How Many Days Do You Need in Egypt? From 5 Days to Two Weeks

How many days you need in Egypt depends on the route: 7 or 8 days cover Cairo and Giza plus 3 or 4 nights on a Nile cruise between Luxor and Aswan. With 10 or 11 days you can add Abu Simbel, a dahabiya or the Red Sea. Five days suits Cairo alone, or Cairo with one day each in Luxor and Aswan. Two weeks is built on request.

How many days in Egypt: trip lengths compared

The table sets the common trip lengths against what each covers and the journeys on this site that match. Every journey is a starting point: its length, hotels and pace can be changed before you confirm.

5 days: Cairo, or a fast look at the south

Five days is enough for Cairo on its own. Five Private Days in Cairo spends 4 nights in the city: Giza's pyramids and the Grand Egyptian Museum on the first full day, the Egyptian Museum and the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization on the next, then the Citadel, Old Cairo and Khan El Khalili.

The alternative is speed. Five Days of Egypt's Highlights covers Giza and the Egyptian Museum, then Luxor's East and West Banks in a single day, then Philae and a Nubian village before the flight back to Cairo. It suits travelers who are happy with an early flight and a long day of temples, and who prefer hotel nights to a cruise.

7 or 8 days: Cairo and a Nile cruise

This is the length of the classic first visit. Cairo and the Nile in Style, 7 Days spends 2 nights in Cairo for Giza and the Grand Egyptian Museum, flies to Aswan for Philae, then sails 3 nights to Luxor by way of Kom Ombo and Edfu, ending with the West Bank, Karnak and Luxor Temple. Classic Egypt and Nile Cruise, 8 Days runs the other way, from Luxor to Aswan, with 4 nights on board.

The Nile cruise fleet operates between Luxor and Aswan, so the cruise starts with a flight or an overnight train south. From Cairo, the flight to Luxor takes about 1 hour and the flight to Aswan about 1 hour 20 to 1 hour 25 minutes on EgyptAir. Domestic flights are not included in any journey; they are booked and paid separately.

10 or 11 days: Abu Simbel, a dahabiya or the Red Sea

The extra days buy one of three things. Cairo and a Nile Cruise, 10 Days gives Cairo 3 nights at the start, for Giza, Saqqara, the Grand Egyptian Museum and the Egyptian Museum, then 4 nights on the Nile, a day at Abu Simbel and 2 more nights in Cairo for the Citadel, Coptic Cairo and Khan El Khalili. It is written for first visits that want the museums and the great temples in one trip.

For a slower river, Egypt by Dahabiya, 10 Days replaces the cruise ship with 4 nights on a dahabiya, stopping at places such as Gebel El Silsila; the differences are set out in dahabiya or Nile cruise ship. For the coast, Egypt, the Nile and the Red Sea, 11 Days follows a 3-night cruise with a drive from Luxor to Hurghada and 2 free days by the sea before the flight back to Cairo.

Two weeks: built on request

The journeys on this site run from 5 to 11 days, so there is no fixed two-week program. A longer trip starts from one of the 10- or 11-day routes and adds nights where you want them: more time in Cairo, a longer stay on the Nile, or the Red Sea. Any Luxury journey can also be quoted at the ultra-luxury level. The result comes as a written proposal that names the route, the hotels and any Nile vessel; how that works is explained in how a tailor-made Egypt trip is planned.

Getting between Cairo, Luxor, Aswan and Abu Simbel

Travel time in the south shapes how many days a trip needs.

Flights between Cairo and Luxor or Aswan are operated nonstop by EgyptAir, Air Cairo and Nile Air, and schedules change with the season. Because flights to Abu Simbel are few, check the schedule for your dates before relying on one.

How to choose your length

• To combine Cairo and the Nile, plan at least 7 days; that is the shortest Cairo and Nile journey on the site.
• If Cairo's museums matter as much as the pyramids, give Cairo 3 nights or more, as the 10-day journey does.
• If Abu Simbel matters, plan around 10 days; by road it is 3 to 3.5 hours each way from Aswan.
• If you want beach time, 11 days gives 3 nights at Hurghada after the Nile.
• Check the season: from June to August, Luxor and Aswan average 41°C (106°F), which favors fewer, earlier touring hours. See when to visit Egypt.

Trip length is one of the decisions in the guide to luxury travel in Egypt, alongside the season, the level and the Nile vessel.