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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
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Top 10 · Trips and the sea
The best day trips from Cairo are Saqqara, Dahshur and Memphis, Giza and the Grand Egyptian Museum, Alexandria, Whale Valley in Faiyum and the Meidum pyramid. Two more are worth knowing about: Luxor by air in a day, and the White Desert, which needs a night. The first five are within about an hour of the city. The rest are long days, and we say which ones work better as an overnight.
Each trip on this list starts and ends at a Cairo hotel. Each one shows you something the city itself cannot. We put the closest and easiest first and the longest last.
We used drive times from our own route pages and from OpenStreetMap routing. Cairo traffic can add an hour to any of them, so treat the times as a floor.
We left out places we could not check against an official source. The Wadi El Natrun monasteries are one example. The last two entries are honest stretches: Luxor needs a flight, and the White Desert needs a night.
Saqqara is the burial ground of ancient Memphis, about 30 km south of central Cairo. Its centrepiece is the Step Pyramid of Djoser, generally seen as the earliest large stone building in the world.
Give it more than the two hours most people allow. The Pyramid of Unas holds the Pyramid Texts, the oldest known Egyptian religious writing. The mastaba tombs of Mereruka and Kagemni are carved with scenes of daily life.
It is about 40 minutes from Giza when traffic is kind. There is no useful public transport, so you need a driver who waits.
Dahshur is about 40 km by road from Tahrir Square, a little south of Saqqara. King Sneferu built two pyramids here. The Bent Pyramid starts at a steep angle and changes to a shallower one halfway up. The Red Pyramid, about 2 km north, is the one where the shallower angle worked.
You can often go inside the Red Pyramid. The passage is steep and low, and the air smells of ammonia. The site has no cafe and no shade, so bring water and small notes in cash.
Allow an hour and a half outside, or two to three hours if you go in.
Memphis was the capital of ancient Egypt. Little of the city survives, because it was built of mudbrick on the floodplain. What you see is an open-air museum on the road below Saqqara.
It holds a fallen colossus of Ramesses II under a shelter, and an alabaster sphinx. Half an hour is enough. It is flat, short and shaded, so it suits anyone who cannot manage the ramps and sand at Saqqara.
Most people do Saqqara, Dahshur and Memphis as one full day out of Cairo. Start early.
Giza sits on the western edge of Cairo, so it is barely a trip at all. The pyramids are about 4,500 years old. The Great Pyramid was the tallest building on earth for close to four thousand years.
The city runs right up to the boundary wall, which surprises people who know the photographs. Go at opening time, before the heat and the coaches. Our Giza pages cover going inside the Great Pyramid and dealing with the camel sellers.
The Grand Egyptian Museum stands on the desert edge at Giza, about two kilometres from the pyramids. It holds the complete Tutankhamun find and a colossal statue of Ramesses II in the atrium.
Allow three hours as an honest minimum. From Downtown or Zamalek it is about an hour each way in normal traffic. It pairs well with a Giza morning, since the two sit side by side.
Alexandria is about 220 km from Cairo. The fast trains take about two and a half hours. By car it is two and a half to three hours each way.
As a day trip that is five to six hours of travel. You see the catacombs of Kom el-Shoqafa, Pompey's Pillar, the new library and the Qaitbay fort at speed. A night in the city gives you the Corniche at dusk and an unhurried fish lunch.
Take the train if you go for the day. It avoids Cairo traffic and the road checkpoints.
Wadi Al-Hitan, or Whale Valley, lies in Faiyum, south-west of Cairo. It has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2005. Its fossils show early whales that still had small hind legs.
The valley sits inside the Wadi El-Rayan Protected Area, declared in 1997. Cars stay out, and you walk the footpaths between the skeletons.
The drive is about three hours or more each way, so this is a long day. Go with a driver who knows the desert road.
The Meidum pyramid stands in Beni Suef, about 86 km by road from central Cairo. Egypt's antiquities ministry says Sneferu built it, the same king as at Dahshur.
It began as a step pyramid of seven steps, then eight, and was then turned into a smooth-sided pyramid. Today it looks like a three-step tower on a mound of rubble. The ministry says the layers of debris show it fell slowly over time.
The entrance is about 15 metres up the north face. Inside is the first known stone corbelled ceiling, a method later used in the Great Pyramid. The site is open from 8am to 5pm daily.
The flight from Cairo to Luxor takes about an hour. That makes a single long day possible: Karnak and the west bank, then a flight back. Check flight times before you plan the day.
It is a rushed way to see Egypt's richest site. If you can give Luxor two days, do. If one day is all you have, it still beats not going.
The White Desert is a field of chalk shapes carved by the wind. Bahariya Oasis is about four hours by road from Cairo, and the White Desert is a couple of hours beyond that.
That is too far for a day. The standard trip is two days and one night, with a camp among the rocks. We include it because people ask about it as a day trip, and the honest answer is to stay a night.
Saqqara, Dahshur and Memphis as one full day. You see the oldest pyramid, the Bent and Red pyramids and Egypt's first capital, with far fewer people than at Giza.
Yes. They sit on the same road south of Cairo and are usually done together, with Memphis as a short stop. Start early, because traffic out of the city is hard to predict.
It works, but it is long: five to six hours of travel for three or four sites. One night in Alexandria is the better plan if you have the time.
About 220 km. The fast trains take about two and a half hours, and a car takes two and a half to three hours.
Yes, by plane. The flight takes about an hour each way. It makes a long, rushed day, so two days in Luxor is better if you can manage it.
No. Bahariya alone is about four hours away by road, and the White Desert is a couple of hours further. Plan on two days and one night.
You need a driver, because public transport does not reach most of these sites. A guide adds most at Saqqara, where the carved tomb walls need reading.
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.
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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
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
