Egypt Destinations

Cairo and Giza are where the ancient monuments and the museums are — the pyramids, the Sphinx and the Tutankhamun collection, all within reach of one another. Head south and the character changes: Luxor is temples and tombs at a density found nowhere else, while Aswan is slower, a stretch of wide river with Philae, Nubian villages and the road to Abu Simbel.

The coasts are a different country again. Hurghada and Sharm El Sheikh are Red Sea towns built around reef diving and beach time, and they pair naturally with a run of early starts at the temples. Alexandria faces the Mediterranean instead, with Greco-Roman remains along a seafront that feels closer to southern Europe than to Upper Egypt.

Most itineraries combine two or three of these. Which combination works depends on how long you have and what you came for.