How hotel pickup works for Cairo day tours

Our tours based in Cairo start and end at your hotel in Cairo or Giza, with transfers in an air-conditioned vehicle and bottled water included; the one exception is the layover tour, which starts and ends at Cairo airport. None lists a pickup time. The first drive depends on your hotel area: the Giza pyramids are 1.8 km from a hotel in Giza near the pyramids, 16.5 km from Downtown or Zamalek and 45.3 km from New Cairo.

What the transfer includes

Most of our Cairo tours carry the same three lines in their included lists: pickup from your hotel and return, all transfers in a private air-conditioned vehicle, and bottled water. The Maxim dinner cruise words it differently: private round-trip transfers from your hotel in Cairo or Giza in an air-conditioned vehicle, an English-speaking tour leader and a driver, and bottled water during the transfers. Cairo on a layover lists a meet and greet at Cairo airport and return instead, and Luxor in a day from Cairo lists transfers to and from the airports in Cairo and Luxor; its flights are not included in the tour price. The tours' data say nothing more about the vehicle, such as its size or seating.

Who comes to your hotel

Four tours name the person who comes to your hotel in their stop lists, and the Maxim cruise names a tour leader and a driver among its inclusions. Most of the others list the pickup without saying who comes. On the layover tour your guide meets you in the airport terminal with a name sign, and a guide-only booking in Cairo meets you at your hotel, your cruise boat or the first site, as you choose. An Egyptologist is a guide trained in ancient Egyptian history and archaeology. The table shows every Cairo tour that says who meets you, and three examples that don't.

Drive to the first stop, by hotel area

Most of our Cairo tours to fixed sites carry drive figures for three hotel areas. They come from map routing without traffic, so read them as the shortest the drive can take, not a forecast.

From New Cairo, the shortest first drive in the table is 29.7 km, to the Al-Azhar Mosque, and the longest 52.8 km, to Dahshur. A hotel in Giza near the pyramids is 1.8 km from the plateau but 15.5 km from the Egyptian Museum, where two of the central Cairo tours start.

Drive back to your hotel

The return leg depends on where each tour ends, again without traffic.

On the sound and light show, dinner at a local restaurant comes after the show. The restaurant's location is not given, so that tour's return figures run from the plateau.

Pickup times

The clock times on our tour pages are approximate, and the pickup time is confirmed when you book. The sound and light show lists an evening pickup, the felucca sail runs in the morning or at sunset, and the days to Alexandria and Fayoum and the Luxor day by plane start with an early hotel pickup; for every tour, ask for the pickup time when you book. The sites' opening hours set the outer limits of a day tour, and the guide to the best time of day at Giza covers the plateau's.

Tours without area figures

The felucca ride, the Maxim cruise, the quad bike ride, the street food tour, the cooking class and the Tanoura show night include hotel pickup and return in Cairo or Giza, but the tours' data don't locate the riverbank, the boat, the quad center, the food stops, the class or the show, so this site gives no drive figures for them. The days out of Cairo give the drive back instead, without traffic: 221.5 km from the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, about 2 h 25 min, on the Alexandria day; 121.7 km from Tunis Village, about 1 h 34 min, on the Fayoum day; and 24.9 km from Cairo airport, about 27 min, after the Luxor flight. If your hotel is outside the three areas above, send its name through our contact page before you book.