Alexandria is not on most New Year itineraries, and that is precisely the argument for putting it on yours. While Cairo’s hotels fill and the Giza Plateau reaches its annual peak, the Mediterranean coast three hours north stays comparatively unhurried — a city of painted catacombs, a Roman theatre in the middle of a downtown block, and a library rebuilt in glass and granite with the sea at the end of every street.
This Cairo and Alexandria New Year tour runs five days and four nights, entirely private, with the New Year’s Eve gala dinner on 31 December included in the price rather than added to your bill when you check in.
You will stand on the Giza Plateau in front of Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure. You will walk the Grand Egyptian Museum while it still feels new, with the Tutankhamun collection shown whole for the first time since it was found. You will drive north to Alexandria for a full day among the Catacombs of Kom el-Shoqafa, Pompey’s Pillar, and the Bibliotheca Alexandrina. And you will see out the old year in Islamic Cairo — the Citadel of Salah al-Din, the Alabaster Mosque, the lanes of Khan el-Khalili — before the gala dinner that evening.
Every excursion is private. Your own licensed Egyptologist, your own air-conditioned vehicle, and departure times you set rather than ones set for you. In the last week of December that stops being a comfort and starts being the whole difference: Giza is at its busiest point of the year, and reaching the plateau at eight rather than ten produces two entirely different mornings.
Egypt Best Vacations is a licensed Egyptian tour operator founded by a professional Egyptologist, and a TripAdvisor Travelers’ Choice winner three years running — 2024, 2025 and 2026.
Most New Year packages send you south — Luxor, Aswan, a gala on a cruise deck. That is a fine holiday, and we sell it. But it means the festive fortnight concentrates almost every visitor in Egypt into the same three sites.
Alexandria goes the other way. Founded by Alexander in 331 BC and Egypt’s capital for nearly a thousand years, it is the one major Egyptian city where the story is Greek and Roman rather than pharaonic — and it sits close enough to Cairo to visit properly in a day without moving hotels.
Two practical notes, because they are the sort of thing that gets left out of brochures. Alexandria in winter is a Mediterranean port, not a beach resort: expect roughly 14–20°C, wind off the water, and a genuine chance of rain — December and January are the wettest months on that coast. Bring a jacket that handles a shower. And the Bibliotheca Alexandrina closes on Fridays and on public holidays, 1 January among them, which is one reason we place the Alexandria day on 30 December rather than at the end of the tour.
Your Egypt Best Vacations representative meets you inside the arrivals terminal at Cairo International Airport, holding a signboard with your name, and assists with entry formalities before escorting you to your air-conditioned vehicle. Transfer to your hotel and check in. The rest of the day is free — after a long flight we do not schedule anything, though your guide is happy to arrange dinner or an evening at the Sound and Light show at Giza if you would rather not stop moving.
Meals: None
Breakfast at the hotel, then out early with your Egyptologist. Because this is a private tour you choose the hour, and in the last week of December we push for the earliest one you can face. Begin at the Giza Plateau: the pyramids of Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure, the panoramic viewpoint across all three, the Valley Temple, and the Great Sphinx.
Continue to the Grand Egyptian Museum, a short drive from the plateau. The Grand Staircase, the Tutankhamun galleries — the complete collection displayed together for the first time since Carter cleared the tomb — and the hanging obelisk of Ramses II. Lunch at a quality local restaurant. Return to your hotel.
An early start north along the desert road, roughly three hours by private vehicle, with your Egyptologist alongside you the whole way.
In Alexandria: the Catacombs of Kom el-Shoqafa, cut three levels into the rock in the second century AD, where Egyptian gods stand carved in Roman dress — the single strangest and best thing in the city. Pompey’s Pillar and the Serapeum ruins around it. Seafood lunch on the Corniche. The Bibliotheca Alexandrina, built beside the site of the ancient library. And the Citadel of Qaitbay, standing on the foundations of the Pharos lighthouse, viewed from outside.
Return to Cairo in the evening.
A gentler day, deliberately, because of the evening ahead. Visit the Citadel of Salah al-Din with its view across the city to the pyramids on a clear morning, and the Alabaster Mosque of Muhammad Ali inside its walls. Continue to Coptic Cairo for the Hanging Church, the Church of St Sergius and the Ben Ezra Synagogue. Finish in Khan el-Khalili, trading since the fourteenth century, with time for tea at El Fishawy.
Back to the hotel to change. Your New Year’s Eve gala dinner follows at the hotel that evening — included in the price of this tour.
Breakfast at the hotel. Late check-out is subject to availability and we will request it for you. Free time in Cairo until your representative escorts you to Cairo International Airport for your departure flight.
The gala dinner on the evening of 31 December is part of the price you are quoted. It is not an optional extra, and it will not appear on your bill as a festive supplement when you check in.
This is worth stating plainly, because the practice of adding a compulsory holiday supplement at reception is common enough in Egypt over Christmas and New Year that travellers are right to ask about it. Ask us, ask anyone else you are comparing us against, and compare the answers.
| Hotel tier | Triple share | Twin share | Single |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gold Egyptian 5★ standard ≈ 3.5★ Western |
$790 | $830 | $1,410 |
| Platinum Egyptian 5★ deluxe ≈ 4★ Western |
$910 | $1,030 | $1,750 |
Children: under 6 travel free · ages 6 to 11 pay 50% of the adult rate · ages 12 and over pay the adult rate.
Prices are per person and rise for departures across the festive period. The gala dinner is already inside every figure above.
