Tour Overview
This is the budget way to see Cairo from Hurghada in a day: you travel on first-class bus tickets from Hurghada bus station to Cairo and back, and a private Egyptologist guide takes care of you in the city. The bus is a ticketed coach, not a private vehicle, so expect a long and tiring day. In Cairo you see the Giza Pyramids, the Grand Egyptian Museum, the Egyptian Museum, Al Muizz Street and Khan El Khalili, with lunch and entrance fees included.
Tour Highlights
- Keep the cost down with first-class bus seats between Hurghada and Cairo, and still have a private Egyptologist guide for your sightseeing in the city.
- See the Great Pyramid of Khufu, raised for a Fourth Dynasty king around 2560 BC and still the only Ancient Wonder standing today.
- Look for the Dream Stela between the paws of the Great Sphinx, set there by Thutmose IV about a thousand years after the Sphinx was carved.
- Walk past the 11-meter Ramses II into the Grand Egyptian Museum, where Tutankhamun's burial treasures are shown together for the first time.
- End in Islamic Cairo on Al Muizz Street and in Khan El Khalili, the city's best-known bazaar, before the bus home.
Tour Route
Bus, private car or plane: what is the difference for a Cairo day trip from Hurghada?
All three give you a private guide in Cairo. The bus is the most budget-minded way to get there: you ride a ticketed first-class coach shared with other passengers, leaving from the bus station on a fixed schedule. A private car or a flight costs more, but gives you more comfort or more time.
The Cairo day trip by private car covers the same road, but the car and guide stay with you from your hotel door. The Cairo day trip from Hurghada by plane replaces the road with two short flights. To break the journey with a night in Cairo, see the 2-day Cairo trip by bus.
Is a bus day trip from Hurghada to Cairo a good idea?
It suits travelers who want the Pyramids and Tutankhamun on a tight budget and do not mind a very long day. If you tire easily, travel with young children or want flexibility, a private car or a flight is easier, since the bus keeps to a timetable.
Which sights are on the Cairo day trip by bus?
The program in Cairo is as full as our day trip by plane, with entrance fees included at every stop. It covers the Old Kingdom at Giza, both of Cairo's great antiquities museums and the old streets of the medieval Islamic city.
- Giza plateau: the Great Pyramid, the Sphinx and the Valley Temple.
- Grand Egyptian Museum: Ramses II and the Tutankhamun galleries.
- Egyptian Museum: the historic collection in Tahrir Square.
- Al Muizz Street and Khan El Khalili: Islamic Cairo and its bazaar.
What should you take on the bus?
Bring your passport, a light jacket for the air-conditioning, a neck pillow, snacks and a charged phone with headphones. Wear comfortable shoes for Giza, and keep valuables in a small bag with you rather than in the luggage hold, as on any coach.
Tour Itinerary
This is one of the longest days among our Cairo trips: a bus ride at each end and a full program of sightseeing in between.
We pick you up from your hotel in Hurghada and drive you to Hurghada bus station, where your first-class tickets are ready. The coach is a regular ticketed service shared with other passengers. When it reaches Cairo, your private Egyptologist guide meets you, and from then on the guide works only with your group.
The three main pyramids belong to Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure, kings of the Fourth Dynasty. Khufu's Great Pyramid stood about 147 meters high when it was finished and held the record as the tallest building on earth for thousands of years. Your guide explains how it was planned and built.
The Sphinx was cut from the plateau's limestone with a lion's body and a royal head usually linked to Khafre. Between its paws is the Dream Stela of Thutmose IV. Next door, the granite Valley Temple is where the bodies of Fourth Dynasty kings were prepared for burial.
The Grand Egyptian Museum stands at the edge of the plateau, lined up with the pyramids. You see the Hanging Obelisk outside, the colossal Ramses II in the atrium and the Tutankhamun galleries, where the young king's full burial collection is displayed in one place.
Lunch is included at a restaurant overlooking the Pyramids or the Nile. After the early bus ride and a morning on your feet at Giza, it is a good chance to sit down in the shade, drink plenty of water and rest before central Cairo.
The Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square opened in the early 1900s and is one of the oldest archaeological museums in the Middle East. Its rooms hold statues, coffins, jewelry and papyri covering thousands of years of pharaonic history, much of it in the original wooden cases.
Al Muizz Street was the main avenue of Fatimid Cairo in the 10th century, and mosques, minarets and old houses still line it. Next to it, Khan El Khalili was built as a trading quarter in the 1380s and is still the place to shop for lanterns, spices and silver.
Your guide sees you to the bus for the first-class ride back to Hurghada. At Hurghada bus station, our driver meets you and takes you to your hotel. You get back late at night, so plan an easy morning the day after.
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.
At your hotel in Hurghada. Our driver takes you to Hurghada bus station for the first-class bus to Cairo, where your private guide meets you. In the evening you take the bus back, and our driver collects you at the Hurghada station and drives you to your hotel.
Hotel transfers to and from Hurghada bus station, first-class bus tickets both ways, a private Egyptologist guide in Cairo, lunch, mineral water, entrance fees to every site on the program, shopping stops in Cairo, and all taxes and service charges. Tips and extras outside the program are not included.
The guide is private and works only with your group, but the bus is a regular coach shared with other passengers. The per-person price falls as your group grows, because you share the guide's cost. Rates go up slightly in the busier months from October to March.
They can, but think carefully. It is a very long day with fixed bus departures, plenty of walking at Giza and the museums, and a late return. For small children, older travelers or anyone who tires easily, the private car or the plane is kinder.
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.
