Day trips and short tours

Egypt Excursions: Cairo, Luxor, Aswan and Red Sea Trips

The silhouette of a felucca under sail on the Nile at dusk, the west bank hills behind

Egypt's excursions cluster in four bases. Cairo covers the Giza pyramids and the museums, Luxor covers the Valley of the Kings and Karnak, Aswan covers Abu Simbel and Philae, and the Red Sea coast covers the reefs. Day trips start From $129 per person, double occupancy. The 5-day Nile cruise starts From $755 per person, double occupancy.

This page is the map of every excursion we operate, grouped by city, with real durations, honest travel times and a clear line on which entrance tickets sit inside the price and which you pay at the gate yourself. We are based in Egypt, so the team that quotes your trip is the team that meets you at the airport.

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Almost nobody flies to Egypt to see one thing. People come to cross a country that runs from the pyramids in the north to the temples more than 400 miles, or 640 kilometers, south, and that is exactly where the planning gets hard. How many excursions actually fit into ten days? Which ones are worth a 4:00 a.m. alarm? How do you string them together without burning a whole day in a van? Those are the three questions we answer on WhatsApp every day, wherever our travelers are flying from.

What follows is not a scraped list. These are the excursions we run ourselves, with the practical detail travelers keep asking us for: how long each one really takes, whether the entrance ticket is in the price, and what the 2026 gate fee is when it is not. If you would rather not assemble anything yourself, all of this is already solved inside our multi-day Egypt tour packages, which bundle the guiding, the hotels and the domestic Egyptian flights into one program. One thing we never sell, quote or arrange is your international airfare, and you will find that stated plainly everywhere on this page.

Jump to a section

The four excursion bases
Cairo and Giza excursions
Luxor excursions
Aswan and Abu Simbel
Red Sea and Hurghada
The Nile cruise
What fits in your trip length
Included and not included
2026 gate fees
Practical notes and best season
Questions we get asked
Get a written quote

Egypt's four excursion bases at a glance

Before going city by city, here is the whole country in one table. Each base has a signature excursion, a realistic time cost and a starting price where we sell a fixed product for it. Use it to decide where your days go, then read the section below for the detail.

Base	Signature excursion	Typical duration	From (USD, per person)	Program that covers it
Cairo and Giza	Giza pyramids, the Sphinx and the Grand Egyptian Museum	1 full day	Quoted on request	10-day Cairo, Luxor and Aswan tour
Luxor	Valley of the Kings, Karnak and Luxor Temple	1 to 2 days	From $288	2-day Luxor tour
Aswan	Abu Simbel and the Temple of Philae	1 to 2 days	From $129	Abu Simbel day trip
Red Sea (Hurghada)	Reef and island boat day on the coast	1 day	Quoted on request	12-day grand tour
The river itself	Nile cruise between Luxor and Aswan	5 days, 4 nights	From $755	5-day Nile cruise

Prices are per person based on two people sharing a double room, in US dollars, and are always prefixed From because the final figure depends on your dates, your hotel category and your group size. Monument entrance tickets are paid in Egyptian pounds at the ticket office unless a specific excursion states otherwise, and the ministry can revise them. We confirm the exact figures in your written quote.

Cairo excursions: Giza, Saqqara and the two great museums

Cairo is where nearly every Egypt trip starts, and it deserves at least two days rather than the single rushed one most people budget for. In one morning you can stand in front of the Giza pyramids, the only one of the seven wonders of the ancient world still standing, and by the afternoon be inside the Grand Egyptian Museum a short drive away. That pairing is the most requested excursion we run, and it is the one we push for day one, because it calibrates everything that comes after it.

Giza plateau and the Great Sphinx

What you see: the pyramids of Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure, the panoramic viewpoint out in the sand where all three line up for the photograph everyone wants, and the Great Sphinx with the valley temple below it. How long: three to four hours, and it is dramatically better first thing in the morning, before the heat builds and the coach groups arrive. Entrance: the Giza plateau ticket is 700 EGP, paid at the gate. Going inside the Great Pyramid itself is a separate ticket at 1,000 EGP, and it is an optional add-on that is never included in our prices. It is a hot, low, crouching climb up a narrow shaft into an undecorated chamber, so talk to your guide before you commit to it. Camel and horse rides on the sand are sold by independent operators at the plateau and are not part of our price either.

The Grand Egyptian Museum

What you see: the largest archaeological museum in the world devoted to a single civilization, sitting roughly a mile and a half, about 2.5 kilometers, from the plateau, with a grand staircase of colossal statuary and a view back toward the pyramids from the upper level. The piece that stops everyone is the Tutankhamun collection, more than 5,000 objects shown together, with the gold mask and the jewelry as the end of the route. How long: budget two to three hours as a minimum. Travelers who give it 45 minutes always tell us afterward that they regret it. Entrance: extra cost, paid at the ticket office, and we confirm the current figure when we quote you.

The Egyptian Museum on Tahrir Square

The original downtown museum still holds an enormous collection and a completely different atmosphere: dense, old-fashioned and crowded with statuary standing shoulder to shoulder. It works well as a half day when you are already staying central, and it is the better choice for travelers who like museums that have not been rebuilt around a modern visitor flow. Entrance: 550 EGP.

Saqqara and Memphis

What you see: the Step Pyramid of Djoser, the oldest stone pyramid on earth and the direct ancestor of everything standing at Giza, plus the open-air museum at Memphis, Egypt's first capital, with its recumbent colossus of Ramesses II. How long: half a day, and it pairs naturally with Giza in one long combined excursion if you start early. Entrance: Saqqara is 600 EGP. The Memphis ticket is an extra cost paid at the ticket office.

Islamic Cairo: Khan el Khalili and the Citadel

What you see: the Citadel of Saladin with the alabaster Mohamed Ali Mosque on the skyline, then the Khan el Khalili bazaar for spice alleys, copper workshops and mint tea in a cafe that has been pouring it for generations. How long: an afternoon running into the evening, and it is the best light in the city. This is the half of Cairo most visitors skip entirely because they spend both of their days on the pyramids. Entrance: extra cost at the Citadel, paid at the ticket office. The bazaar itself is free to walk. Dress note: shoulders and knees covered for the mosque, and women should carry a scarf.

Coptic Cairo

What you see: the Hanging Church suspended over a Roman gate tower, the Ben Ezra Synagogue and the narrow lanes of Old Cairo, all within a few minutes of each other. How long: two hours, and it slots neatly into the same day as the Citadel. Entrance: the churches are free to enter and the museum ticket is an extra cost paid at the ticket office.

If Cairo is only your first stop, both the 7-day classic tour and the 10-day Cairo, Luxor and Aswan program open with these same excursions and then move you south by domestic flight, which is included on both.

Luxor excursions: Valley of the Kings, Karnak and the sunrise balloon

columns of the hypostyle hall at karnak temple in luxor

Luxor gets called the world's largest open-air museum and for once the cliche holds up. The Nile splits the city into two halves that do completely different jobs. The east bank holds the temples of the living, Karnak and Luxor Temple. The west bank is the city of the dead, with the Valley of the Kings, the terraces of Hatshepsut and the Colossi of Memnon. No other stop in Egypt packs this much history into so small a patch of ground, which is why we argue hard against giving it a single day.

West bank: Valley of the Kings, Hatshepsut and the Colossi

What you see: three royal tombs inside the Valley of the Kings, cut deep into the rock and still carrying their painted ceilings, then the temple of Hatshepsut stacked in symmetrical terraces against the cliffs at Deir el-Bahari, and finally the two Colossi of Memnon that have watched the floodplain for more than 3,300 years. How long: a full morning, roughly five hours door to door, and you want to be at the valley gate when it opens. Entrance: the Valley of the Kings ticket covers three tombs at 750 EGP. Hatshepsut is 440 EGP, close to 9 USD. Certain headline tombs inside the valley carry their own separate ticket, an extra cost paid at the ticket office, and photography permits inside some tombs are also charged separately.

Mobility note: the valley is a hot, treeless bowl and the tombs are entered down sloping ramps and short flights of steps. It is manageable at a slow pace and there is a shuttle from the gate to the tomb cluster, but it is not a flat walk.

Karnak Temple

What you see: the largest religious complex of the ancient world, built and rebuilt across roughly 2,000 years, with the hypostyle hall and its 134 columns as the moment everyone stops walking and just looks up. How long: two hours done properly. Entrance: 600 EGP. Go early or go late. The middle of the day is punishing here and there is very little shade.

Luxor Temple

What you see: a compact temple sitting right in the middle of the modern town, at its best after dark when the colonnade is lit and the temperature finally drops. How long: about 90 minutes, and it is the ideal evening bookend to a morning on the west bank. Entrance: 500 EGP.

The sunrise hot air balloon

What you see: the whole west bank from the air at first light, with the mortuary temples, the green strip of the floodplain and the desert wall behind it. How long: a pre-dawn pickup and about 45 minutes airborne. Cost: this is a separate optional activity run by licensed balloon operators, quoted on request, and it is not inside any of our standard tour prices. Flights are weather dependent and are canceled outright when the wind is wrong, so put it on your first Luxor morning rather than your last.

Dendera and Abydos

What you see: the temple of Hathor at Dendera, which has the best preserved painted ceiling in Egypt, and the temple of Seti I at Abydos with its famous king list. How long: a full day by road from Luxor, which is why most first-time itineraries skip it and most second-time visitors come back for it. Entrance: extra cost at each site, paid at the ticket office.

Luxor can be squeezed into one brutal day, but two is the right answer. Our 2-day Luxor tour covers Karnak, Luxor Temple, the Valley of the Kings and Hatshepsut with a licensed Egyptologist, From $288 per person, double occupancy. Domestic Egyptian flights are not part of that product, so it suits travelers who are already in Upper Egypt or who are arranging their own internal transport. If you would rather have the internal flights handled inside one program, look at the 8-day classic tour instead.

Aswan excursions: Abu Simbel, Philae and the Nubian south

four seated colossi on the facade of the great temple at abu simbel

Aswan is the calmest place on the Egyptian Nile, where the river widens out between granite boulders and palm islands and the pace drops by half. It is also the base for the single most staggering excursion in the country. Abu Simbel is the pair of temples Ramesses II had carved into a cliff face, which UNESCO cut into blocks and lifted to higher ground in the 1960s to save them from the water rising behind the dam. Standing under four seated statues that top 20 meters, or 66 feet, after crossing the desert at dawn, justifies the trip on its own.

Abu Simbel as a day trip from Aswan

What you see: the Great Temple of Ramesses II and the smaller temple of Nefertari, plus the relocation site itself, which is an engineering story worth hearing on the spot. How long: a long day. Departure is before dawn, the road runs about three hours each way across open desert, and you are back in Aswan by mid-afternoon. Entrance: 822 EGP, paid at the gate. Price: our Abu Simbel day trip starts From $129 per person, double occupancy. Domestic Egyptian flights are not included on this product.

Abu Simbel over two days

What you see: the same two temples without the clock running, in the late afternoon and the early morning when the light is at its best and the site is nearly empty, plus the evening sound and light projection onto the facades, which the day trip cannot reach because it has already driven home. How long: two days with a night close to the temples. Entrance: the same 822 EGP gate fee, and the evening show is an extra cost paid at the ticket office. Price: the 2-day Abu Simbel tour with hotel is quoted on request. Domestic Egyptian flights are not included on this product either.

Philae Temple and the High Dam

What you see: the temple of Isis on its island, reached by motorboat, which was itself moved stone by stone during the same rescue campaign, and the High Dam that made all of that moving necessary. How long: half a day for the two combined. Entrance: Philae is 550 EGP, and the boat out to the island is arranged at the jetty. The High Dam ticket is an extra cost paid at the ticket office.

The unfinished obelisk and the Nubian Museum

What you see: a colossal obelisk still lying in the granite quarry where it cracked before it could be raised, which explains how the ancient masons actually worked, and a modern museum covering the Nubian culture that the reservoir displaced. How long: two hours for the pair. Entrance: extra cost at each, paid at the ticket office.

Felucca sailing and the Nubian villages

What you see: a sail among the granite islands at golden hour, with a stop in a Nubian village for hibiscus tea in front of houses painted blue and ochre. How long: two to three hours in the late afternoon. Cost: quoted on request. It is the slow counterweight to the Abu Simbel alarm clock, and it is the afternoon our travelers most often say they wish they had booked.

Aswan is also where the Nile cruises start or finish, so these excursions chain naturally onto the boat. If you would rather do the southern temples on the road, the Aswan and Luxor overland tour links Abu Simbel, Philae, Kom Ombo and Edfu with the Luxor west bank, From $499 per person, double occupancy, and again without domestic flights.

Red Sea excursions from Hurghada: reefs, island days and the long haul to Luxor

The Red Sea is the other Egypt: coral walls, water the color of a swimming pool and beach hotels that exist to slow you down after a week of temples. Hurghada is the easiest base, and a small number of excursions account for most of what our travelers book there.

The first is the island and reef boat day. You leave the marina in the morning, anchor over the reef for snorkeling stops, and spend hours on white sand out in the gulf before coming back in the late afternoon. It is the day that turns an Egypt trip into a proper break, and it works especially well with kids and teenagers who have hit their limit on hieroglyphs. Bring reef-safe sunscreen and a rash guard, because there is no shade out there at all.

The second is more ambitious: the day trip to Luxor from Hurghada. That is roughly four hours of road in each direction to see the Valley of the Kings and Karnak in one very long push. We will be straight with you about it. It starts in the dark and it ends in the dark, and it is tiring. But if your hotel is on the coast and you do not want to move rooms, it is the only way to see pharaonic Egypt without restructuring the whole trip. If Luxor genuinely matters to you, sleep there instead and give it two days.

Hurghada also runs quad safaris into the desert, buggy rides and Bedouin dinner nights, which are the right call when there are teenagers in the group, plus submarine and glass-bottom boat trips for anyone who does not want to get in the water. And because the coast works year round, it is the useful joker for July and August, when Luxor and Aswan turn brutal. If you want the beach built into the itinerary rather than bolted onto it, the 12-day grand tour already ends in Hurghada, with the domestic Egyptian flights included.

The best multi-day excursion in Egypt is the Nile cruise

nile cruise ship on the river between luxor and aswan

If you take one thing from this page, take this. The best excursion in Egypt is not a day trip at all. It is the stretch of river between Luxor and Aswan, done by boat. You sleep on board while the ship moves, you never repack, and you step off each morning in front of a different temple. More of our travelers come home talking about the cruise than about the pyramids.

The standard cruise runs 5 days and 4 nights on a full board basis, with guided visits included at Karnak and the Valley of the Kings at the Luxor end, the temple of Horus at Edfu, the double temple of Kom Ombo shared between Sobek and Horus, and Philae and the High Dam at Aswan. Between Luxor and Edfu the boat passes through the lock at Esna, which is worth being on deck for. Edfu is the best preserved pharaonic sanctuary in the country and Kom Ombo sits directly on the water, which is exactly why a boat reaches both so comfortably and a road trip does not. We sail it in both directions.

Luxor to Aswan, 5 days

Upstream, starting with the heavyweight Luxor sites while you are freshest and finishing in the quiet of Aswan. Full board and guided visits with a licensed Egyptologist. From $755 per person, double occupancy.

See the Luxor to Aswan cruise

Aswan to Luxor, 5 days

Downstream, building toward the Luxor west bank at the end. The same temples, the same board basis, a different rhythm. From $755 per person, double occupancy.

See the Aswan to Luxor cruise

Cruise plus Cairo, one program

Cairo, the cruise and every transfer in a single closed itinerary, with the domestic Egyptian flights already inside the price. Quoted on request

See the 7-day classic tour

Note on flights: the two Nile cruises are sold as standalone products and do not include domestic Egyptian flights. The multi-day programs of 7, 8, 10 and 12 days do include them. No product we sell includes an international flight of any kind.

Torn between booking separate excursions and buying one closed program? For a first trip to Egypt the answer is almost always the program with the cruise inside it, because it removes travel days, internal transfers and about six separate decisions you would otherwise have to make yourself. Cabins on the better boats also go early for the December to February window, so the cruise is the piece to lock down first and the day trips are the pieces you can still add later.

Which excursion set fits your trip length

Most visitors typically have between one and two weeks, and the honest constraint is not money, it is days. This table maps the trip lengths we actually sell onto what you get to see, and tells you whether the internal Egyptian flights sit inside the price.

Trip length	What it covers	Domestic flights	From (USD, per person)	Product
1 day	Abu Simbel from Aswan, both temples, back the same afternoon	Not included	From $129	Abu Simbel day trip
2 days	Luxor only: Karnak, Luxor Temple, Valley of the Kings, Hatshepsut	Not included	From $288	2-day Luxor tour
2 days	Abu Simbel with an overnight and the evening show nearby	Not included	Quoted on request	Abu Simbel over 2 days
Overland	Abu Simbel, Philae, Kom Ombo, Edfu and the Luxor west bank by road	Not included	From $499	Aswan and Luxor tour
5 days	Nile cruise, full board, guided visits between Luxor and Aswan	Not included	From $755	5-day Nile cruise
7 days	Cairo and Giza plus the Nile cruise. The efficient first Egypt.	Included	Quoted on request	7-day classic tour
8 days	The 7-day route with Abu Simbel added	Included	Quoted on request	8-day classic tour
10 days	Cairo, Luxor and Aswan at a slower pace, more time per site	Included	Quoted on request	10-day Egypt tour
12 days	Everything above plus the Red Sea at Hurghada	Included	Quoted on request	12-day grand tour

Under 5 days on the ground realistically means Cairo and Giza only. With 7 days you cover Cairo and the cruise. From 8 to 10 days you add Abu Simbel and some breathing room, and at 12 days the Red Sea fits in too. Prices are per person, double occupancy.

How the distances actually work?

The reason day counts matter so much is that Egypt is long. These are the transfer times we build our itineraries around, so you can sanity check any plan before you commit to it.

Cairo to Luxor by domestic flight: about 1 hour in the air, plus airport time at both ends. Included on the 7, 8, 10 and 12-day programs.
Cairo to Aswan by domestic flight: about 1 hour 30 minutes in the air. Included on the same four programs.
Luxor to Aswan by road: three to four hours direct, longer and far better with temple stops at Edfu and Kom Ombo on the way.
Aswan to Abu Simbel by road: about three hours each way across the desert.
Hurghada to Luxor by road: about four hours each way.
Cairo airport to a Giza hotel: 45 minutes to well over an hour depending on the time of day. Cairo traffic is the single most underestimated line in any Egypt itinerary.

Your own flight into and out of Egypt is yours to book. We do not sell it, quote it or coordinate it, and we do not tie your program to a specific airline or arrival time. Once you have your dates, send them over and we build the internal schedule around them.

What is included on our Egypt excursions

Inclusions vary by product, and the exact list is printed on every quote before you pay anything. Across our excursions and multi-day programs, this is what the price normally covers.

A licensed Egyptologist guide who speaks English, with you throughout the excursion rather than a different face at every site.
Private air-conditioned vehicle with a professional driver, for your party only. Nobody else is added to your van.
Hotel or cruise-ship pickup and drop-off at both ends of the excursion.
Domestic Egyptian flights on the 7, 8, 10 and 12-day programs, for example Cairo to Luxor, or Aswan back to Cairo.
Hotel accommodation on all multi-day programs, on a double-occupancy basis.
Full board on the 5-day Nile cruise, plus the guided shore visits listed on that product.
All transfers between airports, hotels, cruise ports and monuments inside the itinerary.
Bottled water in the vehicle during the excursion.
Taxes and service charges on everything we book on your behalf.
Written pre-departure information and a direct WhatsApp line to our office in Egypt while you are traveling.

What is NOT included

This list matters more than the one above, because it is where the surprises come from. Read it before you compare our quote against anybody else's, because a cheaper number usually means one of these lines has quietly moved into the small print.

Your international flight. We do not sell, include, book, coordinate or quote international air travel of any kind, in either direction. You buy your own ticket to Egypt and back, directly with the airline or through your own travel agent, and you keep full control of it.
Monument entrance tickets, unless the specific excursion states otherwise in writing. These are paid in Egyptian pounds at the ticket office. The 2026 figures we can confirm are in the table below.
The Egypt entry visa. The e-Visa is 30 USD for a single entry and 65 USD for multiple entries, applied for online before you fly.
Domestic Egyptian flights on standalone products, meaning both Nile cruises, the 2-day Luxor tour and both Abu Simbel products. Internal flights are included only on the 7, 8, 10 and 12-day programs.
Going inside the Great Pyramid, which is a separate 1,000 EGP ticket, about 20 USD, and always an optional add-on.
The sunrise hot air balloon in Luxor, quoted separately on request.
Optional extras such as the Abu Simbel evening sound and light show, camel and horse rides at Giza, photography permits inside certain tombs, and any site not written into your itinerary.
Meals not listed on your itinerary, plus drinks with meals, including on board the cruise.
Travel insurance, which we strongly recommend you buy at home before departure.
Tips for the guide, driver and cruise crew. Tipping is normal practice in Egypt and the amount is left entirely to your judgment.
Personal spending: laundry, phone, minibar, souvenirs.

2026 monument entrance fees you pay at the gate

These are the published fees on the official ministry platform, converted at 1 USD to 49.79 EGP. Bring Egyptian pounds. Card machines at the gates exist but they are not dependable, and the dollar figures below are for your budgeting only. Where a site is not listed with a figure, the ticket is an extra cost paid at the ticket office and we confirm it in your quote rather than printing a number we cannot stand behind.

Site	City	Fee (EGP)	Approx. USD
Giza plateau (pyramids and Sphinx)	Cairo	700	about $14
Great Pyramid interior (optional add-on)	Cairo	1,500	about $30
Egyptian Museum, Tahrir Square	Cairo	550	about $11
Saqqara	Cairo	600	about $12
Grand Egyptian Museum	Cairo	Extra cost, paid at the ticket office	Confirmed in your quote
Valley of the Kings (3 tombs)	Luxor	750	about $15
Karnak Temple	Luxor	600	about $12
Luxor Temple	Luxor	500	about $10
Temple of Hatshepsut	Luxor	440	about $9
Temple of Horus, Edfu	Between Luxor and Aswan	550	about $11
Kom Ombo	Between Luxor and Aswan	450	about $9
Abu Simbel	Aswan governorate	822	about $16.50
Philae Temple	Aswan	550	about $11
High Dam, Nubian Museum, unfinished obelisk	Aswan	Extra cost, paid at the ticket office	Confirmed in your quote
Citadel of Saladin, Memphis, Coptic Cairo museum	Cairo	Extra cost, paid at the ticket office	Confirmed in your quote

Fees are set by the ministry and can be revised without notice, so treat these as budgeting figures rather than a promise. Add the gate fees for the sites on your route to the tour price and you have your real all-in number, which is the calculation most operators would rather you did not do.

Practical notes travelers ask us about first

When to go?

October through April is the comfortable window, and December and January are the coolest and the busiest. February and March are our own favorites: warm days, cool evenings, and the light on the west bank at its best. May through September is hot, and in Luxor and Aswan that means genuinely extreme afternoon heat, so summer itineraries shift the temple visits to the early morning and the evening and lean harder on the Red Sea, which stays pleasant year round. Ramadan moves about eleven days earlier each year, so tell us your dates and we will tell you whether it falls inside your trip and what it changes about opening hours and restaurants.

Money at the gates

Monument tickets are sold in Egyptian pounds. Card terminals are installed at many gates and they work most of the time, which is not the same as always, so carry cash for the day's tickets. ATMs are reliable in Cairo, Luxor, Aswan and Hurghada. Change money at a bank or an official exchange rather than on the street, and keep small notes for restrooms and for tips.

Visas and entry

Most US passport holders use the Egypt e-Visa, which is 30 USD for a single entry and 65 USD for multiple entries, applied for online before departure. Your passport should have comfortable validity beyond your travel dates and at least one blank page. We are not a visa agency and we do not process it for you, but we will tell you exactly what your itinerary requires. Multiple entry only matters if you plan to leave Egypt and come back during the same trip.

How a day with us actually runs?

Your guide and driver collect you at your hotel or your cruise ship at an agreed time, usually early. The vehicle is yours alone for the day. Your guide buys nothing on your behalf at the gates unless you ask, so you always see what a ticket costs. We do not build mandatory shopping stops into the day, which is the standard complaint about cheap Egypt tours, and if you do want a papyrus workshop, an alabaster place or a perfume shop, say so and we will fit it in. Lunch stops are at restaurants we use ourselves, and vegetarian or gluten-free eating is straightforward here once your guide knows in advance.

Dress, sun and stamina

Closed shoes with grip for the Valley of the Kings and the plateau, a hat, sunglasses and more water than you think you need. Shoulders and knees covered for mosques and churches, and a scarf for women at mosque entrances. If anyone in the party has knee trouble, claustrophobia or limited stamina, tell us at the quote stage rather than on the morning. The Great Pyramid interior and some of the deeper tombs are the two places where it matters, and there is almost always a good alternative at the same site.

Traveling with children

Egypt is easier with kids than most people expect, mainly because the vehicle is private and the pace is yours. The reliable winners are the camels at the plateau, a felucca in Aswan and the reef day on the Red Sea. The reliable loser is a run of back-to-back temple mornings. We build a pool afternoon into family itineraries and nobody has ever complained about that decision.

Who you are dealing with?

We are an Egyptian company running our own excursions with our own guides, not a reseller passing your booking to a third party. Our travelers have left 12 reviews averaging 5.0, and they are about the agency and about our guide Shady Said rather than about any single tour. When you write to us you are writing to the same office that will meet you at arrivals.

Questions we get asked before booking

Do your Egypt excursions include international flights?

No. We never sell, include, book, coordinate or quote international air travel. You buy your own ticket to Egypt and back. Domestic Egyptian flights are a separate matter and are included on the 7, 8, 10 and 12-day programs.

Are monument entrance tickets included in the price?

Not unless the specific excursion says so in writing. Gate tickets are paid in Egyptian pounds at the ticket office. The 2026 figures we can confirm are in the fee table on this page, and every quote lists which tickets you will be buying yourself.

Which tours include the internal flights inside Egypt?

The 7-day classic, the 8-day classic, the 10-day Cairo, Luxor and Aswan program and the 12-day grand tour. The two 5-day Nile cruises, the 2-day Luxor tour, the Abu Simbel day trip, the 2-day Abu Simbel tour and the Aswan and Luxor overland tour do not include them.

How much is the Egypt visa?

The e-Visa is 30 USD for a single entry and 65 USD for multiple entries, applied for online before you travel. Single entry is enough for a standard Egypt-only itinerary.

Is Abu Simbel worth the day trip from Aswan?

Yes, and it is the one long day nobody regrets. It is a pre-dawn departure and about three hours of desert road each way. If you would rather see the temples in the good light and stay the night, the 2-day version exists for exactly that reason.

How many days do I need for Cairo, Luxor and Aswan?

Seven days on the ground covers Cairo and a Nile cruise properly. Eight adds Abu Simbel. Ten gives you the same route without rushing and with more time inside the museums. Under five days, be honest with yourself and do Cairo and Giza well instead of doing three cities badly.

Should I cruise Luxor to Aswan or Aswan to Luxor?

Both cover the same temples. Luxor to Aswan front-loads the heaviest sightseeing while you are fresh and ends in the calm of Aswan. Aswan to Luxor eases you in and finishes on the west bank. Your own arrival and departure dates usually decide it, so send us those first.

Can I visit Luxor as a day trip from Hurghada?

You can, and we run it. It is about four hours of road each way and a very long day for the Valley of the Kings and Karnak. If Luxor is a priority rather than a curiosity, stay two nights there instead.

Are your tours private or shared?

Private. Your guide, your driver and your vehicle are for your party alone, and nobody else is added to your booking. The Nile cruise is the obvious exception in that the ship carries other passengers, but your guided visits ashore are run for your group.

What is the best time of year for Egypt excursions?

October through April for the temples, with December and January the coolest and the busiest. Summer works if you accept early starts and build in the Red Sea, which is comfortable all year.

Do I need cash at the monuments?

Yes, Egyptian pounds. Card machines exist at many gates but they are not dependable, and you will also want small notes for restrooms and tips. ATMs are easy to find in all four bases.

What happens after I send an inquiry?

A real person in our office replies, usually within a few hours, with a written day-by-day itinerary, the exact inclusions, a clear list of the gate fees you pay yourself, and a per person price based on two people sharing. You can change anything in it before you commit to a thing.

Tell us your dates and we will build the excursion plan

Send us how many days you have on the ground, who is traveling and what you most want to see. You get back a written day-by-day plan, a per person price based on two people sharing, and a straight answer on which entrance tickets you buy at the gate. No obligation, and we will tell you honestly when an itinerary is too tight to enjoy.

WhatsApp is the fastest way to reach us, on 201032295513. If you prefer to write, use the form below and it lands in the same office.

Message us on WhatsApp

Request your itinerary and price

Tell us your travel dates, the number of travelers and the cities you want. We reply with a written itinerary and a per person price. Your international flight is not part of what we quote.