How many days do you need in Egypt?
Five days. That is the length of the itinerary we built for Egypt, across Cairo & Giza and Luxor.
Here is what each day holds. Every stop below carries its time, and every gap says how to get to the next stop, with the walk or drive time wherever both stops are mapped.
Egypt · 5 days Cairo & Giza → Luxor
Best time: October to April, warm days, cool nights, and bearable tomb interiors.
Cairo & Giza: Pyramids of Giza and the SphinxDay 1
🏛️9:00 AMPyramids of Giza and the Sphinx
The last surviving Wonder of the ancient world, on the city’s desert rim. Go early, walk to the panoramic dune viewpoint for all nine pyramids, and settle camel negotiations before mounting anything.
🚶 ~36 min · 🚗 ~5 min · 1.3 mi
🖼️1:30 PMGrand Egyptian Museum
Open in full since November 2025 after two decades of building: the complete Tutankhamun collection together for the first time, the 83-ton Ramses II in the atrium, and a grand staircase of statuary facing the Pyramids themselves. Book timed tickets online and give it half a day.
🚗 ~33 min · 9.3 mi
🌆6:00 PMKhan el-Khalili and al-Muizz Street
The medieval bazaar quarter, at its best after dark, brass lamps, centuries-old coffeehouses, and Fatimid facades floodlit along what was the main street of the medieval city.
Cairo & Giza: Citadel of SaladinDay 2
🏛️9:00 AMCitadel of Saladin
The 12th-century fortress above the city, crowned by the alabaster Muhammad Ali Mosque, from the terrace, all Cairo to the Pyramids on a clear day.
🚶 ~23 min · 🚗 ~3 min · 0.9 mi
🥾1:30 PMAl-Azhar Park
Thirty green hectares built on a reclaimed medieval rubbish mound: lakes, gardens, and a sweeping panorama of the old city’s thousand minarets.
🚗 ~8 min · 2.2 mi
🎟️6:00 PMFelucca sunset sail
An hour on the Nile in a lateen-rigged sailboat as the sun drops behind the west bank, hired by the boat from the Zamalek or Garden City landings, and the city’s gentlest hour.
Cairo & Giza: Coptic CairoDay 3
🏛️9:00 AMCoptic Cairo
The Roman fortress quarter where Egypt’s Christian history concentrates, the suspended Hanging Church, the crypt where the Holy Family is said to have sheltered, and the Ben Ezra Synagogue.
🚗 ~10 min · 2.9 mi
🖼️1:30 PMEgyptian Museum, Tahrir Square
The rose-pink 1902 original, still open and still dense with masterpieces even as star pieces migrate to the new museum. Go for the atmosphere of the world’s great old-school antiquities hall.
🚶 ~33 min · 🚗 ~4 min · 1.2 mi
🌆6:00 PMZamalek
The leafy Nile island of embassies, galleries, and riverside terraces, the calm place to base and to end evenings.
Arrive in LuxorDay 4
✈️8:30 AMFlight to Luxor
Cairo to Luxor in about 1h10 on the frequent domestic hop. The alternative with a story is the overnight sleeper train along the Nile, roughly 10 hours, private cabins, arriving with the sunrise.
✈️ ~1h10 · 313 mi
🏛️2:00 PMKarnak Temple
The largest religious complex of the ancient world, built by some thirty pharaohs across 2,000 years, the Great Hypostyle Hall’s 134 columns still rank among the most overwhelming rooms ever raised.
🚶 ~46 min · 🚗 ~6 min · 1.7 mi
🌆6:00 PMEast bank corniche and souq
The riverfront promenade and the covered market behind it: spices, alabaster, and small-town friendliness after Cairo’s hustle. Evenings, the temple glows above the Nile.
Luxor: Valley of the KingsDay 5
🏛️9:00 AMValley of the Kings
Sixty-plus royal tombs cut into the desert cliffs, their corridors still vivid with painted netherworld maps. Go early, pick three tombs on the standard ticket, and add Seti I or Nefertari’s tomb (Valley of the Queens) if you will splurge once in Egypt.
🚗 ~12 min · 3.4 mi
🖼️1:30 PMLuxor Museum
Small, superbly lit, and curated like a jewel box, the cachette statues found under Luxor Temple and pieces from Tutankhamun’s tomb, seeable in ninety minutes. It keeps split hours in winter, closed mid-afternoon, reopening at 5 PM, so check times that day.
🚶 ~8 min · 🚗 ~1 min · 0.3 mi
🎟️6:00 PMLuxor Temple evening visit
The temple stays open after dark, floodlit. Walk the sphinx-lined avenue and the colonnades by night, when the stone glows and the day’s heat has gone. The single best evening in Upper Egypt.
This is how Petrel lays out a trip. Upload your own confirmations and it builds this for your dates: flights and hotels included, with live flight status and the travel time between stops.
This is one of 126 free itineraries. Open it, change anything you want, and it becomes your trip.