5 Days in Egypt: What You Can Actually See

Five days in Egypt is four usable days once you take off the arrival evening and the departure morning. That is the number to plan against, and it is why five days is the hardest length to get right.

There are two honest five-day trips, and one that tries to be both.

Version one: Cairo and Giza

This is the stronger version for a first visit, and it is not a consolation prize. Cairo holds more of ancient Egypt than anywhere else in the country now that the Grand Egyptian Museum is open.

Four usable days covers the Giza plateau and the Sphinx without rushing, a full day at the Grand Egyptian Museum, the older pyramid fields at Saqqara and Dahshur — which are quieter and, if you want to understand how pyramids were arrived at, more interesting than Giza — and a day in the medieval city: Khan el-Khalili, the Citadel, and Ibn Tulun.

It leaves you a spare day, which is the point. Use it on Coptic Cairo, or on Alexandria, or on nothing at all.

Version two: the Nile

Fly straight to Aswan and cruise to Luxor over four nights. This gives you a full extra night over the standard three-night cruise, and that night is usually spent in Aswan before sailing — which is when you get Philae and a felucca on the river at sunset rather than a rushed afternoon.

You end with a full day in Luxor rather than half of one, which means you can do Karnak in the morning and the Valley of the Kings the next, instead of choosing.

What has to be left out

Whichever version you pick, the other one goes. That is the whole shape of a five-day trip.

Abu Simbel is a long day from Aswan and does not fit either version comfortably. The Red Sea does not fit at all. Alexandria fits only into the Cairo version, and only as a very long day.

If dropping half of Egypt is not acceptable, the answer is not a tighter five-day plan. It is seven days.

Who five days suits

• People adding Egypt to a longer regional trip.
• Anyone with a fixed short window who would rather see one thing properly than four things badly.
• Return visitors filling in the half they missed.
• It suits a first visit only if you accept in advance that you are seeing half the country.

The five-day trips we run

Note that the Luxury Egypt Tour is the one that attempts both halves in five days. It works because it flies rather than drives, but it is a fuller five days than the others.