Siwa is about 750 kilometres from Cairo, close to the Libyan border, and there are no regular flights. This 2 day Siwa Oasis tour from Cairo solves that with an overnight drive: we collect you from your hotel around midnight, you sleep in the back of a private air-conditioned vehicle, and you wake up in the oasis with a full day ahead of you.
That first day takes in the places that made Siwa famous. You stand in the Oracle Temple of Amun, where Alexander the Great came in 331 BC to ask whether he was the son of a god. You swim in Cleopatra’s Spring and float in the salt lakes, which hold so much salt that sinking is close to impossible. In the afternoon a 4×4 takes you into the dunes of the Great Sand Sea for sunset, and you sleep in a hotel in Siwa town.
On the second morning you climb through Shali, the 13th-century mud-brick fortress at the heart of the old town, before the drive back to Cairo, arriving in the evening.
The tour is private, so the vehicle, driver and guide are yours alone and you can start any day of the week. It is a lot of driving for two days, roughly eight to nine hours each way. It suits travellers who have a weekend free in Cairo and want to see Siwa rather than tell themselves they will come back one day.
The 3 day Siwa Oasis trip from Cairo adds a second night in Siwa, so the return drive comes after a slower morning. The 4 day Cairo and Siwa tour package pairs the oasis with the Pyramids. You can compare every option on our Siwa tours page, and our Siwa Oasis guide covers the history, the Siwi culture and the best time to go.
We collect you from your hotel in Cairo or Giza around midnight. The route runs up the desert road towards Alexandria, along the Mediterranean coast to Marsa Matrouh, then south for 300 kilometres of open desert. Bring your passport: there are police checkpoints on the Siwa road.
You reach Siwa at about 09:00. Your guide starts on the rock of Aghurmi at the Oracle Temple of Amun, built in the 6th century BC and already famous across the Greek world when Alexander the Great arrived in 331 BC to consult it. Next is Cleopatra’s Spring, a stone-lined pool fed by a natural spring, where you can swim. In the late morning you float in the salt lakes on the edge of town, then shower and have lunch at a local restaurant.
In the afternoon you switch to a 4×4 and head into the Great Sand Sea, driving over the dunes and stopping to watch the sun set over the sand. You check in to your hotel in Siwa town in the early evening, with dinner included.
| Time | Plan |
|---|---|
| 00:00 | Pickup from your Cairo or Giza hotel |
| about 09:00 | Arrive in Siwa, visit the Oracle Temple of Amun |
| 10:30 | Cleopatra’s Spring |
| 11:30 | Swim in the salt lakes |
| 13:30 | Lunch at a local restaurant |
| 15:00 | 4×4 safari in the Great Sand Sea, sunset in the dunes |
| about 18:30 | Check in to your hotel, dinner |
Meals: Lunch and dinner
After breakfast, walk up through Shali, the fortified town Siwans built in the early 13th century from kershef, a mix of salt rock and mud. People lived inside its walls until heavy rains in 1926 began to dissolve it, and the ruins now give the best view over Siwa’s palm groves and lakes.
At about 10:00 you start the drive back to Cairo, stopping for lunch on the way. You arrive at your hotel in the evening.
| Time | Plan |
|---|---|
| 07:30 | Breakfast at the hotel |
| 08:30 | Shali Fortress and the old town |
| 10:00 | Start the drive to Cairo |
| about 14:00 | Lunch on the road |
| about 19:00 | Arrive at your hotel in Cairo or Giza |
Meals: Breakfast and lunch
| Travel season | Triple | Twin | Single |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 May – 30 Sep | $320 | $330 | $560 |
| 1 Oct – 19 Dec | $330 | $345 | $585 |
| 20 Dec – 4 Jan | $440 | $460 | $780 |
| 5 Jan – 25 Mar | $330 | $345 | $585 |
| 26 Mar – 10 Apr | $400 | $420 | $715 |
| 11 Apr – 30 Apr | $330 | $345 | $585 |
Siwa Ecolodges: Siwa Palace Eco-Lodge. Grand Siwa Lodge. Shali Lodge and more of the similar category.
