Luxor, Egypt 5 Day Itinerary

Day 1: Arrival and Karnak Temple

Luxor splits cleanly into East Bank, where you sleep and eat, and West Bank, where almost all the tombs and mortuary temples sit. Keep that geography straight from day one, it shapes every transfer decision below.

• Accommodation: The Sofitel Winter Palace is the grand old choice for a splurge, colonial-era gardens and a genuinely historic building rather than a themed lobby. For mid-range, the Steigenberger Nile Palace sits right on the Corniche with Nile views from most rooms. Budget travelers do well at smaller Corniche guesthouses rather than the big chain names, ask specifically for a room with a river-facing balcony since the price difference is often small.
• Transportation: Taxis don’t run meters here, agree the fare before you get in, every time, even for a five-minute hop. A full day with a driver covering multiple sites runs a fraction of what a Western tour company will quote you if you book independently through your hotel instead.
• Activities: Karnak Temple is bigger than most visitors expect, plan two to three hours minimum for the Great Hypostyle Hall’s forest of columns and the Sacred Lake. Go at opening time if you can, the heat and the crowds both build fast after 10am.
• Eating out: Try a small East Bank spot serving proper koshary and grilled fish rather than the hotel buffet on night one, it sets a useful baseline for what local prices should look like for the rest of the trip.
• Things to know: Dress modestly at temples, shoulders and knees covered. Carry more bottled water than feels necessary, Luxor’s dry heat dehydrates faster than humid climates make you feel.

Day 2: Valley of the Kings and Valley of the Queens

• Activities: The standard Valley of the Kings ticket runs about 750 Egyptian pounds for foreign adults and covers entry to three tombs from a rotating list of roughly ten open at any time, the specific tombs open change periodically so ask which three are included the day you go. Tutankhamun’s tomb (KV62) is a separate add-on ticket, about 700 pounds, and it’s genuinely worth it for the burial chamber’s painted walls even though the tomb itself is small, this was Howard Carter’s 1922 discovery and the only virtually intact royal tomb found in the valley. Seti I’s tomb is the deepest and most elaborately decorated in the valley but carries a steep separate ticket, closer to 2,000 pounds, reserve that splurge for travelers who really want the single best-painted tomb over ticking off more sites.
• Lunch: Pack lunch or eat at one of the small cafes clustered near the valley’s entrance, prices there run higher than in town but it saves a return trip.
• Afternoon: The Colossi of Memnon, two enormous eroded statues of Amenhotep III still standing in open fields, take five minutes to see and are free to view from the road. Follow with the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahri, its clean colonnaded terraces cut into the cliffside are unlike anything else on the West Bank and photograph best in the softer light of mid to late afternoon.
• My take: Skip the Valley of the Queens if you’re tight on time and have already paid for Tutankhamun’s tomb, Nefertari’s tomb there is the real draw but requires yet another expensive separate ticket and frequent closures for conservation.

Day 3: Luxor Temple and the West Bank workers’ village

• Activities: Luxor Temple sits right in the East Bank city center and is best visited either early morning or after dark, when it’s lit and the crowds thin dramatically, the avenue of sphinxes connecting it to Karnak has been fully excavated and walkable in recent years.
• Lunch: Eat at a Corniche-facing restaurant with Nile views for a relaxed midday break between temple visits.
• Afternoon: Cross back to the West Bank for Medinet Habu, Ramesses III’s mortuary temple, which gets a fraction of the Valley of the Kings crowds despite carvings just as vivid, and the Ramesseum, Ramesses II’s temple that inspired Shelley’s Ozymandias. If you have energy left, Deir el-Medina, the actual village where the tomb builders and artisans lived, gives a different and more human angle on ancient Luxor than any royal tomb does.
• The public ferry between banks costs a few pounds each way and takes about ten minutes, motorboats charge more but save time if you’re short on it. Don’t let a driver talk you into an expensive private boat when the public crossing is right there and just as fast.

Day 4: Sunrise balloon and a Nile felucca

• Activities: A hot air balloon at dawn over the West Bank’s temples and fields is the one splurge locals and repeat visitors both recommend without hesitation, expect to pay somewhere between 50 and 120 US dollars depending on group size and operator, and only book through a licensed company since informal touts have a track record of no-shows and cancelled flights blamed vaguely on weather. Pickup is absurdly early, often before 4:30am, but the light over the Theban hills is worth the alarm.
• Lunch: Take it easy after the early wakeup, a simple East Bank cafe works fine.
• Afternoon: A felucca ride on the Nile, the traditional wide-sailed boat that’s worked this river for centuries, runs roughly 8 to 12 dollars an hour and is best taken toward sunset when the light on the water turns properly gold. This is a slow, low-key way to see the West Bank skyline from the river rather than the road.
• Things to know: Negotiate the felucca rate before boarding, and confirm whether the quoted price is per boat or per person, that ambiguity is where most disputes start.

Day 5: Departure

• Breakfast: A leisurely hotel breakfast, checkout is usually flexible if your flight is in the afternoon.
• Transportation: Luxor International Airport is a short ride from most East Bank hotels, 20 to 30 minutes depending on traffic, arrive at least two hours ahead for a domestic connection and three for an international one. If time allows before your transfer, the covered souk near Luxor Temple is a better spot for last souvenirs than the airport shops, spices, cotton, and alabaster carvings all cost noticeably less there.