Cairo in 4 Days
Signature Brand
All Egypt Tours
Overview
Cairo rewards a few unhurried days more than a single frantic one. This four-day trip gives you three full days on the ground with a private Egyptologist, which is enough to see the Giza Plateau properly, spend real time in the Grand Egyptian Museum, and still get into the medieval and Coptic city that most visitors skip on their way to the airport.
The first full day goes to Giza. You stand at the Great Pyramid of Khufu, the last of the seven ancient wonders still standing, then work along the line to Khafre and Menkaure before reaching the Sphinx and the granite-and-alabaster Valley Temple at the end of Khafre's causeway. The afternoon belongs to the Grand Egyptian Museum, two kilometers east of the plateau. Its Tutankhamun galleries hold the complete tomb assemblage — 5,398 objects, including the gold mask, displayed together for the first time since Howard Carter cleared the tomb in 1922.
The second full day changes centuries entirely. The Citadel of Salah al-Din sits on a limestone spur above the city, and the Alabaster Mosque of Muhammad Ali built inside its walls gives you the widest view Cairo offers on a clear morning. Below it, Old Cairo is layered inside the walls of the Roman fortress of Babylon: the Hanging Church suspended over a gate tower, the crypt beneath the Church of St Sergius and Bacchus, the Ben Ezra Synagogue a few minutes' walk from both. The day closes at the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization in Fustat, where the Royal Mummies Hall holds twenty-two kings and queens in individual climate-controlled cases, lit low and shown without ceremony.
Everything runs privately — your party, your guide, your vehicle — so the pace bends around what you actually want. More time in the museum and less in the Citadel is a conversation, not a problem, and pickup times are set with you rather than for you on the first evening.
The walking is moderate throughout: uneven ground at Giza, some stairs at the Citadel, and long gallery distances inside both museums. Between April and October, mornings are the sensible time to be outdoors and afternoons the sensible time to be inside, which is how the days are built.
Send us your dates and group size and we'll come back with availability and a per-person price.
Daily Itinerary
Your tour manager meets you inside Cairo International Airport, past passport control, holding a sign with your name. They handle the arrival formalities, wait while your luggage comes through and walk you out to a waiting air-conditioned vehicle. The drive into the city runs from 40 minutes to well over an hour depending on the traffic and the hour you land. At the hotel they see you through check-in, go through the days ahead with you and agree pickup times rather than assigning them. The rest of the evening is yours.
Overnight: Cairo
Included visits: None
Meals: None
Important notes: Airport pickup is included whatever time you arrive.
Breakfast at the hotel, then out to Giza with your guide. You begin at the Great Pyramid of Khufu, move along to Khafre and Menkaure, and stop at the panorama point where all three sit in a single frame. The Valley Temple follows, built of granite and alabaster and still carrying the sockets where the statues of Khafre once stood, and then the Sphinx at the end of the causeway. Lunch is at a local restaurant nearby. The afternoon is spent at the Grand Egyptian Museum: the Grand Hall with its Ramses II colossus and hanging obelisk, the Grand Staircase, and the two Tutankhamun galleries.
Overnight: Cairo
Included visits: Great Pyramid, Khafre and Menkaure pyramids, Valley Temple, Sphinx, Grand Egyptian Museum
Meals: Breakfast, lunch
Optional experiences: Entry inside one of the pyramids; camel or horse ride across the plateau; Saqqara, Dahshur and Memphis as a half-day extension
Important notes: The GEM runs on timed entry and needs two hours minimum. There is almost no shade at Giza — bring a hat and water.
After breakfast you drive up to the Citadel of Salah al-Din, the fortress that governed Egypt for seven centuries, and go into the Alabaster Mosque of Muhammad Ali built at its centre in the 1830s. From there you descend to Old Cairo, inside the Roman walls of Babylon, for the Hanging Church built across a gate tower, the crypt below the Church of St Sergius and Bacchus, and the Ben Ezra Synagogue. Lunch follows. The afternoon is at the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization in Fustat, where the Royal Mummies Hall is the reason to go — twenty-two rulers, Hatshepsut and Ramses II among them, in a deliberately dim, quiet gallery.
Overnight: Cairo
Included visits: Citadel of Salah al-Din, Mosque of Muhammad Ali, Hanging Church, Church of St Sergius and Bacchus, Ben Ezra Synagogue, National Museum of Egyptian Civilization
Meals: Breakfast, lunch
Optional experiences: Khan el-Khalili and a tea stop at one of the older cafés, added to the end of the day; a Nile dinner cruise in the evening
Important notes: Shoulders and knees should be covered at the mosque and the churches, and shoes come off inside the mosque — slip-ons make that easier. Photography is not permitted in the Royal Mummies Hall.
Breakfast at your hotel, then free time until your transfer. Late checkout can usually be arranged for a fee if you fly in the evening, and reception will hold your luggage if you would rather check out and use the last hours in the city. Your driver collects you with enough margin for Cairo traffic and airport queues, and your representative walks you through to departures.
Included visits: None
Meals: Breakfast
Important notes: Allow three hours before an international departure. Ask us in advance if you want a day-use room or a half-day tour to fill a late flight.
What's Included
- Airport meet-and-greet by our representative on arrival and departure
- Guest relations support on call for the length of your stay
- Private air-conditioned vehicle for all airport, hotel and sightseeing transfers
- Three nights in Cairo on a bed-and-breakfast basis
- Sightseeing runs privately, just your party and your guide
- Licensed English-speaking Egyptologist on all tours
- Entrance tickets to every site named in the itinerary
- Meals as set out day by day below
- Bottled water whenever you are away from the hotel
- Porterage at hotels and the airport
- All service charges and applicable taxes
Not Included
- International Airfare
- Entry visa to Egypt
- Any optional tours
- Personal spending
- Tipping
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