Cairo
A city where distance is measured in hours of traffic — and where the pyramids stand at the end of a suburban street
- When to go
- September 29° · 0 rainy days
- Per day
- €€price 2 of 5
- How many days
- 3days
- For you
- 6 questions →
- Nearest airport
- 15 km Cairo · 34 km Sphinx
- Right now
Cairo is planned by traffic, not by map: the pyramids and the Grand Egyptian Museum are on the west bank of the Nile and share a day, Islamic and Coptic Cairo are on the east, and between them lie fifteen kilometres in a straight line through the centre, which you do not cross at midday. Three days are enough if every morning starts early and the metro is used wherever it goes.
The pyramids are a suburb, not an excursion. Giza is part of the city, the plateau opens at eight and the first two hours are the only ones without the midday heat. Entry to the plateau for foreigners is €12; going inside the Great Pyramid is charged separately, €25, and there is nothing inside but a narrow passage and an empty chamber, so for most people it is not worth it. The Grand Egyptian Museum, opened in November 2025, is two kilometres away, and tickets are sold only on its own website, for a date and a time slot — never at the door. The museum needs three hours, and after the pyramids, not before.
You cross the city by metro whenever a line runs the right way: three lines, a ticket of €0.20–0.30 by number of stops, and carriages reserved for women. For everything else there are Uber and Careem, paid by card, which take the haggling out of taxis. Islamic and Coptic Cairo are two days, not one: Islamic Cairo is walked from the northern gate to the Citadel and is best in the late afternoon when the stalls light up, while Coptic Cairo is a single morning that pairs with Saqqara.
Baksheesh is part of the price of everything and is accepted in advance: the guard who opens a tomb, the man who shows the way, the waiter — small notes in a pocket solve half the awkwardness. The other half is solved by one rule: anyone who approaches you to offer help is selling something. This is not a dangerous city but a tiring one; after three days you leave for Luxor with relief, and that is normal.
Guides for Cairo
Shorter, practical pages for one concrete question each — how many days, how much money, where to sleep, where to escape the city.
Cairo in 3 days
→Three days in which Giza is done at eight in the morning, the Grand Museum the same afternoon, and Islamic and Coptic…
Day trips from Cairo
→Saqqara and Dahshur half an hour away, Alexandria by train, the Fayoum with waterfalls in the desert, and the White…
Where to stay in Cairo
→Zamalek, downtown around Tahrir, Giza or Maadi — four districts choosing between quiet, the metro, pyramids from a…
What Cairo costs
→Cairo is cheap for everything except tickets — Giza, the Grand Museum, the Citadel and Saqqara over three days cost as…
What to eat in Cairo
→Ful and ta'ameya for breakfast, koshari for lunch, kebab and kofta at night — Cairo's food is cheap, street-level and…
What to see in Cairo
The Giza pyramids
Three great pyramids and the Sphinx. From the gate, walk to the viewpoint behind the third pyramid where all three line up, and leave before noon. The camel and the guide are not taken from the first person who approaches.
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The Grand Egyptian Museum
The complete Tutankhamun collection, shown in one place for the first time, and the colossus of Ramesses II in the atrium. Three hours is the minimum.
Islamic Cairo
Al-Muizz street from Bab al-Futuh to Bab Zuweila: a kilometre of mosques, madrasas and palaces from the 10th to the 19th century. The street itself needs no ticket; a combined ticket of €3.70 opens the Qalawun complex and seven more buildings, and Bayt al-Suhaymi is paid separately. Khan el-Khalili is the market halfway along — the souvenirs at the entrance are imported, the workshops deeper in hammer copper and brass.
Coptic Cairo
The Hanging Church above a Roman gate, the church of St Sergius with the crypt where tradition puts the Holy Family, and the Ben Ezra synagogue. All in one quarter by the Mar Girgis metro station, and all within one morning.
The Citadel and the Muhammad Ali mosque
Saladin's fortress above the city, with a 19th-century alabaster mosque and a view over all of Cairo to the pyramids when there is no smog. Combined with Islamic Cairo, by taxi up and on foot down.
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Saqqara
The step pyramid of Djoser, fourteen kilometres south of the Giza pyramids in a straight line, and the nobles' tombs of Ti and Mereruka with reliefs that still hold their colour. Done after Coptic Cairo, with a driver who waits.
Two things you probably did not know
The Great Pyramid was the tallest structure in the world for almost four thousand years, until Lincoln cathedral overtook it. Its sides are aligned to the compass points with an error of less than a twentieth of a degree.
Cleopatra lived closer in time to the opening of the first pizza shop than to the building of the Great Pyramid. The pyramid went up around 2560 BC, and Cleopatra lived in the first century BC.
Ready for Cairo?
Within reach from here
Places sorted by straight-line distance from Cairo — day trips or weekends.
Egypt
→Two countries under one name: the Nile with its temples, which needs a plan, and the Red Sea, which needs only a charter — few people do both in one trip
Tunisia
→Ten towns in a line, from the capital to the sand at Tozeur — in the order they're actually travelled, not listed
Morocco
→The north by train, the south by road, and in July you leave Marrakech for the coast
Turkey
→Istanbul, then one direction: Cappadocia by plane, Ephesus and Pamukkale by train, or the Lycian coast by bus
All 277 places we write about sit on one page — narrow them down by continent, country, price or what you are travelling for.
Within reach from here: Alexandria, Dahab and Sharm el-Sheikh
See how much of that actually suits you — or pin Cairo if you have been.
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