Egypt is two holidays. Book them in the right order.
What Giza costs with a guide and without one. Whether the Valley of the Kings is worth the four o’clock start from Hurghada. Which Orange Bay boat actually has shade. Reviews of every tour you can book in Egypt.
Orange Bay Island Snorkeling Trip With Water Sports – Hurghada
from $12 
Jeep Adventure to Blue Hole, Canyon & Dahab
from $22 Giza, the Theban west bank, the river between Aswan and Luxor, Abu Simbel.
The four bookings an Egyptian itinerary is built around. What each one costs, and what the people who took it say.
01The first morningTour to Giza Pyramids and The Egyptian MuseumThe plateau and the museum in one run. Take the opening slot, before the coach parties and the worst of the heat.
02The west bank dayLuxor Valley of the Kings & Tutankhamun Tomb TripPainted tombs and Tutankhamun, out of Hurghada and back the same night. The longest day here and the one nobody regrets.
03The slow part4-Days Nile Cruise From Aswan To Luxor including Abu Simbel and Hot Air BalloonFour nights on the water from Aswan down to Luxor, temples parked along the bank. The only stretch of Egypt that is not a drive.
04The far southAbu Simbel Temple Day Trip with Hotel PickupRamesses II cut into a cliff three hours below Aswan. The road convoy leaves before dawn, which turns out to be the point.
Pyramids, painted tombs, or the temples in between. Pick the day.
Four kinds of ancient day, what it costs to stand in front of each one, and which town you have to wake up in that morning.
★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · Pyramids & Great Sphinx Private Tour with Camel Ride
Giza and the SphinxThe plateau, the Sphinx, and a chamber inside if you want one.
Saqqara and DahshurThe step pyramid and the two rehearsals that came before Giza.
The Theban west bankPainted royal tombs, Hatshepsut’s terraces and the Colossi.
Abu SimbelTwo rock temples, sawn apart and rebuilt above the reservoir.
All 847 days at the ancient sites →
Cairo for the plateau, Luxor for the tombs, the Red Sea for everything after.
Six bases carry almost every Egyptian itinerary: the capital and the pyramid field on its edge, the two temple towns up the river, and the pair of Red Sea resorts that will drive you to any of it for the day.
Everything in Egypt was built within sight of the same river.
Feluccas under sail at Aswan, dinner boats lit up under the Cairo bridges, and the four-night run between the two with Kom Ombo and Edfu moored a short walk from the deck. Nothing here is more than a few fields from the water.
What an Egyptian day out actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by price. A great many of the best Egyptian days come in under the fare from the airport.
Plateau entries, quad runs into the desert, snorkel boats out of Hurghada and most of the temple half-days.
The full days: Luxor from the coast, Abu Simbel from Aswan, the balloon at dawn, a private car and guide in Cairo.
Multi-night river cruises, Cairo by plane from the Red Sea, and the private trips that take three sites in one go.
The other half of Egypt is under water.
Two hours east of the temples the desert stops at a wall of coral. Boat days out of Hurghada and Sharm, the sandbar everybody photographs, and a pod of spinner dolphins that turns up most mornings off Sha’ab El Erg.
Egypt’s most popular days out.
The whole Egyptian catalogue →Nine days out that more travellers book than anything else between Alexandria and Abu Simbel, and what puts each of them there.
1
Luxor Valley of the Kings & Tutankhamun Tomb Trip
Travel from Hurghada to Luxor with a guide such as Nana, Doa, Shaban, or Ahmed. Visit Karnak, the Valley of the Kings, Hatshepsut’s Temple, and the Colossi of Memnon. Add Tutankhamun’s tomb and a Nile boat crossing if selected. Expect a long, hot day, cold water, snacks, lunch, and return transport.
From · $76
Read our review →2
Pyramids & Great Sphinx Private Tour with Camel Ride
from $48
3
Tour to Giza Pyramids and The Egyptian Museum
from $155
4
Cairo and Giza Highlights Full-Day Tour
from $76
5
Luxury Cruise Trip to Orange Bay with Lunch
from $53
6
Luxor Day Trip from Hurghada Small Group & Tutankhamun Tomb
from $95
7
Orange Bay Island Boat Trip w/ Breakfast and Lunch
from $34
8
Royal Seascope Submarine Cruise with Snorkel Stop
from $21
Cairo: the plateau before nine, a museum after lunch.
Everything in Cairo →
The pyramids stand at the end of a city street, twenty minutes from Tutankhamun’s gold and a bazaar trading on the same lanes since the fourteenth century. These three carry more travellers than anything else in the country.
Giza, the Sphinx, and whether to go inside
Plateau entry is cheap and the extras are where the money goes: a chamber inside the Great Pyramid is a separate ticket, the camel is a negotiation, and the guide is the difference between a field of blocks and a burial complex.
Tahrir, or the new museum beside the pyramids
Tutankhamun’s burial goods have moved out to the Grand Egyptian Museum on the plateau road; Tahrir keeps the mummies and the crowded old halls. Most day tours now pick one of the two rather than both.
Khan el-Khalili, then mint tea at Fishawi
Copper alley, the spice stalls and the gold souk, then a table at a coffee house that has not closed since the eighteenth century. Go after dark, when the lanes cool down and the shutters are all up.
Luxor is an open-air museum with a town attached.
Karnak and Luxor temple on the east bank, the royal tombs and the mortuary temples on the west, and a hundred balloons over the whole thing at first light. Two full days, and that is being brisk about it.
Every Luxor day out →Above Luxor the Nile slows down, and so does Egypt.
Feluccas tacking between the islands, Philae rebuilt on higher ground, Nubian villages painted blue on the west bank, and the road south to Abu Simbel. This is the part people come back for.
- 14-Days Nile Cruise From Aswan To Luxor including Abu Simbel and Hot Air Balloonfrom $349
- 2Abu Simbel Temple Day Trip with Hotel Pickupfrom $70
- 34-Day 3-Night Nile Cruise from Aswan to Luxor&Abu Simbel+Balloonfrom $340
Three things that only happen in Egypt.
Deserts and dive sites turn up all over the map. A temple sawn into blocks and rebuilt on a hill, a hundred balloons over a royal necropolis at dawn, and four nights on a river with the ruins moored along the bank do not.
Abu Simbel
When the High Dam started filling Lake Nasser in the 1960s, the two rock temples of Ramesses II were about to go under. They were cut into more than a thousand numbered blocks, lifted sixty metres up the cliff and rebuilt inside an artificial hill, with the original alignment kept so the sun still reaches the inner sanctuary twice a year. None of that is visible when you are standing in front of it.
- 14-Days Nile Cruise From Aswan To Luxor including Abu Simbel and Hot Air Balloon★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 3,142 reviews
- 2Abu Simbel Temple Day Trip with Hotel Pickup★★★★★★★★★★ 4.4 · 2,807 reviews
- 34-Day 3-Night Nile Cruise from Aswan to Luxor&Abu Simbel+Balloon★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 2,023 reviews
The Luxor balloons
Baskets lift off the west bank before sunrise, dozens at a time, and drift over the mortuary temples, the sugarcane and the mouths of the royal tombs. Flights go early because the air is still; by eight the wind is up and the field is packed away. Weather cancellations are common and nobody argues with them.
- 1Hot Air Balloon Ride in Luxor Egypt with Transfers Included★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 4,319 reviews
- 2Hot Air Balloon Ride over Luxor Relics★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 1,681 reviews
- 32-Day Luxor Tour with Hotel, Balloon, & Boat Ride★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 1,113 reviews
Aswan down to Luxor
This is the only stretch of the country where the sights come to you. Boats tie up at Kom Ombo and Edfu, the temples are a short walk from the gangway, and the hours in between are a deck chair and a green bank two fields deep before the desert starts again. Most sail north; the southbound run is the quiet one.
- 14-Days Nile Cruise From Aswan To Luxor including Abu Simbel and Hot Air Balloon★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 3,142 reviews
- 24-Day 3-Night Nile Cruise from Aswan to Luxor&Abu Simbel+Balloon★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 2,023 reviews
- 34-Day Nile Cruise from Aswan to Luxor with Guide★★★★★★★★★★ 4.1 · 593 reviews
Four Egyptian bookings that will not wait.
Most of this country can be arranged the night before at a hotel desk. These four run on dawn convoys, balloon weather, fixed sailing days and a single pair of flights.
- 014-Days Nile Cruise From Aswan To Luxor including Abu Simbel and Hot Air BalloonThe road south leaves Aswan in the small hours to arrive before the heat, and the seats on that early run go first.
- 02Hot Air Balloon Ride in Luxor Egypt with Transfers IncludedFlights are capped by basket space and only fly in still air at first light. A cancelled morning rebooks onto one that is already full.
- 034-Days Nile Cruise From Aswan To Luxor including Abu Simbel and Hot Air BalloonBoats between Aswan and Luxor sail on fixed days, usually twice a week. Miss the departure and the next one is days off.
- 04Full-Day Trip to Cairo by PlaneThe Red Sea day trip to Cairo runs on one pair of flights with a hard seat count, which makes it the first thing gone in high season.
When Upper Egypt hits 45 degrees and the plateau has no shade at all.
From June to September the open sites are punishing by ten in the morning, and there is nothing to stand under at Giza or on the west bank. The answer is always the same: be at the gate when it opens, then get under a roof or into the water for the rest of the day.
By place — the capital, the river, the coast
By kind of day — ruin, reef, desert or river
Cairo, Luxor, Aswan, then the Red Sea: the run almost everybody does first.
The riverAdded to the catalogue this week.
Keep going back through the catalogue →
All Inclusive Tour to Giza pyramids, sphinx, Memphis, Saqqara
Read our review →
Day-Tour To Giza Pyramids, Great Sphinx, Egyptian Museum & Khan El Khalili
Read our review →
Day Trip to the Giza Pyramids, Memphis, and Sakkara
Read our review →
Private tour to Alexandria from Giza with Lunch and Entrance fees
Read our review →
8-Hour Private Tour to Giza Pyramids, Memphis and Sakkara
Read our review →
Day Tour to Giza Pyramids, Sphinx, Sakkara Pyramids and Dahshur Pyramids
Read our review →
Day Tour at The Egyptian Museum and Coptic Cairo
Read our review →
Day Tour at The Egyptian Museum,Saladin Citadel and Khan El Khalili Bazaar
Read our review →
Private Tour Pyramids of Giza and Sphinx from Giza
Read our review →
