10 days in Egypt: an Egypt itinerary by train and felucca

Planning your trip to Egypt and not sure where to start? This action-packed 10-day Egypt itinerary takes you from the pyramids to Abu Simbel and back, by sleeper train, felucca and plane, with where to stay and what to book at every stop.

My trip to Egypt was something.

understatement of the year

From the first day to the last, it was filled with hard-hitters that made my jaw drop and my eyes pop. Honestly, there wasn’t a day that wasn’t stuffed with wonder. Let’s face it: any trip that kicks things off with the Pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx isn’t exactly going to be a forgettable one, is it? Nope. So imagine what you get when you throw Abu Simbel, the Valley of the Kings and Karnak into the mix. I’ll give you a hint: it’s something close to magic.

I travelled from late May into early June, and this route is the one I followed: two days in Cairo and Giza, the overnight sleeper train south to Aswan, a day trip to Abu Simbel, a night on a felucca sailing north on the Nile, two days in Luxor, then back to Cairo to finish. It’s the classic loop for a reason. Every leg moves you closer to the next set of sights, there’s no backtracking until the very end, and the slow stretches (the train and the felucca) double up as travel and experience.

I’ve kept the order I took and the places I loved, added an extra day in Luxor, and flagged the change I’d make with hindsight. You’ll find what to see each day, how to get between stops, where I stayed, and a hella lot of tips to help you along the way.

Yallah yallah (let’s go).

Your 10-day plan at a glance

• Day 1: arrive in Cairo; Khan el-Khalili and Al-Muizz Street at dusk
• Day 2: the Pyramids of Giza, the Sphinx and the Grand Egyptian Museum; overnight sleeper train to Aswan
• Day 3: Philae Temple by boat, lunch on the Nile and dinner with a Nubian family
• Day 4: a day trip to Abu Simbel, then the Nubian Museum and sunset on the Corniche
• Day 5: a boat to the Botanical Garden, then board your felucca and spend the night on the Nile
• Day 6: sunrise on the river, transfer to Luxor and an afternoon at Karnak
• Day 7: a sunrise balloon flight, the Valley of the Kings, Hatshepsut’s temple and the Valley of the Queens
• Day 8: the Luxor Museum and Luxor Temple at sunset; fly to Cairo
• Day 9: the Citadel, Coptic Cairo and the royal mummies at the National Museum of Egyptian Civilisation
• Day 10: the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir, then fly home

Book the Grand Egyptian Museum, the sleeper train and the Abu Simbel trip before you travel: they’re the three things on this route that sell out or need a fixed time.

Days 1 and 2: Cairo and Giza

Cairo is a city of contrasts.

On the one hand, you have a vibrant and cosmopolitan city with gleaming skyscrapers and designer shopping boutiques. On the other, you have the Pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx: historical markers of an ancient civilisation twinkling on the city’s outskirts before it fades into a wide expanse of desert. The Nile winds through it all, sinuous and glistening, hard and bright in the heat of the day, shimmering in the dusk of the evening light.

What I’ve just described is actually two separate cities. Cairo sits on the east bank of the Nile and Giza on the west, but as you’ll spend your time here criss-crossing the river to visit them both, I’ve covered them together.

I’ll be honest: Cairo was probably the place I was least excited about on my trip, and it was without a doubt the biggest surprise. People love to hate on it, usually from the confines of a hotel room they’ve barely left. I loved my time there. It’s nearly impossible to see everything the city has to offer in a few days, but there are a few highlights you shouldn’t miss, and these are what I’ve chosen to focus on. My two days in Cairo itinerary has more detail if you’re staying longer.

Getting to Cairo

You can get a flight to Cairo from just about any international airport, and many European cities have direct flights. As you jump off the plane at Cairo International Airport, it’s easy to find taxis or shuttles to your accommodation, and ride-hailing apps like Uber and Careem work here too. Expect the drive to Dokki or Garden City to take 45 minutes to an hour, depending on the traffic.

Check flights on Skyscanner

Suggested stay

For my first nights, I stayed at the Pharaohs Hotel in Dokki, on the Giza side of the river a few minutes’ walk from the Nile. It’s a reasonable budget option: the rooms are a bit tired, but it’s well located and the staff are friendly, and Dokki puts you between the pyramids and the city centre. If you’d rather start in style, the Kempinski Nile Hotel Garden City, where I spent my last night, is on the bank of the Nile with a stunning rooftop pool and spa. I’ve written a whole guide to the best places to stay in Cairo if you want more choice.

Alternatively, check all accommodation in Cairo

Day 1: lose yourself in Khan el-Khalili and Al-Muizz Street

If you land in the afternoon, ease in with an evening in Islamic Cairo. That’s how I spent my first night in the city.

Khan el-Khalili has been trading since 1382, when the emir Jaharkas al-Khalili built a caravanserai here, and it has grown from a single building into an entire shopping district. Today it’s a maze of lanes selling lanterns, spices, brass, textiles and every souvenir you can think of. It’s very touristy, but it’s the ultimate place to stock up on the gifts you’ve promised your loved ones. Just be prepared to haggle. Hard.

From the bazaar, walk up Al-Muizz Street, one of the finest collections of medieval Islamic architecture in the world, with the domes and minarets of the Qalawun complex and the Madrasa of Sultan Barquq lit up after dark. Finish with mint tea at El Fishawy, the city’s most famous café, which has been serving customers since the 18th century and stays open almost around the clock, and look out for the Al-Hussein Mosque on the square as you leave.

Day 2: stand in awe of the Pyramids of Giza

Can we talk about the Pyramids of Giza for a minute?

The largest, the Great Pyramid, is the last remaining wonder of the ancient world. Built around 2560 BC as a tomb for the pharaoh Khufu (known in Greek as Cheops), it stood as the tallest human-made structure for a whopping 4,000 years. The other two, built for his successors Khafre and Menkaure, are no small fry either.

Together they’re a striking triumvirate that I am not ashamed to say I lost my sht over when I saw them in real life. Did I have a minor “moment” standing in front of something that had been there for more than 4,500 years? Yes.

Start early. The plateau opens at 7am, and the first couple of hours are the coolest and the quietest. Most visitors now enter through the new visitor centre beside the Grand Egyptian Museum, and private cars can’t drive onto the plateau, so free shuttle buses loop between the pyramids, the panoramic point and the Sphinx. Hop off at the panoramic point for the classic view of all three pyramids together.

Crawl inside the Great Pyramid

Your ticket lets you into the complex, but if you want to go inside the Great Pyramid, you’ll have to pay extra. There isn’t a tonne to see inside, but I’d still recommend it, because a) how often do you get to say you went inside the Great Pyramid of Giza, and b) doing so is actually kind of crazy.

You crawl upwards through a tunnel that’s about a metre high and a metre wide in the sweltering heat, before you emerge into the Grand Gallery, followed by the King’s Chamber with its long-empty sarcophagus. It’s probably not one for the claustrophobic.

Meet the Great Sphinx

Stretching 73 metres long and rising 20 metres high, the Sphinx was carved out of a single outcrop of bedrock. It has a lion’s body and a human head, a meeting of power and wisdom usually thought to represent the pharaoh Khafre, as part of his funerary complex. Grand doesn’t begin to cover it.

You’ll notice the Sphinx is missing its nose and its beard. The nose is completely MIA, but fragments of the beard survive in the British Museum in London and the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. The best view is from the terrace by the Valley Temple, where the Sphinx lines up with the Great Pyramid behind it.

See Tutankhamun’s treasures at the Grand Egyptian Museum

When I visited, the Grand Egyptian Museum was still a building site, and Tutankhamun’s golden mask was in the old Egyptian Museum in Tahrir. That’s all changed. The GEM opened fully in November 2025, about 2 kilometres from the pyramids, and it’s now the natural second half of your day in Giza.

It’s the largest museum in the world devoted to a single civilisation. A colossal statue of Ramses II greets you in the atrium, the Grand Staircase climbs past dozens of royal statues to windows framing the pyramids, and a dedicated museum holds Khufu’s 4,500-year-old cedar boat, found beside the Great Pyramid. The star, though, is Tutankhamun: for the first time, all of the more than 5,000 objects found in his tomb in the Valley of the Kings are displayed together.

Tickets are sold online as timed entries, at around 1,450 to 1,600 EGP for a foreign adult. The galleries open from 9am to 6pm, with late opening until 9pm on Wednesdays and Saturdays, and you’ll want at least three hours. See my guide to the best museums in Cairo for how it compares with the others.

Catch the overnight sleeper train to Aswan

You can get from Cairo to Aswan by bus, plane or train. Want the quickest and easiest route? Fly. EgyptAir’s flights take about an hour and 20 minutes.

If you’re OK with something slower (and a bit more rattly, if we’re honest), take the overnight sleeper train, which is what I did. It leaves Giza in the evening and pulls into Aswan the next morning, around 13 hours later, so you save a night’s accommodation and wake up in the south. I enjoyed it.

The sleeper trains are run by Abela. Cabins sleep one or two, and meals can be added when you book on the Abela website or app, which takes Visa or Mastercard. Fares checked in 2025 were around US$95 per person in a double cabin and US$137 in a single, one way.

Days 3 to 5: Aswan and Abu Simbel

Oooh, hello Aswan. It was probably the place on my trip that I knew least about.

Spoiler alert: by the time I came to leave, it was a close contender for my favourite spot on the trip.

Nestled in the south of the country, Aswan is different to Cairo in so many ways. It’s a lot smaller, for starters, and it has a significant Nubian population, who bring their own important culture and history to the city. For centuries it was the country’s gateway to the rest of Africa, and you can feel it in the markets, the food and the colourful villages across the river.

I should also mention it’s a lot hotter. If you thought you were sweating it out in Cairo, just you wait.

Getting to Aswan

The sleeper train from Giza arrives in the morning, at the station on the northern edge of the city centre, a short taxi ride from the Corniche. If you fly instead, Aswan’s airport is about 16 kilometres south-west of the city, around 25 minutes by car.

Suggested stay

I stayed at the Obelisk Nile Hotel, on the Corniche by the Nile, a more affordable but still very comfortable option with an outdoor pool. For a splurge, the Old Cataract Aswan, now operated by Mandarin Oriental, is one of the most famous hotels in Africa, a Victorian-era palace opposite Elephantine Island with several restaurants and bars, a spa and an incredible pool.

Check all accommodation in Aswan

Day 3: sail out to Philae Temple

Philae sits on the island of Agilkia, a jaw-dropping temple complex that will blow your mind (or at least swallow up a decent portion of your camera’s memory card).

Set in the reservoir between the old Aswan Dam and the High Dam, it can only be reached by boat, and I promise that the first glimpse of Philae, its golden columns surrounded by the striking blue of water and sky, will be one to remember. I took a motorboat out from the marina around midday, the morning I arrived on the train.

Dedicated to Isis, along with Osiris and Horus, Philae dates from the Ptolemaic period (the Temple of Isis was begun around 280 BC), and as such, it looks quite different to the older temples you’ll see later in the trip, with its flowery column capitals and hieroglyphs on every surface.

Fun fact: the temple you see isn’t where it was built. Philae spent much of each year underwater after the first Aswan Dam was finished in 1902, and the High Dam would have drowned it for good. So between 1977 and 1980, as part of a UNESCO rescue campaign, it was taken apart block by block and rebuilt on the higher island of Agilkia.

Have lunch on the Nile at Salahaddin

After Philae, head back to the Corniche for lunch at Salahaddin (also spelt Salah el-Din), one of my favourite dining spots in Egypt. It has several terraces right over the water, so you can watch the feluccas drift past Elephantine Island while you eat. I had the kofta, and I’d take your time: the hottest part of the day is for lingering, not sightseeing.

Spend an evening with a Nubian family

Set across the Nile from central Aswan, the city’s Nubian villages are home to the area’s sizeable Nubian population. These colourful villages are packed with jewel-toned homes, souvenir stores, restaurants and guesthouses.

I spent an evening having a traditional dinner at a Nubian family’s home, which I would recommend if you can: it’s a chance to learn about Nubian culture from the source, and to eat some very good home cooking as you do. But even a short stroll around one of the villages makes for an interesting contrast with the city centre. Most visits go by boat, and the ride across at dusk is half the fun.

Day 4: take a day trip to Abu Simbel

You didn’t think you’d come as far as Aswan and not take a little trip to one of the country’s most iconic landmarks, did you?

I’m talking about Abu Simbel, of course: two magnificent rock-cut temples near the Sudanese border, looking out over Lake Nasser. It was an optional extra on the tour I took, and going felt like a no-brainer.

Look, I’ll level with you: a day trip to Abu Simbel involves either a horrendously early start or a kind of early start, depending on whether you go by road or fly. I flew: the kind of early start, not the horrendous one. Either way, don’t question it: it will be worth it.

Ramses II built both temples, one for himself and one for his much-loved wife, Nefertari. Sure, the Great Temple feels a little bit like an ego-trip. We’re talking four colossal statues of the king, each about 20 metres high, at the entrance, and so many carvings of his lordly exploits inside that it’s impossible to keep track of them. But my god, it’s stunning.

The giant faces of Ramses stare down at you before you step into the Great Temple, itself an elaborate construction carved with intricate scenes and hieroglyphs. Inside, statues of the king as Osiris line the great hall, the walls show the Battle of Kadesh in every detail, and at the very back, four seated gods wait in the sanctuary. Twice a year, on 22 February and 22 October, the rising sun reaches all the way in to light them up. Read more about it in my guide to the Great Temple of Ramses II.

Don’t forget to spend some time in the much smaller Temple of Hathor and Nefertari either. It’s still emblazoned with Ramses’ face outside, but inside it’s distinctly different: instead of the glories of Ramses in battle, it has scenes of religious ceremonies and images of the goddess Hathor, to whom it’s dedicated alongside Nefertari.

Both temples were moved in the 1960s, cut into more than a thousand blocks and rebuilt on higher ground, to save them from the rising waters of Lake Nasser. It’s one of the great engineering feats of the 20th century, and you’d never know.

Discover a lost land at the Nubian Museum

Chances are, you learnt something about the ancient Egyptians at school, but what about the Nubians?

I’ll forgive you if you draw a blank: I certainly did before I visited the city’s stellar Nubian Museum, which opened in 1997. I went on my own on the afternoon I got back from Abu Simbel, and it makes a natural pairing: the museum tells the story of the land Ramses built those temples in, and of what happened to it when Lake Nasser rose and tens of thousands of Nubians had to leave their villages.

The building blends into its hillside as a nod to traditional building styles, and although it has plenty of ancient treasures, including a colossal statue of Ramses II and a granite head of the Nubian pharaoh Taharqa, it focuses a lot on life in Nubia, from trade with the pharaohs to the dioramas of village life at the end. I definitely recommend it.

Tickets cost 400 EGP, and it’s open daily from 9am to 5pm, with evening opening on some days.

Feast at Makani, then watch the sunset from the Corniche

For an early dinner, head to Makani, where the owner is super-friendly and helpful and the grilled skewers come with fresh bread and dips. Then make for the water.

Aswan’s undeniably pretty Corniche is the perfect place for a sunset riverside stroll. Expect around 3.7 kilometres of Nile views, punctuated by cafés where you can cool off with a refreshing glass of lemon and mint, and a glimpse of the cruise boats that ply the route between Aswan and Luxor. All of it is set against the magnificent backdrop of the desert and the rock-cut Tombs of the Nobles on the West Bank, across the river.

Day 5: chill out in the Aswan Botanical Garden

Aswan’s southerly location means it’s nothing short of sweltering, so the lush expanse of the Aswan Botanical Garden comes as even more of a surprise. It fills the whole of Kitchener’s Island, named after Lord Kitchener, who was given the island in the 1890s when he commanded the Egyptian army and filled it with exotic plants.

Locals love this green retreat, as do the much smaller number of visitors who hop across the Nile to explore it. Its 6.8 hectares have hundreds of plant species from around Egypt, other parts of Africa and Asia, plus plenty of birds and peaceful spots to sit by the water. I went on my own first thing in the morning, before boarding my felucca, passing the Tombs of the Nobles on the West Bank on the way over.

See the Unfinished Obelisk

If you have a spare hour, the Unfinished Obelisk is a few minutes from the city centre in the Northern Quarry. It would have been the largest obelisk ever made in ancient Egypt, had it ever been finished: about 42 metres tall and weighing around 1,100 tonnes. Instead, cracks appeared in the granite as it was being carved, and it still lies where the stonemasons left it, attached to the bedrock.

I’d probably rate it as quite interesting on a scale of boring to must-see, but it’s worth popping into for the tool marks alone.

Day 6: a night on a felucca

You’ve spent so much time ogling the beautiful Nile; now it’s time to hop aboard a traditional felucca for a sailing odyssey north towards Luxor.

Feluccas are traditional wooden boats with broad canvas sails, used on the Nile for thousands of years and still found from Egypt to Sudan. There’s no engine and no cabin: you sleep on mattresses on deck under the stars, and the crew cooks every meal on board. If you want to take things at a slow (and silent) pace, it’s a delight.

I boarded in the early afternoon, spent the rest of the day drifting north and the night moored on a remote stretch of the river.

Waking up on a remote part of the Nile as the sun rises over the desert is worth the trip alone.

Getting to Luxor

The downside of a felucca is that you can’t sail all the way to Luxor, as you can on a motorised boat. That’s because feluccas aren’t allowed through the Esna Lock, not to mention the fact that it would take an incredibly long time to get there. Almost all felucca trips end with a minibus transfer for the rest of the way, which is how I arrived, and some stop at the temples of Kom Ombo and Edfu en route.

If you’d rather not sail, the train from Aswan to Luxor takes about three hours, as does the drive.

Day 6 afternoon: explore Karnak Temple

Once you’ve checked in and cooled off, it’s time for the big one. It’s kind of tough to get your head around the scale of Karnak. It. Is. Vast.

Look, Karnak is no secret: it’s one of the most visited sites in the country after the Pyramids of Giza, after all. To put it bluntly, if you’re going to skip anything on this trip, Karnak is not it.

Built and added to over around 2,000 years by some thirty pharaohs, it’s best known for the monumental Hypostyle Hall, with its 134 gargantuan columns covered in elaborate carvings. Outside of that, there’s a lot more to see in the Precinct of Amun-Re, the part of the complex most visitors explore (don’t worry: it’s big enough), from the obelisks of Thutmose I and Hatshepsut to the sacred lake.

I spent the late afternoon here, the day I arrived from Aswan. Take at least a couple of hours to explore, but also wear a hat and bring plenty of water.

Days 7 and 8: Luxor

Luxor is home to many of the country’s big sightseeing hitters. The Valley of the Kings? Check. Karnak? Check. The Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut? Check, check, check.

The seat of power in the New Kingdom, from around the 16th to the 11th centuries BC (when it was called Thebes), Luxor played a huge role in the country’s history and has the relics to prove it. The city splits in two: the East Bank, with the modern town, Karnak and Luxor Temple, and the West Bank, with the royal tombs and the mortuary temples, where the sun sets behind the Theban hills.

Where better to spend a couple of days gallivanting around tombs, ruins and museums? I’ll wait.

Suggested stay

I stayed at El Mesala Hotel on the West Bank, on the riverfront by the ferry landing and across the Nile from Luxor Temple, which is handy for early starts at the tombs. On the East Bank, the Susanna Hotel faces Luxor Temple and the Nile, with comfortable, affordable air-conditioned rooms right in the heart of the city, and the Hilton Luxor Resort & Spa is a resort with an infinity pool on the river, north of Karnak. See my guide to where to stay in Luxor for both banks.

Check all accommodation in Luxor

Day 7: float over the West Bank in a hot air balloon

The early bird catches the outstanding views of Luxor from above on a sunrise hot air balloon flight. Isn’t that how the old saying goes?

Not only was it one of the highlights of my time in Luxor, it was one of the highlights of the whole trip. Yes, it meant a 3am wake-up (fun!), then a boat across the Nile to the West Bank and a van to the take-off site. And if you’re anything like me, you’re always going to have some funny feelings about being suspended from the sky by hot air. Put your qualms aside, because it is beautiful.

The view of the temples, the Valley of the Kings and the Nile from the sky is incomparable, and you’ll even see the Colossi of Memnon from above. Flights cost from around US$95 to US$115 per person, including hotel pick-up.

Stop at the Colossi of Memnon

On the way from the balloon landing site to the tombs, pull over at the Colossi of Memnon, two 18-metre seated statues of the pharaoh Amenhotep III. They once guarded the entrance to his vast mortuary temple, which has almost entirely disappeared. After an earthquake cracked the northern statue in about 27 BC, it was said to “sing” at dawn, and Greek and Roman visitors came from far and wide to hear it. It’s free and right by the road, so ten minutes is plenty.

Choose your tombs in the Valley of the Kings

Egypt’s best-known necropolis, the Valley of the Kings served as the burial ground for the kings of the 18th, 19th and 20th dynasties, a period of more than 500 years.

So much of ancient Egyptian civilisation was based around the idea of an afterlife: a second life that, in many ways, was more important than the first because it was for eternity. Keeping the body intact was paramount, and even better if you could have a plush tomb to mark your passage and protect your mummified body. To protect their burials from robbers, the pharaohs of the New Kingdom turned to hidden tombs, cut deep into this remote valley and kitted out with everything they’d need in the next life.

Today, only a handful of the more than 60 tombs are open at any one time. The standard ticket (750 EGP) covers three of them. I booked a private tour with a guide and chose the tombs of Ramses IX, Merenptah and Tausert and Setnakht. The last was my favourite: its location at the top of the valley also meant it was the quietest tomb I visited.

Others, like Tutankhamun’s and Seti I’s, cost extra. It’s definitely worth paying for Tutankhamun’s tomb (700 EGP): although it’s very small, it’s the only tomb in the valley that still has its mummy inside.

Climb the terraces of the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut

Hatshepsut was one of the country’s more curious rulers, and one of the few women to rule ancient Egypt in her own right. That would all be interesting enough, but it’s how she went about it that gives it extra spice. Hatshepsut knew the perils of being a female leader, so she billed herself as a king and was often portrayed as male, complete with a pharaonic beard.

It’s a complex story, and one that needs a lot more space than I have here. All this to say that you should definitely visit her grandiose temple on the West Bank, stacked in three terraces against the cliffs of Deir el-Bahari, because it’s every bit as iconic as the woman seems to have been herself. I stopped here between the two valleys on my tour, and half an hour is enough for the ramps, the colonnades and the statues of the upper terrace. Tickets cost 440 EGP.

See the tombs of the Valley of the Queens

Although it’s only a short distance from the Valley of the Kings, the Valley of the Queens doesn’t make it onto nearly as many visitors’ radars, which is a total win for you, as it’s much quieter. When I went, it was empty.

Just like its more famous neighbour, the valley was a burial ground, in this case for royal wives, princes and princesses. In ancient times, it was called “the place of beauty”, and today it’s thought to hold more than 90 tombs. A general ticket (220 EGP) covers the open tombs, currently those of the princes Khaemwaset (QV44) and Amenherkhepeshef (QV55) and Queen Tyti (QV52). I saw Khaemwaset’s tomb, with its brilliant colours, and Amenherkhepeshef’s.

I also paid extra for the valley’s gem, the tomb of Nefertari, the most stunning tomb in Egypt. Just as Ramses II built a temple for his much-loved wife at Abu Simbel, he spared no expense on her tomb, which is slathered in colourful scenes of the queen and the gods. It goes by the nickname of the Sistine Chapel of Egypt, and one glance is enough to see why. Sadly, it’s now closed indefinitely, with no word on if or when it will reopen, so put your extra money towards the tomb of Seti I in the Valley of the Kings (2,000 EGP) instead.

Day 8: see the treasures of the Luxor Museum

Give yourself a slower morning after yesterday’s 3am start. The Luxor Museum overlooks the Nile on the East Bank, between the two great temples. It’s a lot smaller than Cairo’s museums, but outstanding, with some of the finest finds from Thebes beautifully displayed.

Don’t miss the reconstructed wall of painted blocks from Akhenaten’s temple at Karnak, the statues found buried beneath Luxor Temple in 1989, objects from Tutankhamun’s tomb and the mummy of Ahmose I, the king who drove the Hyksos out of Egypt. Tickets cost 400 EGP. The museum closes for a few hours in the afternoon heat, with hours that change by season, so check before you go.

In the afternoon, rest by the pool, or take a felucca out to Banana Island, south of the city, for a break from temples.

Watch the sunset at Luxor Temple

To end your time in Luxor, visit Luxor Temple as the sun sets, when the light turns the stone golden. It was built mainly by Amenhotep III and Ramses II, with later additions by Tutankhamun, Alexander the Great (who added a shrine in its inner sanctuary) and the Romans, and parts of it were later used as a church.

Over the centuries, sand and silt buried much of the temple, and the town grew up on top of it. The Mosque of Abu al-Haggag, named after a 13th-century saint, still sits on top of one of its courts, high above the floor of the excavated temple. Look out for the seated colossi of Ramses II and the single obelisk at the entrance: its twin has stood in the Place de la Concorde in Paris since the 1830s.

From the entrance, the Avenue of Sphinxes runs 2.7 kilometres north to Karnak. It fully reopened in 2021, and you can see long stretches of it from the streets in between. The temple stays open into the evening and is floodlit after dark. Tickets cost 500 EGP.

Getting back to Cairo

The flight from Luxor to Cairo takes about an hour, so you can fly back the same evening or first thing on day nine. The overnight sleeper train also runs from Luxor to Giza, taking around ten hours, and that’s how I got back. I enjoyed the sleeper, but if you’ve already taken it south to Aswan, I’d recommend flying back from Luxor rather than doing it twice.

Check flights on Skyscanner

Days 9 and 10: back to Cairo

The first days in Cairo were all about ancient Egypt. The last two pay tribute to Islamic Cairo, Coptic Cairo and the mummies of the pharaohs whose tombs you’ve just seen in Luxor. I spent my last full day this way, and it was a brilliant way to finish the trip.

Suggested stay

I spent my last night at the Kempinski Nile Hotel Garden City, a welcoming high-end hotel with a stunning rooftop pool and spa. It’s on the bank of the Nile in leafy Garden City, a short drive from the city’s highlights, with rooms that have superb views over the river, and the rooftop is one of the best places in the city to watch the sun go down on your trip. Read my full Kempinski Nile Hotel review.

Check rates and availability at the Kempinski Nile Hotel Garden City

Day 9: climb up to the Citadel

Start early at the Cairo Citadel, the medieval fortress that Salah al-Din (Saladin) began building in 1176 to defend the city. Egypt’s rulers governed from here for around 700 years.

The star is the Mosque of Muhammad Ali, built between 1830 and 1848 in the Ottoman style and nicknamed the Alabaster Mosque. Look out for the clock tower in its courtyard, a gift from King Louis-Philippe of France in return for the obelisk from Luxor Temple that now stands in Paris. There are also several museums in the Citadel, though I’d give the underwhelming museums a miss and head for the terraces, which have some of the best views of the city.

On the way up, stop at the Mosque-Madrasa of Sultan Hassan, below the Citadel walls, one of the largest mosques of the medieval Islamic world. Tickets for the Citadel cost 550 EGP, paid by card. Cover your shoulders and knees, and women should bring a scarf to cover their hair inside the mosques.

Wander the churches of Coptic Cairo

After a falafel lunch, take a taxi or the metro to Mar Girgis station for Coptic Cairo, the heart of the city’s Christian community. Its lanes wind inside the walls of the Roman fortress of Babylon, built around AD 300, and they hold some of the oldest churches in Egypt.

The Hanging Church (the Church of the Virgin Mary) is perched on top of the fortress’s old gatehouse, which is how it got its name. Nearby, the Church of St Sergius and St Bacchus (Abu Serga) is built over a crypt where the Holy Family is said to have sheltered on their flight into Egypt. I went into both, as well as the round Church of St George and the Ben Ezra Synagogue, where a hoard of hundreds of thousands of medieval documents, the Cairo Geniza, was found in the 19th century.

The churches and synagogue are free to enter. Round off your visit at the Coptic Museum (280 EGP), which has the world’s largest collection of Coptic Christian art.

Meet the pharaohs at the National Museum of Egyptian Civilisation

A short taxi ride from Coptic Cairo, the National Museum of Egyptian Civilisation (NMEC) in Fustat tells the country’s story from prehistory to the present day, through some 50,000 artefacts.

I have to be honest: after seeing everything in the Egyptian Museum, I wasn’t sure whether the NMEC would really be worth the effort. It is. The two museums are vastly different, and it’s worth spending time visiting both.

The highlight is the Royal Mummies Hall, where 22 royal mummies, including Ramses II, Seti I and Queen Hatshepsut, were moved in 2021 in a grand procession through the city, the Pharaohs’ Golden Parade. Each one lies in a dark, hushed room with information about who they were and what they did during their reign. After Luxor, you’ll recognise many of the names. Tickets cost 550 EGP, and the museum is open from 9am to 5pm.

Day 10: spend a morning in the Egyptian Museum

This historical vault is the oldest museum of archaeology in the Middle East, and its pink neoclassical building on Tahrir Square holds an impressively large collection of artefacts from the Predynastic Period to the Greco-Roman era.

I spent about three hours here and would say that was about right, but you could easily spend a whole day and only scratch the surface. Tutankhamun’s treasures have moved to the GEM, but the old museum is still a joy, with its crowded galleries of statues, sarcophagi and jewellery, from the statue of Khafre to the triads of Menkaure. Tickets cost 550 EGP, it’s open from 9am to 5pm, and Sadat metro station is right outside, so you can head to the airport straight after lunch.

Have more time? Add these to your Egypt itinerary

With a few more days, these are the bolt-ons I’d pick.

Swap the felucca for a Nile cruise

If you want to spend more time on the river, do days 1 and 2 as above, then on day 3 head straight to Philae and Abu Simbel, so that you can board a Nile cruise on day 4. Most cruises between Aswan and Luxor take three or four nights, with guided stops at Kom Ombo and Edfu along the way. Spend a day in Luxor at the end, then head back to Cairo for the last two days of your trip. My guide to Nile cruises covers the options, from feluccas to cruise ships and the smaller (but still high-end) dahabiyas.

See the oldest pyramids at Saqqara, Memphis and Dahshur

Memphis was the ancient capital of Lower Egypt, about 20 kilometres south of Giza. Its great temple of Ptah, the creator god and patron of craftsmen, is long gone, but an open-air museum holds a colossal statue of Ramses II and an alabaster sphinx. Nearby, the necropolis of Saqqara holds the Step Pyramid of Djoser, built around 2670 BC by the architect Imhotep and often described as the oldest large-scale cut-stone building in the world. At Dahshur, the Bent Pyramid and the Red Pyramid show how Sneferu’s builders learned to make a true, smooth-sided pyramid. Memphis and its necropolis, from Giza to Dahshur, has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1979.

Add Edfu and Kom Ombo between Aswan and Luxor

If your felucca or transfer doesn’t stop at them, add a day for the temples between the two cities. Kom Ombo, about 50 minutes from Aswan, is a double temple dedicated to the crocodile god Sobek and the falcon god Haroeris, with a small museum of mummified crocodiles. The Temple of Horus at Edfu, built under the Ptolemies, is one of the best-preserved temples in the country. See my guide to ancient Egyptian temples for more.

Map

Handy tips for planning your 10 days in Egypt

Group tour or independent travel?

The first question you’ll have when you’re planning a trip to Egypt is whether to take a group tour or do it independently.

Some of you will have all the feels about group tours. That’s fine: I used to be one of you. In fact, this was the first group tour I ever took, and I’ll tell you why. Firstly (and I know it will come as a big surprise to you guys), I am a geek. There is no niche historical fact that I don’t want to know and no obscure piece of trivia that I won’t find interesting, so there was no way I was going to Egypt, home of one of the most important ancient civilisations, without a guide.

Did I need a guide for the whole trip? No. Would my visits to the Pyramids of Giza, Karnak, Philae and Abu Simbel have been the same without my brilliant guide? Not at all. Given that I was going to hire a guide in pretty much every place I visited, it made sense to book onto a group tour with a professional local guide leading the trip. I don’t regret it for a second. My guide was straight up brilliant: professional, knowledgeable, fricking hilarious, and full of local insight that it would have been difficult to pick up otherwise.

That said, group travel isn’t all yes yes yes. You have to be comfortable spending a lot of time with a bunch of people you’ve just met, and you have to find an itinerary that covers the things you want to see. I chose the Intrepid Travel Egypt Adventure, eight days starting and ending in Cairo, because it had a lot of free time that you could fill with optional add-ons or whatever you wanted. I opted to go to Abu Simbel and booked my own private tour of the Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens, and went to the Botanical Garden and the Nubian Museum on my own. For me, it was the perfect blend of doing things solo with the structure and knowledge of a guide.

Even so, there’s no doubt that you have more freedom if you travel independently: you can see things in your own time, and you don’t have to hang out with strangers if you don’t want to. Everything on this route is easy to book yourself, with a guide for a day where you want one.

You can also check out G Adventures’ Best of Egypt tour

Top tips

• Bring a card and some cash: ticket offices at the major sites are now largely cashless, so carry a Visa or Mastercard, but you’ll need small notes for boats, tips, the Botanical Garden and toilets, which cost 5 to 10 EGP and often have no paper.
• Agree every price first: for boats, taxis, camel rides and photos, agree the fare before you start. As my guide put it, nothing in Egypt is free.
• Pace the early starts: Abu Simbel and the balloon both mean pre-dawn alarms, so keep the evenings around them light.
• For visas, money, tipping and staying safe, read my Egypt travel tips, and for a budget, see how much a trip to Egypt costs.

What to pack

You’ll want to dress conservatively, and with the heat on top, choosing clothes can be tricky. Here’s a quick list, and my full Egypt packing list has the rest.

• Sturdy travel gear, including a daypack for long temple days.
• A good guidebook and a map.
• Some dried snacks for the road (buy these when you arrive).
• Sunscreen and sunglasses.
• A cap or hat.
• A camera with a spare battery.
• A universal adapter: Egypt uses the two-pin European plugs (types C and F).
• A good pair of comfortable walking shoes. I love my Allbirds Tree Runners, some of the most comfortable shoes I’ve travelled in.

Best time to visit

October to April is the most comfortable time for this route, with warm, sunny days and cooler evenings, though December and January are the busiest. I travelled in late May and early June, and there were points in Luxor and Aswan where I was so hot I didn’t know what to do with myself. The upside was fewer crowds and lower prices. From June to August, temperatures in the south regularly top 40°C, so plan your sightseeing for early morning and late afternoon.

Getting around

On this route, you’ll use the sleeper train from Giza to Aswan, a felucca and a minibus to Luxor, and a flight back to Cairo. EgyptAir flies between Cairo, Aswan, Abu Simbel and Luxor, and domestic flights are quick and reasonably priced if you book ahead. In Cairo, Uber and Careem are the easiest way to get around, as you pay in the app and don’t need to haggle, and the metro is cheap and avoids the traffic. In Aswan and Luxor, taxis, boats and calèches (horse-drawn carriages) are everywhere: agree the fare first.

Useful resources

• Skyscanner: a handy site to help you book flights from wherever you are in the world.
• Booking.com: book your accommodation in advance to make sure you have a comfy bed to sleep in.

Watch my Egypt video

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Read next

• The ultimate Egypt travel guide
• Must-try things to do in Egypt
• Egypt’s most famous landmarks
• Things you should know before travelling in Egypt
• What to pack for Egypt
• 2 days in Cairo: a Cairo itinerary from pyramids to bazaars
• The best things to do in Cairo
• Where to stay in Cairo
• Unmissable things to do in Aswan
• How to visit the temples of Abu Simbel
• Unmissable things to do in Luxor
• Visiting the Valley of the Kings
• What to know before you visit the Pyramids of Giza

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