13 Days in Egypt: Three Routes, and What Each One Covers

Is 13 days enough for Egypt?

More than enough for the classic trip, and exactly enough for that trip plus one real thing more. The standard route — Cairo, a Nile cruise between Luxor and Aswan, and Abu Simbel — covers comfortably in eight days and well in ten. Thirteen gives you those ten at a gentler pace and still leaves three days, which is the space one genuine addition takes: a few days on the Red Sea, or two nights in the Western Desert, or simply nothing at all for a while. What it is not is a trip that can hold all of those additions at once. That is the mistake the length invites.

Be realistic about what the number means from Europe. Thirteen days on the trip is usually eleven on the ground and ten or so that are useful, because the arrival and the departure both go largely to airports. That is still a lot: Cairo done properly over three or four days, both banks of Luxor without a clock running, the four temples of the cruise, Philae and a felucca at Aswan, and Abu Simbel without having to choose it against something else. The failure mode at this length is stacking — trying to bolt the coast and the desert and a second city onto the classic route until every day has a transfer in it. Pick one direction and give it the room.

The routes below all share the same spine, because the geography does not really allow otherwise: land in Cairo, fly south to Luxor, work down the Nile to Aswan, and see Abu Simbel from there. What changes between them is where the three spare days go, and that single choice is what makes a 13-day trip feel like a rushed fortnight or a relaxed ten-day trip with time to spare. It should be the second.

Route A — Classic Egypt, unhurried

This is the canonical route with the pace turned down: the same sights almost everyone sees on their first trip, but with land nights at both ends of the cruise so that nothing is seen through a coach window at the wrong hour. No beach, no desert. If you have wanted to see Egypt for years and intend to do it once, this is the version that does it justice.

Day 1 is arrival in Cairo: met at the airport, transferred to the hotel, and if you land early, time for a first walk along the Nile corniche. Day 2 is the Giza plateau — the three pyramids of Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure, the Sphinx below them, and the viewpoint on the southern rim where all three line up — kept to the morning before the heat and the coach groups, with an easy afternoon after it. You sleep in Cairo, near the plateau or across in leafier Zamalek depending on which half of the city you care about more.

Day 3 goes south of Giza to the half most itineraries skip: Saqqara, with the Step Pyramid of Djoser, the oldest large stone building anywhere, and the painted mastaba tombs around it that are better preserved than anything on the Giza plateau; then Dahshur, usually near-empty, for Sneferu's Bent and Red pyramids; and Memphis on the way back if there is appetite left. Day 4 is the Grand Egyptian Museum, which needs four hours as a floor and rewards a slow morning, deliberately not paired with Giza on the same day, followed by Islamic Cairo on foot in the late afternoon — al-Muizz street, Ibn Tulun, the Khan el-Khalili as the heat goes. Four nights in Cairo, which is the number that covers the city without cutting anything.

Day 5 is the short flight to Luxor and the first thing you do there is the easiest: Luxor Temple after dark, lit, thinned of its crowds, an hour in the cool. You stay in a hotel on the east bank rather than boarding straight away. Day 6 starts before first light on the west bank, which is the one order that works here — the Valley of the Kings with its three rotating tombs, Hatshepsut's terraces at Deir el-Bahari, the Colossi of Memnon in their field, and Medinet Habu, which still holds its colour and almost no groups — then the middle of the day out of the sun.

Day 7 is the sunrise balloon over the west bank, which is one of the few aerial add-ons in Egypt that earns its price, followed by Karnak in the late afternoon when the light comes in low between the columns and the cruise groups have gone back to their boats. That evening you board the boat at Luxor, having already seen the city properly, so the cruise's own Luxor morning becomes a lie-in rather than a repeat. Days 8 and 9 are the river: Edfu and its Temple of Horus, the best preserved in Egypt, taken early before the heat; then Kom Ombo at dusk, right on the bank; and long, slack afternoons on deck between them as the boat works upstream.

Day 10 is Aswan — Philae on its island, reached by motorboat across open water, and the unfinished obelisk lying in its granite quarry, both done in the morning before the city bakes. Day 11 you leave the boat and move to a hotel for the part of Aswan the cruise passengers miss: a felucca out to Elephantine Island in the late afternoon, the light dropping, no engine, nowhere to be. Day 12 is Abu Simbel, flown rather than driven so that the 4am convoy and six hours on the road become a morning out and an easy afternoon back. Day 13 is the flight north and home, with a Cairo connection built in rather than a tight same-day long-haul.

It suits first-time visitors who would rather see the essential Egypt well than see more of it badly, photographers who want low light and the balloon rather than mid-morning everywhere, and anyone who dislikes the idea of a pre-dawn road convoy stacked onto an already long day. It is a couples-and-considered trip more than a young-family one, chiefly because it is paced for looking rather than for keeping small children occupied.

Route B — The Nile and the Red Sea

This is the culture-and-beach trip that most German and Italian travellers book, squeezed sensibly into thirteen days: the classic sights first, then a few flat days on the coast to recover from them. A week of temples is tiring, particularly with children, and the sea afterwards turns a demanding cultural trip into a holiday. The one structural change from Route A is the cruise direction, and it is deliberate.

Day 1 is arrival in Cairo. Day 2 pairs the Giza plateau and the Sphinx in the morning with Saqqara and its Step Pyramid in the afternoon — the two best pyramid sites in one full day. Day 3 is the Grand Egyptian Museum as a slow morning and Islamic or Coptic Cairo after it. Three nights in Cairo, which is the honest floor for a trip that needs to spend its back half at the sea.

Day 4 is the flight to Aswan rather than Luxor, because here the cruise runs the shorter downstream direction — Aswan to Luxor, three nights — so that the boat finishes at Luxor and the coast transfer becomes the four-hour drive our destination notes describe rather than a much longer haul from the far south. You land, visit Philae and the unfinished obelisk, and board the boat at Aswan. Day 5 is Abu Simbel, flown from Aswan in the morning for the facade in its best light, then a felucca in the afternoon before the boat begins to sail. Day 6 is Kom Ombo and Edfu as the river carries you north.

Day 7 the boat reaches Luxor and you disembark into a hotel, with Luxor Temple lit that evening. Day 8 is the west bank at dawn — the Valley of the Kings and Hatshepsut — with Karnak saved for the late afternoon. Day 9 is the transfer to Hurghada, roughly four hours across the desert on a good road, arriving for the first afternoon on the coast. Days 10 to 12 are the Red Sea on your own terms: the standard Giftun Island snorkelling boat one day, a dive or a second boat trip the next if you want it, and a day doing nothing at all. Much of this coast is fringing reef reached by a jetty rather than open sand, which is excellent for snorkelling and worth knowing if you have small children. Day 13 is the flight home, direct from Hurghada, which saves backtracking to Cairo at the end.

It suits families and mixed groups above all — the arrangement where one person wants the archaeology and another wants the water, and both get a fortnight instead of an argument. It is also the safest choice for anyone who does not yet know how much ancient Egypt they actually want: a week of temples tells you whether you would return for a trip built entirely around them. The diving here is genuinely good and very cheap to learn, but three or four nights is decompression, not a dive holiday; if the reef is the real point of the trip, the balance of days should tip the other way.

Route C — Cairo, the Nile and the Western Desert

This is the route for people who have either seen the classic Egypt before or want a hard contrast inside a first trip: the same Nile spine, but with two nights in the Western Desert bolted to the Cairo end instead of a beach at the far end. The desert is a genuinely different landscape and a genuinely different kind of night, and it is the addition that most changes the character of the trip. It is strictly a cool-season route — October to April — and not one for very young children.

Day 1 is arrival in Cairo. Day 2 is Giza and the Sphinx in the morning, Saqqara in the afternoon. Day 3 leaves the city: about four hours south-west to Bahariya oasis, arriving for the Black Desert, its volcanic hills, and the hot springs at sunset. Day 4 goes into the White Desert itself — Crystal Mountain, then a camp among the chalk formations, food cooked over a fire, mattresses in the open, and the desert sky at night that is the reason to come. The camping is basic by design and the nights are cold, close to freezing in midwinter, which catches out people who packed for a hot country.

Day 5 is a slow return to Cairo with stops along the escarpment, arriving mid-afternoon. Day 6 is the part of Cairo the desert days borrowed time from: the Grand Egyptian Museum as a proper morning and Islamic Cairo on foot after it. Day 7 is the flight to Luxor and Luxor Temple lit that evening. Day 8 is the west bank at dawn — the Valley of the Kings, Hatshepsut, the Colossi — then boarding the cruise at midday and Karnak in the late afternoon before it sails.

Days 9 and 10 are the river: Edfu and its Temple of Horus, then Kom Ombo at dusk and on to Aswan. Day 11 is Aswan from the boat — Philae, the granite quarries, and a felucca as the sun drops. Day 12 you disembark and fly to Abu Simbel and back, for the colossi of Ramesses without the 4am road. Day 13 is the flight north and home. The desert sits at the front so that the long drives happen while you are fresh and the trip ends, as it should, on the calm water at Aswan rather than in a 4x4.

It suits returners, independent-minded travellers, and active people who are comfortable with a spade for a bathroom and a cold night under canvas. Older children usually love the desert; younger ones find the long drives and the bare facilities harder, which is why this is the least suitable of the three for a young family. If the desert does not appeal but the appetite for something beyond the standard sites does, the same slot swaps cleanly for an overnight in Alexandria, for the Graeco-Roman layer and a wetter, greener coast — though the city disappoints anyone expecting ruins, since most of the ancient one lies under the harbour.

Which route suits you?

Take Route A if this is your one trip to Egypt and you want the canonical sights done without compromise. The land nights at Luxor and Aswan buy the two things a boat cannot — the hour before the coaches arrive and the evening when Luxor Temple is worth seeing — and the flown Abu Simbel removes the single most punishing day on the standard route. It is the right answer for couples, for photographers, for anyone travelling at a considered pace, and for older visitors who would rather not stack a pre-dawn convoy onto a full day. What it deliberately refuses is breadth: no coast, no desert, no second region.

Take Route B if the group does not entirely agree about holidays, or if there are children. The week of temples is early starts and long days, and a few nights at the sea afterwards is what makes the cultural half bearable for people who did not come primarily for archaeology. It is the default fortnight-shaped trip for good reason, and the direct flight home from Hurghada is a real convenience at the end. The trade is depth at the far south: the cruise is a tighter three nights and Aswan is seen from the boat rather than lingered in.

Take Route C if you have done the classics before, or if a single first trip can carry a genuine change of scene and you are travelling in the cool season. The desert is the most distinctive thing on any of these three routes and the least like the rest of Egypt. It asks the most of you — the drives, the cold, the basic camp — and rewards travellers who want that rather than a beach. It is the wrong choice for very young families and impossible in summer, when the Western Desert drives and the camping are genuinely unpleasant. First-timers who want contrast without the camping should look at the Alexandria swap instead.

What shapes the price of a 13-day trip

Three things move the cost more than anything else, and sightseeing is not one of them. First, the standard of the Nile boat. Nile star ratings are local and are not equivalent to European hotel stars, and the refurbishment date matters far more than the number; the gap between a tired boat and a good one is wide, and on the same boat an upper-deck or balcony cabin is priced well above a lower-deck one. Second, the hotel category in Cairo, where the range from comfortable to luxurious is the single biggest lever on a land night. Third, whether the guide and vehicle are private or shared — a private trip costs more per person than a group departure, because a group splits the guide a dozen ways.

On top of those, the structure of each route adds its own drivers. All three depend on domestic flights — Cairo to Luxor or Aswan, and the Aswan to Abu Simbel hop — and flying Abu Simbel rather than driving it is a real cost that buys back most of a day. Route B adds the coast, where the all-inclusive resort tier and how far south the hotel sits change the figure; Route C adds 4x4 transport, a desert guide and a night of camping, which is a different kind of cost again. We do not publish a single price for these because there is not an honest one to publish: a tailor-made trip is built around your dates and budget, and the same route in August costs noticeably less than the same route at New Year.

Season, in fact, moves everything. The October-to-April window is the dearest, and within it Christmas, New Year and Easter are dearest of all, with the better boats and the better guides booked out months ahead. Shift a few weeks either side of the peak and the same itinerary softens in price without much change in the weather. If the budget is the variable that matters most, the two levers that give the most back are travelling just outside the peak dates and taking a group departure on the standard route rather than a private one.

When to do this trip

October to April is the season for everything inland, which is most of all three routes. February and March give the best balance of comfortable temperatures and thinner crowds and are the months to aim for. December and January are the coolest and the busiest, and Luxor and Aswan prices peak hard over Christmas and New Year; they are also when desert nights on Route C get genuinely cold, approaching freezing in the White Desert, so that route in midwinter needs a proper jacket and a warm sleeping bag rather than holiday packing.

Avoid Luxor and Aswan in high summer if you can. June to August regularly passes forty degrees there and the middle of every day becomes unusable; sightseeing shrinks to early mornings, which is doable and cheap but not a fair first impression of the country, and Abu Simbel, which has no shade anywhere, turns an ordinary hot day into an endurance test. The one part of these routes that works year-round is the Red Sea on Route B: the coast is comfortable across the seasons, best from March to May and September to November, and its warmest water is in the summer months that the temples cannot stand.

Two calendar notes worth planning around. The Abu Simbel sun alignment falls about 22 February and 22 October, when the rising sun reaches the inner sanctuary; those mornings are spectacular and very crowded, so seek them out or avoid them deliberately rather than arriving by accident. And Ramadan shifts the rhythm of the day and some opening hours, which is something to plan around rather than to avoid. Our month-by-month notes on the /when-to-go/ page go through each part of the year in more detail.

How to pace 13 days

The single most important pacing decision is to fly between Cairo and Luxor rather than drive. The road is roughly 650 kilometres and nine to ten hours and shows you very little; the flight takes about an hour and there are several a day. The overnight sleeper train is the honest alternative — it saves a hotel night and a flight — but the cabins are basic and sleep is patchy, so take it for the economics, not the comfort. Never connect a domestic arrival straight into a long-haul departure either; leave a Cairo night at the end when the timing is tight, and remember domestic baggage allowances are lower than long-haul ones.

Cruise direction matters more than most people realise. Upstream from Luxor to Aswan is the relaxed direction — slower, normally a night longer, and it finishes at Aswan, the calmest point on the whole route and a far better place to end than Luxor, where the selling is relentless. Routes A and C take it that way. Route B runs the shorter downstream direction on purpose, so that the boat ends at Luxor and the Red Sea transfer is a four-hour drive rather than a long haul from the far south. Neither is wrong; they answer different questions about where the trip should finish.

For Abu Simbel, fly if the budget allows. The road is about 280 kilometres and three to three and a half hours each way, usually on a convoy leaving around 4am, for roughly two hours on site; the flight is under an hour and hands back most of the day. Staying overnight is the quiet option if you can spare it, with the temples seen outside the convoy window. And build the daily rhythm around the heat: start early, rest through the worst of the middle of the day, and come back out in the late afternoon. Two major sites in a day is realistic on this route; four is a fantasy that ends with everyone tired and no one looking at anything. Thirteen days is enough that you do not need to try.