The best things to do in Cairo are the Giza pyramids at opening time, the Grand Egyptian Museum, the medieval lanes of Khan el-Khalili and Al-Muizz Street, and the view from the Citadel. Give the city four to five days, come between October and April, and move by metro and ride-hailing app rather than by street taxi.
48 Hours in Cairo
Cairo holds the last standing wonder of the ancient world, a museum built to show Tutankhamun whole, and a thousand years of Islamic architecture inside one metro network. Below are the ten experiences worth your time (each mapped, with a Wimup video guide), plus the fares, opening hours and dates to sort before you land.
The plateau opens early in the morning, and that first hour is the only one without coaches. General entry covers the three pyramids, the Sphinx enclosure and the causeway; going inside Khufu is a separate ticket and a hot, stooped climb up a wooden ramp to an empty granite chamber. Walk out to the panorama point on the desert road for the view that lines all three pyramids up at once.
Museum· Alexandria Desert Road, Kafr Nassar, Al Haram, Giza
The GEM opened on 1 November 2025 beside the plateau, and it shows Tutankhamun's burial complete for the first time: more than 5,000 objects in one sequence rather than the highlights reel Tahrir used to run. The grand staircase alone takes an hour. Slots are timed and sold online, so book before you travel.
A trading quarter since the late fourteenth century, and still a working one: coppersmiths and gold dealers behind the lantern stalls the coaches stop at. Shops open around 09:00 and run late; the lanes are calmest before 11:00 and best after dark. Prices open high, so settle in and expect to land near half.
Historic street· Al Muizz Li Din Allah St, El-Gamaleya, Cairo
One kilometre of medieval Cairo left largely intact: the Qalawun complex, Sultan Barquq's madrasa, sabils, covered markets and minaret after minaret. The northern stretch is pedestrianised and lit from below in the evening, which is when to walk it. Enter at Bab al-Futuh and go south towards Bab Zuweila.
Salah al-Din started the fortress into Mokattam hill in 1176 and it stayed the seat of government for seven centuries. One ticket covers the Muhammad Ali Mosque of 1830, the mosque of al-Nasir Muhammad, and the military, police and carriage museums. The terrace looks over the whole of Islamic Cairo to the pyramids on a clear day.
Finished in 879 and the oldest mosque in Egypt surviving in something close to its original form: a vast empty courtyard, arcades of pointed brick arches, and an outer spiral minaret you can climb. Entry is free and a donation is expected. The Gayer-Anderson Museum shares the wall, so do both in one stop.
Time1 hr
CostFree, donation expected
Best atMid-morning
TipPair it with the Gayer-Anderson house next door
The Hanging Church sits on top of a Roman gate tower, the Ben Ezra synagogue held the Cairo Geniza, and the Coptic Museum keeps the textiles and icons from both traditions. The churches and synagogue are free; the museum is ticketed. Mar Girgis metro station is at the gate, which makes this the easiest quarter to reach.
Meet the pharaohs at the Museum of Egyptian Civilization
Museum· Ain El Sira, Old Cairo, Fustat, Cairo
Twenty-two royal mummies moved here in 2021, Ramses II and Hatshepsut among them, and the hall they lie in is deliberately dark and quiet. The rest of the NMEC does what no other museum here attempts: all of Egypt in one thread, from prehistory through the Coptic and Islamic centuries to now.
Archaeological site· Saqqara, Badrshein, Giza Governorate
Djoser's Step Pyramid is the first monumental stone building anywhere, and it reopened after a restoration that ran fourteen years. The draw beyond it is the mastaba tombs: the reliefs in Ti and Mereruka are the best preserved near Cairo. Dahshur and Memphis are minutes away, so treat the three as one day.
Thirty hectares built by the Aga Khan Trust on what had been a rubbish mound for five centuries, opened in 2005 and now the green space the city actually uses. The upper terrace faces the Citadel and the minarets of Darb al-Ahmar straight on, which is the reason to come at the end of the day. Entry is a few pounds and it stays open late.
Four to five. Give Giza and the Grand Egyptian Museum a day each, Islamic Cairo one, the Coptic quarter and the Museum of Egyptian Civilization one, and keep the last for Saqqara and Dahshur.
When is the best time to visit Cairo?+
October to April. November and March are the sweet spot: warm days, cool evenings and bearable sun on open sites. July and August regularly pass 35°C, and neither the plateau nor the old city offers much shade.
Is Cairo safe for visitors?+
Yes, with ordinary big-city caution. The persistent nuisance is commercial rather than criminal: touts, camel handlers and unmetered taxis around the pyramids. Agree every price first, and use a ride-hailing app instead of hailing off the street.
Do you need a visa for Egypt?+
Most visitors do. A single-entry tourist visa costs $30, bought online before you fly or on arrival at the airport, and the fee rose in March 2026. Check your own nationality before booking.
Can you get around Cairo without a car?+
Yes. The metro handles the north-south spine for LE 10 to LE 20 a ride, ride-hailing covers everything it misses for very little, and each historic quarter is walkable once you are inside it.
Where to eat
Best restaurants in Cairo (2026)
From a koshari counter to the region's most booked dining room, where Cairo actually eats.
The 1902 original. Tutankhamun has moved to Giza, but the Narmer Palette, the Tanis gold and the crowded old cases are still here, and it is quieter for it.
Finished in 1363 and still the most imposing interior in Cairo: a courtyard with four vaulted halls, almost bare, and walls that swallow the noise of the square.
Founded in 970 and the seat of Sunni learning ever since. Free to enter outside prayer times, and the courtyard is the coolest place in the quarter at midday.
Around fifty artisan workshops in one courtyard by the Coptic quarter, set up with UNESCO so the crafts had somewhere to sell. Watch the work, then buy it.
The Valley of the Whales: skeletons of 40-million-year-old whales lying in open desert, on the UNESCO list since 2005. Go with a driver who has done it.
Midnight liturgies fill the Coptic churches. A public holiday, so museums run holiday hours.
Late Jan to early Feb
Cairo International Book Fair
The largest cultural gathering in the Arab world, at the exhibition centre in New Cairo.
Moves 11 days earlier each year
Ramadan
Lanterns over the lanes, kitchens closed by day, and the old city awake until dawn.
Monday after Coptic Easter
Sham el-Nessim
A spring holiday older than either church. Families picnic in every park and eat salted fish.
Spring, over three weeks
D-CAF, Downtown Contemporary Arts Festival
Theatre, dance and installations staged in Downtown's arcades and empty buildings.
Rabi' al-Thani, Islamic calendar
Moulid of al-Hussein
Cairo's biggest saint's festival closes the streets around the al-Hussein mosque for days.
Late October
Cairo International Jazz Festival
Egyptian and international sets over a long weekend, mostly around Downtown and Zamalek.
November
Cairo International Film Festival
The oldest competitive festival in the Arab world, screening at the Opera House on Gezira.
Getting around
Cairo transport & airports
How to arrive, and how to cross a city of 23 million.
CAI
Cairo International
Three terminals, 22 km northeast of Downtown and 30 to 45 minutes in without traffic. There is no direct rail link from the terminals, so take a ride-hailing car or a pre-booked transfer.
Three lines, air-conditioned and immune to the traffic above. Fares go by station count: LE 10 up to nine stations, LE 12 up to 16, LE 15 up to 23 and LE 20 beyond, set in March 2026. The first two carriages of every train are reserved for women.
Egyptian National Railways runs from Ramses station to Alexandria in about three hours, and south to Luxor and Aswan overnight. Book the air-conditioned classes ahead; the sleeper sells out.
Both work across Greater Cairo and quote the fare before you accept it, which street taxis will not. Cheaper than a hotel car by a wide margin, and it removes the argument at the end of the ride.
The dishes to order before you leave, and where they belong.
Koshari
Rice, lentils, macaroni, chickpeas and fried onion under a hot tomato sauce. The national dish, and vegan by accident.
Ful medames
Fava beans stewed overnight with cumin, oil and lemon. Breakfast, from a cart, with flat bread.
Taameya
Egypt's falafel, made with fava beans instead of chickpeas, so it is green inside and lighter.
Molokhia
Jute leaves cooked down with garlic and coriander into a green soup, usually over rice with chicken or rabbit.
Hawawshi
Spiced minced meat sealed inside baladi bread and blasted in a wood oven until the crust cracks.
Mahshi
Vine leaves, courgettes and peppers stuffed with herbed rice. Every family claims the better version.
Feteer meshaltet
Layered pastry pulled paper-thin and folded dozens of times, served sweet or savoury.
Om Ali
Warm bread pudding with milk, nuts and raisins, and the only dessert worth ordering twice.
Cairo fact sheet
Cairo at a glance
The essentials worth knowing before you go.
Country
Egypt
Region
Greater Cairo, on the Nile
Population
About 10 million in the governorate, 23 million across Greater Cairo
Founded
969, as al-Qahira, by the Fatimids
Nickname
The City of a Thousand Minarets
Language
Arabic. English is widely used in tourism
Currency
Egyptian pound (EGP)
Time zone
EET, UTC+2 (UTC+3 from late April to late October)
Calling code
+20 2
Airports
Cairo International (CAI), 22 km northeast
Power
220V, type C and F plugs
Emergency
122 police, 123 ambulance, 180 fire
Interesting facts
The Great Pyramid was the tallest structure on earth for roughly 3,800 years, until a cathedral spire passed it in the fourteenth century.
Al-Qahira means the Vanquisher. The Fatimids founded it in 969 as a walled royal city next to the older settlement of Fustat, and the walls are still standing at Bab al-Futuh.
Egypt's ministries have moved 45 km east to the New Capital, a city built from scratch since 2015. Cairo is still the capital, and still what everyone means by Cairo.
The first two carriages of every metro train are reserved for women, and the platforms are marked for them.
The Cairo Geniza, a storeroom of discarded documents found in the Ben Ezra synagogue in Old Cairo, held hundreds of thousands of medieval manuscripts and rewrote the economic history of the Mediterranean.
Headed to Cairo?
Get our one-page Cairo cheat sheet plus a fresh destination every Thursday. Join 38,000 travelers.
