This 6 day Cairo Luxor Aswan budget tour covers the Giza Pyramids, the Grand Egyptian Museum, Philae, Abu Simbel, the Valley of the Kings and Karnak, and it does so by train instead of by plane. Two of the five nights are spent on the sleeper train, which is how the price stays low without leaving out a single major site.
It is a private tour: your own guide and vehicle in each city, on the dates you choose, starting any day of the week. Abu Simbel is included in the price, not sold as an extra. Egypt Best Vacations is owned and run by an Egyptologist, Essam Ali, and holds the TripAdvisor Travelers’ Choice Award for 2024, 2025 and 2026.
Flying between Cairo, Aswan and Luxor costs two domestic flights and two more hotel nights. This tour replaces them with two overnight trains. You board in the evening after a full day of sightseeing, have dinner in your cabin, sleep, and wake up in the next city with breakfast served before arrival.
The short leg from Aswan to Luxor is a daytime seated train of about three hours along the Nile.
The same three cities are available with domestic flights and five hotel nights on our 6 day Cairo Luxor and Aswan tour. If you would rather trade Aswan for the Mediterranean, see the 6 day budget tour of Cairo, Alexandria and Luxor or its shorter 5 day version. For the north coast and the El-Alamein battlefield, there is the 5 day Cairo and El-Alamein budget tour.
| Length | 6 days, 5 nights (3 in hotels, 2 on the sleeper train) |
|---|---|
| Route | Cairo, Aswan, Abu Simbel, Luxor, Cairo |
| Tour type | Private |
| Starts | Any day, from Cairo Airport |
| Price | From $895 per person |
| Hotels | Bronze (3-star) or Silver (4-star) |
| Abu Simbel | Included |
| Transport | Two sleeper trains, one seated train, private air-conditioned vehicle in each city |
| Meals | 9 (5 breakfasts, 2 lunches, 2 dinners) |
| Guide | Licensed English-speaking Egyptologist in each city |
Our representative meets you inside the arrivals terminal at Cairo Airport with a signboard, helps you through the visa and passport formalities, and takes you to your hotel. The rest of the day is free. Overnight in Cairo.
Meals: none
You check out after breakfast and spend the morning on the Giza Plateau with your Egyptologist guide: the Great Pyramid of Khufu, the pyramids of Khafre and Menkaure, and the Sphinx. After lunch at a local restaurant you visit the Grand Egyptian Museum, a few minutes away, home to the complete Tutankhamun collection. In the evening you are taken to the station for the sleeper train to Aswan. Dinner is served in your cabin.
Meals: breakfast, lunch, dinner on the train
Breakfast is served on the train before you arrive in Aswan. Your guide meets you at the station and takes you to the High Dam, then by motorboat to the Temple of Isis at Philae, which stands on Agilkia Island, where it was rebuilt after the dam’s waters covered its original site. The last stop is the Unfinished Obelisk in the granite quarries. Overnight in Aswan.
Meals: breakfast on the train
You leave Aswan before dawn with a breakfast box for the drive to Abu Simbel, about three and a half hours each way. The Great Temple was cut into the rock for Ramesses II (1279 to 1213 BC), and the smaller temple beside it for his queen Nefertari. Both were cut into blocks and raised 65 metres in the 1960s to save them from Lake Nasser. Back in Aswan you take the afternoon train to Luxor. Overnight in Luxor.
Meals: breakfast
The morning is on the West Bank. In the Valley of the Kings your ticket covers three tombs, chosen with your guide from those open that day. At Deir el-Bahari you visit the terraced temple of Hatshepsut. She 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. You stop at the Colossi of Memnon and have lunch at a local restaurant. The afternoon is on the East Bank: Karnak, the largest religious complex ever built at around 100 hectares, and Luxor Temple. In the evening you board the sleeper train to Cairo.
Meals: breakfast, lunch, dinner on the train
Breakfast is served on the train before you arrive in Cairo. With your guide you visit the Citadel of Saladin, begun in 1176, and then Coptic Cairo: the Hanging Church, the Church of Abu Serga and the Ben Ezra Synagogue. You finish in the Khan El-Khalili bazaar before the transfer to Cairo Airport for your flight home.
Meals: breakfast on the train
