Top Cairo Layover Tours

Bishoy was our tour guide for this trip. He was very knowledgeable, kind and did what we wanted to do vs what the tour stated. He took us to a restaurant we would prefer rather than what the tour had listed and we really enjoyed that. We went to different shops perfumery, spices and then to Khan E Khalil Market. Definitely recommend Bishoy as he demeaned was very sophisticated and respectful unlike the other 4 tour guides we faced!

Great half day trip to Saqqara , Memphis etc. As it was our first day in Giza , we wanted to get Cairo pass in Giza ticket office and our guide helped us to sort that out before heading south which we appreciated their flexibility. The tour was also fantastic, going inside the pyramids was my highlight

We did the 4 days 3 night cruise from Aswan to Luxor on the golden boat. The ship has been restored the rooms are clean and comfy. Our guide Talaat Abdo was very good ! Explains history on the spot very well! Easy to understand and we had a lot of fun together. Hai bibi!

Our group had an excellent time in this tour. Just know that you will be on the go and there will be plenty of walking so be sure to get your rest. Our point of contact, Bassant was very detail oriented and stayed on top of coordinating everything. She also checked in with us every day to make sure that things were going as planned. I appreciated her attentiveness. In our group some of us bought the hotel upgrade while others didn't. Afterwards, the consensus was that if they could go back in time everyone would do the upgrade. Our tour guide in Giza for the pyramids and Sphinx, Abbas, was great! Very personable, perfect English, knowledgeable and just overall pleasant to be around. The train ride to Aswan was interesting. To be clear, the tour company neither owns nor operated the trains so nothing mentioned is any fault of theirs. We did the sleeper cars and while functional, the train was simply dilapidated. There's just no way to sugarcoat it. The cabins are small, but that was no surprise. Some members of the group didn't feel that the cabins were clean to their standards. However, if you're the type who sprays disinfectant on your hotel sheets before sleeping on them, just do the same here and you should be fine. I hadn't been on a train ride since I was a kid so I actually enjoyed the overnight ride despite the outdated trains. In Aswan there was someone waiting to meet us and we were just on the go non-stop from there. We boarded the Royal La Terrasse. It was a nice enough riverboat. I had no complaints with it, besides the shockingly firm mattress in the cabin. The food at the lunch and dinner buffets was consistently great. The breakfast buffets were hit or miss. The thing that I didn't care for about day trip to Abu Simbel is that you have to get up very early and then wait until the road there is opened. We were at a standstill in the van for roughly 65 minutes waiting to gain access to the road. In addition to the included visits to temples such as Abu Simbel, we also did an optional visit to Nubian Village. Our days were full and there wasn't actually that much cruising time on the riverboat. I do have to rave about our tour guide for Aswan & Luxor, Wafa. He was tremendous. He always had a big smile on his face and his eyes lit up when talking about the ancient Egyptians even though I'm sure he's done these tours dozens or even hundreds of times. He genuinely seems to love what he's talking about. In Luxor after seeing more temple such as the enormous Karnak Temple, Wafa suggested a relaxing day trip to a banana farm. However, we were just too worn out to consider and opted to remain at the very nice Lotus Hotel and enjoy the pool and other amenities there. If you still have energy left at this point it may very well be worth it to check out the farm. We took the train back up to Cairo and it was a bit nicer than the first train. In Cairo we finished up the trip withan optional city tour with Abbas to see the Citadel and Khan el-Khalili, which was very fascinating. All in all it was a fun and educational jam packed tour, you just have to the stamina for it. The kids sketchy part of the tour is that the guides will take you to various merchants to see interesting things, such as papyrus artwork, an alabaster factory, an essence manufacturer, jewelry makers, etc. While these places are fascinating, they are quite obviously set ups for these places to try to sell their products to a captive audience. It's easy enough to say "No, thank you", but it still felt off to me. Regardless, I would still recommend this tour, just be aware of what's in store.

What a great way to see Cairo during a layover! Landed at around 6 a.m., got our visa (NOTE: if you’re flying EgyptAir, they offered a free visa at the EgyptAir Transit Office, which is on the right as you make your way towards passport control, instead of paying one of the banks), then we went outside to meet our guide. The exit of the airport is chaos but we found our tour guide, Mahmoud Hoka, pretty quickly and we were on our way! Mahmoud and our driver, Amr, were fantastic. We headed straight to the pyramids, got some great pictures, had a camel ride, walked around and went to the Sphinx. We then went to a couple stores (no real pressure to buy anything, but we got some stuff), had lunch, then finished at the museum to see the King Tut exhibit). And then Amr got us back to the airport in time for our connecting flight. We can fully recommend this tour and our guide. Thanks for the unforgettable day!

Our driver was friendly and prompt. He also helped us locate my husband who landed in a different terminal than me. Note - there will be two “drivers” in the car for this one. There was a person driving and a second person coordinating with me and chatting us up during the drive. Make sure to tip both people.

Booking for transfers in advance of my trip was super easy. I received confirmation easily and reminders a few days before the transfer plus phone numbers to contact in case of inquiries or changes. This is the third time I used Viator and am very pleased with their service.

Khirad did FANTASTIC and went above and beyond for us after we had issues with delay in flight and delay through customs. We were met, picked up, and then driver to our hotel without any worries. I would not travel with anyone else in Egypt as he did such a good job. Friendly, caring, and incredibly helpful. If you are going to Cairo you MUST request him specifically. We will definitely use him when we come back!! Thank you again for all of your help Khirad!