Most Egypt itineraries treat the country as a single north-south line: Cairo, then the Nile, then the sea. This Cairo, Alexandria, Luxor and Hurghada tour adds the one direction the others leave out — north, to the Mediterranean.
That matters more than a spare day usually does. Alexandria is not more of the same Egypt. It was Greek and then Roman before it was Arab, and it still is: a Roman tomb complex where Egyptian gods wear Roman armour, a Crusader-era fort standing on the stones of the Pharos lighthouse, and a coastline that looks like southern Europe. You spend six days looking at pharaonic Egypt and one day looking at what happened next.
The rest is the classic route, given proper time. Four nights in Cairo — the Giza Plateau and the Grand Egyptian Museum on one day, since they sit two kilometres apart; then Coptic and Islamic Cairo and Khan el-Khalili, the older city most short trips skip entirely. A flight to Luxor for both banks of the river. Then four all-inclusive nights on the Red Sea, which is the part of the itinerary that does no work at all, and is meant not to.
Every site is guided by a licensed Egyptologist.
Shorter on time? Our 8 day Cairo, Luxor and Hurghada tour covers the same route without Alexandria.
Arrive at Cairo International Airport, where our representative meets you inside the terminal with an Egypt Best Vacations signboard and helps you through passport and visa formalities.
Transfer to your hotel. The rest of the day is free — most international arrivals land tired, and day 2 is the biggest day of the trip.
Meals Plan: No Meals Included
The Giza Plateau first, while the light is good and the crowds are thinner. The Great Pyramid of Khufu is the only surviving wonder of the ancient world; Khafre’s still carries its casing stones at the apex, which is the clearest surviving evidence of what all three originally looked like. Then Menkaure, the smallest of the three, and the Sphinx and its Valley Temple below the causeway.
You can go inside the Great Pyramid — it needs a separate ticket, and the ascent through the Grand Gallery is steep, hot and unventilated. Ask your guide on the day; it suits some people and not others.
Lunch at a local restaurant, then the Grand Egyptian Museum, two kilometres from the plateau. It is the largest archaeological museum in the world built for a single civilisation, and its centrepiece is the complete Tutankhamun collection — all of it, displayed together, for the first time since Carter cleared the tomb. The Grand Staircase alone holds statuary spanning three thousand years, arranged so you climb through Egyptian history on your way up.
Allow for the fact that the museum takes longer than anyone plans for. Your guide will pace the plateau accordingly.
Meals Plan: Breakfast & Lunch
Today is the Cairo that came after the pharaohs, and it is the part of the city most ten-day itineraries skip entirely.
Start in Coptic Cairo, inside the walls of the Roman fortress of Babylon. The Hanging Church is suspended over the fortress gatehouse — the reason for its name, and visible through a glass panel in the floor. Nearby, the Church of St Sergius stands over the crypt where tradition places the Holy Family during their flight into Egypt, and the Ben Ezra Synagogue is where the Cairo Geniza was found: nearly three hundred thousand medieval documents left in a storeroom for eight centuries because Hebrew writing could not be destroyed.
Then up to Islamic Cairo and the Citadel of Saladin, begun in 1176 on the Muqattam spur to defend the city against the Crusaders. It stayed the seat of Egyptian government for some seven hundred years. Inside it, the Alabaster Mosque of Muhammad Ali — Ottoman in plan, closer to Istanbul than to Cairo, and the building that gives the skyline its silhouette from almost anywhere in the city.
Finish at Khan el-Khalili, founded in 1382 and still a working bazaar rather than a reconstruction of one. Coppersmiths, spice merchants and perfumers occupy the same lanes their trades have held for centuries. Your guide will show you where the tourist stalls end and the real market begins.
Meals Plan: Breakfast Only
Drive north to the Mediterranean. This is the day that separates this tour from every Cairo-and-Nile itinerary, and it is worth the early start.
Alexandria was Greek and then Roman before it was Arab, and it never quite stopped being both. Alexander founded it, the Ptolemies ruled Egypt from it, and for centuries it was the intellectual capital of the Mediterranean world rather than an Egyptian provincial city.
The Catacombs of Kom el-Shoqafa descend three storeys into the rock and are the strangest thing in the city: a second-century Roman tomb complex where Egyptian gods are carved wearing Roman armour and Greek drapery, by people who no longer entirely knew which religion they belonged to. Nothing else in Egypt looks like it.
Then Pompey’s Pillar, which has nothing to do with Pompey — a Roman victory column raised for Diocletian in AD 297, standing in the ruins of the Serapeum, the temple that once held part of the ancient library’s collection.
The Qaitbay Citadel occupies the harbour point, built in 1477 on the exact site of the Pharos lighthouse and partly from its fallen stone. The lighthouse stood for roughly seventeen centuries before earthquakes brought it down; the fort is what Egypt built from the pieces.
Finish at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, the modern library raised in 2002 near where the ancient one is thought to have stood.
Lunch at a local restaurant on the Corniche, then back to Cairo.
Meals Plan: Breakfast & Lunch
Transfer to Cairo Airport for the short flight to Luxor. Your Luxor guide meets you on arrival.
Straight to the west bank, the side of the river the ancient Egyptians gave to the dead. The Valley of the Kings holds sixty-five numbered tombs cut deep into the limestone and decorated with the underworld texts meant to carry the pharaoh through the twelve hours of night. Your ticket admits you to three; your guide picks the best three open on the day, which changes with the conservation rotation.
Then the mortuary temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahari, terraced into the cliff in three colonnaded levels. Hatshepsut began as regent for Thutmose III and went on to rule as a crowned king in full pharaonic regalia — with his regnal years still running alongside hers. Her Punt expedition reliefs are on the middle terrace and are worth the climb on their own.
Finish at the Colossi of Memnon, two seated quartzite figures of Amenhotep III that once flanked the entrance to the largest mortuary temple ever built on this bank, now almost entirely gone.
Overnight in Luxor.
Meals Plan: Breakfast Only
Breakfast, then the east bank — the city of the living.
Karnak is the largest religious complex ever built, roughly 100 hectares, where thirty dynasties added pylons, courts and chapels for nearly two thousand years without anyone ever declaring it finished. The Great Hypostyle Hall alone covers half a hectare under 134 columns.
Then Luxor Temple, three kilometres downstream and connected to Karnak by an avenue of sphinxes. Both were dedicated to the Theban Triad — Amun, Mut and Khonsu — and once a year the gods travelled the avenue between them in the Opet festival.
In the afternoon, transfer by road to Hurghada, roughly four hours across the Eastern Desert. Check into your all-inclusive hotel.
Optional tour: Sunrise Hot Air Balloon Over Luxor
Meals Plan: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner
The first of four days on the coast, all-inclusive, with nothing scheduled.
The reef off Hurghada is the reason to be here rather than any other beach — it is the northern Red Sea, which means high visibility, hard coral in good condition, and reef fish in numbers most Mediterranean and Caribbean divers do not expect. Snorkelling gear is available at the hotel; boat trips to Giftun Island and the offshore reefs can be added.
Meals Plan: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner (all-inclusive)
Free day. Beach, pool, or the water.
If you want one active day out of the four, this is the one to use for it: a diving day, a desert quad trip into the Eastern Desert, or the submarine and glass-bottom boat trips for anyone who would rather stay dry.
Meals Plan: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner (all-inclusive)
Last full day. Free time, and a farewell dinner at your hotel in the evening.
Meals Plan: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner (all-inclusive)
Transfer to Hurghada Airport for your flight to Cairo, and on to your international departure.
Meals Plan: Breakfast Only
