Tour Overview
This private 2-day trip from Marsa Alam gives Luxor the time it needs. A car drives you across the desert to the Nile, where your Egyptologist guide shows you Karnak and Luxor Temple, followed by a boat ride to lunch on an island. After a rest at your 5-star hotel you return to Karnak for the Sound and Light Show. On day two you cross to the West Bank for the Valley of the Kings, Hatshepsut Temple and the Colossi of Memnon before the drive home.
Tour Highlights
- See both banks of Luxor at an easier pace than a day trip, with a night in a 5-star hotel between the East Bank and the West Bank.
- Visit Karnak and Luxor Temple on the same afternoon, the two great temples of Amun once joined by a nearly three-kilometer Avenue of Sphinxes.
- Take a boat on the Nile to an island for lunch, a quiet break between the temples and a chance to see the river up close.
- Return to Karnak after dark for the Sound and Light Show, when the pylons, columns and sacred lake are lit and the story of Thebes is told.
- Spend the second morning on the West Bank at the Valley of the Kings, Hatshepsut's terraced temple and the Colossi of Memnon.
Tour Route
Is a 2-day Luxor trip better than a day trip from Marsa Alam?
If you can spare the night, yes. The day trip fits the West Bank and Karnak into one long day with the drive at both ends. With two days you add Luxor Temple, a boat ride on the Nile and the evening show at Karnak, and you spread the road time over two days.
What is the Karnak Sound and Light Show like?
It is an evening walk through the temple, not a seated show. Lights move across the pylons, the hypostyle hall and the statues while a recorded narration tells the history of Thebes. The visit ends at seats beside the sacred lake for the final part of the program.
Bring a light jacket in winter, since evenings in Luxor can be cool, and wear shoes you can walk in on uneven ground in the dark.
What is the difference between Luxor's East Bank and West Bank?
The ancient Egyptians placed the living on the east side of the Nile, where the sun rises, and the dead on the west, where it sets. So the East Bank holds the great temples of Karnak and Luxor, while the West Bank holds the royal tombs and the mortuary temples.
- East Bank, day one: Karnak, Luxor Temple and the Sound and Light Show.
- West Bank, day two: Valley of the Kings, Hatshepsut Temple and the Colossi of Memnon.
How is this different from the other Luxor trips from Marsa Alam?
The private Luxor day trip from Marsa Alam covers the West Bank and Karnak in one day, without Luxor Temple or the show. This 2-day trip stays in Luxor overnight, while the 2-day Luxor and Aswan trip takes the train south and spends day two in Aswan.
For the rest of what Luxor offers, from the Valley of the Queens to a hot-air balloon at sunrise, see all our Luxor day tours.
Tour Itinerary
Day one is the busier day, with the drive, two temples, lunch by boat and an evening show; day two is a West Bank morning followed by lunch and the road back.
We collect you early from your hotel in Marsa Alam in a private air-conditioned car. The road leaves the coast and climbs into the mountains of the Eastern Desert before dropping to the green strip of the Nile Valley. In Luxor your private Egyptologist guide joins you for the rest of the trip.
Karnak was the religious heart of ancient Thebes, dedicated to Amun, his wife Mut and their son Khonsu, and kings kept adding to it for some two thousand years. Your guide takes you through the hypostyle hall with its forest of 134 columns, past obelisks and statues, to the sacred lake.
Luxor Temple stands on the riverbank in the center of town. It was built mainly by Amenhotep III and Ramesses II and was the stage for the yearly Opet festival, when the statue of Amun traveled here from Karnak. Look for the remaining obelisk and the mosque built into its courtyard.
A boat carries you across the Nile to an island, where lunch is included. It is a calm hour on the water after the temples, with fields, palms and feluccas around you. Afterward you check in at your 5-star hotel and have time to rest and freshen up.
In the evening we pick you up again for the Sound and Light Show at Karnak. You walk through the temple as lights pick out the gateways and columns and a narration tells the story of Thebes and its kings, ending with a view over the sacred lake. Afterward you are driven back to your hotel.
After breakfast at the hotel you check out and cross to the West Bank with your guide. In the Valley of the Kings, pharaohs of the 18th to 20th dynasties were buried in about 63 known tombs, from Seti I to Tutankhamun. Your ticket includes entry to a selection of them.
Hatshepsut's temple at Deir el-Bahari rises in three terraces against a sheer limestone cliff, built for one of the few women who ruled Egypt as pharaoh. Nearby you stop at the Colossi of Memnon, two huge seated statues of Amenhotep III that once fronted his mortuary temple.
Your second included lunch is at a restaurant with a view of the Nile. Then the private car drives you back across the desert to your hotel in Marsa Alam, where the trip ends. Keep some water and snacks handy for the road.
What's Included
What the tour price covers, and what to plan for separately.
Paid
★
Your
Own
Frequently Asked Questions
Quick answers about this tour. For anything else, message us on WhatsApp — we reply fast.
It starts at your hotel in Marsa Alam, where our private car picks you up early on day one for the drive to Luxor. It ends at the same hotel on the afternoon or evening of day two, after the West Bank sites, lunch and the drive back across the desert.
The price includes one night in a 5-star hotel in Luxor with breakfast, two lunches, the Karnak Sound and Light Show, the Nile boat trip, a qualified Egyptologist guide, private air-conditioned transfers, entrance fees to all sites in the program, and taxes. Dinner, drinks and tips are not included.
Yes. The guide and car are only for you and your companions. The per-person price goes down as the group gets larger, since the guide, car and fuel are shared, and it changes with the season, as Luxor hotels charge more in winter and over Christmas and New Year.
Yes. After lunch on the island you check in at your hotel and have free time to shower and rest before we pick you up again for Karnak. That break is why this trip feels less rushed than doing Luxor in a single day from the coast.
Yes. Avicon Travel is a Class "A" travel agency licensed by the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism under License No. 1962 and registered since 2010. Our office and team are in Karnak, Luxor, so the guides, drivers and cars on this tour are our own local team, not a booking desk abroad.
