Egypt's Top Attractions: Tours & Tickets
From the Pyramids of Giza and the Valley of the Kings to Abu Simbel and Ras Mohammed, browse tours and tickets for Egypt's greatest attractions, with real prices compared across booking platforms.
Egypt's headline sights fall into three clusters that are hundreds of kilometres apart: Cairo and Giza in the north, Luxor in the middle, and Aswan in the south. Almost nobody sees all three properly in under a week, and trying to is the most common way visitors spend a holiday on the road rather than at the sites.
How the clusters work
Cairo and Giza hold the Pyramids, the Sphinx, Saqqara and the Grand Egyptian Museum, and two full days is the minimum. Luxor splits into an east bank of standing temples, Karnak and Luxor Temple, and a west bank of tombs and mortuary temples, the Valley of the Kings, Hatshepsut, Medinet Habu and the Ramesseum. Two days covers it without rushing. Aswan is smaller and slower: Philae, the Unfinished Obelisk, the High Dam and Elephantine Island, with Abu Simbel as a long day trip south.
How long each site takes
Planning fails on time, not on distance. Karnak needs two to three hours and the Valley of the Kings about three including transfers. Most of the rest are shorter than people expect: Luxor Temple and Edfu an hour to ninety minutes, Kom Ombo and Medinet Habu around an hour, the Unfinished Obelisk under an hour, and the Colossi of Memnon ten minutes from the roadside. A west bank morning realistically holds three sites, not five.
What a Nile cruise covers
A Luxor to Aswan cruise builds Edfu and Kom Ombo into the sailing, since both sit on the riverbank, and usually includes the Luxor and Aswan sites at either end. It does not reach Dendera or Abydos, which lie north of Luxor and need a separate road trip, and it does not go anywhere near the Pyramids, which are a flight away in Cairo.
When to go, and when to start
October to April is the comfortable season. In summer, Upper Egypt regularly passes 40°C and every itinerary moves to a dawn start for good reason. Whatever the month, the open sites are best in the first two hours after opening, and the museums in Luxor and Aswan are the right answer to the middle of the day because they are air-conditioned and open late.
