What follows is the whole range: four multi-day circuits running seven to twelve days, two five-day Nile cruises that sail in opposite directions for the same money, and four short tours around Luxor, Aswan and Abu Simbel for travelers who already have part of the trip arranged. You get a side-by-side comparison, the 2026 gate fee for every monument on the itineraries, the prepaid ticket value of each tour worked out in front of you, two separate lists for what the price covers and what it does not, and answers to the questions travelers actually ask before they send a deposit to a company on the other side of the world.
Compare every Egypt tour package at a glance
The biggest decision is not which sites you see, because almost every serious Egypt itinerary covers the same monuments. It is how many nights you have and whether you want to sleep on a boat.
| Tour | Length | Where you go | Domestic flights | From, per person |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Abu Simbel day trip from Aswan | 1 day | Abu Simbel | Not included | From $120 |
| Abu Simbel with an overnight | 2 days, 1 night | Abu Simbel, Philae, High Dam | Not included | From $239 |
| Luxor in two days | 2 days | Luxor, east and west banks | Not included | From $288 |
| Aswan and Luxor overland | 5 days, 4 nights | Aswan, Abu Simbel, Kom Ombo, Edfu, Luxor | Not included | From $520 |
| Nile cruise, Aswan to Luxor | 5 days, 4 nights | Aswan, Abu Simbel, Kom Ombo, Edfu, Luxor | Not included | From $755 |
| Nile cruise, Luxor to Aswan | 5 days, 4 nights | Luxor, Edfu, Kom Ombo, Aswan, Abu Simbel | Not included | From $755 |
| Egypt classic, 7 days | 7 days, 6 nights | Cairo, Giza, Aswan, Nile, Luxor | Included | From $1,348 |
| Egypt classic, 8 days | 8 days, 7 nights | Cairo, Aswan, Abu Simbel, Nile, Luxor | Included | From $1,451 |
| Cairo, Luxor and Aswan, 10 days | 10 days, 9 nights | Cairo, Luxor, Edfu, Kom Ombo, Aswan, Abu Simbel | Included | From $1,897 |
| Grand Egypt, 12 days | 12 days, 11 nights | Cairo, Saqqara, Aswan, Nile, Luxor, Hurghada | Included | From $2,196 |
All rates are per person, two people sharing a double room or cabin. Solo travelers pay a single supplement, confirmed in writing on your quote rather than by blanket rule. Rates move with the season: December, the week around Easter and early January sit at the top of the range, and the same itinerary in late May or September sits near the bottom. The word "From" in that last column is doing real work, so treat it as the floor of a range and ask for a dated quote before you plan a budget around it.
Which Egypt tour fits you
Four questions sort almost everybody into one of these ten tours, and none of them are about which pyramid you like best.
- How many nights do you actually have on the ground? Count from the morning you land, not the day you leave home. A red-eye that arrives at 3 p.m. costs you an afternoon. Seven nights is the minimum for Cairo plus the Nile. Below that, take one of the short tours and do the country properly another year.
- Do you want to sleep on the river? A cruise cabin is smaller than a hotel room and the boat moves at night. In exchange you unpack once and wake up at the next temple. If that trade sounds bad, the overland version of the same route exists for exactly this reason.
- Is Abu Simbel a must? It is a six-hour round trip from Aswan and it is not on every itinerary. The eight-day and ten-day circuits include it, both Nile cruises include it as a road excursion, and the seven-day circuit does not.
- Do you already have flights inside Egypt? If yes, the cruises and the short tours work. If no, take a multi-day circuit, because the domestic sectors are built into those four and buying them separately is the step that trips people up.
Two more questions shape the trip. If the budget runs to it, our luxury Egypt tour page explains what a top-end trip really buys. If you would rather share the guide with a few other travelers, read what a small group Egypt tour means in practice.
Multi-day Egypt tour packages: Cairo, the Nile and Upper Egypt
These four are the core of what we sell, and they are what most first-time visitors want from an Egypt tour package: one booking that covers the whole country from the morning you clear immigration to the morning you go back through it. All four include the domestic Egyptian flights that link Cairo to the south, which is the single line item that separates a real circuit from a list of separate tours you have to stitch together yourself.
7 days: Cairo, Giza and a Nile cruise
Pick this one if you have a week and no more. The trade-off is the finish: you leave from Luxor rather than looping back to Cairo, and Abu Simbel is not on the routing. Buy your own international ticket with that in mind, or move up to the eight-day version.
8 days: the same circuit plus Abu Simbel
Abu Simbel is a three-hour drive each way from Aswan across open desert, and the twin temples of Ramesses II and Nefertari are why half the people on your boat came to Egypt at all. From $1,451 per person, which is a $103 premium over the seven-day trip for an extra night, an extra domestic flight and a major site. It is the most-booked length we run, and if you asked us to choose for you without knowing your dates, this is the one.
10 days: Cairo, Luxor, Aswan and Abu Simbel at a workable pace
This is the length we recommend most often to first-time visitors arriving on a long-haul flight. The flight itself is long, and the time difference on top of it is usually several hours in one direction or the other. A seven-day trip loses most of its first day to that. Ten days absorbs it and still leaves room for a slow morning.
12 days: the grand circuit with the Red Sea
Take it if you are already flying halfway around the world and want the trip to justify the flight. It is also the easiest of the four with teenagers, because the Red Sea leg gives everyone a break from temples. One thing to know before you choose it: Abu Simbel is not on the standard twelve-day routing, since the Red Sea nights take that time. If Abu Simbel is the reason you are coming to Egypt, the ten-day circuit includes it, or say so when you write to us and the team will quote the change in writing.
Nile cruise packages
A Nile cruise is not a scenic add-on. Between Luxor and Aswan the ancient sites sit on the riverbank, so the boat is the transport, the hotel and the restaurant at once. You unpack once for four nights. Both of our cruises are five days and four nights, both cost the same, and both include the Abu Simbel excursion by road.
Aswan to Luxor, sailing downstream
Downstream is the faster direction, which frees a little more time in Aswan at the start, and it ends you in Luxor, where the airport is a short drive from the mooring.
Luxor to Aswan, sailing upstream
Upstream suits travelers who want the heaviest sightseeing day first. Luxor on day one is four major sites in a morning, which is harder jet-lagged than on day four. It also suits anyone whose international ticket is already booked into Luxor.
Neither cruise includes a domestic flight, and neither does the overland alternative. If you are starting in Cairo you need to add the Cairo to Luxor or Cairo to Aswan sector yourself, or take one of the four multi-day circuits above, which already have it built in.
Short Egypt tours and single-site trips
These four are for travelers who already have flights and hotels arranged, or who are adding two or three days onto a business trip or a Red Sea stay. Private, guided, and the same prepaid ticket model as the long circuits. None of them include a domestic Egyptian flight.
Aswan and Luxor overland, 5 days
Choose it over a boat if you sleep badly on water, want a full hotel bathroom every night, or have dates that fall outside a sailing schedule. The saving against a cruise is $235 per person, and the sites are the same ones.
Luxor in two days
Abu Simbel day trip from Aswan
Abu Simbel over two days with a hotel night
What is included
Two separate lists, because the difference is where most disappointment comes from. Every price quoted on this page includes the following.
- Accommodation in four or five star hotels, or a cabin with a private bathroom and air conditioning on the cruises.
- A licensed Egyptologist guide who speaks English, present at every monument, not a driver with a script.
- A private air-conditioned vehicle with a driver for every transfer and every sightseeing day. Private means your party only.
- Monument entrance fees, prepaid, for every site on the itinerary, so you are not queuing at a ticket window with cash.
- Airport pickup and assistance on arrival and departure.
- Domestic Egyptian flights on the seven-day, eight-day, ten-day and twelve-day programs only.
- Breakfast daily at hotels, and full board on every cruise night, from the first lunch aboard to the final breakfast.
- Bottled water on travel days, all taxes and service charges, and a WhatsApp line to the team that stays open around the clock while you are in the country.
What is NOT included
- The international flight to and from Egypt. Explora does not sell, book, quote or coordinate it in any form. You buy your own ticket to Cairo, Luxor or Aswan. This is not a technicality we hide in small print, it is how the company is structured: we are a ground operator based in Egypt.
- Your Egyptian entry visa. $30 for a single entry, $65 for multiple entries.
- Domestic Egyptian flights on the short tours. The two Nile cruises, the Aswan and Luxor overland route, the Luxor two-day tour and both Abu Simbel products exclude them.
- The interior of the Great Pyramid of Khufu. A separate ticket at 1,000 EGP, about $20, bought at the plateau on the day. Worth it if you are not claustrophobic. The Giza plateau ticket that gets you to the pyramids, the Sphinx and the causeway is included.
- Extra tombs in the Valley of the Kings beyond the standard three, including the ones sold separately at the gate. Extra cost, paid at the ticket office.
- Lunches and dinners on land-based days, and all drinks including bottled water at hotel tables and bar service on the boats.
- Tips. Gratuities for the guide, the driver and the cruise crew are customary in Egypt and are left to your discretion.
- Travel insurance, which we strongly recommend you buy the same week you buy your flight.
- Optional activities: hot air balloon flights over the west bank at Luxor, felucca sails, camel rides, photography permits at certain sites, and anything else you decide on in the moment. Extra cost, paid at the ticket office.
Verified 2026 monument fees, so you can check our math
Egypt publishes monument prices in Egyptian pounds and revises them periodically. Below are the official 2026 gate fees, converted at 1 USD to 49.79 EGP, so you can see that prepaid tickets are a real cost rather than a markup line.
| Site | 2026 gate fee | Approx. USD |
|---|---|---|
| Giza plateau (pyramids, Sphinx) | 700 EGP | $14.06 |
| Egyptian Museum, Tahrir | 550 EGP | $11.05 |
| Valley of the Kings, 3 tombs | 750 EGP | $15.06 |
| Abu Simbel | 822 EGP | $16.51 |
| Karnak | 600 EGP | $12.05 |
| Luxor Temple | 500 EGP | $10.04 |
| Temple of Hatshepsut | 440 EGP | $8.84 |
| Saqqara | 600 EGP | $12.05 |
| Philae | 550 EGP | $11.05 |
| Kom Ombo | 450 EGP | $9.04 |
| Edfu | 550 EGP | $11.05 |
| Great Pyramid interior (not included) | 1,000 EGP | $20.08 |
Taken together, the eleven included gates in that table come to 6,512 EGP, about $131 per person, before anyone has driven you anywhere or explained a single cartouche. No single itinerary hits all eleven, so here is what each tour actually carries in prepaid tickets from that list.
| Tour | Prepaid gates from the table above | Value per person |
|---|---|---|
| Abu Simbel day trip | Abu Simbel | 822 EGP, about $16.51 |
| Abu Simbel, 2 days | Abu Simbel, Philae | 1,372 EGP, about $28 |
| Luxor, 2 days | Valley of the Kings, Hatshepsut, Karnak, Luxor Temple | 2,290 EGP, about $46 |
| Aswan and Luxor overland | Philae, Abu Simbel, Kom Ombo, Edfu, Valley of the Kings, Hatshepsut, Karnak, Luxor Temple | 4,662 EGP, about $94 |
| Either Nile cruise | The same eight gates | 4,662 EGP, about $94 |
| Egypt classic, 7 days | Giza, Egyptian Museum, Philae, Kom Ombo, Edfu, Valley of the Kings, Hatshepsut, Karnak, Luxor Temple | 5,090 EGP, about $102 |
| Egypt classic, 8 days | The seven-day list plus Abu Simbel | 5,912 EGP, about $119 |
| Cairo, Luxor and Aswan, 10 days | The same ten gates | 5,912 EGP, about $119 |
| Grand Egypt, 12 days | The seven-day list plus Saqqara | 5,690 EGP, about $114 |
Any site not on this list is extra cost, paid at the ticket office, and your guide gives you the figure on the day rather than us printing one here that may have moved. Ministry prices are reviewed periodically and the pound moves, so treat the dollar column as an indication and the pound column as the number that counts.
What a trip to Egypt really costs
Here is the honest arithmetic for two people traveling together on the eight-day circuit, which is our most-booked length.
- Tour package: from $1,451 per person, covering hotels, cruise, guide, vehicle, domestic Egyptian flights and gates.
- International flight: not included, not sold by us, and the largest variable in your budget. Round-trip fares to Cairo swing widely by season and by how far ahead you book, so price it yourself before you commit to dates.
- Entry visa: $30 single entry per person, $65 if you need multiple entries.
- Lunches and dinners on land days: budget modestly. Egypt is inexpensive for food outside hotel restaurants, and your guide will point you at the places locals eat if you ask.
- Tips: a real line item across a week with a guide, a driver and a boat crew, and one most people underestimate.
- Optional extras: the Great Pyramid interior at about $30, a Luxor balloon flight, extra tombs, souvenirs.
- Travel insurance: a few percent of your total trip cost, and the only line here that protects the rest of it.
We publish the package price separately from the airfare because combining them would be a fiction. We cannot control what a long-haul seat costs in March. We can control what a room in Aswan costs, and that is what we quote.
It is also worth knowing what you are comparing against. An operator based outside Egypt selling a similar Egypt itinerary is usually buying the same hotels, the same boats and the same guides through an Egyptian ground operator, then adding a layer. Booking direct removes that layer. What it does not remove is your responsibility for the flight, which is the part an airfare inclusive package would have bundled, so read any two prices carefully before you decide one is cheaper.
When to go
October through April is the window. Daytime highs usually run in the high 60s to low 80s Fahrenheit, roughly 20 to 28 Celsius, in Cairo and Luxor, evenings on the boat are cool enough for a jacket, and walking the west bank at Luxor at midday is pleasant rather than punishing. Late October, November, February and March are the sweet spot: good weather without December pricing.
December and the first days of January are peak. Cabins sell out, the Valley of the Kings is busy from opening, and rates sit at the top of their range. If those are your dates, book early rather than hoping for a gap.
June through August is genuinely hot in Upper Egypt, and sightseeing shifts to early mornings and late afternoons. In exchange, prices drop and the sites empty out. The Red Sea leg of the twelve-day grand tour works well in summer, when Hurghada is a beach destination rather than an afterthought.
Two dates to watch that have nothing to do with weather. Ramadan moves each year and changes opening hours and restaurant rhythms rather than closing the monuments, and the sun alignment at Abu Simbel draws a crowd on two mornings a year. Tell us your dates and the team will tell you what falls where before you book anything.
Entry rules and getting yourself to Egypt
US passport holders need a visa. The e-Visa is $30 single entry and $65 multiple entry, applied for online before you travel, and a visa on arrival is issued at Egyptian airports at the same official rates. Your passport must be valid at least six months beyond your entry date and needs a blank page. Apply on the official government portal rather than through a search result that charges you a fee to fill in the same form.
On the flight itself, to be completely clear: we do not include it, sell it, book it, hold it, quote it or coordinate it, on any tour on this page, at any price, to or from any country. You choose your own carrier and your own routing. Tell us your inbound flight number and arrival time and your outbound details, and the ground operation is built around them. Airport pickup is included on every multi-day program. For the whole sequence from home, from booking your own flight to the meet-and-greet inside the terminal, see Egypt tours from the USA.
One practical note that saves people money. The seven-day circuit ends in Luxor and the Aswan to Luxor cruise does too, while the eight-day and ten-day circuits return you to Cairo. Check where your itinerary finishes before you buy a return ticket out of the wrong city, and give yourself a sensible gap between the last domestic sector and your flight home.
How a private tour actually runs
Private here means what it says. No coach, no name badge, no group of forty strangers, no fixed departure date to fit around. Your party has its own vehicle, its own driver and its own Egyptologist. Want an extra forty minutes at Karnak and a shorter stop at the papyrus shop? You say so and it happens.
The guides are licensed Egyptologists, a regulated qualification in Egypt rather than a job title, and they are the reason a temple stops being a pile of columns. On the cruises the same guide meets you at each mooring rather than handing you to a subcontractor.
Explora is based in Egypt, not in a call center abroad, and the team stays reachable on WhatsApp around the clock while you are in the country. Twelve travelers have left public reviews of the agency and of guide Shady Said, averaging 5.0. Those reviews are about the company and the guiding, not about any single itinerary on this page, and we will not pretend otherwise.
What a day on tour actually looks like
Sightseeing days start early, and that is not a sales line, it is the heat and the crowds. A typical Luxor west bank morning begins with a hotel breakfast around 7 a.m. and a pickup shortly after, because the Valley of the Kings is quietest in the first hour and hottest in the fifth. You are usually back at the hotel or the boat by early afternoon, with the rest of the day free.
Cairo runs differently. Traffic decides the schedule, so your guide will move the order of the day around rather than sit in it. The Giza plateau, the Egyptian Museum and Saqqara are each roughly a half day with travel, and nobody enjoys three of them stacked into one.
On cruise days the boat sails while you eat or sleep and moors within walking or short driving distance of the site. Kom Ombo sits almost on the mooring. Edfu is a short ride from the river. Nobody has to check out of anything in between, which is the real argument for a boat over a hotel on this stretch of the country.
Money, tipping, clothes and staying connected
Quotes and payments are in US dollars. On the ground you will want Egyptian pounds for tips, cafes, taxis you take on your own time and anything bought in a market. At the rate used throughout this page, 1 USD is 49.79 EGP, and the rate moves, so check it the week you travel. Cards work in hotels, better restaurants and larger shops. They do not work at a juice stand.
Tipping is normal and expected across the service economy, including for your guide, your driver and the cruise crew. Rather than print a number that will be wrong by the time you read it, we will give you a normal range in writing before you travel, and what you actually give stays your call.
On clothes, Egypt is warm and conservative at the same time. Light long sleeves and long trousers or a long skirt are more comfortable in the sun than shorts and cause nobody any awkwardness. Women should carry a scarf for mosque visits, and everyone needs closed shoes with grip, because tomb ramps and temple floors are uneven and polished by several thousand years of feet. A hat, sunglasses and real sunscreen are not optional between March and October.
For connectivity, a local SIM or an eSIM bought before you fly is cheap and works better than hotel wifi in Upper Egypt. That also keeps you on WhatsApp, which is how the team reaches you day to day while you are in Egypt.
Families, solo travelers and pace
Every tour on this page is private, so the pace is yours. That matters more with children and with anyone who does not want to be on their feet for six hours. Tell us in advance and days get rearranged rather than shortened at the last minute.
Child rates, extra beds and connecting rooms are confirmed in writing on your quote rather than assumed from a table, because hotels and cruise boats treat children differently and we would rather show you the real number. Solo travelers are welcome on all ten tours and pay a single supplement, quoted the same way.
On accessibility, be straight with us. Several sites involve steps, sand, ramps into tombs and long walks between temple pylons, and a few are genuinely hard going. There is usually a version of the day that works, but it needs planning before you arrive rather than a conversation in the car park.
Booking, and what happens after you message us
There is no checkout button on this site, on purpose. Egypt itineraries have too many moving parts for a shopping cart, and a dated quote is more useful to you than a shopping cart is.
Send the team four things on WhatsApp: your arrival date, your departure date, how many travelers and which tour above is closest to what you want. You get back a day-by-day itinerary, a per-person price in US dollars for those exact dates, the hotel or cruise category, and the terms set out in writing. If something does not fit, say so and it gets changed before anything is confirmed. Once you are happy, you confirm and the team holds the rooms, the cabins and the domestic sectors where those are part of the package.
The earlier you write, the more choice you have, especially between late October and early January and around Easter, when boats and the better hotels fill first. That said, short-notice trips are normal for us too, and the honest answer about what is still available in your dates takes one message to find out.
Dahabiya Nile cruise
To sail the stretch between Luxor and Aswan, we offer three 5-star dahabiyas with full board and a private program: the Iris, the Akhenaton and the Per-ba. Compare them, with routes and prices, in our dahabiya Nile cruise guide.
Frequently asked questions
How much does an Egypt tour package cost?
Are international flights included in any of these tours?
Which tours include domestic flights inside Egypt?
Do I need a visa, and how much is it?
How much are the monument tickets if I pay at the gate myself?
Can I go inside the Great Pyramid?
Nile cruise or overland: which is better?
Does the direction of the cruise matter?
How many days do I need in Egypt?
What is the best month to visit?
Are these tours private or shared?
Can I change the itinerary?
What happens if my flight into Egypt is delayed?
Do I tip, and how much?
Is it safe, and how do I check?
How do I book, and what happens next?
What kind of Egypt tours do you run?
Private guided tours of Egypt, built around your dates: classic tours of Cairo, the Nile and Upper Egypt, Nile cruise tours between Luxor and Aswan, and short tours such as two days in Luxor or Abu Simbel from Aswan. Every tour has a licensed Egyptologist guide, private transfers and the monument tickets on the itinerary.
Get a real quote for your dates
The fastest way to price an Egypt trip properly is to tell us four things: your arrival date, your departure date, how many of you there are, and which of the ten tours above is closest to what you want. The team writes back with a day-by-day itinerary, a per-person price in dollars, and a clear line under it for what you still need to buy yourself.
Message us on WhatsApp at +20 10 3229 5513, or fill in the enquiry form below and we will reply on the number you give us. We are in Egypt, on Cairo time, and the WhatsApp line stays open around the clock while our travelers are in the country. If you are still deciding between the eight-day classic and the ten-day circuit, say so in the message and we will tell you which one fits your dates rather than which one costs more.
Keep exploring
To finish planning your trip to Egypt
- ▸Can You Drink the Water in Egypt?
- ▸What to See in Aswan: Philae, High Dam, Nubia and Abu Simbel
- ▸Lake Nasser Cruise: Aswan to Abu Simbel by Water
- ▸Nile Cruise Luxor to Aswan or Aswan to Luxor: Which Way?
- ▸El Gouna, Egypt: things to do, lagoons and kitesurfing
- ▸Cairo in 2 days works when you split the city by traffic, not by monument
- ▸Traveling to Egypt with a Baby: Heat, Cruise, Cribs, Formula
- ▸See all our Egypt tours