Egypt holidays,
designed from Cairo.

Yes. Egypt is a long-established destination for UK travellers, with tourist-site security, police presence and well-regulated tour operations. The UK Foreign Office advises against travel only to specific border regions - none of the usual tourist routes (Cairo, Luxor, Aswan, Red Sea, Alexandria) are affected.

With our head office in Cairo and regional offices in Luxor, Aswan, Hurghada, Marsa Alam and Sharm El Sheikh, we are on the ground every day and follow the FCDO guidance continuously. We do not run itineraries into the North Sinai border zone or the Western Desert near the Libyan frontier. Cairo, the Nile Valley, the Red Sea coast and standard Western Desert oases like Siwa remain open and operating normally.

October to April is the UK traveller's sweet spot - comfortable mid-20s by day in Upper Egypt, cool evenings, and clear skies for photography. May and September are excellent shoulder months with fewer crowds. July and August are hot (40°C+) in Luxor and Aswan but fine for Red Sea beach holidays.

If you have half-term (October, February) or Easter holidays, the weather in Cairo and along the Nile is close to perfect. Christmas and New Year are spectacular but booked 6–9 months ahead. Ramadan (which shifts yearly) doesn't disrupt travel but changes the rhythm of Cairo - your consultant will flag it.

Yes. UK passport holders need an Egypt visa. The simplest online route is the Egypt e-Visa at visa2egypt.gov.eg (single entry, US$30, paid in dollars, usually 3–5 working days). You can also buy the visa when you land for US$36, at the digital consoles in the immigration hall. You'll need at least six months left on your passport from the day you arrive.

We include a visa-guidance sheet with every confirmed booking. If you'd rather not deal with the online application, buy the visa on arrival instead for US$36, at the digital consoles in the immigration hall before passport control. If you are flying into Sharm El Sheikh and staying only in South Sinai (Sharm, Dahab), a separate free entry stamp is available on arrival, but it does not cover Cairo or the Nile Valley.

Eight days (7 nights) is the perfect first Egypt holiday - Cairo (3 nights) plus a 4-night Nile cruise gives you the pyramids, the Grand Egyptian Museum, Luxor and Aswan without feeling rushed. With Alexandria it becomes 10 days, with time on the Red Sea 12, and with both the full 15-day journey from the Nile to the Mediterranean.

12–15 days is the sweet spot we recommend to British travellers with a fortnight to spare - you fully unwind, add Red Sea downtime after the temples, and finish relaxed rather than exhausted. Our itineraries are built in sections, so extra days slot in easily. The shortest trip we'd recommend booking is 8 days - anything shorter and you'll feel rushed between Cairo and the cruise.

Discovery Tours Egypt is an Egypt-based tour operator (head office in Cairo, regional offices in Luxor, Aswan, Hurghada, Marsa Alam and Sharm El Sheikh) - we are not a UK company, so we hold no ATOL and are not an ABTA member. We are licensed in Egypt by ETAA (Licence 718, Category A) and IATA-accredited (#90255546). We do not sell international flights, so our tours are land arrangements and ATOL does not apply to them.

We are honest about this because it matters to UK travellers. We recommend booking your flights with an ATOL holder, so the flight carries UK protection, and taking out travel insurance for the whole trip. Booking flights yourself also keeps your Avios or BA Executive Club benefits and lets you fly from the airport you prefer.

We do not sell international flights; you book your own, and we recommend an ATOL holder. Direct flights to Cairo run from Heathrow (BA, EgyptAir) and most other UK hubs route via Istanbul, Frankfurt or Paris in 6–8 hours total travel time.

For Red Sea holidays there are seasonal direct charters from Manchester, Gatwick and Birmingham to Hurghada and Marsa Alam. Send us your flight details once booked - we'll send arrival-airport instructions and meet you in the arrivals hall.