Cairo Highlights: 3-Day Private Tour

Fixed Price per tour for up to 5 people (For larger groups, please contact me)

Giza Pyramids, GEM, Islamic & Coptic Cairo, Saqqara & Dahshur

Three days is enough to trace Egyptian history from its very beginning at Saqqara to its most iconic monuments at Giza, with a full day of Cairo’s living heritage in between. This itinerary was built for travelers who want more than the postcard version of Egypt — as your private Egyptologist guide, I’ll take you into tombs and chambers most visitors never hear about, at a pace that’s entirely yours.

Every day includes a dedicated driver and an air-conditioned vehicle, and nothing here is rushed or scripted.

DEPARTURE/RETURN LOCATION

Hotel/ Residence/ Cairo or Giza

PICK UP TIME/ TOUR DURATION

Flexible pick-up time – 6-7 Hours

INCLUDED

Guiding Fees	Dedicated Driver
AC vehicle	Taxes and Permissions

NOT INCLUDED

Entrance fees

Meals

Every itinerary can be shortened, extended, or customized around your interests and group size; just ask.

Day One: Giza Pyramids & the Grand Egyptian Museum

We open with the icon of Egypt itself — the Giza Plateau, where the Pyramids of Khufu, Khafre, and Menkaure have stood for over four thousand years. You’ll get close to each one, walk down to the Valley Temple, and stand before the Great Sphinx, with time set aside for photos and, if you’d like, a short camel ride across the sand.

From Giza we head to the Grand Egyptian Museum, the world’s largest archaeological museum and home to the complete Tutankhamun collection — or, if you’d rather see the old-school charm of downtown Cairo, we can visit the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir instead. There’s time afterward for lunch and a stop to browse the local shops.

Highlights:

Flexible pick-up from 6:30 AM
The Pyramids of Khufu, Khafre & Menkaure
The Valley Temple and the Great Sphinx
The Grand Egyptian Museum (or the Egyptian Museum, Tahrir)
Optional: camel ride (up to 30 min), lunch, shopping

Day Two: Cairo City Tour; Citadel, Coptic Cairo & Islamic Cairo

Day two trades ancient stone for the layered story of Cairo itself. We climb up to the Citadel of Salah El-Din, built in the 12th century, where the Alabaster Mosque of Mohamed Ali Pasha and his mausoleum look out over the whole city.

From there we descend into Coptic Cairo, a walled complex of some of Christianity’s oldest churches — the Hanging Church, the Church of St. George, Abu Serga with its cave tradition tied to the Holy Family, and the Ben Ezra Synagogue. We end the day on Al-Moez Street, once the administrative spine of medieval Cairo, weaving through its mosques and madrasas into the markets of Khan Al-Khalili.

Highlights:

Flexible pick-up from 7:30 AM (latest: 12:00 PM)
Cairo Citadel & the Mohamed Ali Mosque
Coptic Cairo: Hanging Church, Abu Serga Church, Ben Ezra Synagogue
Al-Moez Street
Khan Al-Khalili Market
Optional: lunch, shopping

Day Three: Saqqara & Dahshur; Egypt’s First Pyramids

Welcome to Saqqara, the birthplace of Egyptian architecture. Long before Giza, this is where the very idea of the pyramid was born, and on this day we go past the postcard view of the Step Pyramid into tombs and chambers most visitors never get shown. This isn’t a rushed, checklist kind of stop — it’s a slower walk through Egypt’s first great necropolis, five thousand years of history laid out stone by stone.

We start at the pyramid complex of King Djoser, and where access allows, step inside the Step Pyramid itself to see the passages beneath it. From there we visit the pyramid of Unas or Teti, along with the beautifully decorated tombs of the officials buried around them — some of the finest relief carving in all of Egypt, and far less crowded than anything at Giza.

In the afternoon, we drive south to Dahshur, home to two of the most important pyramids in Egyptian history: the Bent Pyramid, a rare snapshot of ancient engineers changing their design mid-construction, and the Red Pyramid, widely considered Egypt’s first successful true pyramid. Both sites see a fraction of the visitors that Giza does, which means you can take your time.

Highlights: