8 days, 7 nights: Memphis, Saqqara and the Pyramids, a flight to Luxor for Karnak and the Valley of the Kings, then by private car to Siwa Oasis for the Oracle Temple and Shali. Includes hotels, a Siwa lodge, flights, a private guide, entrance fees and listed meals.
This private eight-day tour combines the two sides of Egypt in one week. The first half is the classic route: Memphis, Saqqara and the Pyramids of Giza in a full day around Cairo, then a flight to Luxor for two nights, with Karnak, Luxor Temple, the Valley of the Kings and the temple of Hatshepsut. The second half leaves the Nile Valley altogether. You drive west along the Mediterranean coast and then south into the Western Desert to Siwa, an oasis of palm groves, olive trees and salt lakes near the Libyan border, where you spend two nights in a simple lodge built in the local style.
In Siwa you walk through the ruins of Shali, the old mud-brick town, climb the Mountain of the Dead, visit the Temple of the Oracle of Amun, where Alexander the Great came in 331 BC, and watch the sunset over a salt lake. The trip ends with a traditional Egyptian bath and spa evening in Cairo and a night near the airport. A guide accompanies every sightseeing day, the vehicle is private for your group, and both domestic flights, Cairo to Luxor and back, are included.
It is a weaker fit if you do not like long drives (Siwa is about nine hours by road from Cairo each way), if you want a Nile cruise, Aswan or Abu Simbel, or if you need hotel comfort every night. Our Egypt classic tours stay in the Nile Valley, and the 5-day Siwa Oasis tour adds Bahariya and the White Desert.
The pace is busy in Cairo and Luxor and slower in Siwa, but two full days are spent on the road. Expect walking on uneven ground at the sites and sloping corridors in the tombs.
Our representative meets you in the arrival hall of Cairo International Airport with a company sign, helps with the visa, customs and immigration, and walks you to your private air-conditioned vehicle. The drive to your hotel near the pyramids takes about an hour, depending on traffic.
The afternoon is free to rest or to enjoy the hotel. In the evening we take you to a traditional Egyptian restaurant for a welcome dinner, a first taste of dishes such as mezze, grilled meats, molokhia and koshari. You spend the night in Cairo.
After breakfast your guide and driver collect you and you drive south to Memphis, about 45 minutes, the capital of Egypt for much of the Old Kingdom. Its open-air museum keeps a colossal limestone statue of Ramses II lying on its back and the Alabaster Sphinx. A few minutes away is Saqqara, the burial ground of Memphis, where the Step Pyramid of Djoser, designed by the architect Imhotep around 2650 BC, is the earliest large stone building in Egypt and the model the later pyramids grew from.
You drive back north 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. Below them you see the Great Sphinx and the Valley Temple of Khafre. Going inside the Great Pyramid needs a separate ticket bought at the site. Lunch is at a local restaurant.
You transfer to Cairo airport for the evening flight to Luxor, about 1 hour. Our guide meets you on arrival and drives you to your hotel on the Nile, where you spend the next two nights.
After breakfast your Egyptologist takes you to Karnak, the temple of Amun-Ra and the largest religious complex of the ancient world, built and enlarged over some 2,000 years. You walk through the pylons into the Great Hypostyle Hall, with its 134 columns, to the obelisks of Thutmose I and Hatshepsut and the Sacred Lake. Your guide explains how each pharaoh added his own gate, hall or obelisk, so that the temple reads like a history of the New Kingdom.
Luxor Temple, built mainly under Amenhotep III and Ramses II, stands in the centre of the modern town. The Avenue of Sphinxes, about 2.7 km long, once joined it to Karnak and was used each year for the Opet festival; it has been excavated and reopened, and you can walk part of it. One of the two obelisks of the temple's entrance still stands; the other has been in the Place de la Concorde in Paris since 1836. Lunch is at a local restaurant.
You return to your hotel for a free evening. A felucca on the river at sunset is an optional extra. You spend the night in Luxor.
After an early breakfast you check out and cross 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. You enter three of the tombs open on the day, with painted corridors showing the king's journey through the underworld; the tombs of Tutankhamun, Seti I and Ramses VI need a separate ticket bought at the site.
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. On the way back you stop at the Colossi of Memnon, two seated statues of Amenhotep III, each about 18 metres tall, which are almost all that remains above ground of his mortuary temple.
After lunch at a local restaurant you transfer to Luxor airport for the flight to Cairo, about 1 hour. Our representative meets you and drives you to your hotel. In the evening you have dinner at a traditional Egyptian restaurant with your guide.
After an early breakfast you check out and set off west with your driver and guide. The road crosses the desert to the Mediterranean coast near El Alamein, then follows the coast west, past long white beaches and turquoise water.
You stop at Marsa Matruh, a town on a sheltered bay, about 5 hours 30 minutes from Cairo, for a seafood lunch by the sea.
From Matruh the road turns south across some 300 km of flat desert to Siwa, about 4 hours. You arrive around sunset and check in to a lodge built of kershef, the local salt-and-mud brick, among the palms. Dinner is Siwan food: olives, dates, local bread and vegetables from the gardens. If there is time, a walk in the small market is a gentle end to a long day.
After breakfast you walk through Shali, the old fortified town of Siwa, built in the 13th century of kershef on a rock in the centre of the oasis. Heavy rain in 1926 melted much of it, and the ruined walls now look like a sandcastle; part of it has been restored. You continue through the palm groves to Cleopatra Spring, a round pool of clear, naturally warm water, where you can swim or sit at the café; the link with Cleopatra is a local tradition.
Gebel al-Mawta, the Mountain of the Dead, is a hill honeycombed with rock tombs from the 26th Dynasty to the Roman period; a few keep their paintings, among them the tomb of Si-Amun. On the rock of Aghurmi stands the Temple of the Oracle of Amun, built in the 6th century BC. In 331 BC Alexander the Great crossed the desert to consult the oracle, and ancient writers say the priests greeted him as the son of Amun. Lunch is at a local restaurant.
In the late afternoon you drive to one of Siwa's salt lakes, where old salt quarries have filled with turquoise water so salty that you float. The sunset over the lake is the high point of the day. Back in town, where it can be arranged, you join an evening of Siwan music, and there is time for the craft shops, with their embroidered dresses, silver and baskets. Dinner is at the lodge.
After breakfast you say goodbye to the oasis and drive back to Cairo by the same road, about 9 hours, with a packed lunch and stops on the way.
In Cairo your driver takes you to a traditional Egyptian bath and spa, where steam, a scrub and a massage are a good answer to two long days on the road. You then check in to your hotel near the airport for the last night.
After breakfast, our representative helps you check out and drives you the short distance to Cairo International Airport for your international flight; airlines usually ask you to be at the airport three hours before departure. This is the end of the tour.
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Children pay less, see the children policy below. Christmas, New Year and Easter dates add 25%. Prices are per person in US dollars.
October to April is the best time for this route. From December to February, days are around 18 to 22 °C in Cairo, 23 to 26 °C in Luxor and around 20 °C in Siwa, where nights can drop close to 5 °C. From May to September, Luxor and Siwa often pass 40 °C; the springs and the salt lake are pleasant, but sightseeing is kept to the early morning and late afternoon. Christmas, New Year and Easter are the busiest weeks in Luxor; Siwa stays quiet most of the year, apart from its date harvest and festival season in autumn.
Many nationalities can buy a tourist visa on arrival at Cairo airport or apply for an e-visa in advance on Egypt's official portal, visa2egypt.gov.eg. The rules and the fee depend on your passport, so check them before you book your flights. Your passport should be valid for at least six months from the day you arrive; carry it on the road to Siwa, which has several police checkpoints. The visa is not included in the tour price.
The currency is the Egyptian pound. Cards are accepted in most hotels and larger shops in Cairo and Luxor, but rarely in Siwa, where there are few cash machines, so take cash from Cairo for the oasis. Tips are not included in the price. The tipping guide in the travel policies below gives the usual amounts; how much you give is your choice.
All prices are per person in US dollars. The price changes with the season (winter 1 October to 30 April, summer 1 May to 30 September), the accommodation level and the size of the group. Christmas, New Year and Easter dates add 25%. Your quote lists the final price and everything it covers. After the deposit, changes to your itinerary cost US$25 per request, plus any third-party fees.
A deposit of 30% of the total tour cost confirms your booking. We send you a secure payment link for the deposit; the balance is paid in cash or by card on arrival in Egypt, unless your written offer gives another date. We never ask for card details by email, chat or WhatsApp. We confirm every booking by email.
No-show travelers are charged 100%. During peak events in Egypt, hotels and Nile cruises do not refund deposits. Groups of more than 10 people may have different terms.
Add each child and their age in the enquiry form so the quote is exact.
Optional visits, such as a hot air balloon ride in Luxor, a Sound and Light show or a felucca ride, are not in the price. Tell us which ones you want and we add them to your quote with their cost.
Not included in the price: International flights to and from Egypt; Egypt entry visa (we can arrange the visa on arrival on request); Optional tours and activities; Personal expenses; Tips for guides and drivers; Extra tickets at the sites: inside the Great Pyramid, and the tombs of Tutankhamun, Seti I and Ramses VI.
Tipping is customary in Egypt and is not included in the price. A usual amount for a private tour is US$8 to 10 per person per day for your guide, US$4 to 5 for your driver and US$5 to 8 per person per day for the crew on a Nile cruise. Your guide can advise you on the day.
About 800 km and 9 to 10 hours each way, by the desert road to the coast, then west to Marsa Matruh and south to Siwa. There is no airport with regular flights to Siwa, so the road is the only practical way. Your private vehicle stops for lunch, coffee and photos on the way.
Siwa has small lodges and hotels rather than large resorts, many built in kershef, the local mud and salt brick, among the palms. They are comfortable and quiet, and some keep electric light to a minimum. Expect charm rather than luxury.
No, the tour is private for your own group: your guide and vehicle are not shared. Hotels and lodges are shared with other guests, as on any hotel stay.
Yes. Cleopatra Spring and several other springs are open for swimming, and in the salt lakes you float without effort. Siwa is conservative, so women usually swim with a T-shirt over swimwear in the public springs; the lodges' own pools are more relaxed.
Yes. Instead of driving back to Cairo from Siwa, you can cross the desert to Bahariya and camp a night in the White Desert, which adds one to two days. Because the tour is private, the price changes with the plan; ask us when you enquire.
Independent reviews on the platforms travelers already trust.
Amazing Egyptian vacation! We did an 11 day private tour of Cairo, cruise on the Nile between Aswan and Luxor and a 4 day stay in Hurghada. The guided tours were very interesting, with extremely knowledgeable guides, attentive and helpful.
Egypt package to the Pyramids of Giza and Saqqara was a fascinating journey through Egypt's ancient past ,guide knowledge, the majesty of the pyramids, and the historical depth of Saqqara made this tour truly enriching!
our honeymoon to Egypt ,Giza and Saqqara was a magical escape into history The pyramids looming in the distance, the quiet serenity of the desert, and the ancient wonders of Saqqara created moments that will be with me forever!
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