Six days in Cairo, Luxor and Hurghada is the compressed itinerary — the pyramids, both banks of ancient Thebes, and the Red Sea, in the time most people can take off work without planning a year ahead.
It moves quickly, and we would rather say so than pretend otherwise. Day two takes the Giza Plateau in the morning and the Grand Egyptian Museum in the afternoon, then puts you on an evening flight to Luxor. Day three covers both Luxor banks in a single long day: the Valley of the Kings and the Temple of Hatshepsut before lunch, Karnak and Luxor Temple after it. Then two all-inclusive nights on the Red Sea to recover, and a last morning in Cairo for Coptic Cairo, the Citadel of Saladin and Khan el-Khalili before your flight home.
The trade is real. You get two nights in Luxor rather than one, which is more Theban time than our longer Cairo-Luxor-Hurghada itineraries give you — but only one night in Cairo, and a tight final day. If you would rather move slowly, our 8 day Cairo, Luxor and Hurghada itinerary does the same three cities with three Cairo nights and three on the coast.
This runs as a private tour. Your Egyptologist, driver and vehicle are yours alone, which is what makes a schedule this dense workable — you are not waiting on sixteen other people at every gate.
For these three places, yes — with one caveat worth reading before you book.
What six days covers properly. The Giza Plateau and the Grand Egyptian Museum. The Valley of the Kings, the Temple of Hatshepsut, the Colossi of Memnon, Karnak and Luxor Temple. Two full days on the Red Sea. Coptic and Islamic Cairo. That is most of what a first-time visitor comes to Egypt for.
What it doesn’t. Aswan, Abu Simbel, Philae and a Nile cruise are all out of reach in six days — the sailing alone needs three nights. Alexandria and Saqqara are out too. If any of those matter to you, our 8, 10 and 12 day itineraries have the room.
The caveat. Days two and three are long. Day two runs from the pyramids through the Grand Egyptian Museum to an evening flight; day three covers both banks of Luxor between breakfast and dinner. Neither is unpleasant, but neither is leisurely. Travellers who want to sit in a café for an hour in the middle of the afternoon should look at the longer itineraries instead.
Being private is what makes it work. Start times bend to you, and nothing waits on a coach filling up.
Your Egypt Best Vacations representative meets you inside the arrivals terminal at Cairo International Airport with a signboard, and assists you through visa and passport formalities. You are then transferred by private air-conditioned vehicle to your hotel in Cairo or Giza.
The rest of the day is yours. Tomorrow starts early, so an early night is not the worst idea.
Overnight: Cairo
Meals Plan: No Meals Included
An early start, because this is the fullest day of the tour.
Your Egyptologist collects you for the Giza Plateau. You begin at the pyramid of Khufu (Cheops), the last surviving wonder of the ancient world, then continue past Khafre (Chephren) and Menkaure (Mycerinus) to the panoramic viewpoint where all three line up against the desert. From there you go down to the Great Sphinx and the Valley Temple of Khafre, where the granite pillars and the causeway that once carried the king’s body up to his pyramid still stand.
Lunch at a local restaurant, then the Grand Egyptian Museum — which is the reason this day works at all, since it sits about two kilometres from the plateau rather than across the city. The Grand Staircase climbs past six floors of royal statuary toward a window that frames the pyramids themselves, and the Tutankhamun galleries hold the complete contents of the tomb, displayed as one collection for the first time. You have seen the tombs; now you see what came out of them.
Late afternoon, transfer to Cairo Airport for the evening flight to Luxor, where you are met and taken to your hotel.
Overnight: Luxor
Meals Plan: Breakfast & Lunch
The long day, and the best one.
You start on the West Bank in the Valley of the Kings, the burial ground of the New Kingdom pharaohs, who abandoned pyramids and cut their tombs deep into the rock instead. Your ticket covers three tombs from those open on the day; your Egyptologist will pick them based on what is open and what is quiet.
Next is the Temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahari, rising in three colonnaded terraces against the cliff. 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. Her temple carries the reliefs of the trading expedition to Punt and of her own divine birth. You finish the morning at the Colossi of Memnon, the two seated quartzite statues of Amenhotep III that once fronted the largest mortuary temple ever built on the West Bank.
Lunch at a local restaurant, then across to the East Bank for Karnak — the largest religious complex ever built, around 100 hectares, added to by pharaoh after pharaoh across roughly two thousand years. The Great Hypostyle Hall alone holds 134 columns, the tallest of them around 21 metres.
You end at Luxor Temple, joined to Karnak by the avenue of sphinxes, with the granite colossi of Ramesses II and the standing obelisk at the first pylon. It is at its best in the last hour of light.
Transfer to your hotel for a free evening.
Overnight: Luxor
Meals Plan: Breakfast & Lunch
After breakfast, transfer by private air-conditioned vehicle to Hurghada — about four hours across the Eastern Desert to the coast. Check in to your all-inclusive resort.
The afternoon is yours. The reef sits close to shore here, so a first snorkel is a matter of walking down to the water rather than booking anything.
Overnight: Hurghada
Meals Plan: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner (all-inclusive)
A free day, all-inclusive, nothing to plan.
If you would rather be out on the water, optional excursions can be arranged: diving and snorkelling trips to the Giftun Islands, glass-bottom boat and submarine rides, quad safaris into the Eastern Desert and Bedouin dinners. See our Hurghada day tours for prices.
Overnight: Hurghada
Meals Plan: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner (all-inclusive)
An early breakfast and check-out, then transfer to Hurghada Airport for the morning flight to Cairo. Your Egyptologist meets you on arrival, and your luggage travels with you in the vehicle for the rest of the day.
Coptic Cairo sits inside the walls of the Roman fortress of Babylon. You visit the Hanging Church, built over the fortress gatehouse with its nave suspended above the gate; the Church of St Sergius and Bacchus, raised over the crypt where tradition places the Holy Family during their flight into Egypt; and the Ben Ezra Synagogue, where the Cairo Geniza manuscripts were found.
You then climb to the Citadel of Saladin, begun in 1176 to defend Cairo against the Crusaders and the seat of Egypt’s rulers for some seven hundred years afterwards. Inside it stands the Alabaster Mosque of Muhammad Ali, its Ottoman domes and twin minarets visible from most of the city, with a terrace looking back across the rooftops toward Giza.
Lunch, then Khan el-Khalili — the bazaar founded in 1382, with its coppersmiths, spice merchants and perfumers, and the old cafés of the Al-Muizz quarter around it. It is the right last stop: you leave with something in your hands.
Transfer to Cairo International Airport for your departure flight, and the end of your 6 days in Cairo, Luxor and Hurghada.
Meals Plan: Breakfast & Luxor
