land Tours. That's a small enough investment for the Pyramids and the Sphinx, the Khan-al-Khalili Bazaar, the relics of Tut, mummies of the Pharaohs, and so much more, in this fascinating capital city.

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