Cairo · Plan 1
The honest first day — Giza plus GEM
06:45 taxi to Giza. 07:00–10:30 pyramids and Sphinx. 11:00 lunch on Pyramids Road. 13:30–17:00 GEM, Tutankhamun wing and staircase. About EGP 2,100 pp with tickets.
L.H. · spring 2026Full plan →
Route Notes · open archive
Worked plans, timed in real minutes.
Most guides give you a plan that fits a magazine page but not a real day in Cairo or Luxor. They forget the traffic, ignore lunch, assume the museums are empty, and pretend your 09:00 energy is still there at 16:30. Our route notes are the opposite — they assume the traffic, the heat, one rest stop and a normal lunch. Each is built from a route a volunteer actually walked on a real day, with the meal stops named, the taxi costs noted and the shade considered, then sharpened by reader feedback. All open to read, no account, no paywall.
The routes are grouped by city — five Cairo day-plans, two for Luxor (east bank and west bank, deliberately separate), one for Aswan with the Abu Simbel convoy, one Alexandria day-trip, and two specialty plans for photography and families. Each ends with a short fallback section — what to drop if you start late, what to swap if a site is closed, what to add if you finish early. The fallback rules are the part readers say they wish they had read first.
Cairo · five plans
Cairo, where the geography fights you
Cairo exhausts plans fastest — the sites are spread across thirty kilometres of traffic and the metro only covers part of it. These assume taxis or Uber/Careem and realistic transfer times. The lunch stops are places the volunteers have eaten at recently.
Cairo · Plan 2
Old Cairo and the NMEC afternoon
09:00 metro to Mar Girgis. 09:30–11:00 Hanging Church and Ben Ezra. 11:30–13:00 Coptic Museum. 15:30–18:00 NMEC and the Royal Mummies Hall. About EGP 1,200 pp.
M.S. · spring 2026Full plan →
Cairo · Plan 3
Islamic Cairo and the Khan evening
09:30 taxi to the Citadel. 10:00–12:30 Citadel and Alabaster Mosque. 14:30–16:30 Museum of Islamic Art. 19:00–22:00 the Khan after dark, dinner. About EGP 1,400 pp.
M.S. · winter 2025Full plan →
Cairo · Plan 4
Saqqara plus Dahshur half-day
08:00 taxi from Cairo (EGP 700 round trip). 09:00–11:30 Saqqara with the Serapeum and Mereruka. 12:30–14:00 Red Pyramid interior and Bent Pyramid. 16:00 back in Cairo. About EGP 1,800 pp.
L.H. · spring 2025Full plan →
Cairo · Plan 5
Two-museum comparison day
09:00–11:30 Egyptian Museum Tahrir (jewellery rooms 4 and 21). 12:00 taxi to Garden City for lunch. 15:00–18:30 GEM, Tutankhamun wing only. About EGP 2,300 pp. The pattern reveals the curatorial difference between old and new.
L.H. · summer 2025Full plan →
Luxor · two days
East bank and west bank — never the same day
The biggest planning mistake we see is combining the two Luxor banks in one day. The west bank has a different rhythm — early before the heat, then back to the hotel by 14:00. The east bank can take a late morning and a sunset visit. They need separate days.
Luxor · Plan 6
East bank — Karnak morning, Luxor Temple sunset
06:30 taxi to Karnak. 06:45–10:00 Karnak before the buses. 11:30 Luxor Museum. 18:30–20:00 Luxor Temple after dark. About EGP 1,500 pp.
K.A. · spring 2026Full plan →
Luxor · Plan 7
West bank — three sites before the heat
05:30 public ferry. 06:00 Valley of the Kings — Seti I, Ramses VI, one general tomb. 08:30 Hatshepsut. 10:30 Medinet Habu. 14:00 back to the hotel. 18:00 felucca at sunset. About EGP 2,800 pp.
K.A. · spring 2026Full plan →
Aswan, Alexandria & specialty
The south, the Mediterranean, and two specialty days
Aswan · Plan 8
Aswan day plus Abu Simbel next morning
Day 1: 09:00 Unfinished Obelisk, 10:30 boat to Elephantine, 16:30 boat to Philae for late light, 19:00 Nubian Museum. Day 2: 04:00 Abu Simbel convoy, 07:00–09:00 the temples, 14:00 back in Aswan. About EGP 3,500 pp over two days.
K.A. · winter 2025Full plan →
Alexandria · Plan 9
Alexandria day-trip from Cairo
08:00 first-class train to Sidi Gaber (3 h). 11:00–13:00 Greco-Roman Museum. 13:30 fish lunch in Bahari. 15:00–17:30 Bibliotheca. 18:00 corniche walk to Fort Qaitbey at sunset. 22:30 train back. About EGP 1,800 pp.
M.S. · winter 2025Full plan →
Specialty · Plan 10
Photographer's day at the Giza plateau
05:30 arrive at the gate — the pre-opening light from the back-road overlook is the photograph. 07:00 the Sphinx amphitheatre. 09:00 the Khufu approach. 16:00 golden hour at the Sphinx (south-east corner). 18:00 blue hour. Tripod permit EGP 100 separate.
L.H. · spring 2025Full plan →
Specialty · Plan 11
Family day in Cairo with kids 6–12
09:00 GEM children's wing (2 h). 11:30 lunch at the GEM café. 13:30 nap or pool — non-negotiable in summer. 16:00 camel ride at the plateau (20 min). 17:30 the Sphinx. 19:00 early dinner. About EGP 1,800 pp adult, EGP 600 child.
L.H. · spring 2025Full plan →
Fallback rules — what to drop when a day breaks
Plans break. The taxi is late, a museum is unexpectedly shut, the kids melt in the heat. These are the rules the volunteers use to adjust on the fly.
- If you start ninety minutes lateDrop the second site of the morning, not the first. The first has the energy; the second usually under-performs anyway.
- If a museum is unexpectedly closedPivot to the nearest open one or a walk in the same neighbourhood. Cairo is dense enough that there is always something within a fifteen-minute taxi.
- If the heat is worse than forecastMove the afternoon to a museum or the hotel. Open-air sites after 12:00 in summer are a mistake even if your morning energy disagrees.
- If lunch overruns by an hourSkip the smaller site. The big site stays — that is what the day was for.
- If you find an unscheduled place you likeDrop the next-named site and stay. The day is yours; the plan is a suggestion.
- If you start with jet lagDrop the museum that needs concentration. The temples tolerate a slower pace; the dense museums punish it.
Pair these plans with the site notes for the site details, the collection notes for the museum component, and before the trip for the essentials. Check the month guide before locking in the dates.
Want a plan for your exact dates?
Write in with your dates and the cities you are considering, and a volunteer will point you to the notes that fit — for free, no booking, no upsell. We do not arrange the trip; we just help you plan it.
Write to the desk