Do you need a guide at Egypt's temples and pyramids?

You can visit Egypt's sites on your own: the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities sells site tickets per visitor on its ticketing portal, and the Grand Egyptian Museum sells timed tickets online. A guide adds the explanation, and a tour adds the tickets and the driving. Most of our day tours include a guide, 44 of them an Egyptologist, and in four cities you can book a guide alone.

On your own, on a tour or with a guide only: what changes

Egyptologist, guide or tour leader: what the tours list

An Egyptologist is a guide trained in ancient Egyptian history. The guide line on each tour page says who comes with you.

Booking a guide only

In four cities you can book a licensed guide of your own, without a set program, for the sites and the hours you choose, for a half day or a full day: a guide in Cairo (for Cairo and Giza), in Luxor, in Aswan and in Alexandria. The guide speaks English, Spanish, Portuguese, German, French or Italian, and meets you at your hotel, your cruise boat or the first site. A car and driver and the entrance fees are not part of the booking, but either can be added on request; lunch and tipping are not included. No price is published for a guide only: the price comes with the quote, together with the plan for your day.

What the guide covers at the sites

The tours' stop notes say what the guide does at several sites:

• At Philae Temple, reached by motorboat, the guide explains the temple's myths and its UNESCO-led relocation.
• At the Aswan High Dam, the guide explains the dam's role in the economy, farming and electricity.
• At the Grand Egyptian Museum, the visit with an Egyptologist includes the Grand Hall with the statue of King Ramses II and the Tutankhamun collection.
• At Karnak, the visit includes the Hypostyle Hall, a hall whose roof rests on rows of columns, and Hatshepsut's obelisk.
• In the Valley of the Kings, the burial ground of New Kingdom pharaohs, you enter decorated tombs.

Tickets a guide does not cover

Some tickets stay separate on a tour. Going inside the Great Pyramid is an optional extra on 12 tours, and the Tutankhamun tomb ticket in the Valley of the Kings on 7. The Luxor West Bank tour also lists camera tickets inside the Valley of the Kings tombs as not included, and 71 tours list tipping as not included.

A student ticket needs a valid student ID, and the student must be 24 or younger.

Which one suits your day

For one site near your hotel, with time to read beforehand, your own ticket does the job. A day that links several sites is where a tour helps most: the West Bank tour drives from the Colossi of Memnon to Hatshepsut's temple (4.3 km), the Valley of the Kings (6.3 km), Medinet Habu (8.3 km) and Deir el-Medina (1.9 km), with the entrance fees included. Between the two, a guide only gives you the explanation without a set program: it suits a day when you want it in Spanish, Portuguese, German, French or Italian, since the day tours list an English-speaking guide, or when you would rather choose the sites and hours yourself. What "private" means on these tours is in private day tours in Egypt, and what to check first is in questions to ask before you book.