How to Explore Egypt in 7 Days, Egypt is a dream destination for almost everyone who loves to travel. It is a country with a unique and fascinating history and architecture you will not see anywhere else. Egypt is monumental and makes you feel very small, but it is a destination everyone should visit at least once in their lifetime. Egypt Itinerary 7 Days is enough to see the main tourist attractions of the country: Cairo and a cruise on the Nile. If you have more days, you can visit other places like Alexandria, Hurghada, or Sharm el-Sheik. I spent 7 days, 4 divided between the cruise and a little less than 3 in Cairo. I recommend spending at least 3 full days in Cairo since you must dedicate one day to visiting the city’s surroundings.
What to see in Egypt in 7 days?
Day 1: Cairo
It seems like you’re starting a diary or a travel log for your visit to Cairo! That’s exciting! Cairo, the capital of Egypt, is a city rich in history, culture, and vibrant energy. To make your Day 1 memorable, you might want to consider exploring some of the city’s iconic landmarks and immersing yourself in its unique atmosphere.
What to do one day in Cairo?
This is the other big question. Our advice for the first day in Cairo is to visit some of its most important museums.
Do not miss the Egyptian Museum. It has more than 50,000 pieces on display and another 100,000 in its basement. It’s like traffic; it’s not worth telling you about. You have to see it. We leave you here a video on TikTok of an Egyptian mummy to give you an idea of how impressive this museum is.
The new Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) will open in 2025 after years of construction and many delays. When it is open, they say it will be the largest archaeology museum in the world. It will also be located very close to the pyramids of Giza.
Another must-see in Cairo is the Museum of Egyptian Civilization. This is where the 22 royal mummies of Ancient Egypt are today. Impressive too.
And if you want to buy souvenirs, write the Khan El-Khalili bazaar in capital letters, the oldest in the city. If you don’t like to haggle, you can go directly to visit Jordi, a store with fixed prices and super cheap to buy souvenirs of all kinds.
These are some of the must-sees, but if you want to know everything in Cairo, check out our complete guide: What to see in Cairo.
Day 2: Giza, Saqqara, Memphis, and Old Cairo
Ready to experience one of the most amazing days of this 7 and 10-day tour of Egypt? Because you’ll see what awaits you on the second day.
What to see in Giza:
1- Visit the pyramids of Giza
The only wonder of the ancient world that is still standing. This is one of the great dreams of every traveler come true. There, in front of you. You’ll tell us the feeling of that moment.
Being in front of the 3 most famous pyramids of Egypt. Those that you have seen in a thousand photos and in a movie. Cheops (the largest of them all, 146 meters high), Chephren or the pyramid of King Khafre, which sounds a little worse (the only one that still maintains the original cladding), and Mykerinos (the smallest). And add to that the famous Sphinx. Unique monuments to see in Egypt, all of the World Heritage Sites.
But if you do not know enough, you can also enter one of the pyramids of Egypt, another great moment of this trip that you will always remember. We visited the one of Chephren, but you can also enter the one of Cheops.
Something important to keep in mind is that you pay for access to the site, but the entrance to each pyramid is separate. The cheapest is Chephren, and the most expensive is Cheops.
Note that you must buy the tickets before entering the enclosure, as they do not sell tickets at the door of the pyramids.
To make this visit, you can hire this tour with a guide in English for 10 hours, which includes in addition to the pyramids, the Khan Al-Khalili Market (which we will visit in the afternoon) and the Egyptian Museum.
2- The Sphinx of Egypt
And to finish the visit to Giza, the famous Great Sphinx of Egypt. But do not pay much attention to the “great”. Although being there is another of the great moments of this trip through Egypt in 7 and 10 days, we tell you something so you will not be disappointed:
Do not pay attention to the photos, live surprise how small is The Sphinx compared to the pyramids you just visited. And something that happens to many of us (including ourselves), is that we imagined it bigger.
The space from where you visit it is not very large, and it is normal that you find a lot of people crowded to take a picture, while the vendors are on their own, trying to sell you everything they can. So take note, because here the moment is not as idyllic as it seems in the photos.
What to see in Saqqara
The step pyramid of Zoser and the pyramid of Teti. In our case, we visited two pyramids, which although less famous than the previous ones, were their precedent and we also loved to know:
Step Pyramid of Zoser.
The first stop, south of Memphis, is known as the proto-pyramid because it was the first built-in history. Although it is less known than those of Giza, it was the one that was taken as a reference in the construction of these and the rest of the Egyptian pyramids that came later. In addition, to reach it you have to go through a room with 40 impressive columns.
Despite having been before in the 3 most famous, we assure you that the visit does not disappoint.
The pyramid of Teti
This is another of the pyramids you can see in Saqqara and one of the first to be built in Egypt. At first glance, it is surprising because it looks like a simple hill, as it is destroyed. However, unlike those of Giza, inside, you can see the inscriptions of the burial chamber that are still preserved. Next to it is the judge’s house, with perfectly preserved figures, showing the usual life of the Egyptians of the time and their domestic animals. I’m super curious if you have a good guide to help you enjoy it. To make a trip to Egypt, a guide must know the Egyptian civilization and its culture. We always tell you that seeing is not the same as knowing what you are seeing. You enjoy it three times as much and the memories of the trip you take with you have nothing to do when you learn the history of what surrounds you. But in Egypt, this is multiplied by 10. We were lucky enough to travel accompanied by an amazing English guide during the entire route through Egypt, and it was like being in an incredible history class. So here’s another golden tip.
What to see in Memphis
Memphis was the ancient capital of Egypt, a place you can visit in the morning, or at least that’s what we did during our 8-day tour of Egypt. They say that talking about the country without mentioning Memphis is like talking about Italy without referring to Rome. But to tell the truth, at least for us, once you’ve been to the pyramids, you’re left a bit cold with this visit to Memphis (and it’s hard enough on this trip). Regardless of our opinion, this is one of the World Heritage Sites of this one-week, 10-day Egypt tour.
It is an open-air museum where we were most impressed by the Colossus of Ramses II. A giant statue of 12 meters and more than 40 tons made of a single monolith that centuries ago was located at the entrance of one of the city’s most important temples. But its great traveling curiosity is that it was found in the nineteenth century upside down; thanks to this, his face and all the details of his torso are in perfect condition.
If you liked everything we propose to see in Cairo, and you are not doing a full tour of Egypt as we did, to make this visit with a guide in English, you can hire this excursion to Giza, Saqqara and Memphis.
Day 3: Alexandria
The city of Alexander the Great. It is also the site of one of the most important libraries of antiquity, as well as the Lighthouse of Alexandria (one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world). However, none of that can be seen today, and still, it is another day trip from Cairo that we recommend you to include in a 7 and 10 days Egypt tour.
Day 4: Aswan
We warn. The early mornings begin in this route through Egypt in 7 and 10 days. But we also tell you they are worth it, especially to take advantage of the morning and rest at sunset.
We propose for the fourth day to fly to Aswan and fulfill another great traveler’s dream on a trip through Egypt: take a cruise on the Nile. If you have doubts, we explain how the boats or motorboats that sail the Nile, how much it costs or includes a cruise in Egypt, what to bring, or how it goes about tips.
Note that if you are not doing a full tour as we did, there is the option to book only the Egypt cruise of:
The cruise we have included in these 7 and 10 day Egypt tours is one of the most complete. Four days and three nights cruising the Nile between the cities of Aswan and Luxor. You sleep on the ship, taking advantage of the mornings to make excursions to the main temples of the ancient world, returning in the afternoon.
And today, plan to enjoy the motorboat on the Nile 100%, have a buffet lunch in the restaurant, relax by the pool and watch one of the most beautiful sunsets you have ever seen. Doesn’t sound bad. Well, putting it into practice is even better.
If you do the full 8-day tour, after landing in Aswan, you visit several monuments and temples before going for lunch on the cruise ship.
Day 5: Philae, Abu Simbel and Kom Ombo
On the fifth day, we propose you visit three spectacular temples, all a must on a tour of Egypt.
Temple of Philae (Philae)
Declared a World Heritage Site as part of the Open Air Museum of Nubia and Aswan, under the name Monuments of Nubia from Abu Simbel to Philae.
One of the great curiosities of this Egyptian temple is that the place where you see it today is not its original place, but was moved there stone by stone. The island of Philae was submerged in the twentieth century under the waters of the Aswan Dam, and with the sponsorship of Unesco, was dismantled and moved to the nearby islet of Agilkia.
But if you find this one amazing, wait until you see the next temple, one of the highlights to visit in Egypt in a week: Abu Simbel.
Abu Simbel
Another of the essential places to see in an Egypt itinerary in 7 and 10 days, declared a World Heritage Site as Nubian Monuments from Abu Simbel to File. And a much more mind-blowing live than you can imagine.
Although most of the time, reference is made only to the Great Temple, there are two temples you can see there:
The Great Temple of Abu Simbel or Temple of Ramses II, which is the most impressive. To give you an idea, its facade is 33 meters high and 38 meters wide with four statues of 20 meters high carved on the rock, guarding the access to the temple.
A few meters away, the temple of Nefertari, also known as the Lesser Temple of Abu Simbel, is much smaller and less impressive than the previous one. You can’t help but make comparisons, but it is also mind-blowing.
But what is impressive, beyond the place itself, is to think that they were excavated in the rock, as you see them today, but in the time of Ramses II, back in the thirteenth century BC.
And that as the previous stop on this route through Egypt, this monument also had to be moved stone by stone, to a higher area due to the construction of the Aswan Dam. We assure you that when you are there, this fact blows your mind even more, but if you want to see some pictures of the reconstruction works, take a look at Wikipedia.
And here’s another curiosity that will leave you with your mouth open: Abu Simbel was built in such a way that every October 21 and February 21 the sun’s ray penetrated to a shrine located at the back of the temple, illuminating the faces of Amun, Ra, and Ramses, and leaving Ptah, who was the god of darkness, in the twilight. How do you stay? Well wait, there’s more. When the temple was moved, this effect was lost, but it reappeared years later.
Kom Ombo Temple
And the last visit of the day, Kom Ombo, a temple located on the banks of the river, and another of the places to see in Egypt in 7 and 10 days.
If you do the cruise on the Nile, already from the boat is impressive to see it in the background, but touring it is not far behind, especially at sunset.
Day 6: Edfu, Karnak, and Luxor
After everything, On the way to the next stop, another very cool moment: crossing the Esna locks.
But wait, because there is still the final destination: Luxor. We tell you what we propose for the sixth day of this week-long Egypt itinerary, and a plan to keep in the suitcase of beautiful memories of this trip: a balloon ride over Luxor at sunrise.
If you are not doing an Egypt tour like the one we did or a Nile cruise with entrance fees to the monuments included, you can book a full Luxor tour to see the Egyptian temples with a guided tour in English.
Temple of Edfu
The best preserved in Egypt is a Greek temple built in only 180 years. It was found completely buried, and thanks to that, it is perfectly preserved today despite the fact that for years there were houses around it. Today, you can even see the original colors on the main door.
Karnak
The largest temple in Egypt. It is a group of temples declared a World Heritage Site as Ancient Thebes with its necropolis. All the data that we have given you so far, here are exceeded in capital letters, and your travel curiosities are not far behind:
It took 2,300 years to build and more than 30 pharaohs participated in its construction.
The reason for its importance and greatness comes because it was the most influential religious center, and in fact, its name in ancient Egypt meant “the most revered place”.
The entrance alone through the Avenue of the Sphinxes is more than 2 km long.
Luxor Temple
If before making the trip you wonder about the places to see on a trip to Egypt, Luxor is sure to be part of your answer. Isn’t it? Besides being one of the most famous Egyptian temples, it is also a World Heritage Site. Luxor Temple curiosity: the obelisk missing at the entrance is the famous obelisk of the Place de la Concorde in Paris.
Day 7: Valley of the Kings, Hatshepsut and the Colossi of Memnon
Now, what? Yes. The last places that we propose you to see in the 7-day tour of Egypt. But as it has been happening throughout the trip, not because it is the last is the least important. You say goodbye to 3 places that will leave you amazing memories to come back in your suitcase. Or at least that’s how it was in our case.
If you are not doing a full tour of Egypt and want to make a guided visit to these 3 places, we leave you the link of the excursion in Luxor to the Valleys of the Kings and Queens, the Colossi, and Hatshepsut.
Valley of the Kings
The place where most of the pharaohs of the New Empire were found buried. A hidden valley where the tombs could be safe.
At the entrance, a model already gives you an idea of how impressive this place is. You can see where the tombs of each pharaoh are located, but above all, the tunnel galleries through which they reach the burial rooms of the various pharaohs.
And once in the Valley of the Kings, you can access through the entrance to 3 tombs, one of them the tomb of Tutankhamun, although in this case, you have to pay extra. We found spectacular the tombs of Ramses IX and Ramses III, which were the ones we visited.
Temple of Hatshepsut
Near the Valley of the Kings, another top among the places we included in this one-week Egypt itinerary. The immense funerary temple of the pharaoh queen Hatshepsut, carved into the rock and with 3 huge terraces staggered, leaves an impressive image when you see it from below.
Colossi of Memnon
Two gigantic stone statues representing the pharaoh Amenhotep III. And so, in grand style, we finish our 7-day tour of Egypt.
But if you have a few more days to enjoy the country, how about a few beach days and rest? Because the trip is amazing but also intense. So come on, let it not be said that you return home tired from vacation. We complete the route through Egypt with a few days of rest.
Our Trendy Egypt Vacation packages for 7 Days:
Plan to visit Egypt for more than 7 days?! Check the e recommended Egypt itinerary 10 days & Egypt Itinerary 5 Days
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