This 6 day Cairo Alexandria and Luxor budget tour is a private trip from $780 per person. It covers the Giza Pyramids, the Grand Egyptian Museum, Karnak, the Valley of the Kings, Alexandria and Old Cairo, and it travels between Cairo and Luxor on the overnight sleeper train instead of flying.
The saving comes from the transport and the hotels, not from cutting sights. The sleeper train is your bed for two of the five nights, with dinner and breakfast served on board, so you pay for no domestic flights and for two fewer hotel nights. In Cairo and Luxor you choose between two budget hotel levels.
The extra day is spent where it matters most. You sleep one night in a Luxor hotel, so the East Bank and the West Bank each get their own day. You see Karnak and Luxor Temple on the first, and the Valley of the Kings, the Temple of Hatshepsut and the Colossi of Memnon on the second, without rushing either.
From the train you drive straight to Alexandria for the Roman catacombs and the Citadel of Qaitbay, and the last morning covers the Citadel of Saladin and Coptic Cairo before your flight. You travel with your own guide, driver and vehicle at every stop.
Prefer to fly to Luxor and stay in 5-star hotels? See the 6 day Cairo Alexandria and Luxor tour, from $1,055, or the 6 day luxury Egypt tour of Cairo, Luxor and Alexandria, from $1,830. Only have five days? The 5 day Egypt budget tour covers the same three cities from $680, with Luxor in one day. Every six-day route is on the 6 day Egypt tour packages page. Want Aswan and Abu Simbel instead of Alexandria? 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. In the evening you are driven to Giza Railway Station to board the sleeper train to Luxor.
Meals: Breakfast, lunch, and dinner on the train. Overnight: Sleeper train.
Your guide meets you at Luxor Railway Station in the morning. You begin at Karnak, the largest temple complex in Egypt, which covers about 100 hectares and was added to by one pharaoh after another for well over a thousand years. You walk through the Great Hypostyle Hall with its 134 columns. You continue to Luxor Temple in the centre of the city, built by Amenhotep III and enlarged by Ramesses II. Then you check in to your hotel, and the evening is free.
Meals: Breakfast on the train. Overnight: Luxor.
You cross to the West Bank for the Valley of the Kings, where the pharaohs of the New Kingdom cut their tombs into the rock to hide them from robbers. Your ticket covers three tombs, and your guide recommends the best three of those open that day. You continue to the terraced Temple of Hatshepsut, the queen who ruled Egypt as pharaoh for about 20 years, and stop at the Colossi of Memnon, two seated statues of Amenhotep III. In the evening you are driven to Luxor Railway Station for the sleeper train back to Cairo.
Meals: Breakfast at the hotel, and dinner on the train. Overnight: Sleeper train.
You are met at Giza Railway Station and drive north to Alexandria, about 220 km away. 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. After lunch at a local restaurant you drive back to Cairo for your last night.
Meals: Breakfast on the train, 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. Overnight: Departure.
