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The three pyramids of Giza on the desert plateau
The four seated colossi of Ramesses II on the facade of the Great Temple of Abu Simbel, under a deep blue sky
Giant papyrus columns in the Great Hypostyle Hall at Karnak
Painted ceiling and walls in tomb KV9 of Ramesses V and VI
A hot air balloon over the fields of Luxor's West Bank
Coral reef in Ras Mohammed National Park

Things to do in Egypt: 28 experiences worth the trip

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Photo: Ricardo Liberato, CC BY-SA 2.0

Abu Simbel

Be at Abu Simbel when the temples open at sunrise

Check dates and prices

Photo: Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0

Luxor

Stand among the columns of Karnak's Great Hypostyle Hall

Check dates and prices

Photo: Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0

Luxor, West Bank

Choose your three tombs in the Valley of the Kings

Check dates and prices

Photo: Luigi Rosa, CC BY-SA 2.0

Luxor, West Bank

Float over Luxor's West Bank in a balloon at dawn

Check dates and prices

Photo: Wouter Hagens, CC BY-SA 3.0

Sharm el-Sheikh

Snorkel and dive the reef walls of Ras Mohammed

Check dates and prices

Photo: Sovernigo, CC BY-SA 4.0

Egypt is a long country with its sights strung out along the Nile and the coasts, and this list follows that shape: Cairo and Giza, with the pyramids, the Grand Egyptian Museum and the medieval city; Alexandria on the Mediterranean; the Nile valley from Luxor's temples and tombs south to Aswan, Philae and Abu Simbel; the Sinai and the Red Sea for diving, snorkelling and Mount Sinai; and the Western Desert, from the White Desert to the oasis of Siwa.

Two things shape every plan. Distances are large, so most visitors fly or take the night train between Cairo and Luxor or Aswan, and reach the Sinai through Sharm el-Sheikh. And prices at the ancient sites are set in Egyptian pounds and have risen several times in recent years, often with extra tickets inside the main one, so the figures here carry the date they were last confirmed.

The biggest recent change is Tutankhamun: since November 2025 his treasures are in the Grand Egyptian Museum at Giza, not in the old Egyptian Museum on Tahrir Square.

28 things to do in Egypt

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The steep Grand Gallery inside the Great Pyramid of Giza

Climb through the Great Pyramid to the King's Chamber

Giza

About 1 hour inside, half a day for the plateauNo booking needed

Climb inside the only one of the Seven Wonders still standing, up the Grand Gallery to the granite King's Chamber.

Tours in Egypt
The pyramids of Giza lit up during the evening sound and light show

Watch the Sound and Light Show at the Giza pyramids

Giza

About 1 hourBook ahead

Watch the pyramids and the Sphinx lit by floodlights and lasers, a cheerfully kitsch show best taken in that spirit.

Tours in Egypt
Cargo inside the wreck of the SS Thistlegorm in the Red Sea

Dive the cargo holds of the SS Thistlegorm

Red Sea, off Sharm el-Sheikh

A full day by boat, two divesBook ahead

Swim through cargo holds still full of trucks, motorcycles and rifles, on a British ship sunk in the Red Sea in 1941.

Tours in Egypt
Painted ceiling and walls in tomb KV9 of Ramesses V and VI

Choose your three tombs in the Valley of the Kings

Luxor, West Bank

3 to 4 hoursGo alone or with a tour

Choose three rock-cut pharaohs' tombs from the board on the day, and pay extra for the painted walls of Seti I or Ramesses VI.

Check dates and pricesWest Bank day with tombs, entry and lunch
Feluccas with white sails on the Nile at Aswan

Sail a felucca around Aswan's islands at sunset

Aswan

1 to 2 hoursNo booking needed

Drift past granite boulders and green islands under a single tall sail as the light goes over the west bank dunes.

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White chalk rock formations in the White Desert

Camp among the chalk towers of the White Desert

Farafra, Western Desert

Two days and one nightBook ahead

Sleep among white chalk towers in the desert and watch them turn orange at sunset and pale blue under the moon.

Tours in Egypt
The four seated colossi of Ramesses II on the facade of the Great Temple of Abu Simbel, under a deep blue sky

Be at Abu Simbel when the temples open at sunrise

Abu Simbel

2 hours at the temples, a night in the villageGo alone or with a tour

Sleep in the village and walk over at opening to see the early sun light four colossal statues of Ramesses II, before the coaches.

Check dates and pricesPrivate car and guide from Aswan, temple entry included
A bowl of koshari with lentils, pasta, chickpeas and fried onions

Eat a bowl of koshari at Abou Tarek in Downtown Cairo

Cairo

30 to 45 minutesNo booking needed

Rice, pasta, lentils and crisp onions in one cheap, filling bowl, at the Downtown Cairo place that grew from a street cart.

Tours in Egypt
A lane of shops in the Khan el-Khalili bazaar

Walk the lanes of Khan el-Khalili and al-Muizz Street

Cairo

2 to 3 hoursFree

Wander past lamps, brass and spices into back streets of cloth and gold, then walk al-Muizz Street lit up in the evening.

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The deep blue water of the Blue Hole near Dahab, ringed by reef

Snorkel the reef rim of Dahab's Blue Hole

Dahab

Half a dayNo booking needed

Step in from the shore and swim the reef wall around the rim of a sinkhole, with coral beside you and deep blue below.

Tours in Egypt
The pink neoclassical facade of the Egyptian Museum on Tahrir Square

See what still fills the Egyptian Museum on Tahrir Square

Cairo

2 to 3 hoursNo booking needed

The mummies and Tutankhamun have moved out, yet the old pink museum on Tahrir Square is still crammed with masterpieces.

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Sunrise over the granite peaks seen from the summit of Mount Sinai

Climb Mount Sinai in the dark to watch the sunrise

St Catherine, South Sinai

A night: 2 to 3 hours up, 2 downBook ahead

Climb through the night to watch the sun rise over the granite peaks of the Sinai from the summit chapel.

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The twin bell towers of the Hanging Church above its steps in Coptic Cairo

Climb the steps into Coptic Cairo's Hanging Church

Coptic Cairo

30 minutes, half a day with Coptic CairoFree

Climb 29 steps into one of Egypt's oldest churches, its nave hung over a gatehouse of a Roman fortress.

Tours in Egypt
The ruined Temple of the Oracle on the rock of Aghurmi in Siwa

Cycle out to Siwa's Temple of the Oracle of Amun

Siwa Oasis

2 to 3 days in the oasisNo booking needed

Cycle through the palm groves to the temple where Alexander the Great came to consult the oracle of Amun.

Tours in Egypt
A Tanoura dancer spinning in a wide coloured skirt

See the Tanoura whirling show at Wekalet El Ghouri

Cairo

About 2 hours with the queueNo booking needed

Watch a dancer spin for many minutes without stopping, lifting a heavy skirt of coloured panels above his head to the drums.

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A hot air balloon over the fields of Luxor's West Bank

Float over Luxor's West Bank in a balloon at dawn

Luxor, West Bank

About 45 minutes aloft, 3 to 4 hours in allBook ahead

Drift over cane fields and villages at first light, with the Colossi of Memnon, Hatshepsut's temple and the Nile in view.

Check dates and pricesSunrise balloon over the West Bank with pickup
Rows of sphinxes along the avenue near Luxor Temple

Walk the Avenue of Sphinxes from Karnak to Luxor Temple

Luxor

1 to 2 hoursNo booking needed

Walk a processional road lined with sphinxes and end at Luxor Temple after dark, when the sphinxes before its pylon are lit.

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The carved tomb chamber deep in the Catacombs of Kom el Shoqafa

Descend the spiral stair into the Catacombs of Kom el Shoqafa

Alexandria

About 1 hourNo booking needed

Go down a deep spiral stair to tomb chambers where Egyptian gods are carved in Greek and Roman styles.

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The tilted disc roof and granite wall of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina

Tour the reading room of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina

Alexandria

1 to 2 hoursNo booking needed

Stand in a reading room that steps down eleven levels under a tilted glass roof angled to the sea like a sundial.

Tours in Egypt
The domes and slender minarets of the Muhammad Ali Mosque on the Citadel

Visit the Alabaster Mosque of Muhammad Ali on the Citadel

Cairo

2 hours with the CitadelNo booking needed

An Ottoman mosque of alabaster with needle-thin minarets on Saladin's Citadel, and a view over Cairo as far as the pyramids.

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The seafront Corniche curving around Alexandria's Eastern Harbour

Walk the Corniche from the Qaitbay Citadel at sunset

Alexandria

2 to 3 hoursFree

Walk the curve of Alexandria's Eastern Harbour at sunset, from a fortress built of the ancient lighthouse's stones past fishing boats and cafés.

Tours in Egypt
Spices and goods on display in the Aswan souk

Buy spices and hibiscus in the Aswan souk

Aswan

1 to 2 hoursFree

Buy spices by weight from open sacks and dried hibiscus for karkadeh, in a market with far less pressure to buy than Luxor's.

Tours in Egypt
The pylons of the Temple of Isis at Philae on Agilkia Island

Take the boat to the Temple of Isis at Philae

Aswan

2 hours with the boatNo booking needed

Take a motorboat to the island sanctuary of Isis, where the last known hieroglyphic inscription was carved in AD 394.

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Coral reef in Ras Mohammed National Park

Snorkel and dive the reef walls of Ras Mohammed

Sharm el-Sheikh

A full day by boatBook ahead

Drift along coral walls that drop into deep water where two gulfs meet, among barracuda schools and reef sharks.

Check dates and pricesDay boat from Sharm: snorkel stops, intro dives, lunch
Painted houses of a Nubian village on the Nile at Aswan

Take the boat to the painted houses of Gharb Soheil

Gharb Soheil, Aswan

Half a dayNo booking needed

Ride a motorboat upstream to a Nubian village of brightly painted houses and come back as the sun sets.

Tours in Egypt
Visitors at the foot of the Grand Staircase in the Grand Egyptian Museum

See Tutankhamun's full treasure at the Grand Egyptian Museum

Giza

At least 4 hoursTimed entry

See all of Tutankhamun's treasure together for the first time, gold mask and golden throne included, in halls that echo his tomb.

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Giant papyrus columns in the Great Hypostyle Hall at Karnak

Stand among the columns of Karnak's Great Hypostyle Hall

Luxor

2 to 3 hoursGo alone or with a tour

Stand among 134 carved columns in the Great Hypostyle Hall at the 06:00 opening, before the coaches arrive.

Check dates and pricesHalf day at Karnak and Luxor Temple with entry
The six-stepped pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara

See Djoser's Step Pyramid and the tombs of Saqqara

Saqqara

Half a day, a day with DahshurNo booking needed

See Egypt's oldest pyramid, six stacked stone platforms built a century before Giza, on a site quieter than Giza.

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Plan your trip

  • When to go

    October to April is the season for the Nile valley and the desert, with warm days and cool nights; from May to September Luxor and Aswan are very hot and most sightseeing is done before 11:00. The Red Sea is good for diving all year, with warmer water from summer into autumn. Winter nights are cold on Mount Sinai and in desert camps. Twice a year, on 22 February and 22 October, the rising sun reaches the inner sanctuary at Abu Simbel. Check the dates of Ramadan, when opening hours shorten.

  • How many days

    Ten to twelve days covers the classic route: three days in Cairo and Giza, four or five in Luxor and Aswan (or a three or four night Nile cruise between them), a day trip or a night at Abu Simbel, and three days on the Red Sea or in the Sinai. Add a day for Alexandria, which works as a day trip by train from Cairo, and two or three for the White Desert or Siwa, which are long journeys from the capital.

  • Getting around

    Domestic flights link Cairo with Luxor, Aswan, Sharm el-Sheikh and Hurghada, and trains run along the Nile from Cairo to Luxor and Aswan, including overnight sleepers. In Cairo, Uber and InDrive avoid the haggling of street taxis, and the metro is cheap and quick for Tahrir, Coptic Cairo and Giza station. Abu Simbel is reached by road from Aswan in about three hours or by a short flight. For the Western Desert you need a 4x4 with a driver from Bahariya, Farafra or Siwa.

  • Money and entry

    Most nationalities need a visa, bought online in advance or on arrival; if you fly into Sharm el-Sheikh and plan to leave the resort coast, get the full visa rather than the Sinai-only entry stamp. Several site ticket offices, including the Valley of the Kings, now take cards only, while taxis, guides and tips need small cash in Egyptian pounds. Dress modestly in mosques and churches, with shoulders and knees covered and, for women, a scarf for mosques.

Questions travellers ask

Can you go inside the Great Pyramid of Giza?

Yes, with a separate ticket on top of the Giza plateau entry: LE1,500 in December 2025, sold in limited numbers each day. The interior is open 08:00 to 12:00 and 13:00 to 16:00, cameras are not allowed, and the climb is hot, steep and cramped.

Where are Tutankhamun's treasures now?

In the Grand Egyptian Museum near the Giza pyramids, which opened fully on 1 November 2025 and shows the complete collection of 5,398 objects, including the gold mask. His mummy stays in his tomb, KV62, in the Valley of the Kings.

What is the best time of year to visit Egypt?

October to April for Cairo, Luxor, Aswan and the desert. Summer is very hot in the Nile valley, though the Red Sea coast and its diving stay good all year.

How do you get to Abu Simbel from Aswan?

Abu Simbel is 280 km south of Aswan. Most visitors go on an early morning coach or minibus tour, about three hours each way, or take a short flight. To be at the temples at sunrise you need to sleep in Abu Simbel village.

Do you need a guide to climb Mount Sinai?

Yes. A local Bedouin guide is required, even though the paths are clear once you are on them. Guides are hired at the trailhead by St Catherine's Monastery or come with tours from Dahab and Sharm el-Sheikh.

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