Four thousand years of stone. And a reef at the end of it.
What the Giza ticket actually covers. Whether the Luxor run from the coast justifies a four o’clock start. What a cabin between Aswan and Luxor costs out of season. Reviews of every tour you can book in Egypt.
Giza at opening, a balloon over the west bank, a cabin on the river, a day on the reef.
The four bookings a first Egyptian itinerary hangs off. What each one costs, and what the travellers who took it say.
01The first morningPyramids & Great Sphinx Private Tour with Camel RideThe plateau before the coaches, a camel out to the nine-pyramid ridge, the Sphinx on the way back down.
02Airborne by sixHot Air Balloon Ride in Luxor Egypt with Transfers IncludedUp in the dark, over the Theban hills as they go pink, down in a field beside the cane. The one splurge nobody regrets.
03Four days on the river4-Days Nile Cruise From Aswan To Luxor including Abu Simbel and Hot Air BalloonAswan to Luxor with Abu Simbel and a balloon folded in. Cabin, meals and every temple gate included.
04The Red Sea dayOrange Bay Island Boat Trip w/ Breakfast and LunchOut of Hurghada to Orange Bay, breakfast on deck, water shallow enough to stand up in.
Cairo and Giza first, then upriver, then the coast.
The pyramid fields on the edge of the capital, the painted tombs above Luxor, the Nubian temples at the dam, and two reef coasts where the good snorkelling starts a few strokes off the sand. Six bases, and the best day out of each.
The desert begins ten minutes past the last hotel.
Quad tracks into the flats behind the resorts, a Bedouin camp with bread cooked on a drum, and a sky with no town anywhere between you and it. Most of these leave late afternoon and come back in the dark, which is the whole point.
Giza: be at the gate for opening, decide about going inside later.
Everything in Giza →
The plateau opens at seven and the coaches land around nine. Walk the panorama ridge while the light is still low, keep the inner chamber and the Solar Boat as decisions you make at the gate, and be gone before the stone starts throwing heat back at you.
Saqqara and Dahshur, or just Giza
The Step Pyramid at Saqqara predates everything on the Giza plateau, and the Bent Pyramid at Dahshur is usually the one you can walk into without queueing. A full day, and the right call if pyramids are why you came.
The museum that holds what came out
The Tutankhamun burial goods are shown as one collection a short drive from the plateau. Take an afternoon slot: it is indoors, and the afternoon is when the plateau is unbearable.
Camel or horse out to the ridge
The nine-pyramid view is from the ridge south of the Sphinx, twenty minutes by camel or a long hot walk. Booked as part of a tour, the haggling at the gate is already settled.
The Egyptian days out more travellers take than any other.
The whole Egyptian catalogue →Booked more than anything else in the country, and what earns each of them the slot.
1
Luxor Valley of the Kings & Tutankhamun Tomb Trip
Travel from Hurghada to Luxor by air-conditioned van for Karnak Temple, the Valley of the Kings, Hatshepsut Temple, Colossi of Memnon, and buffet lunch. Guides such as Nana, Doa, Shaban, and Ahmed explain the sites in English, Arabic, or German. Tutankhamun’s tomb and a Nile boat crossing cost extra.
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
Royal Seascope Submarine Cruise with Snorkel Stop
from $21
7
3 Islands, Dolphins & Snorkel Yacht Trip w/ Lunch
from $47
8
Hot Air Balloon Ride in Luxor Egypt with Transfers Included
from $75
Tomb valleys, temple courts, and the rooms in Cairo that hold what came out of them.
Egypt keeps its record in three places: cut into the hills above Luxor, standing in the temple courts along the river, and behind glass in the capital. Book the tombs for the first slot of the day. The rock holds the heat long after the air has cooled.
Hurghada and Sharm are an hour of flying apart and they do not do the same thing.
Hurghada runs on island boats, quad tracks and long-haul day trips inland to Luxor and Cairo. Sharm keeps the better diving, Ras Mohamed on its doorstep and the Sinai road up to the Blue Hole. Marsa Alam is the quiet third option, with turtles in the bay.
- 1Luxury Cruise Trip to Orange Bay with Lunchfrom $53
- 2Royal Seascope Submarine Cruise with Snorkel Stopfrom $21
- 33 Islands, Dolphins & Snorkel Yacht Trip w/ Lunchfrom $47
Orange Bay, Ras Mohamed, a pod of dolphins or a glass hull. Pick your boat.
The reef is the other half of an Egyptian trip, and almost all of it is reached by boat. Four kinds of day on the water, what it costs to board each one, and which coast it leaves from.
★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · Orange Bay Island Boat Trip w/ Breakfast and Lunch
Island daysOrange Bay and Giftun, breakfast on deck, sand you wade to.
Reef stopsAnchored over coral, mask on, ladder down, two or three drops.
Dolphin runsOut to the resting reef where the spinner pods sit out the middle of the day.
Dry and underA glass hull for anyone who would rather watch the reef than swim it.
All 313 Egyptian boat days →
Four hundred pounds of stone, or a reef and lunch, for the price of a taxi home from the airport.
Every tour on the site, grouped by what you pay. A large part of the country’s best days come in under the price of a taxi from the airport at home.
Quad runs, glass-hull cruises, dinner on the water and most of the Red Sea boat days.
The full-day standards: Giza with Saqqara, Luxor from the coast, Abu Simbel from Aswan, a balloon at dawn.
Multi-night river cruises, private guiding, and the flights that turn Cairo into a day trip from the sea.
Three Egyptian days with no equivalent anywhere else.
Old stones and warm water exist all round the Mediterranean. A temple sawn up and lifted sixty metres, a valley of painted tombs seen from a basket, and a reef the dolphins sleep on do not.
Abu Simbel
Ramses cut four twenty-metre figures of himself into a cliff above the river. In the 1960s engineers sawed the whole facade into blocks and rebuilt it sixty metres higher up, out of reach of the rising lake. Twice a year the sun still runs down the axis into the inner sanctuary, which is the part they had to get exactly right.
- 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
- 3Private Day Tour to Abu Simbel Temples from Aswan★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 507 reviews
Balloons over the west bank
Luxor flies more balloons than anywhere else in Africa, and they all lift inside the same half hour after dawn, while the air over the valley is still. From the basket the tomb entrances read as dark squares in the hillside, and the green stops against the desert at a line you could have drawn with a ruler.
- 1Hot Air Balloon Ride in Luxor Egypt with Transfers Included★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 4,319 reviews
- 24-Days Nile Cruise From Aswan To Luxor including Abu Simbel and Hot Air Balloon★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 3,142 reviews
- 32-Day Luxor Tour with Hotel, Balloon, & Boat Ride★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 1,113 reviews
Dolphin House
Sha’ab El Erg is a horseshoe of reef north of Hurghada where spinner dolphins come in to rest through the middle of the day. Boats hold at the edge and swimmers go in quietly from the far side. The pods keep coming back because nobody is allowed to chase them.
- 13 Islands, Dolphins & Snorkel Yacht Trip w/ Lunch★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 4,609 reviews
- 2Discover the Magic of Dolphin House★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 4,198 reviews
- 3Speedboat Dolphin Watching & Snorkeling with Lunch★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 2,141 reviews
Four things in Egypt that are gone by the time you land.
Most of this country can be arranged at a hotel desk the night before. These four run on sunrise slots, fixed sailing days and a convoy that leaves long before breakfast.
- 01Hot Air Balloon Ride in Luxor Egypt with Transfers IncludedEvery basket lifts inside the same half hour after dawn and the whole field is grounded on wind. A cancelled morning rolls into the next one, so the late bookings are the ones that lose.
- 024-Days Nile Cruise From Aswan To Luxor including Abu Simbel and Hot Air BalloonBoats sail on fixed days between Aswan and Luxor. Miss the departure and the next one is not tomorrow.
- 03Abu Simbel Temple Day Trip with Hotel PickupThree hours each way from Aswan, leaving in the dark. Same-day seats are rare through the winter season.
- 04Luxor Valley of the Kings & Tutankhamun Tomb TripThe Tutankhamun tomb takes its own ticket on top of the valley pass, and only a set number are sold each day.
From May the middle of the day belongs to nobody.
Between eleven and four an open site is punishing, and there is no shade at Giza or on the west bank worth the name. The answer is the same everywhere: be at the gate for opening, then get under a roof or under water. Cool rooms, a hammam, a glass hull, and the river after dark.
The Nile is the road. Everything worth stopping for is parked along it.
Three or four nights between Aswan and Luxor puts every temple gate a short walk from your cabin, and the sailing happens while you sleep. The short version is a felucca at five, or dinner and a tanoura spin off the Cairo corniche.
- 14-Days Nile Cruise From Aswan To Luxor including Abu Simbel and Hot Air Balloonfrom $349
- 2Dinner Cruise on the Nile River with Entertainmentfrom $25
- 3Nile Sunset Dinner Cruise, Show & Optional Transferfrom $33
By place — the river, the capital, two coasts
By kind of day — stone, sand, reef or river
Cairo, Giza, Aswan, the boat down to Luxor, then the Red Sea.
The boatThe reviews we finished most recently.
Further back through the catalogue →
Private Tour: Discover Giza Pyramids, Sphinx & Egyptian Museum
Read our review →
Fayoum 4×4 Safari Adventure, Sandboarding, Lunch, Felucca
Read our review →
Private pyramids tour to Giza pyramids Sphinx Dahshur Sakkara & Memphis
Read our review →
Vip Tour Giza pyramids, sphinx with Camel Ride and Vip lunch
Read our review →
GEM Grand Egyptian Museum Private Tour from Cairo Giza hotels
Read our review →
8-Hours Private Guided Tour in Giza , Egyptian Museum & Market with Lunch
Read our review →
Egypt 8 Days Cairo,Nile cruise,Luxor,Aswan from Cairo airport
Read our review →
Giza Pyramids,Sphinx,Camel Ride,ATV Bike,Shopping,Dinner cruiseII
Read our review →
Private day tour visiting Coptic, Islamic Cairo, khan Elkhalili
Read our review →
Pyramids of Giza and National Museum Private Day Tour
Read our review →
Private tour to Giza Pyramids, Sphinx and Egyptian museum
Read our review →