Egypt was one of those trips we'd been putting off for years, and we finally pulled it off in April 2025 as a side trip from our place in Cavtat. It's a quick hop down — Dubrovnik through Istanbul, into Cairo by mid-afternoon — and from the moment you land, it's a different world. The pyramids are right there.
We used Go Luxor Tours for the whole trip, and that was the single best decision we made. Michael Samir and his team handled every pickup, every guide, every airport transfer. A driver met us at the Cairo airport with a sign, and from then on we never had to think about logistics. For Egypt specifically, we'd push back on anyone who says they want to do it independently — having a private guide and driver made the difference between a great trip and a stressful one.
In Cairo we stayed at the Marriott Mena House, which is the move if you can swing it — the pyramids are literally outside your window. We did a full day at the Pyramids of Giza, the Sphinx, and the Egyptian Museum. Standing at the base of the Great Pyramid is one of those moments that actually lives up to the hype.
Then we flew down to Luxor for three nights at the Hilton Luxor Resort & Spa, right on the Nile. Luxor was the surprise of the trip — we'd assumed Cairo would be the highlight, but the density of ancient sites in Luxor is staggering. We did the Valley of the Kings, the Temple of Queen Hatshepsut, and the Colossi of Memnon one day, then Karnak and Luxor Temple the next. Karnak in particular blew us away — the scale of those columns is impossible to convey in photos.
If you go: a week is plenty, do Cairo plus Luxor, hire a good private tour company, and stay at the Mena House for at least one night so you can see the pyramids from your room. It's one of the few places we've been where the bucket-list version of the trip really is the right version.