Hurghada to Luxor is about 290 kilometres and roughly four hours each way. The day starts around four in the morning at your hotel and ends around eight in the evening. In between: the Valley of the Kings, Hatshepsut’s temple and Karnak, with a licensed Egyptologist who lives in Luxor.
It is a long day and we say so before you book. What you get for it is more pharaonic architecture in one day than anywhere else in Egypt.
The essentials
| The essentials | |
|---|---|
| Distance to Luxor | about 290 km |
| Driving time each way | 4 to 5 hours, including stops and checkpoints |
| Hotel pickup | around 04:00 |
| Back at your hotel | around 20:00 |
| Total | around 16 hours |
| Time in Luxor | 5 to 6 hours |
| Group | private, your party only |
| Guide | licensed Egyptologist who lives in Luxor |
| Price | from $200 per person |
The drive from Hurghada
The road runs south through Safaga, then turns inland onto the desert highway to Qena, and from there follows the Nile into Luxor. It is a good two-lane road; the landscape is flat, brown and empty, which is exactly why sunrise over the Eastern Desert is one of the better hours of the day.
Hurghada is the shortest of the main Red Sea drives to Luxor after El Quseir, which is why the pickup here is a little later than from El Gouna. We collect you at your hotel wherever you are staying in town, from the marina to Sahl Hasheesh, and we set the exact time around your hotel rather than around a fixed route.
How the day runs
| Time | What happens |
|---|---|
| around 04:00 | Pickup at your hotel in Hurghada |
| 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 |
| late afternoon | Start back |
| around 20:00 | Back at your hotel in Hurghada |
The order is deliberate. The West Bank comes first because the tombs are still cool in the morning. Karnak is left for the afternoon, when the light softens and the columns throw long shadows across the hall.
What you see in Luxor
Valley of the Kings. Three tombs are included. Which ones are open rotates, so that the paintwork can rest. 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 in Hurghada, 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, so there is nothing to settle 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
Price
From $200 per person. That buys your own car, your own guide, and a departure time set around you. Hotel pickup in Hurghada is included; we confirm the exact time with your booking once we know which hotel you are in.
A day in Luxor is sold in quite different forms, and the prices reflect quite different days. What you are paying for here is time on site, a guide who knows it, and every entrance fee already covered.
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 think twice
Sixteen hours, eight or nine of them in a car, is a lot for small children. If you are travelling with children and still want Luxor, two days with a night there works far better, and we plan that regularly.
If long car journeys do not agree with you, weigh it honestly. And if you have limited mobility, the tombs and Karnak are demanding: steps, uneven ground, few ramps. Tell us beforehand and we build the day differently.
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 El Quseir - 218 km, 3 to 3.5 hours each way
- From Marsa Alam - about 350 km, 4.5 to 5.5 hours each way
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, because the month you travel changes this day more than anything else.
Rather see the pyramids? The Pyramids day trip from Hurghada takes you to Giza and the Grand Egyptian Museum in one day, or by plane in half the time. Undecided between the two? Is a day trip from Hurghada to Cairo worth it?
Ask us
Tell us which hotel in Hurghada you are in and which day you have in mind. We plan for you, with you: 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.
Which half of Luxor a single day should go to, and why the answer changes with the season: east bank or west bank.