Day trips, honestly
Elsewhere in the guide
Excursions are where most visitors spend the most money on the worst information, because nearly everything written about them is written by someone selling them. We sell none of these. Each page leads with how long the day really is — door to door, not the brochure figure — and ends with whether it is worth doing. Last reviewed 1 August 2026.
Why there are no prices here
The same trip sells at three times the price a hundred metres apart, and any figure we printed would be wrong within a season. What is durable is how the price is set and what is quietly left out of it, so that is what each page tells you instead.
All six, side by side
2 of these 6 run twelve hours or more door to door, and the longest reaches 20 — most of it sitting down. They are sold beside a four-hour desert ride under the same word. Ranges cover every way a trip is sold, so Cairo's low figure is the flight and its high one is the coach.
| Trip | Kind | Door to door |
|---|---|---|
| Cairo and the pyramids | Culture | 12–20 hrs |
| Luxor in a day | Culture | 15–17 hrs |
| Giftun island boat day | Sea | 8–9 hrs |
| Orange Bay and Paradise Island | Family | 8–9 hrs |
| Dolphin House | Sea | 7–8 hrs |
| Desert safari and quad biking | Desert | 4–6 hrs |
Culture
Luxor in a day
Karnak, the Valley of the Kings and the Colossi of Memnon, reached by a four-hour drive each way. The most rewarding thing you can do from this coast, and the most exhausting.
Fifteen to seventeen hours door to door
Cairo and the pyramids
Giza, the Sphinx and the Egyptian Museum — by road it is a punishing day, and by plane it is a genuinely good one.
By road, 18–20 hours door to door with roughly 12 of them in a vehicle
Sea
Giftun island boat day
The standard Hurghada day out — two or three snorkel stops and a few hours on an island beach, inside a protected area.
Eight to nine hours door to door, of which perhaps four are actually on the water and two on a beach
Dolphin House
A boat trip to Shaab El Erg, a horseshoe reef with a resident spinner dolphin pod — a good easy snorkel with a genuine but uncertain chance of dolphins.
Seven to eight hours door to door, with about an hour’s crossing each way
Desert
Family
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