This 5 day Cairo Alexandria and El Alamein budget tour is a private trip by road, from $615 per person. It covers the Giza Pyramids, the Grand Egyptian Museum, Alexandria, the war cemeteries of El Alamein and Old Cairo, and it does so without a single domestic flight or sleeper train.
The saving comes from the route, not from cutting sights. Everything on this tour sits along one road north of Cairo, so there are no air tickets to pay for. You choose between two budget hotel levels, and you travel with your own guide and driver from the first morning to the last.
The night in Alexandria is what makes the battlefield day work. El Alamein lies about 110 km west of the city, so you reach the museum and the cemeteries in the morning, before the coaches that leave from Cairo arrive. From Cairo the same visit is a very long day trip.
It is a tour for travellers who want more than the Pyramids: families tracing a relative who served in the Western Desert, military history readers, and anyone who wants ancient, Greco-Roman and modern Egypt in one short trip.
If you prefer 5-star hotels on the same route, see the 5 day Cairo Alexandria and Alamein tour. Travelling alone? The solo 5 day Cairo Alexandria and Alamein tour is priced for one. If you would rather see Luxor than El Alamein, the 5 day Egypt budget tour of Cairo, Alexandria and Luxor swaps the battlefield for the Valley of the Kings. All our lower-priced trips are on the Egypt budget tours page, and every five-day route is on the 5 day Egypt tour packages page. For Upper Egypt on the same budget, see the 6 day Cairo Luxor Aswan budget tour.
Our representative meets you inside the arrivals terminal at Cairo International Airport, holding a sign with your name, and helps you through the visa and passport desks. A private vehicle takes you to your hotel. The rest of the day is free.
Meals: No meals included. Overnight: Cairo.
Your guide collects you from the hotel for the Giza Plateau. You visit the pyramids of Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure and the Great Sphinx, and your guide explains how the pyramids were built and why. Going inside the Great Pyramid is possible with an extra ticket. After lunch at a local restaurant you continue to the Grand Egyptian Museum, where the full Tutankhamun collection is displayed in one place, then return to your hotel.
Meals: Breakfast and lunch. Overnight: Cairo.
You drive north to Alexandria, about 220 km from Cairo. The first stop is the Catacombs of Kom El-Shoqafa, a burial complex of the 2nd century AD cut three levels into the rock, where Egyptian gods are carved in Roman dress. Nearby stands Pompey’s Pillar, a red granite column raised in honour of the emperor Diocletian on the site of the Serapeum. You then visit the Citadel of Qaitbay, built in the 1470s on the site of the ancient Pharos lighthouse, and finish at the modern Library of Alexandria. Lunch is at a local restaurant.
Meals: Breakfast and lunch. Overnight: Alexandria.
You leave Alexandria for El Alamein, about 110 km to the west. At the El Alamein Military Museum, opened in 1956, the halls show the uniforms, weapons and vehicles of each army that fought here. At the Commonwealth War Cemetery more than 7,000 soldiers are buried, most of them killed in the battle of October and November 1942. You continue to the Italian Memorial, a white tower above the sea, and the German Memorial, built in the shape of a fortress. After lunch you drive back to Cairo for your last night.
Meals: Breakfast and lunch. Overnight: Cairo.
After breakfast and check-out you visit the Citadel of Saladin, founded in 1176, and the Alabaster Mosque of Muhammad Ali inside it. In Coptic Cairo you see the Hanging Church, Abu Serga Church, where tradition says the Holy Family sheltered, and Ben Ezra Synagogue, where the Cairo Geniza documents were found. The tour ends with time in Khan El-Khalili before your private transfer to Cairo Airport.
Meals: Breakfast
