- Our half-day Cairo tours run about 3 to 5 hours: the Giza pyramids and the Sphinx, one museum, the Citadel, Coptic Cairo or Islamic Cairo.
- The Grand Egyptian Museum is 6.8 km from the Sphinx, about 11 minutes without traffic.
- Outside Ramadan, the Giza plateau, Saqqara, Memphis, the Citadel and the Egyptian Museum all stop admitting visitors by 4 p.m.
- The Grand Egyptian Museum takes visitors later: last entry at 5 p.m., or 8 p.m. on Saturdays and Wednesdays, with a timed slot booked online in advance.
- The felucca sail and the quad ride are each about two hours, not counting the drives.
Six hours fits one of our half-day Cairo tours, about 3 to 5 hours each: the Giza pyramids and the Sphinx, one museum, the Citadel, Coptic Cairo or Islamic Cairo. Full days run longer, such as Giza pyramids and the Egyptian Museum at about 8 hours with lunch. Or pick sites close together, like the pyramids and the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM), or a felucca (traditional Nile sailboat) sail or quad ride of about two hours.
What is fixed, and what isn't
Each of our tours shows its day stop by stop, hotel to hotel, with drive distances and times from map routing without traffic. None of them fixes how many minutes you spend at a stop, so this guide doesn't either. Three things are fixed: the drives, the sites' opening hours, and lunch, which most of our full-day Cairo tours include at a local restaurant; the half days list no meal. Those set what a six-hour window can hold.
Half-day tours that fit six hours
Each of these starts and ends at your hotel in Cairo or Giza, with a private English-speaking Egyptologist (a guide trained in ancient Egyptian history) and the entrance fees included.
| Tour | What it covers | Length |
|---|---|---|
| Giza pyramids and the Sphinx, half day | The three pyramids, a viewpoint on the plateau, the Sphinx and the Valley Temple | About 4 hours |
| Grand Egyptian Museum with a guide | The Grand Hall, the Grand Staircase and the Tutankhamun Galleries | About 4 hours |
| The Egyptian Museum in Tahrir | The galleries of the older museum on Tahrir Square | About 4 hours |
| National Museum of Egyptian Civilization | The main hall and the Royal Mummies Hall | About 3 to 4 hours |
| The Citadel and Muhammad Ali Mosque | The Citadel of Saladin and the mosque inside it | About 3 to 4 hours |
| Coptic Cairo | The Hanging Church, the Church of St Sergius and the Ben Ezra Synagogue | About 4 hours |
| Islamic Cairo and Al-Muizz Street | The Al-Azhar Mosque, a walk along Al-Muizz Street and Khan El Khalili | About 4 to 5 hours |
The two museums, GEM and Tahrir, runs about 7 hours, a little over six. To compare one long day with two short ones, see one full day or two half days in Cairo.
