5 Days Cairo to Luxor Tour Packages

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. The drive to your hotel takes 30 to 60 minutes, depending on traffic and on where your hotel is.

At the hotel your tour leader goes through the plan for the coming days: the pick-up time for Day 2, what to wear for the churches and the synagogue, and the timing of the flight to Luxor on Day 3.

The rest of the day

The rest of the day is free. If you arrive early and have the energy, a walk along the Nile corniche or a first Egyptian dinner nearby is a gentle start; mezze, grilled meat and koshari, rice, lentils and pasta under a spiced tomato sauce, are easy to find. No meals are included today, and Day 2 starts after an early breakfast.

Morning: the Pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx

After breakfast your Egyptologist meets you at the hotel and you drive to the Giza Plateau. The three main pyramids 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 and how the plateau worked as a royal cemetery, and you stop at the panoramic viewpoint for the 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 and the Valley Temple of Khafre, built of huge granite blocks.

Late morning: the Egyptian Museum

You drive into central Cairo, about 45 minutes, to the Egyptian Museum on Tahrir Square, opened in 1902. Tutankhamun's treasures have 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 reliefs, and the gold and silver burial treasures of the kings of Tanis. Your guide picks a route of about an hour and a half through the key rooms.

Afternoon: Old Cairo

After lunch at a local restaurant you drive to Old Cairo, the Coptic quarter built around the Roman fortress of Babylon. The Hanging Church takes its name from its position over the gatehouse of the fortress. The Ben Ezra Synagogue nearby is where the Cairo Geniza, a store of medieval Jewish manuscripts, was found in the 19th century. The Coptic Museum holds the largest collection of Coptic Christian art in the world: textiles, icons, carved wood and manuscripts. Shoulders and knees should be covered in the church and the synagogue.

Late afternoon: Khan el-Khalili

The day ends in historic Islamic Cairo at Khan el-Khalili, a market since the late 14th century, with lanes of lamps, spices, silver and fabric. There is time to walk, shop or sit for a mint tea before the drive back to your hotel.

Morning: flight to Luxor

After an early breakfast you transfer to Cairo airport for the domestic flight to Luxor, about 1 hour. Your Luxor guide meets you on arrival. Luxor is the ancient Thebes, the religious capital of Egypt in the New Kingdom; the living city and its great temples lie on the East Bank, and the royal tombs and mortuary temples on the West Bank.

The Valley of the Kings

You cross the Nile to the West Bank. 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 tombs among those open on the day; 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 and his rebirth with the sun. Our guide to the best tombs in the Valley of the Kings helps you choose.

The temple of Hatshepsut and the Colossi of Memnon

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

Evening

You check in to your hotel in Luxor. In the evening Luxor Temple is lit up and open late, and a felucca on the river at sunset is an easy optional extra. You spend the night in Luxor.

Morning: Karnak

After breakfast you check out and visit Karnak, the temple of the god Amun-Ra, built and enlarged over some 2,000 years. You walk through its pylons into the Great Hypostyle Hall, where 134 columns, the tallest about 21 metres high, still carry traces of paint. The obelisks of Thutmose I and Hatshepsut stand at the heart of the temple, and the Sacred Lake lies to one side.

Late morning: Luxor Temple

Luxor Temple, built mainly under Amenhotep III and Ramses II, stands in the centre of the modern town. One of the two obelisks of its entrance still stands; the other has been in the Place de la Concorde in Paris since 1836. The Avenue of Sphinxes, about 2.7 km long, links it to Karnak and was used for the yearly Opet festival, when the statue of Amun was carried from one temple to the other.

Afternoon: flight to Cairo

After lunch you transfer to Luxor airport for the domestic flight to Cairo, about 1 hour. If the flight leaves late in the day, the Luxor Museum, a small, well-lit museum on the corniche, is an optional extra while you wait. Our representative meets you in Cairo and drives you to your hotel for the last night.

After breakfast, our representative drives you to Cairo International Airport in time for your international flight; airlines usually ask you to be at the airport three hours before departure. This is the end of the tour.

If your flight leaves late in the day, ask us when you book about extra sightseeing, such as the Grand Egyptian Museum with the treasures of Tutankhamun, or Saqqara and Memphis; both are optional extras.