Egypt Itinerary: 7, 10 & 14 Days (2026)

Egypt Itinerary: 7, 10 and 14 Days on One Route

Most Egypt itineraries try to cram in the pyramids, Luxor’s temples and a Red Sea beach in a single week. You can just about do Cairo and Luxor in seven days. Fitting in the coast too needs ten, minimum.

This Egypt itinerary for 7, 10 or 14 days builds a single spine: Cairo and Giza first, then Luxor, then an optional Red Sea finish. Seven days keeps you inland, where the pyramids, the Grand Egyptian Museum and Luxor’s temples do the heavy lifting. Ten and fourteen days add Hurghada or Sharm El Sheikh, and fourteen leaves room for the classic Aswan and Abu Simbel side trip. For the full country planning guide and month-by-month weather, start with the Egypt planning guide .

Travel advisory note (updated August 2026): the US State Department currently rates Egypt Level 2, exercise increased caution, overall, with Do Not Travel zones limited to North and Middle Sinai and parts of the Western Desert near the Libyan border, none of which this guide covers. The UK FCDO advises against all travel to North Sinai and all but essential travel to parts of the Sinai interior, while Red Sea coastal resorts such as Sharm El Sheikh sit in the FCDO’s excepted coastal areas. Check your own government’s advisory before booking, and see the Egypt travel insurance guide for what to look for in a policy.

Choose the Route Before Booking the Red Sea Leg

This table is the route plan. The sections below explain the transport decisions, especially the Cairo to Luxor leg and the Red Sea finish, rather than repeating every cell.

An open-jaw ticket (flying into Cairo and out of Hurghada or Sharm El Sheikh, or the reverse) removes one backtrack entirely. If your international flight is fixed on Cairo (CAI), plan the final night back in Cairo unless both legs sit on one protected ticket.

7-Day Egypt Itinerary: Cairo and Giza, then Luxor

Give days 1 to 4 to Cairo and Giza. From Cairo International Airport (CAI), Uber and Careem both operate with app pickup from arrivals, and a ride into downtown runs roughly EGP 150 to 300 (about $3 to $6); a metered white taxi runs roughly EGP 250 to 450, and the fixed-price airport limousine desks in arrivals charge more, roughly EGP 400 to 700, for a no-haggle option. Journey time is about 30 to 60 minutes depending on traffic.

Base yourself in Giza’s Nazlet El-Semman area for a pyramid-view room from around $20 to 40 a night, the best value play in the whole route, or Downtown Cairo (Talaat Harb) for a boutique feel closer to the museums; the Cairo where-to-stay guide breaks down both, plus Zamalek and Garden City.

Spend one day on the Giza Plateau: general plateau entry (Sphinx enclosure, Queens’ Pyramids) runs around EGP 700 (about $14) for a foreign adult, and the Great Pyramid’s interior is a separate ticket, around EGP 1,000 (about $20), capped at roughly 300 interior visitors a day, so arrive at 8am opening if you want in. Give a full day to the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM), fully open since late 2025: tickets run EGP 1,450 (about $30) for a foreign adult as of August 2026, must be bought online in advance at the official visit-gem.com portal (no on-site purchase), and are officially set to rise to around $35 from 1 November 2026. Use a flexible day for the older Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square (around EGP 550, about $11, now a secondary stop since GEM opened) plus Islamic and Coptic Cairo. The Cairo guide has the full sightseeing breakdown, and the Cairo Metro is the cheapest way between them, EGP 10 to 20 depending on distance, with Line 1 and Line 2 covering the Tahrir/Sadat/Mar Girgis core.

Move to Luxor on day 5. EgyptAir’s one-way fare typically runs around $115 to $205; the alternative is the Abela Trains overnight sleeper (the current operator of Egypt’s Cairo–Luxor–Aswan sleeper service, booked online or at the Abela Trains office at Cairo’s Ramses station), a private double cabin running around $160 total (about $80 per person), rising to around $190 in peak season, with dinner and breakfast included and a night’s hotel cost effectively saved.

Use days 5 to 7 for Luxor: one day on the East Bank for Karnak Temple (around EGP 600, about $12, foreign adult) and Luxor Temple (around EGP 500, about $10, though sources vary and it is worth confirming at booking), one day on the West Bank for the Valley of the Kings (base ticket around EGP 750, about $14.50, covers entry plus any 3 of the standard open tombs; Tutankhamun’s tomb is a separate add-on bringing the total to about EGP 1,450, around $27; card payment only, cash EGP is no longer accepted at the ticket office), and a flexible day for a sunrise hot-air balloon over the West Bank temples, roughly $40 to $150 per person depending on operator and basket type. The Luxor guide groups the East and West Bank sights so you are not crossing the Nile twice in a day.

10-Day Egypt Itinerary: Add a Red Sea Finish

The ten-day route trims Cairo to three days and Luxor to three days, then spends days 7 to 10 on the Red Sea. From Luxor, the practical option is the roughly four-hour road transfer to Hurghada: book it through your hotel or a transfer operator, and confirm the current price when you book, since this brief could not pin a fixed fare. The alternative is to backtrack to Cairo and fly to Sharm El Sheikh (SSH) instead, EgyptAir one way roughly $90 to $155 (sometimes $60 to $75 on a promo fare); either way, reach Sharm El Sheikh by air only, never overland across the Sinai.

Choose your Red Sea base by what you want:

Give the coast two to three full days: one for a Giftun Island or Orange Bay boat day trip out of Hurghada (roughly €19 to 25, about $20 to 27, per person including snorkel gear, lunch and hotel transfer), and, if based in Sharm El Sheikh, one for Ras Mohammed National Park (around $15 for a day visit, cash only at the gate, plus a small EGP 10 environmental surcharge; many boat and snorkel tours already bundle the park fee into their price).

14-Day Egypt Itinerary: Add Aswan and Abu Simbel

Fourteen days gives Cairo four full days and Luxor three, then adds the classic Aswan and Abu Simbel extension, reachable from Luxor by a short domestic flight or the Nile-valley train, before finishing with four to five days on the Red Sea.

Aswan and Abu Simbel do not have a dedicated VoyageHacks guide yet, so treat this as a well-trodden add-on rather than a fully scripted leg: check current flight and train schedules directly before locking dates, and budget two to three days for the High Dam, Philae Temple and the Abu Simbel temples themselves, usually a long day trip from Aswan.

With the extra time, you can also trade the overnight sleeper for the cheaper day train on the Cairo to Luxor leg. This brief could not confirm a current foreign-passenger day-train fare, so treat it generically: it is slower and less tourist-oriented than the sleeper, but it exists and it costs less.

Use the extra Cairo day for a proper look at Islamic Cairo (Al-Muizz Street, the mosque-lined old city) paired with Khan el-Khalili, and the extra Red Sea days for a second boat trip or a diving day, since both Hurghada and Sharm El Sheikh are established Red Sea dive bases. Keep the final day for departure or a protected buffer; a domestic flight booked separately from a long-haul ticket is not a guaranteed connection even if both show up in the same search result.

What This Route Costs: Hotels by City

Booking.com search prices for a one-night stay, 2 adults, checking in 5 September 2026, a shoulder-season, late-summer-heat date for Cairo and Luxor with the Red Sea season building. These are per room, double occupancy.

Cairo’s genuine value play is the Giza pyramid-view cluster: a room looking straight at the pyramids can book for around $20 to 40 a night, cheaper than a plain Downtown boutique room. Luxor’s 5-star Nile resorts (Steigenberger, Sonesta) book at $65 to 96, close to Cairo’s mid-range band, so the real Luxor splurge is the West Bank boutique farmhouse tier, not the East Bank chains. Hurghada is two different products: town aparthotels around $40 a night versus gated all-inclusive resorts at $145 to 240, mostly on an all-inclusive board, so do not compare them per night without accounting for that.

For flight and rail costs plus a full per-day budget across food, tickets and transport, see the Egypt budget guide . As a rough sightseeing float per person, the Giza Plateau, Great Pyramid interior, GEM, Karnak and the Valley of the Kings base ticket together run around $90 to $105 before add-ons like Tutankhamun’s tomb; the combined Cairo Pass ($130 adult, $65 student, 5-day validity) or Luxor Pass ($130 adult, $70 student; Premium $250 with Tutankhamun and other premium tombs included) can be worth it if you are hitting most of the major sites in one city, less so if you are cherry-picking two or three.

Getting Between Stops

Cairo, Luxor and the Red Sea coast run on different transport modes, and mixing them up costs you time or money.

Ride-hailing coverage thins out fast once you leave Cairo: Uber is effectively absent in Luxor and does not operate in Sharm El Sheikh, Careem has partial coverage in both, and Hurghada has both apps but with gaps depending on time and area. Install both apps before you travel and lean on hotel-arranged transfers where coverage is thin. For the full country-wide transport rundown, see the Egypt getting-around guide . VoyageHacks checked every fare on this page against operator, government and Booking.com search sources current as of August 2026.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many days do you need for an Egypt itinerary covering Cairo, Luxor and the Red Sea?

Ten days is the practical minimum to cover Cairo and Giza, Luxor and a Red Sea finish at Hurghada: three days in Cairo, three in Luxor and three to four in Hurghada, connected by a flight and a road transfer. Seven days works better for Cairo and Luxor alone. Fourteen days lets you slow down and add the classic Aswan and Abu Simbel extension.

What is the best 7-day Egypt itinerary?

Spend four days in Cairo and Giza covering the pyramids, the Grand Egyptian Museum and Islamic and Coptic Cairo, then fly or take the overnight sleeper train to Luxor for three days of Karnak, the Valley of the Kings and the West Bank tombs. Skip the Red Sea on a 7-day trip: fitting in Hurghada or Sharm El Sheikh would eat a day you do not have.

What is the best 10-day Egypt itinerary?

Give Cairo three days, Luxor three days and Hurghada three to four days. Fly or take the overnight sleeper train from Cairo to Luxor, then cover the roughly four-hour road transfer from Luxor to Hurghada for the Red Sea finish, or backtrack to Cairo and fly to Sharm El Sheikh instead.

What is the best 14-day Egypt itinerary?

Extend Cairo to four days, Luxor to three days and Hurghada to four or five days, then add the classic two to three day Aswan and Abu Simbel extension from Luxor if temple sites are a priority. The extra time also lets you swap the overnight sleeper train for cheaper day trains on the Cairo to Luxor leg.

Should I fly or take the train between Cairo and Luxor?

EgyptAir’s Cairo to Luxor flight costs around $115 to $205 one way and takes about an hour, the fastest option. The Abela Trains overnight sleeper runs a private double cabin for around $160 total (about $80 per person), rising to around $190 in peak season, including dinner and breakfast, and saves you a hotel night since you sleep on the move.

Is it safe to add Sharm El Sheikh or Hurghada to an Egypt itinerary?

As of August 2026 the US State Department rates Egypt Level 2, exercise increased caution, overall, and neither Hurghada nor Sharm El Sheikh sits inside a Do Not Travel zone. The UK FCDO treats Red Sea coastal resorts such as Sharm El Sheikh as an excepted, lower-risk coastal area even where it advises against travel to the Sinai interior. Reach Sharm El Sheikh by air only, and check your own government’s current advisory before booking.

Book the Spine, Then Leave the Red Sea Flexible

Book the international arrival into Cairo (CAI), the Cairo to Luxor leg and your first Cairo hotel now. Leave the Hurghada-or-Sharm decision until closer to the date, when you can check current transfer prices and flight fares side by side. Before you land, a local eSIM saves you the airport kiosk queue; see the Egypt eSIM guide or compare plans directly below.

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