Cairo vs Luxor
Which would you pick?
The short answer
Luxor is the cheaper trip, by roughly 13% a day — $40–90 against $50–100 mid-range per person. Both are at their best in Nov–Feb, so one trip can take in both.
Side by side
Mid-range, per person, in US dollars. Both guides were costed the same way — see how we work these out.
| 🇪🇬 Cairo | 🇪🇬 Luxor | |
|---|---|---|
| Daily budgetmid-range, per person | $50–100 | $40–90cheaper |
| Cheap meallocal staple | $1–3 | $1–3 |
| Mid-range hotelper night | $45–100 | $35–80cheaper |
| Transit ridesingle trip | $0.20–0.40cheaper | $0.30 |
| Avg. monthly salarylocal, for context | ≈ $165 | ≈ $165 |
When to go
Filled months are the ones each guide recommends; hollow ones it warns off.
What you'd actually do
A few of each guide's picks, one per category before seconds — the full lists are on the guides themselves.
🇪🇬 Cairo
Twenty-odd million people, the last standing Wonder of the ancient world at the end of a city bus route, and a brand-new museum built to hold Tutankhamun. Loud, hot and exhausting, and nowhere else is quite like it.
- The Giza pyramids and the Sphinx$$Pharaonic Cairo
- Khan el-Khalili and El Fishawy$Islamic & Coptic Cairo
- Abou Tarek$Restaurants
- Tannoura at Wekalet El Ghouri$Evenings
- Grand Egyptian Museum$$Pharaonic Cairo
🇪🇬 Luxor
Ancient Thebes, split by the Nile: the temples of the living on the east bank, the tombs of the pharaohs on the west. The densest concentration of ancient monuments on earth, in a small town that works hard for your money.
- Valley of the Kings$$West Bank
- Karnak Temple$$East Bank
- Sunrise hot-air balloon$$Early starts & evenings
- Temple of Hatshepsut$West Bank
- Luxor Temple$East Bank
Practicalities
| Cairo | Luxor | |
|---|---|---|
| Language | Arabic (Egyptian dialect). English is common at hotels, sites and anywhere that sells to tourists, thinner with taxi drivers and at street stalls. | Arabic (Egyptian and Upper Egyptian dialects). English is everywhere in the tourist economy, which is most of the economy. |
| Currency | Egyptian pound (EGP, written LE or E£ locally). US$1 ≈ EGP 52. The pound was floated in March 2024 and roughly halved against the dollar, so any guide or forum post older than that has prices that are badly wrong. | Egyptian pound (EGP, written LE or E£). US$1 ≈ EGP 52. The pound was floated in 2024, so ignore any price you read in an older guide. |
| Tap water | Treated and chlorinated, and fine for brushing teeth, but visitors drink bottled — it's cheap and everywhere | Drink bottled; hotels and cruise boats provide it |
The same in both:
- Time zone
- EET (UTC+2), moving to UTC+3 for summer daylight saving from late April to late October
- Power
- Type C/F plugs, 220V
- Emergency
- 122 police · 123 ambulance · 180 fire · 126 tourist police · 112 connects to all of them