This private 5 day Cairo and Luxor family vacation fits Egypt’s two great stories into one school-holiday week: the Pyramids and Tutankhamun’s treasures in Cairo, and the painted royal tombs and giant temples of Luxor. You fly between the two cities instead of spending a day on the road, stay two nights in each, and have your own Egyptologist guide, driver and vehicle the whole way, so the pace follows your children, not a group. Domestic flights, entrance fees and eight meals are included, from $1,000 per person in a triple room, with children’s rates from 30% of the adult price.
Families tell us the same thing about Egypt: the sites are wonderful, the heat and the distances are not. So every touring day on this trip follows one pattern. You start early, while it is cool and the crowds are thin, do the big outdoor site first, stop for a proper lunch in the shade, and save the indoor or shorter visit for the afternoon. The Pyramids come before the museum, the Valley of the Kings before lunch, Karnak before the flight. The two flights take an hour each, so nobody spends a day in a car.
Because the tour is private, your guide adjusts as you go. Small children can skip a tomb and ride a camel instead; teenagers who have read about Tutankhamun can spend longer in his galleries. Ask your guide to tell the stories, not the dates: how the Great Pyramid was lined up with the stars, why the kings of Luxor hid their tombs in a desert valley, what an Egyptian child played with three thousand years ago.
We have other short family trips if Luxor is not the right fit. The 5 Day Family Trip to Egypt in Cairo & Red Sea swaps the temples for beach days, from $830; the 6 Day Cairo & Hurghada Family Adventure adds a sixth day, from $930; and the 9 Day Family Vacations in Egypt: Cairo & Nile Cruise reaches Luxor by boat, from $1,350. All of them are in our Egypt family and kids vacations collection.
Your representative meets you inside the arrivals hall at Cairo International Airport with a signboard and helps the whole family through the visa counter and passport control. Your private driver then takes you to your hotel. After a long flight with children, the rest of the day is for resting, a swim if your hotel has a pool, and an early night.
Meals Plan: No Meals Included
Your Egyptologist guide collects you after breakfast and you reach the Giza Plateau while the morning is still cool. The Great Pyramid of Khufu was the tallest building on earth for nearly four thousand years, and standing next to its bottom row of blocks, some taller than a child, is the moment most families remember. A camel or horse ride across the plateau is easy to arrange on the spot. Below the pyramids, the Sphinx lies in the quarry its builders left behind.
After lunch, a ten-minute drive brings you to the Grand Egyptian Museum. The Grand Staircase is lined with statues of kings, and the Tutankhamun galleries show everything found in his tomb together for the first time: the gold mask, his chariots, his thrones and even the toys and games he played with as a boy. The museum also has its own children’s museum. In the evening you transfer to Cairo Airport for the one-hour flight to Luxor and your hotel.
Meals Plan: Breakfast & Lunch
Luxor’s West Bank is best early, so you set off after breakfast. In the Valley of the Kings, the pharaohs of the New Kingdom cut their tombs deep into the rock, and your ticket opens three of them. Children are usually amazed that the colours on the walls are more than three thousand years old. Tutankhamun’s own small tomb is an optional extra ticket.
Next is the Temple of Hatshepsut, rising in three terraces against the cliffs. 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. On the way back you stop at the Colossi of Memnon, two seated giants of Amenhotep III that have watched the fields for 3,400 years. Lunch at a local restaurant, then the afternoon is free at your hotel.
Meals Plan: Breakfast & Lunch
After breakfast you cross to the East Bank for Karnak, the largest religious complex ever built, covering about 100 hectares. In the Great Hypostyle Hall, 134 stone columns stand so close together that children love to play hide and seek among them, and your guide will show you the sacred lake and the scarab statue that visitors walk around for luck. Then the Luxor Temple, joined to Karnak by the restored Avenue of Sphinxes. After lunch at a local restaurant you fly back to Cairo for your last night.
Meals Plan: Breakfast & Lunch
Your last morning shows a different side of Cairo. In Coptic Cairo, the Hanging Church sits on the gate towers of a Roman fortress, and the crypt of Abu Serga marks the place where tradition says the Holy Family sheltered. Up on the hill, the Citadel of Saladin, begun in 1176, holds the Alabaster Mosque of Muhammad Ali, and its terrace gives you all of Cairo in one view. After lunch, the Khan el-Khalili bazaar is the place to spend the last of your pounds on lanterns, spices and a cartouche with your children’s names in hieroglyphs. Then your driver takes you to Cairo Airport for your flight home.
Meals Plan: Breakfast & Lunch
