Makadi Bay has an advantage most guests don’t know about: Luxor is closer from here than from Hurghada. 260 kilometres instead of nearly 300, because you start south of the town and the road heads south anyway. Over a full day that saves a good hour.
Pickup is at quarter past four at your hotel and you are back around eight in the evening. In between: the Valley of the Kings, Hatshepsut’s temple and Karnak, with a licensed Egyptologist.
The essentials
| The essentials | |
|---|---|
| Distance to Luxor | 260 km |
| Driving time each way | 3.5 to 4 hours |
| Hotel pickup | 04:15 |
| Back at your hotel | around 20:00 |
| Total | around 16 hours |
| Time in Luxor | 6 to 7 hours |
| Group | private, your party only |
| Guide | licensed Egyptologist |
| Price | from $200 per person |
The drive from Makadi Bay
Straight south to Safaga, then onto the desert highway towards Qena – about 160 kilometres through the Eastern Desert. Then the Nile valley arrives, and within a few minutes the landscape switches from stone and sand to sugar cane and palms. The last sixty kilometres run along the river into Luxor.
Makadi Bay, Sahl Hasheesh and Soma Bay all sit on the same road out, so we collect you at your hotel directly – no detour into Hurghada and no meeting point.
How the day runs
| Time | What happens |
|---|---|
| 04:15 | Pickup at your hotel in Makadi Bay |
| around 08:15 | Arrive in Luxor, breakfast stop |
| morning | West Bank: Valley of the Kings, three tombs |
| then | Hatshepsut’s temple at Deir el-Bahari |
| midday | Lunch at a restaurant by the Nile |
| afternoon | East Bank: Karnak, and Luxor Temple if time allows |
| around 16:30 | Start back |
| around 20:00 | Back at your hotel in Makadi Bay |
The order is deliberate. The West Bank comes first because the tombs are still cool in the morning and the coaches have not arrived. Karnak is left for the afternoon, when the light softens and the day groups are already on their way home.
What you see in Luxor
Valley of the Kings. Three tombs are included. Which ones are open rotates, because the authorities close them in turn to protect the paintwork. Which are worth choosing, and when the extra ticket is worth it: which tombs to pick in the Valley of the Kings.
Hatshepsut’s temple. Three terraces cut into the cliff at Deir el-Bahari, built for the woman who ruled as pharaoh and whose name her successor had chiselled out of the walls. The gaps are still visible. The Colossi of Memnon are on the way past.
Karnak. The largest temple complex in Egypt, built and rebuilt for two thousand years. The hypostyle hall has 134 columns, the tallest around 21 metres. This is where most people lose their sense of scale.
What is included
- Hotel pickup and drop-off, door to door
- Private air-conditioned vehicle with driver for the whole day
- Private licensed Egyptologist guide in Luxor
- All entrance fees to the sites listed – nothing to pay at the gate
- Lunch at a Nile-side restaurant
- Bottled water throughout
What is not included
- Tombs that need a separate ticket, such as Tutankhamun or Seti I
- A dawn hot-air balloon, if you add one
- Drinks beyond water, and gratuities – what to tip in Egypt
Price
From $200 per person – a private tour, not a seat on a coach. That means your own car, your own guide, and a departure time set around you rather than around a bus manifest. Hotel pickup in Makadi Bay is included in the price; we confirm the exact time with your booking once we know which hotel you are in.
For rough context: a day in Luxor is sold in quite different forms. Large coach groups with a few hours on the ground start at around $55 or so per person; a private car with a licensed Egyptologist and all entrance fees included sits noticeably higher. Figures move with the season and with what is included, so treat this as orientation rather than a price comparison.
What you are paying for here is time on site, a guide who knows it, every entrance fee already covered, and no shopping stops.
What to bring
- Your passport. There are checkpoints on the desert road.
- Shoes you can walk in. Sand, stone slabs, steps down into the tombs.
- Sun cream, hat, sunglasses. Luxor is drier and hotter than the coast.
- Small notes in Egyptian pounds for drinks and tips.
- A layer for the drive out. The desert is cold before sunrise and the car is air-conditioned.
Who should not do this
Sixteen hours is still sixteen hours, even with the shorter drive. For children under about ten it is too much, and if you are diving in the days either side, leave a gap.
The tombs in the Valley of the Kings and the ground at Karnak are hard going with limited mobility – steps, uneven surfaces, almost no ramps. Tell us in advance and we adapt the day rather than leaving you waiting outside.
Staying somewhere else?
We run the same day from the other Red Sea towns. The drive differs; the day in Luxor does not:
- From El Gouna – 314 km, 4 to 4.5 hours each way
- From Marsa Alam – about 350 km, 4.5 to 5.5 hours each way
- From El Quseir – 218 km, 3 to 3.5 hours each way
- From Hurghada – the standard version, with full details and booking
If one day is not enough
A day trip shows you the highlights, but it stays a day trip. If you want Luxor properly, stay. Our dahabeya cruise starts in Luxor and sails on to Aswan – the same places, without a stopwatch. The West Bank day goes deeper into the tombs than a single visit allows.
Still weighing it up? We wrote honestly about whether Luxor is worth it from the Red Sea, and about when to come – the month you travel changes this day more than anything else.
Rather see the pyramids? The Pyramids day trip from Makadi Bay takes you to Giza and the Grand Egyptian Museum in one day, or by plane in half the time.
Ask us
Tell us which hotel in Makadi Bay you are in and which day you have in mind. We will confirm the pickup time and the price, and we will say so plainly if we think this is not the right day for you.