4 Days in Cairo & the Pyramids

A day-by-day itinerary for Cairo, Egypt: real activities, restaurants and hotels with prices and booking links. Copy it and make it yours.

Cairo, Egypt · 4 days · 17 activities · free to copy and customize

Day 1 — Land, then the Nile at dusk

13:00 Ride from Cairo airport (CAI) (350 EGP). ≈350 EGP by Uber — use the app, skip the terminal hustle. Visa-on-arrival is 25 USD cash at the bank counters BEFORE immigration.
15:00 Zamalek hotel, 3 nights (6,000 EGP). ≈2,000 EGP/night on the island — leafy, walkable, and a taxi-ride equidistant from Giza and the old city.
17:30 Felucca sail on the Nile (300 EGP). ≈300 EGP for the boat for an hour — split it. Lateen sails, no motor, the city going gold.
20:00 Koshary at Abou Tarek (120 EGP). ≈120 EGP for the national dish: pasta, rice, lentils, crispy onions, defiance of categorization.

07:30 Giza plateau at opening (700 EGP). 700 EGP entry, 08:00 gates. Beat the tour buses by an hour and the panoramic point is yours. Camel rides: agree the price AND the dismount fee BEFORE mounting — ≈500 EGP for 30 min is fair.
09:30 Inside the Great Pyramid (optional) (1,500 EGP). ≈1,500 EGP extra, limited tickets. A steep, hot, hands-and-knees corridor to an empty granite room — history, not comfort. Skip if claustrophobic; the outside is the show.
11:00 The Sphinx. Included with plateau entry, viewed from the temple enclosure.
13:00 Lunch overlooking the plateau (250 EGP). ≈250 EGP at the pizza-with-a-pyramid-view places — you pay for the window, knowingly.
17:00 Khan el-Khalili & El Fishawy (100 EGP). Free to wander the 14th-century bazaar; mint tea at El Fishawy (open ~24h since 1773) ≈100 EGP. Haggling is the sport, not an insult — start at a third.

09:00 Grand Egyptian Museum (1,450 EGP). ≈1,450 EGP, TIMED — book online. The full Tutankhamun collection under one roof at last, with the solar boat next door. Give it the whole morning.
13:00 Lunch near the museum (200 EGP).
14:30 Saqqara & the Step Pyramid (900 EGP). ≈900 EGP. Djoser's step pyramid is the first monumental stone building on earth — a century older than Giza and a fraction of the crowd. Hire a driver for the afternoon (≈1,200 EGP round trip).
19:30 Dinner in Zamalek (300 EGP).

09:00 Coptic Cairo. Free (donations). The Hanging Church, Ben Ezra synagogue and a Roman fortress gate, stacked a millennium deep in three lanes.
11:00 Citadel & Muhammad Ali Mosque (550 EGP). ≈550 EGP. Ottoman domes above the whole smoggy, magnificent sprawl — on a clear day you can see the pyramids you started with.
13:00 Ful & ta'ameya lunch (100 EGP). ≈100 EGP. Egypt's falafel is fava, not chickpea, and Egypt is right.
15:00 Uber to the airport (350 EGP). Allow 3 hours before departure — Cairo traffic is a law of nature.

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