By type of trip
Nile Cruises Luxor to Aswan: Routes, Boats and Prices
Classic Egypt Tours: Cairo, Luxor and Aswan Itineraries
Nile Cruise and Red Sea Holidays: Two-Week Egypt Trips
White Desert Tours from Cairo: Oases and Desert Camping
Short Breaks in Egypt: Three and Four Day Cairo Trips
Tailor-made Egypt Tours: Private Trips Built Around You
Cairo · Giza · Checked October 2026
Grand Egyptian Museum tickets are sold online at tickets.gem.eg, the museum's official booking site. You book in advance and choose a date and an entry time. The price for your date, ticket type and nationality appears in the booking flow before you pay. The galleries open at 9:00 and close at 18:00, or at 21:00 on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Last entry is an hour before they close. Each ticket carries a name, allows one entry and cannot be refunded. All 14 of our tours with Cairo days include a visit to the museum.
Book online, in advance, at tickets.gem.eg. The museum's own FAQ says all tickets must be booked online ahead of the visit, with an entry time slot. For prices, the FAQ sends you to the same booking site. Type the address in yourself and check it before you enter card details.
Booking takes four steps. First you choose a date, an entry time and your tickets. Next comes a page of optional add-ons, which the site calls experiences. Then you give the contact details for the booking. Last, you review the order and pay.
Two kinds of ticket are on sale: an admission ticket and a guided tour ticket. The form also asks for a nationality category for each visitor. Prices depend on it, so pick the category that fits each person in your party.
The ticket terms also mention self-service machines and ticket counters at the museum. Do not build a day around them. The FAQ asks for online booking, and in high season the slots go early. Book before you fly, while you still have a choice of entry times.
The booking site shows the price once you have chosen a date, a ticket type and a nationality category. You see it on screen before you pay. The museum's FAQ says prices vary by experience, nationality and age. It gives no figures itself and points to the booking site.
Admission covers the Tutankhamun Galleries, the Main Galleries, the Grand Hall and the Grand Stairs. It also covers Khufu's Boats Museum, the commercial area and the outdoor gardens. That list comes from the official booking site.
We print no figure on this page. The booking site loads its prices only inside the booking flow, so we could not read them from a published page. A figure copied from somewhere else may be out of date, and you would only find out at the payment screen.
Make three checks on the summary page before you pay. Confirm the date and entry time. Check the category against each name in your party. Then look at the add-ons: see whether any is selected, and what it adds to the total.
On a package, the question changes. Ask which museum tickets your booking already covers, and get the answer in writing. Our own tours are set out further down this page.
There are two safe routes. Buy on tickets.gem.eg yourself, or let your tour operator book the visit as part of your trip. The museum's FAQ gives tour operators and travel agencies their own booking email.
Search results for the museum also show resellers and unofficial sites. The museum's terms give two good reasons to stay with the booking site. A ticket can be used only by the person named on the booking. And no ticket can be refunded after purchase, whichever channel sold it, except in force majeure as the museum defines it.
So a ticket bought under someone else's name, or passed on by a stranger, is one the terms do not let you use. The booking site calls itself the only official website for buying tickets. It says the museum is not responsible for tickets bought anywhere else. The museum's main site is gem.eg. Look at the address bar before you pay. The same habit protects you from the lookalike visa sites covered in our guide to Egypt scams.
The museum keeps two sets of hours. The galleries hold the collection. The complex is the wider site around them, and it opens earlier and closes later.
Galleries: 9:00 to 18:00 on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. On Wednesday and Saturday they stay open until 21:00.
Complex: 8:30 to 19:00 on those five days, and 8:30 to 22:00 on Wednesday and Saturday.
Last entry is one hour before the galleries close. That makes it 17:00 on most days and 20:00 on Wednesday and Saturday. These are the hours published on the official booking site, checked October 2026. Ramadan changes opening patterns across Egypt, so check the entry times offered for your date when you book.
Work back from the visit you want. Three hours is the minimum for a first visit. Five or six hours, with a proper break, suit anyone with a real interest. On a normal day the galleries close at 18:00, so a three-hour visit needs an entry time of 15:00 at the latest. On Wednesday and Saturday the late close gives you three more hours to play with. The entry time is when you go in. It does not limit how long you stay.
The quietest times are the first entry slot and the last two hours before closing. Mid-morning is when the coach groups arrive, and the Tutankhamun galleries slow to a queue. Friday and Saturday are the busiest days, with local families.
Allow for the drive. From downtown or Zamalek it takes around an hour in normal traffic, and longer at rush hour. From a hotel near the plateau in Giza it is a short trip.
Seeing the pyramids the same day? Go to the plateau at opening, give it two to three hours, and take the museum through the middle of the day. The two sites are minutes apart by road. Even so, book a museum slot that leaves time for the transfer and for lunch.
The booking site lists four groups who go free on any day of the week. They are children under six, visitors with disabilities, members of the International Council of Museums (ICOM), and Egyptian tour guides who are with a group. Free entry covers the admission ticket only. Anyone in these groups who books the guided tour pays the guided tour fee.
A longer list goes free on weekdays only, outside weekends and public holidays. It is mostly Egyptian: tour guides, students on certain courses, military veterans, staff of the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, and some school groups by prior letter.
Foreign spouses of Egyptians, and their children, may buy the Egyptian admission pass. They need proof of the relationship.
For any free or discounted ticket, bring valid ID. The terms say staff use it to check that you qualify.
Each ticket is valid only for the date and time on the booking. It allows one entry. Once you leave the premises you cannot go back in, so eat before you arrive. Food inside costs more than it does outside.
In the galleries, food and drink are not allowed, apart from small bottles of water. Flash photography is banned, and so are torches and laser pointers. Do not touch the objects, the displays or the cases.
Bags can be inspected by security. Anything larger than 40 x 40 cm, including backpacks, goes into the locker room for your visit. You may bring a small bottle of water, but no other food or drink. Wear comfortable shoes and bring a light layer for the air conditioning.
All 14 of our tours with Cairo days visit the Grand Egyptian Museum. In every one it is the afternoon of day 2. The morning goes to the Pyramids and the Sphinx, with a short camel ride, then lunch at a local restaurant.
The museum visit is part of the sightseeing in the price. Each tour lists its Cairo sightseeing as included, run as a private tour with your own English-speaking guide. The tours exclude additional entry tickets, such as going inside one of the pyramids. If you want an add-on or the museum's own guided tour, ask us to confirm in writing what your booking covers.
The shortest option is the Cairo Short Break: five days in Cairo, from US$935 per person, with the Egyptian Museum on Tahrir and the Citadel as well. The longest is the Grand Tour of Egypt, 16 days. In between are trips with a Nile cruise, Luxor or time on the Red Sea. All 14 are listed below.
No. The museum and the Giza plateau are separate sites, with separate entrances, separate tickets and their own hours. Budget for both, and for the drive between them, which takes longer than the map suggests.
Children under six go free. Above that, the museum's FAQ says prices vary by age category. The booking site shows the total before you pay. We could not read the figures from a published page, so we do not print them. Bring ID for any child on a reduced or free ticket.
We found none published. The free list on the booking site covers Egyptian students on certain courses. If the booking flow offers a student category for your nationality, bring the student card that proves it, because the terms require ID for any discount.
The terms say a ticket is valid only for its date and time, and tickets cannot be refunded. They do not say whether staff will let you in late. Treat the time as fixed, and leave an hour of slack for Cairo traffic.
About two hours, according to the museum's FAQ. It covers the Tutankhamun Galleries, the Grand Hall, the Grand Stairs and the Main Galleries. Tours run in English and Arabic. You book it on tickets.gem.eg as a Guided Tour Ticket.
You already have a guide for it. Our tours include a private English-speaking guide on touring days, and the museum afternoon is one of them. If you also want the museum's own guided tour, ask us to confirm in writing whether your booking covers it.
Entry rules, opening hours, security advice and exchange rates all move. Check them at the source, not here.
Written and checked by the Nile Trip Guide editorial team · Last reviewed . Entry rules, prices and opening hours change — check anything critical against the official sources linked on this page.
Plan this trip
A real itinerary with real prices, usually within 24 hours. Nothing is booked and nothing is charged until you say yes.
5 days · Short break
Five days in Cairo and nowhere else: Giza, the Grand Egyptian Museum, the Egyptian Museum, the Citadel, Coptic Cairo and Khan el-Khalili. Four nights in one hotel, and every sightseeing day run privately.
from US$935 / per person
5 days · Short break
Giza and the Grand Egyptian Museum, then a flight south for one night in Luxor covering both banks, and a flight back. Five days, two cities, both domestic flights in the price and every day guided privately.
from US$1,480 / per person
7 days · Classic Egypt
A 7 day Egypt itinerary that takes the river the other way round: Giza and the Grand Egyptian Museum first, then a flight south to Aswan and three nights sailing down to Luxor.
from US$1,890 / per person
8 days · Nile & Red Sea
No boat on this one. Giza and the Grand Egyptian Museum, a night in Luxor for both banks, two nights on the Red Sea, then back to Cairo for the Citadel, Coptic Cairo and the Royal Mummies.
from US$2,040 / per person
8 days · Classic Egypt
The route most people take first, at the length it was built for: Giza and the Grand Egyptian Museum, then a flight to Luxor and four nights sailing down to Aswan.
from US$2,135 / per person
9 days · Classic Egypt
The standard Cairo and Nile cruise route with the day most itineraries cut: a second Cairo day at the end for the Royal Mummies, the Citadel and Coptic Cairo.
from US$2,385 / per person
10 days · Nile & Red Sea
Egypt in three parts: two days in Cairo, three nights sailing Aswan to Luxor, then three nights on the Red Sea with nothing scheduled. The temples first, the sea afterwards.
from US$2,310 / per person
10 days · Classic Egypt
Five nights in Cairo either side of a four-night sail from Luxor to Aswan. The Cairo days are private, just your party and a guide; the sightseeing off the boat is shared with a small group.
from US$2,635 / per person
11 days · Nile & Red Sea
The 10 day Nile-and-Red-Sea route with one more day in Cairo at the end, spent on the Citadel, Coptic Cairo and the Royal Mummies. Two days in Cairo, three nights on the river, three on the sea.
from US$2,560 / per person
12 days · Classic Egypt
The standard Cairo-and-cruise route with two extra nights in a Luxor hotel before boarding, which is what buys you the Valley of the Queens, Medinet Habu, the Ramesseum, and a day out to Dendera and Abydos.
from US$3,160 / per person
13 days · Nile & Red Sea
Thirteen days that give the ancient sites a week and then stop moving: Cairo, a flight to Aswan, three nights sailing down to Luxor, and three nights on the Red Sea at Hurghada before flying back for a last day in Cairo.
from US$2,945 / per person
14 days · Desert & oases
Fourteen days that add the Western Desert to the usual route: Cairo, two days of Luxor on land, four nights sailing to Aswan, then a drive west to Bahariya and a night out among the white chalk formations.
from US$3,815 / per person
15 days · Classic Egypt
Fifteen days of the ancient sites without a beach stop: Cairo, two days of Luxor on land, four nights sailing to Aswan, a Nubian village, then back to Cairo for Alexandria, Saqqara and Dahshur.
from US$3,985 / per person
16 days · Classic Egypt
Sixteen days and very little left out: Cairo, a flight to Aswan, three nights sailing down to Luxor, two more days of Luxor on land, three nights on the Red Sea, then back to Cairo for Saqqara and Dahshur.
from US$3,910 / per person
