Egypt Short Breaks Itinerary: What to See in 3, 4, or 5 Days
November 19, 2025
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about Egypt Short Breaks Itinerary: What to See in 3, 4, or 5 Days
From:
$1935
4.9
Tour Details
| Duration |
8 Days / 7 Nights |
|---|---|
| Tour Location |
Cairo / Alexandria / Sharm El Sheikh |
| Tour Type |
Daily Tour |
| Pickup |
Cairo Airport or Your Hotel |
Iconic 8 Day Cairo, Alexandria, and Sharm El Sheikh Holiday
This 8 day Cairo, Alexandria, and Sharm El Sheikh tour is one of our most complete Egypt holiday packages, covering three distinct destinations in one continuous itinerary: Cairo's pharaonic monuments, Alexandria's Mediterranean Greco-Roman heritage coast, and Sharm El Sheikh's Red Sea beaches. It is the only tour connecting Egypt's two coastlines Alexandria's Mediterranean Greco-Roman coast and Sharm El Sheikh's Red Sea paradise with a full Cairo history programme between them.
Day 1 starts with your Cairo arrival and an evening on the Nile. Day 2 covers the Giza Pyramids complex, the Great Sphinx, the Valley of the Kings, and the Grand Egyptian Museum. Day 3 travels north to Alexandria to visit the Catacombs of Kom El Shoqafa, Qaitbay Citadel, Pompey's Pillar, and the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, then returns to Cairo the same evening. Day 4, a domestic flight connects Cairo to Sharm El Sheikh; Days 5 and 6 cover Red Sea beach time and the St. Catherine's Monastery and Mount Sinai excursion. Day 7 completes the circuit in Old Cairo with the Hanging Church, Salah El Din Citadel, Mohamed Ali Mosque, and the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization.
Why Book This Tour
- The Only 8 Day Tour Connecting Egypt's Mediterranean and Red Sea Coasts
- Private Egyptologist guide for every sightseeing day
- Domestic flight Cairo to Sharm El Sheikh and return
- Entrance fees to all attractions in the itinerary
- All transfers by modern private air-conditioned vehicle throughout the 8 days
- The itinerary can be customized to your pace and preferences before departure
- 24/7 customer support throughout your trip, not only at the booking stage
- All taxes, service charges, and standard meals included — no hidden costs
Included
- Meet and assist with the Tripidays representative at Cairo airport
- 4 Nights of accommodations in Cairo hotel
- 3 Nights of accommodation in Sharm El Sheikh hotel
- Domestic flight Cairo to Sharm El Sheikh and return (both directions)
- Private Egyptologist guide for all sightseeing days
- All transfers by modern private A/C vehicle
- Entrance fees to all attractions listed in the itinerary
- Meals as specified in the itinerary
- Bottled water throughout all tour days
- All taxes and charges
- Tripidays assistance throughout your stay
Excluded
- International flights to and from Egypt
- Egypt entry visa
- Travel insurance
- Personal expenses (souvenirs, extra meals, items not listed above)
- Tips for guides and drivers
- Optional water sports or activities in Sharm El Sheikh
- Abu Simbel excursion
Highlights
Giza Attractions
- The Great Pyramids of Giza
- Valley of Khafre Temple
- The Great Sphinx
- Grand Egyptian Museum
Alexandria Attractions
- Pompey's Pillar
- Catacombs of Kom El Shoqafa
- Qaitbay Citadel
- Bibliotheca Alexandrina
Sharm El Sheikh Attraction
- Sharm El Sheikh Beach
- St. Catherine's Monastery
- Mount Sinai
Cairo Attractions
- Hanging Church
- Salah El Din Citadel
- Mohamed Ali Mosque
- NMEC
Itinerary
Your Tripidays representative meets you at Cairo Airport and transfers you to your hotel in Cairo. After settling in, your first evening is spent on the Nile, with a dinner experience featuring the lit city reflected across the water on both banks.
Nile Dinner Cruise
You'll board as Cairo's lights come on across both riverbanks, the city in its evening form entirely different from what you'll see by day. It's the same river that gave every pharaonic city its logic, and tonight it gives yours a quiet start, one of the memorable moments that make Egypt 8 Days Packages so rewarding for travellers seeking both history and atmosphere.
Meals
Dinner
Your Egyptologist picks you up from the hotel for the longest history day of the 8 day Cairo, Alexandria, Sharm El Sheikh tour, five sites south of the city, in the order they were built.
The Great Pyramids of Giza
Stand at the base, and you'll understand why every statistic you've read, 2.3 million limestone blocks, 146 metres at original height, still doesn't prepare you for the scale. Your guide positions you at the angle where all three are visible at once, which most visitors never find on their own.
The Great Sphinx
Meet the enigmatic Great Sphinx, guarding the plateau with its lion’s body and pharaoh’s face, an unforgettable symbol of ancient Egypt.
Valley of Khafre Temples
Your guide walks you into the mortuary complex built from Aswan granite to receive the pharaoh's body before burial, a site most self-guided visitors walk past without entering. The quality of the stonework inside is measurably finer than anything on the plateau exterior.
Grand Egyptian Museum
Dive into history at the world-renowned Grand Egyptian Museum, home to priceless treasures including artifacts from King Tutankhamun’s collection.
Meals
Breakfast, Lunch
After breakfast, your private vehicle heads northwest on the desert road to Alexandria, Egypt's Mediterranean city and the only place in the country where the Greco-Roman layer of its history is fully visible. Travellers looking to combine Alexandria with Upper Egypt often prefer our Cairo, Alexandria & Nile Cruise classic tour, which replaces the Red Sea stay with a classic Nile voyage between Aswan and Luxor.
Catacombs of Kom El Shoqafa
You'll descend underground into the largest Roman burial complex in Egypt, where craftsmen from the 2nd century AD fused Greek, Roman, and pharaonic funerary styles in a single carved space. Three levels deep, the lowest is partially flooded. Your guide leads you through the accessible upper chambers, where the relief detail is sharpest
Pompey's Pillar
You'll find a single red Aswan granite column standing 27 metres tall in an open field, more disorienting at street level than any photograph suggests. It was erected in 297 AD in honour of Emperor Diocletian, and two sphinxes from the original temple complex still flank its base.
Qaitbay Citadel
Your guide walks you into the 15th-century fortress built on the exact footprint of the ancient Lighthouse of Alexandria, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The original lighthouse stone is still visible in the citadel's lower walls if you know where to look, which your guide does.
Bibliotheca Alexandrina
Enter the modern library built as a deliberate tribute to the ancient Library of Alexandria, its disc-shaped form tilted toward the Mediterranean and housing 8 million volumes. The main reading room spans 70,000 square metres across 11 specialized libraries, an architectural experience that stands independently of what's inside.
Meals
Breakfast, Lunch
Your private transfer takes you to Cairo Airport for the domestic flight south to Sharm El Sheikh. Travellers who prefer adding Upper Egypt's temple cities instead of Alexandria often choose our Cairo, Luxor, and Sharm El Sheikh tour, while this itinerary focuses on combining Cairo's and Luxor's history, and the Red Sea coast in a single journey.
Sharm El Sheikh Coast
You arrive at one of the world's most biodiverse shallow-water reef ecosystems, where over 1,200 fish species and 150 coral species live within swimming distance of the shoreline. The water temperature holds between 22°C and 26°C year-round, and visibility regularly exceeds 30 metres, which is why divers rate this coast among the best in the world.
Meals
Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
Today is yours entirely. Your hotel is steps from the Red Sea, and the options range from snorkeling the reef directly off the beach to booking an optional water sport through your hotel or the Tripidays team.
Leisure Day in Sharm El Sheikh
This day is yours. Swim in crystal-clear waters, book optional water sports, or simply relax by the sea. This balance of culture and leisure makes this Cairo and Sharm El-Sheik package ideal for first-time visitors and repeat travelers alike.
Meals
Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
Your driver collects you before dawn for the drive into the South Sinai mountains, the most logistically demanding day of this 8 day Cairo, Alexandria, Sharm El Sheikh tour, and the one most travellers cite as the one that stays with them.
Mount Sinai Tour
You'll ascend the mountain associated with Moses receiving the Ten Commandments, 2,285 metres above sea level, on 3,750 stone steps cut by monks over centuries. The summit view at sunrise reaches across the full Sinai peninsula and, on clear mornings, extends to both the Gulf of Aqaba and the Gulf of Suez simultaneously.
St. Catherine's Monastery
Visit St. Catherine’s Monastery, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the world’s oldest Christian monasteries, rich in history, manuscripts, and sacred art.
Meals
Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
Your return flight lands in Cairo in time for a full afternoon in Old Cairo, the medieval and Coptic layers of the city that predate the Islamic conquest and sit directly above the Roman fortress. Travellers seeking an even broader itinerary that combines Cairo, Alexandria, Luxor, Aswan, and Abu Simbel often choose our 5 City Complete Egypt Tour for the most extensive multi-destination experience.
Hanging Church
You'll enter one of Egypt's oldest Coptic churches, built above the gatehouse of a Roman fortress so that it appears to hang between the towers, which is exactly where its name comes from. It dates to the 3rd or 4th century AD and contains 110 icons, some predating the medieval period entirely.
Salah El Din Citadel
Your guide leads you up to the medieval fortification that has dominated Cairo's skyline since the 12th century, built by Saladin using stones from smaller Giza-area pyramids. From the walls, you can see the full spread of the city and the Giza plateau you stood on five days earlier, the same view every sultan had for 700 years.
Mohamed Ali Mosque
You'll step inside the Ottoman-style mosque completed in 1848, deliberately designed to rival Istanbul's greatest mosques in scale and interior decoration. Its twin minarets at 82 metres each are among the highest points visible from anywhere in central Cairo.
NMEC Tour
Enter Egypt's newest national museum, which houses the Royal Mummies Hall, 22 pharaonic royal mummies transferred here from the old Egyptian Museum in 2021 in a nationally televised ceremonial procession. Each mummy is displayed individually alongside their full royal lineage and a modern forensic health profile.
Meals
Breakfast, Lunch
Your private transfer takes you to Cairo Airport for your international departure. Your Tripidays representative is available for any assistance before you fly.
Departure
As your 8 day Cairo, Alexandria & Sharm packages come to an end, take with you unforgettable memories of ancient wonders, Mediterranean charm, and Red Sea serenity.
Meals
Breakfast
Notes:
* You can let us know if you'd like to customize your tour itinerary to meet your needs. We value your input and aim to accommodate your requirements.
Frequently Asked Questions
The package includes 7 nights in comfortable hotels (4 in Cairo, 3 in Sharm El Sheikh), a domestic flight both ways between Cairo and Sharm El Sheikh, a private Egyptologist guide for all sightseeing days, entrance fees to every site in the itinerary, private A/C transfers throughout, and meals as listed per day. International flights, visa, insurance, tips, and optional activities are not included.
This is the only 8 day Egypt tour connecting both of Egypt's coastlines in a single itinerary, Alexandria's Greco-Roman Mediterranean coast in the north and Sharm El Sheikh's Red Sea in the south, with a full pharaonic Cairo programme between them. No other 8 day package puts the Mediterranean and the Red Sea in the same trip alongside Cairo's monuments.
Alexandria holds four sites found nowhere else in Egypt at this scale: the Catacombs of Kom El Shoqafa, Qaitbay Citadel on the site of the ancient Lighthouse, Pompey's Pillar, and the Bibliotheca Alexandrina. The entire Greco-Roman layer of Egyptian history is absent from Luxor or Aswan based tours. Alexandria is where it exists, and a full day there covers it properly.
A domestic flight from Cairo Airport connects you to Sharm El Sheikh on Day 4, with a return flight on Day 7 morning back to Cairo in time for the Old Cairo sightseeing day. You have three nights at a Red Sea hotel: Day 5 is a free beach and snorkeling day, and Day 6 covers the full Mount Sinai and St. Catherine's Monastery excursion.
Yes. The domestic flight from Cairo to Sharm El Sheikh and the return flight from Sharm El Sheikh to Cairo are both included in the stated tour price; no separate booking is required.
What to Pack
Hat
Backpack
Comfy Shoes
Powerbank
Medical Kit
Comfy Clothes
Sunglasses & Sunscreen
Personal Hygiene Products
Valid Passport For 6 Months
