Aswan and Luxor Tour: 5 Days Overland Through Upper Egypt
Aswan and Luxor Tour: 5 Days Overland Through Upper Egypt
This trip is right for you if you want Upper Egypt without a cruise ship. Five days, four nights, a private car, a licensed English-speaking Egyptologist, and a start date on any day of the year rather than whenever a boat sails.
You sleep in hotels rather than a cabin and travel the valley by road, the option most American travelers never hear about. The route covers the same temples a five-day cruise covers, Philae, Kom Ombo, Edfu, Karnak, Luxor Temple, the Valley of the Kings and Hatshepsut, and adds the full Abu Simbel excursion, which most cruises sell as a separate extra.
The real advantage is timing. A cruise is locked to a sailing date. This is locked to nothing, so it bends around your international flight instead of the reverse. Land in Cairo at 3 p.m. and want to be in Aswan that evening? Fine. Flight home leaves late? Day 5 stays open.
Trip at a glance
| Length | 5 days, 4 nights |
|---|---|
| Route | Aswan (2 nights), overland via Kom Ombo and Edfu, Luxor (2 nights) |
| Starts and ends | Aswan to Luxor, any day of the year |
| Style | Private. Your own guide, driver and vehicle. No group departures |
| Hotels | 4-star or 5-star, your choice of category |
| Sites | 10 temples and monuments, each one listed in the inclusions below |
| Longest drive | Day 2, Aswan to Abu Simbel and back, about 175 miles each way |
| Flights | None included, international or domestic. See exclusions |
What makes this different from a cruise
Departure dates and crowds. Cruise cabins run on a weekly rotation, so a five-day sailing from Aswan leaves on the two or three days the boats go. A land itinerary has no window. The boats also moor at Kom Ombo and Edfu at roughly the same hours because they share a lock schedule, so those temples fill and empty in waves. By car you are not tied to that, and your guide picks the gap.
The bed. A cabin is small and the boat moves at night. After eight time zones, a full-size room helps. What you give up is real too: no Nile past the window at breakfast. If that is the part you came for, take the Aswan to Luxor Nile cruise instead.
What is included and what is not included
What is included
Transfers
- Private air-conditioned vehicle and driver throughout
- Aswan airport pickup, Luxor airport drop-off, all hotel transfers
- The overland leg from Aswan to Luxor, with the Kom Ombo and Edfu stops built in
- Road transfer to Abu Simbel and back on Day 2
- Boat crossing to Agilkia Island for Philae
Accommodation
- 2 nights Aswan, 2 nights Luxor, double occupancy
- 4-star or 5-star hotel, whichever category you pick
Meals
- Breakfast every morning, 4 in total
Guide
- A licensed English-speaking Egyptologist at every site, and the same guide throughout, so the story carries from Philae to the Valley of the Kings
- WhatsApp support 24/7, from your first message until you fly home
Monument entries, all prepaid
- Philae Temple, Aswan
- Aswan High Dam
- Abu Simbel, both temples
- Kom Ombo Temple
- Temple of Horus, Edfu
- Karnak Temple complex
- Luxor Temple
- Valley of the Kings, including 3 tombs
- Temple of Hatshepsut, Deir el-Bahari
- Colossi of Memnon, an open roadside site with no gate fee
Extras
- Abu Simbel as a full day, not an optional add-on
- Bottled water in the vehicle on travel days
- All taxes and service charges
What is not included
- Your international flight. We do not sell, book, quote or coordinate international air. You buy your own ticket
- Domestic Egyptian flights. Cairo to Aswan at the start and Luxor to Cairo at the end. Send us your international times and we book those sectors and quote them separately
- Egypt entry visa. 30 USD single entry, 65 USD multiple entry, per person, through visa2egypt.gov.eg
- Lunches and dinners, since only breakfast is listed below
- Tips for guide, driver and hotel staff. Customary and expected. Amounts are in the FAQ
- Travel insurance. We do not sell it and it is not in the price. Full answer below
- Extra tombs at the Valley of the Kings beyond the standard three, including Tutankhamun, Seti I and Nefertari. Each is an extra cost paid at the ticket office, as are photography permits at some sites. We print no figures for these because they are not on the verified fee schedule we work from
- Sunrise hot air balloon at Luxor, a felucca sail, or a Nubian village visit. Bookable through us at extra cost
- Personal spending, drinks and laundry
If something is not on either list, it is included. There is no fine print and nothing gets added at the hotel desk.
Day by day
Day 1: Arrive in Aswan, Philae Temple and the High Dam
We meet you at Aswan airport, drop your bags at the hotel, then head out to Philae, the temple of Isis, which is not where the ancient Egyptians put it. When the High Dam raised Lake Nasser the original island went under, so the temple was cut into blocks, numbered and rebuilt on Agilkia Island next door. You reach it by motorboat, a fair introduction to a city where the river is the main road.
The afternoon finishes at the High Dam itself, the 1960s project that created the lake and forced the rescue of Philae and Abu Simbel in the first place. Short and flat. Arriving in Egypt the same day after a transatlantic flight? Tell us at booking and we move Philae to the next morning.
Day 2: Abu Simbel
An early start, and the one morning where the alarm is genuinely unkind. The drive runs about 175 miles south across the desert to Abu Simbel, near the Sudanese border.
What you get for it is the most theatrical thing Ramesses II ever built: four seated colossi of himself, over 60 feet high, cut into the sandstone cliff, with a smaller temple beside it for Nefertari. Like Philae, it is not standing where it was carved. In the 1960s the facade and the halls behind it were sawn into more than a thousand blocks and reassembled 200 feet higher, inside an artificial mountain built to hold them. Your guide will show you the joins. Then back to the same hotel in Aswan, so nothing needs repacking.
Day 3: Kom Ombo, Edfu and on to Luxor
Check out and head north up the valley. First stop is Kom Ombo, two temples in one building: the southern half belongs to Sobek the crocodile god, the northern half to Horus the Elder, and the whole thing is split down the middle, two entrances and two sanctuaries. The museum next door holds mummified crocodiles from the local cemetery, which children and adults find equally hard to walk past.
Then Edfu, the one that surprises people. Buried under sand and village housing for centuries, the Temple of Horus came out of the ground more intact than any other in Egypt. The roof is on, the pylon is at full height, and the Horus myth is still legible where it was carved. You reach Luxor in the afternoon and the evening is yours.
Day 4: Luxor, east bank and west bank
The biggest day of the trip, and the reason both Luxor nights are in the same hotel. Morning on the east bank starts at Karnak, less a temple than a construction site that stayed open for roughly 2,000 years as pharaoh after pharaoh added to it. The hypostyle hall alone holds 134 columns, the tallest around 70 feet, and standing in it is the moment most people remember from Egypt. Then Luxor Temple, smaller, built on a scale you can take in.
After lunch you cross to the west bank, the side of the dead. The Valley of the Kings is a dry gorge holding more than 60 royal tombs, and your ticket covers three, chosen on the day by your guide based on which are open and quietest. Then Hatshepsut's terraced temple at Deir el-Bahari, cut into the cliff in three tiers, and the Colossi of Memnon, left from a mortuary temple once bigger than Karnak.
Day 5: Luxor, and onward
Breakfast, then a free morning shaped around your flight. Some people use it for a sunrise balloon over the west bank, booked in advance. Some walk the souk for alabaster and spices. Some sit on the corniche with a tea, which after Day 4 is defensible. We drive you to Luxor airport with margin, and if your flight out is late, say so when you book and we restructure the morning.
This is also the natural point to extend. Cairo, Giza and the Red Sea bolt onto either end. Our Egypt tour packages show how the pieces fit together.
What the entrance tickets are worth
Every gate below is paid before you arrive. You do not queue for tickets and you hand over no money at these entrances. Here is what the entries cost at official 2026 rates, per person.
| Site | Official 2026 fee | Approx. USD |
|---|---|---|
| Philae Temple, Aswan | 550 EGP | 11 |
| Abu Simbel, both temples | 822 EGP | 17 |
| Kom Ombo Temple | 450 EGP | 9 |
| Temple of Horus, Edfu | 550 EGP | 11 |
| Karnak Temple complex | 600 EGP | 12 |
| Luxor Temple | 500 EGP | 10 |
| Valley of the Kings, 3 tombs | 750 EGP | 15 |
| Temple of Hatshepsut | 440 EGP | 9 |
| Colossi of Memnon | No gate fee | 0 |
| Total already paid for you | 4,662 EGP | about 94 |
Fees are published by the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities and set in Egyptian pounds. The dollar column is approximate, converted at 1 USD = 49.79 EGP on 6 August 2026, and the rate moves, so treat the pound figures as the real number. Aswan High Dam entry is included and unlisted because it is not on that schedule. Hold this total against any tour that excludes entrance fees, because that is usually where a low headline price comes from.
How much this trip costs
From US$520 per person, double occupancy.
That is the starting figure for 4-star hotels in Aswan and Luxor with everything on the inclusions list, including all the temple entries above. It is per person, never per group, and a starting price.
What moves the price
- Hotel category. Moving to 5-star in both cities is the biggest lever
- Season. October through April is high season in Upper Egypt, when the weather is best and hotel rates climb. At the top of that band in 5-star, the same itinerary lands around US$880 per person
- Group size. Everything is private, so the guide and vehicle are shared across your party. Two people pay more each than four
- Single occupancy. A room to yourself carries a supplement that depends on hotel and dates, quoted as a real number rather than a rule of thumb
- Domestic flights. Quoted separately at whatever the airline is charging
- Extensions. Cairo and Giza, or Red Sea nights on the end
We quote in US dollars. A deposit confirms your dates and the balance is settled in Egypt, so you are not sending the full amount overseas before you arrive.
Get a price for your dates
Tell us when you want to travel, how many of you there are, and which hotel category. We reply the same day with a firm number.
Frequently asked questions
Is this route safe for American travelers right now?
Check the source, not an operator's marketing. The US State Department keeps a live advisory for Egypt at travel.state.gov. At the time of writing Egypt sits at Level 2, Exercise Increased Caution, with a separate Do Not Travel carve-out for North and Middle Sinai. Read the current version yourself, because levels change and we will not quote one as permanent.
What we can say flatly is geography. This itinerary never goes near Sinai. Aswan, Abu Simbel, Kom Ombo, Edfu and Luxor are all in the Nile Valley in the far south, roughly 700 miles from the peninsula. You are also never alone: a driver and guide are with you at every transfer and site.
Does this include my flight from the United States?
No. We are an Egypt-based operator and we do not sell, book, quote or coordinate international air. You buy your own ticket into Egypt and out of it. The domestic sectors are different: Cairo to Aswan and Luxor to Cairo are not included either, but we can book and quote them separately once you know your international times.
Is the Egypt visa 25 dollars or 30 dollars?
30 dollars single entry, 65 dollars multiple entry, per person, on a US passport. You will see 25 dollars on plenty of operator pages and travel articles and it is out of date. You will also see figures in the low thirties and high sixties from the Egyptian consular service in Washington, a different product with a service charge on top, not the e-Visa.
The official channel is visa2egypt.gov.eg. Apply before you fly, print the approval, and skip the bank window queue at Cairo. Your passport needs six months of validity from your entry date.
Do I need to bring US dollars in cash?
Some, yes, and it catches Americans out because most of us barely carry cash at home. If you buy the visa on arrival rather than online, it must be paid in US dollars cash. Bring crisp, unmarked, recent bills: banks and airport desks refuse notes that are torn, written on, or from an older pre-2009 series.
Small dollar bills are handy for tips, but pounds are better value for everyday spending. ATMs are reliable in Aswan and Luxor city centers and unreliable the moment you leave them, so draw cash in town and carry a backup card on a different network.
I land after a 10 hour flight. Is Day 1 going to destroy me?
It does not have to. Cairo is 7 hours ahead of US Eastern, so an East Coast nonstop lands you with your body clock in the middle of the night, and a West Coast routing with a connection can run past 20 hours door to door.
Day 1 is deliberately light: one temple reached by boat, and a dam stop you barely leave the vehicle for. If you arrive the same calendar day, say so at booking and we move Philae to the next morning. We can offer that because nothing here is tied to a sailing schedule.
How much should I tip, and who do I tip?
The question in Egypt is not whether but how often. The answer is more often than at home, in smaller amounts.
| Who | Customary | When |
|---|---|---|
| Egyptologist guide | 150 to 250 EGP per day | End of the trip, or per city |
| Driver | 100 to 150 EGP per day | End of each leg |
| Hotel housekeeping | 50 EGP | Per night, left in the room |
| Bellhop, boat crew, felucca captain | 20 to 50 EGP | On the spot |
| Restroom attendant at temples | 10 EGP | On the spot, and bring your own tissue |
These are customs, not charges, and nothing here is added to your bill. Below the guide and driver level, small Egyptian notes work better than dollars, because a one dollar bill has to reach a bank before it is useful to a housekeeper.
Can I drink the water, and how do I avoid getting sick?
Do not drink the tap water and do not brush your teeth with it. Bottled water is included in the vehicle and cheap everywhere else. Ask for drinks without ice unless you are in a 4-star or 5-star hotel, where the ice is filtered.
On food, the pattern that keeps people well is cooked and hot, or peeled by you. Grilled meat, tagines, koshari, fresh bread and hot mezze are fine. Raw salad rinsed in tap water and pre-cut fruit are what to skip outside your hotel. Carry hand sanitizer and your own tissues, because restrooms at Karnak and the Valley of the Kings are frequently unstocked. Pack an anti-diarrheal and rehydration sachets.
What should I wear, especially as a woman?
Egypt is conservative and Upper Egypt more so than Cairo, but the temples are tourist sites and nobody expects you covered head to toe. The practical answer for women is loose, lightweight clothing covering the shoulders and reaching at least the knee. Linen trousers or a long skirt with a light long-sleeved top is the standard, and it doubles as sun protection, which matters more than modesty at Abu Simbel in July. You do not need to cover your hair anywhere on this route. The only exception is a mosque, and there are none on the itinerary.
Shorts are tolerated at Luxor's temples and you will see them, but they draw more attention. Closed shoes with grip matter more than you would think: the Valley of the Kings is loose rock and tomb ramps. For men, the same rules, and skip the tank top.
Do I need travel insurance, and do you sell it?
We do not sell it and it is not included, so this is advice, not a sales pitch. Take a policy. It matters more for Americans than for Europeans, who usually arrive with a national health system behind them. Most US health plans and Medicare cover little or nothing abroad, so a hospital in Aswan is a cash transaction until your insurer reimburses you. Look for emergency medical treatment, evacuation and repatriation, which is the expensive part and the real reason to buy, plus trip cancellation. Buy when you book, not the week before you fly.
Why choose this over a Nile cruise?
Because you want to leave on your own date, sleep in a full-size room, and see Kom Ombo and Edfu without three boats worth of people arriving at once. Same temples either way. The difference is the bed and the schedule. Take the cruise if the river is the reason you are coming. Put the Luxor to Aswan Nile cruise beside this page and compare night by night.
Can I travel solo on this?
Yes, and a private itinerary suits solo travel better than a group departure. What there is, unavoidably, is a single occupancy supplement, since hotels charge for the room and not the head. Solo women travel this route regularly, and a licensed guide plus a private driver at every transfer removes most of the friction in solo travel reports from Egypt, which is usually street hassle rather than safety at the sites.
Can you add Cairo and the pyramids?
Yes, and most travelers do. Giza, Saqqara, the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir and the Grand Egyptian Museum sit on either end of this route, joined by the domestic flight. That usually takes the trip to seven or eight days, which is where our 8 day Egypt itinerary lands.
Why book with an Egypt-based operator
Being based in Egypt is not automatically a virtue. Here is what it changes.
The guide is ours. Book a US or European agency for Egypt and the itinerary is usually resold to a local operator, who resells the guiding. Every layer takes a margin and none of them is standing next to you at Edfu. We are the local operator, which is why this price includes every gate fee and still starts where it does. It is also why changes happen the same day: if your flight into Cairo slips, that is a message to the people who own the vehicle, not a ticket routed to a call center in another time zone.
Those are UK financial protection schemes for UK-established businesses, and an Egyptian company cannot hold them. Any Egypt-based operator claiming them is telling you something untrue. Our protection is structural: a deposit confirms and the balance is settled in Egypt, so the sum sitting overseas before you arrive stays small.
There is no star rating on this page. We have 12 reviews, rated 5.0, and every one is about the agency and our guiding rather than this specific itinerary. They were left by travelers on our Spanish-language departures. Attaching a per-tour rating we have not earned would mean inventing one, and plenty of operators in this market do exactly that. Read what we have on our reviews page and weigh it for what it is.
Still deciding? Compare the 2 day Luxor tour if Aswan is not essential, the Abu Simbel day trip on its own, or our guides to Aswan and Luxor.
Let's talk about your trip
Tell us your dates and how many are traveling. You get the full plan and a firm price the same day, and the quote costs nothing.