Luxor East and West Bank Tour: Shared Full Day with Nice Tours

Included in the Base Price

The listing includes an English-speaking Egyptologist guide, lunch at a local restaurant, and hotel pickup and drop-off on the East Bank. All entrance fees are included only if you select that option at checkout, and the listing shows no add-on price, so the difference between options only appears on the booking screen. Spanish, German or French guides cost extra as an add-on.

Gratuities are optional and not part of the price. Cancellation is free up to 24 hours before departure for a full refund.

What You Pay on the Day Without the Ticket Option

On the base price you buy up to four tickets yourself. The official Ministry figures are EGP 750 for the Valley of the Kings general ticket (EGP 375 for foreign students), 600 EGP for Karnak including the Open Museum, and 500 EGP for Luxor Temple. The Ministry's own pages disagree on Hatshepsut's temple: 440 EGP on the temple page, 360 EGP on the Deir el-Bahari site page.

The Colossi of Memnon have no entrance fee. The general Valley of the Kings ticket covers 3 tombs of your choice from those open, and it does not include the special tombs: Tutankhamun's KV62 at 700 EGP, Seti I's KV17 at 2,000 EGP and Ramesses V and VI's KV9 at 220 EGP. The valley takes card payment only, so bring a card, and carry small Egyptian pound notes for tips.

Pickup on the East Bank

The day starts with pickup from your hotel on the East Bank. The listing gives no fixed clock time, it says to check availability for starting times. One warning is printed on the listing itself: due to local regulations in Egypt, hotel pickups may not always be possible, so read the meeting point details on your voucher carefully.

The supplier contacts you by email or WhatsApp before the activity with any updates.

Valley of the Kings

The first stop is the Valley of the Kings, the burial ground of New Kingdom pharaohs used for about 500 years from roughly 1539 to 1075 BC. The Ministry describes over sixty tombs plus about twenty unfinished ones across an East and a West Valley, though only 18 can be opened to visitors and rarely all at once. Your general ticket covers 3 tombs of your choice from those open that day, and the tombs open in rotation and close for renovation, so you cannot choose a tomb in advance.

Guides are not permitted inside the tombs, so your Egyptologist explains outside each entrance while you go in on your own. Plan on 1 to 3 hours at the valley depending on pace.

Temple of Hatshepsut and the Colossi

Next is the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahari, a guided visit tagged extra fee. Three terraces rise into the cliffs, the temple runs 273.5 metres long, and its middle terrace shows the expedition to the Land of Punt. Then a photo stop at the Colossi of Memnon, two 18-metre statues of Amenhotep III weighing about 720 tons each.

An earthquake in 27 BC broke the northern statue. There is no entrance fee here.

Lunch

Lunch at a local restaurant is included and sits between the banks in the itinerary, to recharge for the afternoon. The listing does not name the restaurant or say whether drinks are included.

Karnak and Luxor Temple

The afternoon belongs to the East Bank. Karnak Temple is a guided visit tagged extra fee: the Great Hypostyle Hall holds 134 columns, and the complex grew over about 2,000 years. The day ends at Luxor Temple, also an extra fee, built by Amenhotep III and later completed by Ramesses II, who added two obelisks, one of which now stands in Paris.

Karnak and Luxor Temple sit about 3 km apart. After the last stop you are transferred back to your Luxor hotel.

Check Yourself Against This List

This is a shared group tour, so the pace is set by the group, not by you. Entrance fees ride on the option you pick, and the summer heat in Luxor is serious: the mean daily maximum reaches 41.4 C in July and the record is 50.0 C. If any of the limits below sound like your trip, follow the link to a better fit.

• You want privacy and your own pace: the private alternative is a private car with driver-guide or the private both-banks day with Tut's tomb, both from Luxor.
• You want the tomb of Tutankhamun: this listing never promises KV62. Look at the private day that includes it.
• You want a dawn balloon over the West Bank added on: see the balloon ride and full-day sights package.
• You are staying in Hurghada, not Luxor: this tour departs from Luxor. A Hurghada day trip with Tut's tomb picks up from the Red Sea resorts instead.
• You only care about the West Bank: the West Bank half day with lunch runs 5 hours from $23 with the same operator.

The Physical Side

The tombs run underground and each terrace at Hatshepsut's temple is reached by a ramp, so it is not a flat day. The valley opens at 6:00 AM, Earthtrekkers says peak crowds fall between 10 am and 2 pm, and Wikivoyage warns of a queue of at least 15 to 30 minutes in peak season. The listing states no minimum age, no difficulty rating and no wheelchair information, so travelers with mobility needs should confirm with the operator before booking.

The Tickets Themselves

The Valley of the Kings general ticket is 750 EGP for foreign adults and 375 EGP for foreign students, and covers 3 tombs from those open that day. Card payment only, at the ticket office or online. The special tombs are separate: KV62, Tutankhamun's tomb, at 700 EGP, KV17, the tomb of Seti I, at 2,000 EGP, and KV9, Ramesses V and VI, at 220 EGP.

Elsewhere on the day, Karnak including the Open Museum is 600 EGP, Luxor Temple is 500 EGP, and Hatshepsut's temple is 440 EGP on the temple page or 360 EGP on the Deir el-Bahari site page. The Colossi of Memnon are free. Details live in the Valley of the Kings tickets guide and the Tutankhamun's tomb guide.

Hours and Heat

The Ministry lists the Valley of the Kings as open daily from 6:00 AM to 5:00 PM, though some sources give 4:00 PM closing in winter. Karnak is open 6:00 AM to 5:00 PM daily, Hatshepsut's temple the same, and Luxor Temple stays open to 8:00 PM, which makes it the one major site open into the evening. On heat: Luxor's mean daily maximum tops 39 C from May through September, and US News advises avoiding the valley in summer or carrying plenty of water and sunscreen.

The tombs themselves stay cooler than the desert outside because they run underground.

What Fits Around the Tour

If you have a second day in Luxor, a sunrise flight over the West Bank is the classic add-on, and the Luxor hot air balloon guide covers how it works. For a deeper East Bank visit, the Karnak Temple guide goes into more detail than one stop on a shared day, and the Temple of Hatshepsut guide covers the terraces in depth. To see how this listing sits against the others, use the comparison table.