Siwa lies about 750 kilometres west of Cairo, near the Libyan border, and no regular flights go there. Most short Siwa trips solve that with a night bus or a midnight drive. This 5 day luxury Cairo and Siwa Oasis tour takes the road in two comfortable stages instead: Cairo to Alexandria and on along the Mediterranean to Marsa Matrouh on day two, then south through the desert to Siwa the next morning. You arrive rested, with the whole afternoon in the oasis.
The trip begins in Cairo at the Pyramids of Giza and the Grand Egyptian Museum. On the way west you spend a full day in Alexandria, the city Alexander the Great founded in 331 BC, at the Catacombs of Kom el-Shoqafa, Pompey’s Pillar, the Citadel of Qaitbay and the Bibliotheca Alexandrina. In Siwa you follow Alexander to the Oracle Temple of Amun, which he visited that same year, swim in Cleopatra’s Spring and the salt lakes, cross the dunes of the Great Sand Sea by 4×4, and climb through Shali, the 13th-century mud-brick fortress.
Both nights in Siwa are spent in a luxury eco-lodge or boutique hotel built in the local kershef style of salt rock and mud. There is no desert camping on this tour. The desert is a 4×4 safari in the afternoon, and you return to your lodge for dinner.
Like all our luxury tours, it is private: your own Egyptologist guide in Cairo and Alexandria, your own guide in Siwa, and your own driver and vehicle for the whole journey, on the dates you choose.
Our Siwa tour of 5 days in Cairo and Siwa Oasis follows the same route for a lower price, as a small group with 4-star hotels. The 4 day Cairo and Siwa tour package is a day shorter. For the full range, see our Siwa tours and Egypt luxury tours pages, and our Siwa Oasis guide for the history and culture of the oasis.
Our representative meets you inside the arrivals terminal at Cairo International Airport with a signboard and helps you with the visa and passport formalities. Your Egyptologist guide then takes you to the Giza plateau for the Great Pyramids of Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure and the Great Sphinx. After lunch, continue to the Grand Egyptian Museum, where the complete Tutankhamun collection is displayed together for the first time. Check in to your hotel in Cairo, with dinner included.
Meals: Lunch and dinner. Overnight: Cairo
Leave Cairo after breakfast for Alexandria, about three hours by road. Go down into the Catacombs of Kom el-Shoqafa, a 2nd-century AD tomb complex that began as one family’s burial place and grew into a cemetery where Egyptian gods appear in Roman dress. See Pompey’s Pillar, a red granite column about 27 metres high raised for the emperor Diocletian. After lunch, visit the Citadel of Qaitbay, built in the 1470s on the site of the ancient Pharos lighthouse, and the Bibliotheca Alexandrina.
In the late afternoon, drive west along the coast to Marsa Matrouh, about three and a half hours, known for its white sand and clear blue water. Dinner is at your hotel.
Meals: Breakfast, lunch and dinner. Overnight: Marsa Matrouh
After breakfast, drive south across about 300 kilometres of open desert to Siwa, roughly four hours. Keep your passport with you: there are police checkpoints on the Siwa road.
After lunch in Siwa, your guide takes you up the rock of Aghurmi to the Oracle Temple of Amun, built in the 6th century BC and already famous across the Greek world when Alexander the Great came here in 331 BC. Then swim in Cleopatra’s Spring, a round stone pool fed by a natural spring. In the late afternoon a 4×4 takes you into the dunes of the Great Sand Sea, finishing at Bir Wahid, a hot spring among the sand, as the sun sets. Return to your eco-lodge for dinner.
Meals: Breakfast, lunch and dinner. Overnight: Siwa eco-lodge or hotel
Start the morning at 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 rain in 1926 began to dissolve it, and the ruins now give the best view over the oasis. After lunch, float in the turquoise salt lakes on the edge of town, where the water is so salty you cannot sink, then rinse off in fresh water nearby. The rest of the afternoon is free at your lodge.
Meals: Breakfast, lunch and dinner. Overnight: Siwa eco-lodge or hotel
After breakfast, start the drive back to Cairo, about eight to nine hours with rest stops, with lunch on the way. We drop you at Cairo airport for an evening flight or at your hotel in Cairo.
Meals: Breakfast and lunch
