4 Days Cairo & Luxor with Egypt Solar Eclipse 2027 Tour

Morning: arrival in Cairo

Our representative meets you in the arrival hall of Cairo International Airport, helps with the visa and the formalities if needed, and walks you to your private air-conditioned vehicle. Your Egyptologist joins you, and you drive west across the city to Giza, about an hour depending on traffic. Your luggage stays with the vehicle for the day.

Late morning: the Pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx

The three main pyramids on the Giza Plateau were built for the Fourth Dynasty kings Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure about 4,500 years ago. The Great Pyramid of Khufu is the largest of them, and the only one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World still standing. Your guide explains how they were built, how the plateau worked as a royal cemetery, and why the sides of the pyramids are aligned so closely to the four points of the compass. The panoramic viewpoint gives the classic view of all three pyramids together. Going inside the Great Pyramid needs a separate ticket bought at the site.

Below the pyramids you see the Great Sphinx, carved from the bedrock of the plateau, and the Valley Temple of Khafre, built of huge granite blocks, where the funeral rites of the king began.

Afternoon: lunch and the flight to Luxor

Lunch is at a local restaurant near the plateau. In August the early afternoon is hot, so the visit is planned to end before the worst of the heat. You then transfer to Cairo airport for the domestic flight to Luxor, about 1 hour.

Evening in Luxor

Our representative meets you at Luxor airport and drives you to your hotel, about 20 minutes. Your guide confirms the pick-up time for eclipse day and checks that everyone has eclipse glasses. Keep the evening quiet: tomorrow is the main day of the trip.

Morning: to Karnak

After breakfast your guide collects you from the hotel and drives you to Karnak, on the northern edge of Luxor. You arrive well before the partial phase begins, late in the morning. Access and the viewing places inside the temple on 2 August depend on the arrangements made by Egypt's Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities for the day; we confirm the details with your booking. While you wait, your guide walks you through the temple: the Great Hypostyle Hall with its 134 columns, the obelisks of Thutmose I and Hatshepsut, and the Sacred Lake.

Midday: the total eclipse

The Moon starts to cover the Sun late in the morning. For about an hour and a quarter the light changes slowly: shadows sharpen, the air cools a little and the colours flatten. Watch this partial phase only through certified eclipse glasses. Totality comes around 1 pm local time and lasts a little more than six minutes over Luxor. In those minutes the sky darkens enough for bright planets and stars to appear, the solar corona shows around the black disc of the Moon, and a ring of sunset colours lies along the horizon. Only during totality is it safe to look without glasses; put them back on as soon as the first bright point of the Sun returns. The partial phase then runs on until the middle of the afternoon.

Karnak was the largest temple of Amun-Ra, the god who joined Amun with the sun god Ra, and it was enlarged by pharaohs over some 2,000 years. Watching the Sun disappear above it is the reason this tour starts in Luxor.

Afternoon: lunch and Luxor Temple

After lunch at a local restaurant you have a rest at the hotel through the hottest hours. Later in the afternoon you visit Luxor Temple, in the centre of the modern town, built mainly under Amenhotep III and Ramses II. One of the two obelisks of its entrance still stands; the other has been in the Place de la Concorde in Paris since 1836. In ancient times the Opet festival carried the statue of Amun from Karnak to this temple along the Avenue of Sphinxes, about 2.7 km long, which has been restored and reopened.

Evening

You are back at the hotel in the early evening. Dinner is not included, so the evening is free for a meal by the river.

Early morning: the Valley of the Kings

You check out after an early breakfast and cross the Nile to the West Bank, about 30 minutes from the hotel. The Valley of the Kings holds more than 60 tombs cut into the hills for the pharaohs of the New Kingdom, between about 1550 and 1070 BC. The standard ticket opens three of the tombs open on the day; your guide chooses them with you. The tombs of Tutankhamun, Seti I and Ramses VI need a separate ticket bought at the site. Inside, the painted corridors show the king's journey through the underworld at night and his rebirth with the sun at dawn: a fitting subject the day after the eclipse. Our guide to the best tombs in the Valley of the Kings helps you choose.

Late morning: the temple of Hatshepsut

At Deir el-Bahari, the temple of Queen Hatshepsut rises in three terraces against the cliffs. She ruled as pharaoh for about two decades in the 15th century BC, and the reliefs record her trading expedition to the land of Punt. The walk from the car park to the upper terrace is in full sun, so take water.

Midday: the Colossi of Memnon and lunch

On the way back you stop at the Colossi of Memnon, two seated statues of Amenhotep III about 18 metres tall, which once stood at the entrance of his mortuary temple. Lunch is at a local restaurant on the West Bank.

Afternoon and evening: flight to Cairo

You transfer to Luxor airport for the domestic flight to Cairo, about 1 hour. Our representative meets you on arrival and drives you to your hotel for the last night. The evening is free.

Morning: the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir

After breakfast you check out, and your luggage stays in the vehicle for the day. The Egyptian Museum on Tahrir Square, opened in 1902, was for more than a century the home of Egypt's great collections. Tutankhamun's treasures have since moved to the Grand Egyptian Museum at Giza and the royal mummies to the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization, but the old building still holds thousands of pieces: the Narmer Palette, which records the unification of Egypt around 3100 BC, Old Kingdom statues, and the gold and silver burial treasures of the kings of Tanis. Your Egyptologist chooses a route of about two hours through the key rooms.

Midday: the Citadel of Saladin

The Citadel was begun by Salah ad-Din (Saladin) in 1176 to defend Cairo, and it remained the seat of Egypt's rulers for some 700 years. You visit the Mosque of Muhammad Ali, built between 1830 and 1848, with its large domes and slim minarets, and the terrace beside it, which looks over the minarets of medieval Cairo. Shoulders and knees should be covered, and shoes come off inside the mosque.

Afternoon: lunch and Khan el-Khalili

After lunch at a local restaurant you walk through Khan el-Khalili, a market since the late 14th century, with lanes of lamps, spices, silver and fabric. There is time to shop or to sit for a mint tea.

Evening: departure

Your private vehicle takes you to Cairo International Airport, 30 to 60 minutes depending on traffic, for your international flight. Airlines usually ask you to be at the airport three hours before departure, so this day suits a flight in the late evening; if yours leaves earlier, tell us when you book and the day is shortened. This is the end of the tour.