Cairo With Kids
What Cairo with kids really looks like, from a family that plans these trips for a living.
11 nights with Cairo and a 7 night Luxor cruise, from about $8,039 per person. Read the answer
Nicole Damiano, ASTA Verified Travel Advisor with FG Luxury Travel
Is Cairo worth it with kids?
Yes, and it may be the trip of a childhood. With a good private guide and driver, a calm hotel and plenty of water, the pyramids, the mummies and the Nile are pure wonder for kids.
How many days?
Two to three days for the pyramids, the museum, the old city and Saqqara. Longer if you are adding Luxor or a Nile cruise.
Do we need to book anything ahead?
Book a reputable private guide and driver ahead, that is the single most important thing in Cairo. Museum and pyramid tickets your guide handles, and the bazaar and the Nile you do as you go.
Do we need a car?
Not your own, ever. A private guide and driver for the day is affordable and transforms Cairo from chaos into a smooth, safe, richly explained adventure. It is the one place I tell every family to spend on a guide.
When should we go?
October through April for the cooler, comfortable weather. The summer is brutally hot at the pyramids, so aim for the cooler months, and even then start early to beat the midday sun.
Where Kids Meet the Ancient World
Cairo is big, loud and chaotic, and it is also the single most exciting history lesson on the planet for a kid. This is where the pyramids stand at the edge of the city, where the boy king’s gold sits in a museum, and where five thousand years of the ancient world are real enough to touch.
You stand at the feet of the last wonder of the ancient world, look a Sphinx in the eye, meet actual mummies, ride a sailboat on the Nile at sunset, and haggle for a lantern in a thousand year old bazaar. It is intense, and with a good guide and a driver it is the trip of a childhood.
Getting Around
You do not drive yourself in Cairo, the traffic is legendary. Hire a private guide and driver for the day, which is affordable and transforms the trip, turning chaos into a smooth, safe, richly explained adventure. It is the one place I tell every family to spend on a guide.
Neighborhoods worth basing in
Giza
Right by the pyramids on the edge of the city, where a few hotels look straight at the Great Pyramid. Base here for a night and the kids wake up to a wonder of the world out the window.
Zamalek
The leafy island in the Nile, calmer and greener, with the nicer hotels, embassies and good restaurants, a civilized base away from the downtown chaos. A comfortable, central place to stay.
Downtown & Islamic Cairo
The bustling old heart, near the museum, the historic Islamic quarter and the bazaar, in the thick of the city. A characterful base for families who want to be in the middle of it.
Marriott Mena House
The historic hotel beside the pyramids where royalty and film stars have stayed, with a pool, gardens and the Great Pyramid filling the view. A real splurge, and the setting is unrepeatable.
Sofitel Gezirah
A comfortable hotel on the green island of Zamalek with a pool and Nile views, calm and family friendly, a smooth base in a hectic city. Well priced for the location and the one I point most families to.
A Downtown Guesthouse
A friendly, cheap guesthouse downtown near the museum and the old city, an easy base for a family here for the history on a budget. It does the job and puts you close to the wonders.
The Three I Build Every Cairo Trip Around
The Pyramids and the Sphinx
The Pyramids of Giza are the reason you come, and nothing prepares a kid for the scale of them, the last wonder of the ancient world still standing after four and a half thousand years, with the Great Sphinx crouched below. Go early before the heat, ride a camel around the plateau, go inside a pyramid if the kids are up for it, and let the sheer size of it land. It is the single most awe filled morning of most family trips.
The Egyptian Museum and the Mummies
Cairo’s museums hold the treasures of the pharaohs, the golden mask of Tutankhamun, the boy king, and rooms of actual mummies that thrill and slightly terrify kids in the best way. The new Grand Egyptian Museum by the pyramids is spectacular. Give it a morning, focus on the highlights the kids will love, and let a guide bring the stories alive.
Islamic Cairo and a Nile Felucca
Beyond the ancient world, old Cairo is a feast for the senses. Wander the medieval lanes of Islamic Cairo and the great Khan el-Khalili bazaar, a thousand year old maze of lanterns, spices and copper, and end the day with a felucca ride, a traditional sailboat gliding on the Nile at sunset. The bazaar and the boat are the gentle, lovely bookends to the big history.
Family Time, Built In: Cairo With Kids
Cairo asks a lot of a family and gives more than anywhere on earth. The pyramids, the mummies, the Nile and the bazaar, all in a couple of intense, memorable days. A good guide and driver, a calm hotel, and plenty of water turn the chaos into the trip a kid never forgets.
The harbor ferry to the beach
Sunday fish market
Paddle boats on the the Nile
Planten un Blomen
the Egyptian Museum plaza
PARK & DOWNTIME PICK
Al-Azhar Park, a beautiful green garden on a hill with views over the old city’s minarets and domes, is the calm the family needs. Come in the late afternoon, let the kids run the lawns, and watch the sun set over a thousand years of Cairo.
Five Things To Eat In Cairo
Koshari
Ful medames
Falafel
Grilled kofta
Om AliNicole’s Perspective
Five thousand years on the Nile
I taught social studies and the ancient world for eight years, and the ancient Egypt unit was the one every kid loved most. To actually stand at the pyramids, look into the eyes of a mummy, and read hieroglyphs on a temple wall is the thing I dreamed of showing students. There is no richer place on earth to make a child’s imagination catch fire.
I have planned and priced a lot of Egypt for families, and Cairo is the mighty, essential heart of it, the pyramids and the treasures, before the trip flows south to the temples of Luxor or a Nile cruise. It rewards a good guide more than anywhere I send families. When a family wants the ancient world made real, this is the one.
The Day Trip: Saqqara and Memphis
Before Giza, the pharaohs built at Saqqara, and its Step Pyramid, the oldest large stone building on earth, still rises from the desert an hour away, alongside the ruins of ancient Memphis and its giant fallen statues. It is quieter than Giza and just as astonishing, and it shows kids where the whole story of the pyramids began. Pair it with Giza for a full ancient day.
Things I Would Tell A Friend Before They Booked
How Many Days
Two to three full days covers Cairo, the pyramids, the museum, the old city and Saqqara. That is Cairo as the essential heart of an Egypt trip.
Day one, the Pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx early, then the Egyptian Museum and its treasures. Day two, Islamic Cairo, the Khan el-Khalili bazaar and a felucca on the Nile at sunset.
Day three, the older pyramids of Saqqara and ancient Memphis. From here the trip flies south to Luxor, or joins a Nile cruise.
If all you have is a day, do the pyramids at dawn and the museum, and call it the most astonishing taste of the ancient world.
Cairo With Kids, Answered
Is Cairo worth it with kids?
Yes, and it may be the trip of a childhood. With a good private guide and driver, a calm hotel and plenty of water, the pyramids, the mummies and the Nile are pure wonder for kids.
How many days?
Two to three days for the pyramids, the museum, the old city and Saqqara. Longer if you are adding Luxor or a Nile cruise.
Do we need to book anything ahead?
Book a reputable private guide and driver ahead, that is the single most important thing in Cairo. Museum and pyramid tickets your guide handles, and the bazaar and the Nile you do as you go.
Do we need a car?
Not your own, ever. A private guide and driver for the day is affordable and transforms Cairo from chaos into a smooth, safe, richly explained adventure. It is the one place I tell every family to spend on a guide.
When should we go?
October through April for the cooler, comfortable weather. The summer is brutally hot at the pyramids, so aim for the cooler months, and even then start early to beat the midday sun.
Ready To Put Cairo On The Calendar
Send me your dates and your kids’ ages and I will build Cairo, with the right guide, into an Egypt trip your children will never forget.
Keep exploring from Cairo
Nearby cities, the country, the whole region.
Click any card to open that page
Zoom out
All of Egypt
All of Africa