Discover the world of ancient civilizations, pharaohs and hieroglyphics with a trip to Egypt. If you love history, this is the destination for you.
Day 1-2 TRAVEL DAYS
If you are traveling from America, expect it to take about two days to get to Cairo. (living in Europe, it is just a few-hour flight away!)
We flew from Denver, CO to Frankfurt, Germany and then from Germany to Cairo, Egypt and landed in the evening on Day 2. We stayed at the Le Meridien Cairo hotel on the airport property for ease and were headed back to the airport the next morning to fly from Cairo to Luxor.
Day 3 LUXOR
Just a few hour flight from Cairo to Luxor on EgyptAir, we had arranged a tour for the next few days, including a Nile Cruise from Luxor to Aswan. Our tour was booked through Viator and overall a good, budget-friendly experience. If you have a higher budget to work with, we would recommend checking out a Viking cruise for an easier experience.
Things to note: The boats that operate the cruises are essentially floating hotels and the tour companies book “rooms” on them for their guests so you may have guests from multiple tour companies on your boat at once with different tour times, etc. The boat doesn’t have any idea what tour you’re on, so you will communicate with your tour operator daily via WhatsApp (make sure you have international cell service in Egypt, WIFI didn’t exist on our boat). Same thing applies to the rest of the day tours on land (it seems like they contract with tour guides so you never actually meet anyone working for the tour company you booked through).
The photos marketing the cruise were very different than what the boat actually looked like. We had very basic accommodations and the boat was probably 40 years old… food was pretty good and the scenery floating down the Nile, and the upper deck were the highlights.
At every port, the cruise boats park in rows right next to one another (you may have 20 boats at one port) and you end up walking through the lobbies of other boats to get to shore and vice versa. Sometimes the boats move around, so make sure you get back to the right one. It can also be very noisy when they are parking the boats at the ports, especially at the early hours of the morning.
The concept of time is very loose in Egypt, when you have a tour time of 5 AM, it could be anywhere from 4-6 AM for pick-up. The good news is that the tour operators don’t seem to mind you calling them to keep checking. (There were some cases where tour operators failed to show up – not our tour but others on our boat…they do seem to figure it out and merge groups of different tours) Same goes for port times of leaving and arriving, very fluid.
Flexibility is key. It does seem overall like it can be a mixed bag, some travelers have better accommodations that others. If budget allows, looking into a higher end cruise company that operates all over the world, your experience will likely be much smoother.
We arrived in Luxor and found our guide waiting outside the airport. The guides are here for you so you can actually customize what you want to do outside of what you originally booked (you can add, subtract and delete attractions). We visited Luxor and Karnak temple before heading to the boat. Both of these temples are massive and you could spend hours if not days at each. These two temples are not to miss as they are some of the oldest Egyptian temples you will see. Entrance fees are not included in most tours so make sure you budget for those as well as tips and cash to use restrooms.
After the temples, we arrived at the boat and it was a chaotic check-in process. They wanted us to just leave our bags in the lobby and a few hours later, they were still sitting where they were left. They also wanted to take our passports to scan and hold onto them for multiple hours (I wasn’t going to let that happen). The credit card reader didn’t seem to work so bringing cash is a good idea.
Day 4-6 CRUISING THE NILE
If you book a Nile cruise you will spend the next few days on and off the boat at the following locations:
Temple of Horus at Edfu
Kom Ombo Temple
Valley of the Kings
Hot Air Balloon Tour (we did ours over Valley of the Kings)
Abu Simbel (highly recommend!)
Aswan High Dam
Philae Island Temple
After your cruise arrives in Aswan in the AM and you do your morning tours, schedule a PM flight from Aswan back to Cairo for the next portion of this itinerary.
Day 7-12 CAIRO
Where to Stay:
We stayed at the Four Seasons Hotel Cairo at The First Residence – in the older part of Cairo (there are two Four Seasons hotels). It is a luxury resort at a reasonable price point. The other property we would recommend closer to the Pyramid complex is the Marriott Mena House. Something we learned after the fact is for a fantastic view of the Pyramids without going into the complex, visit the Pizza Hut (yes, the Pizza Hut chain we all know) right outside and enjoy the Pyramids with some pizza.
What to Do:
Cairo is home to almost 10 million people and it is a busy city! We do not recommend driving here as there are not a lot of rules of the road and we saw many cars with missing mirrors, scratched bumpers and more. Uber is a great way to get around the city or scheduling tours on Viator (links below) that will include transportation and a guide.
Here are our recomendations:
- Museums – there are a few different museums in Cairo and we know a few were being built while we were there in 2022 but the Egyptian Museum of Antiquities is the storage house for many artifacts that came from Valley of the Kings and Queens. The other museum we visited was the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization has the Hall of Mummys which was awesome to see as well.
- Mosques – We only ended up visiting one Mosque in Cairo but there are many tours to choose from that will give you an in-depth view of Coptic Cairo. The Mosque of Muhammad Ali was stunning – it is a mosque situated in the Citadel of Cairo in Egypt and was commissioned by Muhammad Ali Pasha between 1830 and 1848.
- Pyramids of Giza – No visit to Cairo is complete without a stop at the famous Pyramids of Giza. Morning is a great time to visit as there are fewer crowds (plus it is cooler temperatures – zero shade). We took this tour to visit the complex. You will have the option of whether or not you would like to pay to go into the pyramids, we opted not too. We did want to ride camels so we did that first before driving to see the Sphinx. Our trip was extra special – this is where Chris proposed to me! The tour also explores an older version of the pyramid – the step pyramid Saqqara, and Memphis City – the ancient capital of Egypt.
MC Exploring 