TRIP OVERVIEW
Day 1 – Grand Egyptian Museum · Giza Pyramid Complex · Saqqara
Day 2 – Cairo Citadel · Mosque-Madrassa of Sultan Hassan · Al-Azhar Park
Day 3 – Coptic Cairo · Khan el-Khalili · Egyptian Museum
Day 4 – Manial Palace · Mosque of Ibn Tulun · Gayer-Anderson Museum · Cairo Tower
Day 5 · Train Day · Alexandria
Day 1
1.
Grand Egyptian Museum~3 hr
The world's largest single-civilization museum, housing over 100,000 artifacts including the complete Tutankhamun collection and the two solar boats of Khufu. Connected to the Giza plateau by an elevated walkway.
Daily 9:00am - 6:00pm
2.
Giza Pyramid Complex~2.5 hr
UNESCO World Heritage Site containing the pyramids of Khufu, Khafre, and Menkaure — built during Egypt's Fourth Dynasty. The site includes the Great Sphinx, valley temples, and a workers' village; the only intact ancient Wonder of the World.
3.
Saqqara~2 hr
The Step Pyramid of Djoser is the world's oldest large-scale stone structure. The necropolis also contains the Pyramid of Unas — home to the oldest corpus of religious texts — and the Serapeum underground chambers of the sacred Apis bulls.
Daily 8:00am - 5:00pm
Enclosed space
Day 2
1.
Cairo Citadel~1.5 hr
A fortified Ayyubid complex built by Saladin on a spur of the Mokattam Hills, serving as Egypt's seat of government for nearly 700 years. Within the walls: the Mosque of Muhammad Ali with its Ottoman alabaster interior and panoramic views across the city.
Daily 8:00am - 5:00pm
10 min uphill
2.
Mosque-Madrassa of Sultan Hassan~1 hr
A Mamluk monumental complex at Salah al-Din Square combining a mosque with four madrassas for the Sunni schools of jurisprudence. The twin minarets reach 84 meters — the entrance portal is one of the tallest in the Islamic world.
Daily 8:00am - 5:00pm
3.
Al-Azhar Park~1 hr
A 30-hectare public park built by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture on a site used for centuries as a rubbish dump. The park incorporates a restored Ayyubid wall and elevated sightlines across the minarets and domes of the historic quarter.
Day 3
1.
Coptic Cairo~2 hr
A religious district built over the Roman Babylon Fortress, containing the Hanging Church, the Church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus, the Ben Ezra Synagogue, and the Coptic Museum — the largest collection of Coptic art in the world.
2.
Khan el-Khalili~1.5 hr
A Mamluk-era bazaar in the historic center organized around specialist trades — gold, spices, copperwork, and textiles. The district includes El-Fishawi Café, which has operated continuously since the late 18th century.
Saturday - Thursday 9:00am - 11:59pm · Friday 2:00pm - 11:59pm
Free
3.
Egyptian Museum~2 hr
A neoclassical building on Tahrir Square housing over 170,000 Egyptian antiquities — the first national museum in the region. The Royal Mummies Hall contains preserved remains of rulers including Ramses II and Hatshepsut.
Day 4
1.
Manial Palace~1.5 hr
A royal residence built between 1899 and 1929 by Prince Mohammed Ali Tewfik on Rhoda Island. Five buildings in Islamic, Ottoman, Persian, and European styles are set around garden courtyards, with a private museum containing the prince's hunting trophies, porcelain, and royal regalia.
2.
Mosque of Ibn Tulun~1 hr
Egypt's oldest surviving mosque in its original form, built between 876 and 879 CE by Ahmad ibn Tulun in Abbasid style. The vast courtyard is ringed by arcaded halls and a unique minaret with an external spiral staircase — a design found only here among Cairo's medieval monuments.
3.
Gayer-Anderson Museum~1 hr
Two adjoining 17th-century Mamluk houses connected by a rooftop bridge, furnished as lived-in rooms from Major Gayer-Anderson's 1930s posting in Cairo. The interiors hold Islamic decorative arts, Persian carpets, and mashrabiyya screens alongside a personal collection of Egyptian antiquities.
4.
Cairo Tower~1 hr
A 187-meter reinforced-concrete tower on Gezira Island completed in 1961, designed by architect Naoum Shebib with a lattice pattern modelled on the pharaonic lotus plant. The observation deck at the top offers 360-degree views over the Nile, the Citadel, the Giza plateau, and greater Cairo.
Daily 9:00am - 11:00pm
Day 5
Ramses Station → Alexandria Misr Station · Egyptian National Railways · 2 hr
book at: Egyptian National Railways
8:00am Cairo Ramses → 10:00am Alexandria Misr
9:00am Cairo Ramses → 11:00am Alexandria Misr
10:00am Cairo Ramses → 12:00pm Alexandria Misr
1.
Bibliotheca Alexandrina~2 hr
A library and cultural center opened in 2002 on the Alexandria waterfront as a revival of the ancient Library of Alexandria. The slanted disc by the Snøhetta firm carries 120 scripts in its granite walls and houses up to eight million volumes across eleven reading levels, with museums and a planetarium.
Sunday - Thursday 10:00am - 7:00pm · Friday - Saturday 12:00pm - 4:00pm
2.
Citadel of Qaitbay~1.5 hr
A Mamluk defensive fortress built between 1477 and 1479 by Sultan Al-Ashraf Qaitbay on the exact promontory where the ancient Pharos lighthouse — one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World — once stood. The sea-facing towers and interior halls now house the National Maritime Museum of Egypt.
3.
Montaza Palace Gardens~1.5 hr
A 150-acre royal landscape on the eastern Mediterranean coast commissioned by Khedive Abbas II in 1892 as his summer residence. The public grounds include a pine and palm forest, a private beach peninsula, the Al-Haramlik Palace, and a watchtower on the shoreline.
Alexandria Misr Station → Ramses Station · Egyptian National Railways · 2 hr
book at: Egyptian National Railways
4:00pm Alexandria Misr → 6:00pm Cairo Ramses
5:00pm Alexandria Misr → 7:00pm Cairo Ramses
6:00pm Alexandria Misr → 8:00pm Cairo Ramses
Tours
GetYourGuide
Full-day group tour covering the three Giza pyramids, Great Sphinx, Step Pyramid at Saqqara, and the ancient capital of Memphis with an Egyptologist guide.
8 hr · Group
Group tour through Coptic Quarter, Citadel of Saladin, Mosque of Muhammad Ali, al-Muizz Street, and Khan el-Khalili bazaar, including lunch at a local restaurant.
6 hr · Group
Evening group tour combining a nighttime drive through downtown, traditional dinner, and the narrated Sound & Light Show at the Giza Pyramids.
8 hr · Group
Group transfer to the 16th-century Wekalet El Ghouri caravanserai for a live Sufi Tanoura spinning performance with folkloric music — held Sat · Mon · Wed.
2 hr · Group
Restaurants Near Hotel
Felfela · 3.8 · 1354+ reviews
Downtown institution since the 1950s — ful, ta'amiya, molokhiya, lentil soup.
Daily 9:00am - 12:00am
Koshary Abou Tarek · 4.6 · 2363+ reviews
The city's most celebrated koshary house — pasta, rice, lentils, fried onions.
Daily 7:00am - 12:00am
Garden Promenade Café · 4.0 · 600+ reviews
Outdoor café in the Marriott palace gardens — soups, salads, and pastas.
Daily 7:00am - 2:00am
Abou El Sid · 4.4 · 800+ reviews
Egyptian cuisine in an Arabesque interior — mezze, stews, and grilled meats.
Daily 1:00pm - 12:00am
Five Bells · 4.1 · 400+ reviews
Zamalek landmark with a shaded courtyard — Egyptian and international dishes.
Daily 12:00pm - 2:00am
Local Tastes
Koshary
Egypt's national street dish: layers of macaroni, rice, vermicelli, lentils, and chickpeas topped with garlicky tomato sauce, spiced vinegar, and fried onions.
Ta'amiya
A version of falafel made from ground fava beans rather than chickpeas — fried crisp and served in flatbread with salad and tahini. Distinct from the chickpea falafel found elsewhere in the region.
Feteer Meshaltet
A flaky layered pastry prepared on a large griddle, served sweet with honey or jam or savory with cheese or minced meat. Vendors called feteer-makers stretch and fold the dough to order.
Karkadai
A deep-red hibiscus infusion served cold or hot at coffeehouses and street stalls throughout the city — tart and lightly sweetened, central to the traditional ahwa coffeehouse culture.
Food Delivery
Talabat
Foreign number: not accepted. — the sign-up country-code list covers only Talabat's own Middle East markets, so a European or American number is never offered the code.
Egypt's main delivery app and the one with the deepest Cairo list — koshary and shawarma counters, the Zamalek and Maadi restaurants and the supermarket chains; in practice a visitor orders through the hotel concierge or on a local SIM, and cash on delivery is still the norm.
Careem Food
Foreign number: accepted. — the same Careem account as the ride app, so the code arrives by SMS on a foreign SIM and the app verifies by email as a fallback.
The food tab inside the Careem app — a smaller list than Talabat but the one a visitor can actually use from a foreign phone, strongest around Zamalek, Garden City and Maadi, with card payment in-app and the delivery address dropped as a pin rather than typed.
Shows, Performances & Concerts
Tanoura Show at Wekalet El Ghouri
Live Sufi Tanoura spinning at the 16th-century Wekalet El Ghouri. Held Saturday · Monday · Wednesday at 8:00pm — no booking required.
Getting Around
Uber
Foreign number: accepted. — the verification code arrives by SMS on a foreign SIM, and an existing Uber account signs straight in.
The default way to move around Cairo for a visitor — fixed fares in the app end the meter negotiation, cars are two to six minutes out around Tahrir and Zamalek, and cash or card both work; the Giza and Saqqara runs are where it saves the most over a street taxi.
Careem
Foreign number: accepted. — the code arrives by SMS on a foreign SIM, and the app verifies by email as a fallback.
The regional rival, same fixed-fare model and often a few pounds under Uber on the same trip; a larger fleet in Heliopolis and Nasr City than Uber and a useful second app when Uber surges around Khan el-Khalili on a Friday night.
Train Stations Near Hotel
Ramses Station
The city's main intercity rail terminus, serving trains to Alexandria, Luxor, and Aswan.
Day Trips by Train
Luxor · 3 hr
An open-air museum on the Nile: Karnak and Luxor temples on the east bank, the Valley of the Kings and Hatshepsut's mortuary temple on the west bank.
book at: Omio
Worth Knowing
A Tower Built to Insult the United States, in Full View of Its Embassy
The Cairo Tower exists because Gamal Abdel Nasser refused to be bought. A CIA operative reportedly handed Nasser a personal cash gift meant to steer him away from supporting African independence movements — an attempt at quiet influence Nasser found insulting enough to make public. Rather than pocket it, he redirected the entire sum to Egypt's government to fund a monumental tower, deliberately sited on Gezira Island so it would rise in plain view of the American Embassy across the Nile. Egyptians nicknamed it "Roosevelt's endowment" after the CIA officer involved; the phrase got garbled in translation into something considerably ruder once it reached Washington, and the tower's nickname among Americans stuck for decades as an inside joke about exactly who got the last laugh.
The rooftop where James Bond fought a henchman in The Spy Who Loved Me is a real, functioning museum. The Gayer-Anderson Museum is two 16th-century houses joined into one home by a British army doctor who spent years filling the rooms with furniture, textiles, and antiques collected across the region. The production shot Bond walking straight out of the Mosque of Ibn Tulun next door and into the "mansion of Fekkesh" — actually this house — before the rooftop chase scene. Decades later, both the mosque courtyard and the terrace look almost exactly as they did on camera.
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