El Quseir is the closest point on the Red Sea to Luxor: 218 kilometres, a little over three hours. Against Marsa Alam that is a difference of up to four hours in a single day – and the reason this trip doesn’t become an ordeal from here.
Pickup at half past four, back around a quarter to eight in the evening. In between: the Valley of the Kings, Hatshepsut’s temple and Karnak, with a licensed Egyptologist who lives in Luxor.
The essentials
| The essentials | |
|---|---|
| Distance to Luxor | 218 km |
| Driving time each way | 3 to 3.5 hours |
| Hotel pickup | 04:30 |
| Back at your hotel | around 19:45 |
| Total | around 15 hours |
| Time in Luxor | 6 to 7 hours |
| Group | private, your party only |
| Guide | licensed Egyptologist |
| Price | from $200 per person |
The oldest road in Egypt
The route from El Quseir to Qift is not an ordinary desert highway. It follows the Wadi Hammamat, and this way has been in use for more than four thousand years. The pharaohs quarried the dark green bekhen stone here for sarcophagi and statues; later Roman caravans and Arab pilgrims bound for Mecca came through the same valley.
Hundreds of inscriptions are still on the rock faces – hieroglyphs, Greek and Arabic lines, marks left by expeditions that passed through. You won’t pick them out at speed, but it changes something to know where you are driving. Your guide will tell you on the way.
After Qift you reach the Nile valley, then it is about forty kilometres along the river into Luxor.
How the day runs
| Time | What happens |
|---|---|
| 04:30 | Pickup at your hotel in El Quseir |
| around 08:00 | 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 19:45 | Back at your hotel in El Quseir |
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 El Quseir 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
Fifteen hours is still a long day, and half past four is still half past four. But of the four coastal towns this is the only one where we happily recommend the trip to families with older children – from about ten years old it works.
The tombs in the Valley of the Kings are narrow, warm and reached by steps. If you are claustrophobic or have limited mobility, tell us beforehand and we will build the day another way rather than leaving you 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 Makadi Bay – 260 km, 3.5 to 4 hours each way
- From Marsa Alam – about 350 km, 4.5 to 5.5 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.
Ask us
Tell us which hotel in El Quseir 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.