Day tours during Ramadan: hours and pace

During Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting, Egypt's sites and museums keep their own hours, published site by site on the ticketing portal of the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities. Most Cairo and Alexandria sites on our tours stop letting visitors in at 3 or 3:30 p.m. instead of 4 p.m. or later. Most Luxor and Aswan sites keep their usual opening and last entry.

Ramadan hours, site by site

The portal lists summer, winter and Ramadan hours for each site as an opening time and a last entry, the latest time the gate lets visitors in. The table compares them for the sites on our tours, as listed in August 2026. Ramadan's dates move from year to year, and our checked facts do not give them, so check the dates for your trip.

For the Giza pyramids, the Ministry's own Giza page gives 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. outside Ramadan, so the usual opening is 7 or 8 a.m. depending on the source. The Grand Egyptian Museum publishes its own hours, and our checked facts have no Ramadan hours for it. The usual hours for every site on our tours are in opening hours of the sites on our day tours.

How Ramadan hours change a tour day

The effect depends on where a tour's sites sit in the day.

• Alexandria in a day. The Alexandria city tour visits the Catacombs of Kom el-Shoqafa, the Roman Theater, Pompey's Pillar and the Qaitbay Citadel. In Ramadan all four take their last visitors at 3 p.m., and Qaitbay loses its usual late afternoon. The same four are on Alexandria in a day from Cairo, which first drives 216.1 km to the Catacombs, about 2 h 26 min without traffic. More on these places: Alexandria's Roman sites and the Bibliotheca and Qaitbay.
• Cairo days with afternoon sites. On the pyramids, Memphis and Saqqara tour, Saqqara and Memphis come after lunch; their Ramadan last entry is 3:30 p.m. and 3 p.m. On the Giza and Egyptian Museum tour and on Pyramids and both museums in a day, the Egyptian Museum comes after lunch, with a Ramadan last entry of 3 p.m. On Coptic and Islamic Cairo in a day, Al-Muizz Street comes after lunch, also with a Ramadan last entry of 3 p.m.
• Dendera and Abydos. The tour visits Abydos first, and in Ramadan Abydos opens at 9 a.m. instead of 7 a.m. See Dendera and Abydos.
• Luxor and Aswan. Karnak, Luxor Temple, Abu Simbel, Philae, Edfu and Kom Ombo keep the same hours, and the West Bank sites differ from summer only in an earlier last entry, 4 p.m.

The Ministry advises arriving at least one hour before a site's closing time. The pickup time is confirmed when you book, and where a tour allows it, a stop can be skipped or the order changed if you ask before booking, so give your dates in the request and ask how the day fits Ramadan hours.

Dress and lunch in Ramadan

UK travel advice (FCDO, checked August 2026) asks visitors to dress modestly, especially in rural areas, mosques and souqs, and notes that standards matter more during Ramadan; see what to wear and bring. Lunch is included on 30 of our tours, but the tours' data say nothing about how lunch runs during Ramadan, so ask when you book. Each tour page says whether lunch is included.