8 days in Egypt
An eight day route with two bases and one overnight train, built the way the trip reports say it actually works.
Last updated . Ticket prices for foreigners, museum openings and the sleeper timetable all move yearly, and the Grand Egyptian Museum's status has changed several times. Recheck the official operators before fixing dates.
Egypt resolves into two places and a train. Cairo has the pyramids, the museums and the medieval city; the stretch of Nile between Luxor and Aswan has almost everything else, packed closer together than the map suggests. The classic mistake is treating the country as a checklist of scattered monuments; the trip that works treats it as two bases, joined overnight by the sleeper so that not one daylight hour is spent watching desert through a window.
How many days do you need in Egypt?
8 days: 3 in Cairo, 1 overnight on the sleeper, 2 in Aswan including Abu Simbel and 2 in Luxor.
Swap the Aswan to Luxor land leg for a 3 night cruise and the count holds. Ten days adds either the Red Sea or a slower Luxor, which has enough tombs to absorb any surplus.
Sleeper train or flight to the south?
The sleeper leaves Cairo in the evening and arrives around 12 hours later, saving a hotel night and a daylight travel day; the flight takes about 1 hour and wins on comfort.
The sleeper is run by a dedicated operator with cabins and dinner included, and foreigners pay a fixed dollar fare. Travellers rate it an experience rather than luxury; light sleepers book the flight and forgive themselves.
Is Abu Simbel worth it from Aswan?
Yes, by broad consensus: about 3 hours of desert road each way, leaving around dawn, for roughly 2 hours at the temples.
Ramses II's mountain façade and the rescued relocation story carry the drive. The early convoy timing is about arriving before the heat and the crowds peak; a short flight from Aswan exists for those who refuse the road.
How bad is the hassle really?
Real, constant at the top sites, and manageable: travellers report the difference between a hard day and a good one is usually 1 hired guide.
A guide absorbs the vendors, handles the tipping economy in small notes, and turns tomb queues into history lectures. Budget for guiding at Giza and the Luxor west bank specifically, and carry small denominations everywhere.
The plan at a glance
- Days
- 1 to 3
- Where
- Cairo and Giza
- What needs arranging
- Museum tickets and a Giza guide
- Days
- 3, night
- Where
- The sleeper south
- What needs arranging
- The cabin, booked ahead on the operator's site
- Days
- 4 to 5
- Where
- Aswan
- What needs arranging
- The Abu Simbel dawn trip
- Days
- 6 to 7
- Where
- Luxor
- What needs arranging
- A west bank guide; balloons if nerves allow
- Days
- 8
- Where
- Fly Luxor to Cairo and out
- What needs arranging
- The domestic hop on the same ticket
| Days | Where | What needs arranging |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 3 | Cairo and Giza | Museum tickets and a Giza guide |
| 3, night | The sleeper south | The cabin, booked ahead on the operator's site |
| 4 to 5 | Aswan | The Abu Simbel dawn trip |
| 6 to 7 | Luxor | A west bank guide; balloons if nerves allow |
| 8 | Fly Luxor to Cairo and out | The domestic hop on the same ticket |
The route at a glance
12 mapped stops · 8 days
Live route map
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Route stops
Follow the numbered order through each day.
Day 1: Giza
- 1The Giza plateau · about 4 hours
- 2The Grand Egyptian Museum · about 3.5 hours
Day 2: Saqqara and old Cairo
- 3Saqqara · about 3 hours
- 4Coptic Cairo · about 2.5 hours
Day 3: Islamic Cairo, then the night train
- 5Khan el-Khalili and Al-Muizz street · about 3 hours
- ·Giza station, the sleeper south · overnight
Day 4: Aswan
- 6Philae temple · about 3 hours
- 7A felucca around Elephantine · about 90 minutes
Day 5: Abu Simbel, then north
- 8Abu Simbel · about 2 hours on site
- ·Aswan to Luxor · about 4 hours
Day 6: The west bank of Luxor
- 9Valley of the Kings · about 3 hours
- 10Hatshepsut's temple · about 90 minutes
Day 7: Karnak and Luxor temple
- 11Karnak · about 3 hours
- 12Luxor temple after dark · about 2 hours
Day 8: Out through Cairo
- ·Luxor to Cairo to home · half a day
Day 1: Giza
The pyramids on day one, early, with a guide, before the trip has anything to compare them to.
- On foot
- About 6 km on sand and stone
- Book before you go
- The guide, and entry tickets online
Morning
The Giza plateauabout 4 hours
Khufu, Khafre, Menkaure and the Sphinx, opened at 8 and best owned by 8:05. The guide earns the fee here more than anywhere: navigation, camel diplomacy and which interior is worth the extra ticket.
Afternoon
The Grand Egyptian Museumabout 3.5 hours
The giant new museum beside the plateau, home of the Tutankhamun collection. Book timed entry online and give it the whole afternoon.
Day 2: Saqqara and old Cairo
The step pyramid where it all started, then churches and the synagogue of the old quarter.
- On foot
- About 5 km on foot
Morning
Saqqaraabout 3 hours
Djoser's step pyramid, the world's oldest monumental stone building, with painted tombs and far thinner crowds than Giza. Many rate it the better half day.
Afternoon
Coptic Cairoabout 2.5 hours
The Hanging Church, Ben Ezra synagogue and the Roman fortress walls, all inside a walkable enclave.
Day 3: Islamic Cairo, then the night train
The medieval city until evening, then a cabin rolling south with dinner on a tray.
- On foot
- About 6 km on foot
- Book before you go
- The sleeper cabin, from the operator directly, days ahead
Morning
Khan el-Khalili and Al-Muizz streetabout 3 hours
The bazaar and the finest medieval street in the city, minarets end to end. Haggling is sport, not war; smile and it stays fun.
Evening
Giza station, the sleeper southovernight
Around 12 hours to Aswan in a 2 berth cabin, dinner and breakfast included, foreigners on a fixed dollar fare. It saves a hotel night and delivers you to the Nile at breakfast.
Day 4: Aswan
The Nile at its most beautiful: Philae by boat and a felucca at sunset.
- On foot
- About 4 km plus 2 boats
- Book before you go
- Tomorrow's Abu Simbel departure, tonight at the latest
Morning
Philae templeabout 3 hours
Isis's island temple, rescued stone by stone from the rising lake and reached by motorboat, which is half the charm.
Evening
A felucca around Elephantineabout 90 minutes
The lateen sail, the cataract islands and the west bank dunes at golden hour. The single calmest hour Egypt offers.
Day 5: Abu Simbel, then north
The dawn convoy south, Ramses II at full size, and the afternoon road to Luxor.
- On foot
- About 3 km on site, 6 hours of vehicle
Early morning
Abu Simbelabout 2 hours on site
Four colossi cut into a mountain, moved 65 metres uphill in the 1960s to escape the lake. About 3 hours each way from Aswan starting before dawn, and the consensus of every trip report is that it repays all 6.
Afternoon
Aswan to Luxorabout 4 hours
About 3.5 hours by road or rail along the river, with Kom Ombo's crocodile temple as the classic break if a driver is taking you.
Day 6: The west bank of Luxor
The Valley of the Kings and Hatshepsut, early, guided, and finished before the heat.
- On foot
- About 5 km in tomb heat
- Book before you go
- The guide and, for the committed, the dawn balloon
Morning
Valley of the Kingsabout 3 hours
The standard ticket admits 3 tombs from the open roster; the famous extras cost separately and Seti I is the connoisseur's splurge. Colours survive here that make the museums make sense.
Hatshepsut's templeabout 90 minutes
Three terraces rising out of the cliff at Deir el-Bahari, best before 10 when the amphitheatre of rock becomes an oven.
Day 7: Karnak and Luxor temple
The largest religious complex of the ancient world in the morning, its city twin lit up at night.
- On foot
- About 6 km on foot
Morning
Karnakabout 3 hours
The hypostyle hall's 134 columns are the sight the photographs cannot oversell. Two thousand years of pharaohs built here; give it a slow 3 hours with shade breaks.
Evening
Luxor temple after darkabout 2 hours
Open late and lit, joined to Karnak by the excavated avenue of sphinxes. The night visit is the trick locals recommend and tour groups miss.
Day 8: Out through Cairo
The 1 hour hop north and the flight home, booked as one ticket.
- On foot
- About 1 km
Morning
Luxor to Cairo to homehalf a day
Domestic connections through Cairo are routine; keep both legs on one booking so a delay is the airline's problem rather than yours.
The options below are separate choices rather than a package. Read how RoamWeek chooses and orders suggestions before using any of them.
Book the separate parts
Book the parts that need booking
The sleeper is bought from its operator directly. What is worth arranging elsewhere is the flights, the two bases and the guided mornings.
You book each service directly with its supplier. These separate bookings do not form a RoamWeek package.
- Flights
Cairo in and a Luxor connection home is the shape of this route, and both legs price best booked together.
Search on Aviasales
- Stays
In Luxor the bank you sleep on changes the trip: east bank for restaurants and temples, west for quiet and tomb proximity, and the good small hotels on both fill in season.
Search on Booking.com
- Activities
The two mornings where hassle meets history are exactly where a booked guide pays, and the Abu Simbel dawn run is simplest as a seat on an organised departure.
Search on GetYourGuide
What is worth the time, and what is not
Worth your time
- A guide at Giza and the west bank. Travellers report the same two mornings as the hassle peaks, and a guide converts both into the trip's best hours.
- The sleeper southbound. It trades a hotel night for 900 kilometres and delivers the Nile at breakfast; the flight home covers the return.
- Abu Simbel despite the alarm clock. Six hours of road for the mountain façade is the consensus good trade of every recent report.
- Luxor temple at night. It is open late, lit properly, and cool, which is three things the daytime sites are not.
Skip it
- Cramming Cairo and the Nile into 5 days. The travel legs are fixed; what compresses is sleep and patience, and Egypt taxes both already.
- Unbooked balloon rides decided at midnight. The reputable Luxor operators sell out ahead; the ones with dawn availability are not the ones to fly with.
- Arguing with the tipping economy. It predates you and will outlast you; small notes cost less than the energy of resenting it.
Why this order
Cairo opens because it holds the airport and because Giza belongs at the start, before the eye is spoiled. The sleeper runs southbound on night 3 so the middle of the trip begins at the Nile's prettiest point rather than ends there. Aswan precedes Luxor because Abu Simbel's dawn convoy is kindest before tomb fatigue sets in, and because moving north puts Kom Ombo on the way rather than out of it. Luxor closes the ancient itinerary at its densest, and the flight home through Cairo turns day 8 into travel rather than sacrifice.
Book the trip
Start with Egypt, dates and travellers
Compare the travel services first, then use the itinerary below to plan each day.
- Flights
Choose your airports, travel dates and passenger count.
Search flights - Hotels
Search stays near the places in this route.
Search Booking.com - Activities
Check tours and tickets for the stops you want to keep.
Find activities
You book each service directly with its supplier. These separate bookings do not form a RoamWeek package.
Read next
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- 8 days in Oman
The other great desert driving trip in the region's rotation.
What we checked
- Watania, the Egyptian sleeper train operator read 31 August 2026
- Egypt official tourism portal read 31 August 2026
- Egyptian monuments and museum tickets portal read 31 August 2026
Why this page exists. This is the only RoamWeek route that does the Abu Simbel arithmetic out loud: a roughly 3 hour drive each way from Aswan starting before dawn, and the traveller consensus that the temples justify all 6 of those hours.