Dream away at the Siwa Oasis

If you want to adventure into Egypt a little further than the average traveller, try our Siwa Oasis tour. This is one of the most beautiful spots in Egypt. During the trip, you'll travel from Cairo to Alexandria, a city steeped in culture and history with fine restaurants lining its boulevard. Then, you'll leave the city skyline behind you and embark on a journey through no-man's land. After a day of driving through the arid desert you'll arrive in the dreamy Siwa Valley. For centuries, this isolated village has sought protection by building a wall around itself. The oasis itself is surrounded by historical treasures - tombs, temples and ruins. It won't be long before you become completely mesmerised by this fairytale-like place during your Siwa Oasis tour.

More of the camping type? Head out into the White Desert with our Egypt desert tour where you'll spend the night in a desert bivouc.

Looking for a ready made Egypt holiday? Look at our Egypt intineraries for inspiration.

Duration	6 days / 5 nights Departs daily	Accommodation	Comfortable hotel in Alexandria and an atmospheric oasis hotel in Siwa. Comfort level 3 (see accommodation)
Price	Please see our Contact Us page for more details	Includes	Transport, accommodation with breakfast, excursions as described below, entrance fees.
Transport	Private transport by minibus and jeep	Excludes	Other meals, tips

Day 1: Cairo - Alexandria

Today, your Siwa Oasis tour begins, and you'll travel by minibus from Cairo to the Wadi Natrun. This is the spiritual centre for the Coptic Christians in Egypt. Four monasteries were built here and inhabited by thousands of monks in the fourth century. These days the area is an oasis of peace and traquillity. Before entering the monasteries, it's customary to remove your shoes. Your english-speaking guide will show you around and tell you all about this spiritual place.

In the afternoon, you'll arrive in Alexandria and dropped off at your hotel. Alexandria is known as the city of memories - behind it lies ancient Egypt and before it the Mediterranean Sea. It's an energetic city with many high-rise buildings and busy streets filled with cars, taxi cabs, and horse carriages weaving through traffic. The city is a popular travel destination for Egyptians living in Cairo looking for a good time. You'll stay in a comfortable hotel with a historic atmosphere. Alexandria is well known for savoury fresh fish dishes and its many Greek restaurants.

Day 2: Alexandria

On the second day of your Siwa Oasis tour, you'll have an entire day to visit the most fascinating places in and around Alexandria at your own pace. Downtown is a great place to explore and you can catch a taxi or tram to see the rest of the city. Don't miss the Kom ash-Shuqqafa Catacombs, the Roman Amphitheatre at Kom al-Dikka, the Pompey Pillar, the Serapeum ruins and Fort Qaitbey. As you journey further into the city, you won't be able to miss Bibliotheca Alexandrina. This striking library was built by order of UNESCO. It is a perfect manifestation of old meets new - the ultramodern architecture houses six libraries filled with millions of books. There's also a planetarium, three museums, research centres and four art galleries. In other words, there's too much to mention and it’s certainly worth a visit during your Egypt trip. An entrance fee of £7 will give you admission to all the libraries and museums. This cultural centre is closed on Mondays.

If you would rather spend a day taking it easy, the beach is a great alternative. Keep in mind that every inch of the beach is occupied by locals on weekends and by foreign tourists during peak travel season. It's not exactly quiet, but it is a good place to relax in the sun. For those who enjoy diving, there are several interesting dive locations off the coast of Alexandria, and you can dive near shipwrecks. Ask your guide or the hotel reception desk for information about the diving opportunities in this area.

Day 3: Alexandria - Siwa Oasis

After breakfast today you'll travel west towards the Siwa Oasis. The drive should take about 6 hours in a comfortable minibus. On the way you'll stop off for lunch (not included). As you'll be spending most of the day on the road, we recommend bringing along plenty of water and food for the drive.

Sometime in the afternoon you'll arrive at the Siwa Oasis, which is genuinely one of the most beautiful oases in Egypt. After being secluded from the outside world for centuries, and even today only being accessible after driving through the desert for hours, the Siwa Oasis has been Egypt's well-kept secret for quite some time. You'll arrive in a fairytale-like world of hidden water pools secluded by thick blankets of palm trees and surrounded by sand dunes. Tomorrow you'll get to explore all of this, after you've spent the rest of this afternoon and evening recuperating from the long drive at your intimate oasis hotel. Here, you can enjoy dinner whilst relaxing on the hotel's colourful cushions at sunset.

Day 4: Siwa Oasis tour

Today is entirely dedicated to the spectacular Siwa Oasis tour. Your guide will take you to the historic part of the village, Old Shali Town, where you'll roam through a labyrinth of loam houses. The intricate structure of the village once protected its inhabitants from desert plunderers who got lost in the muddle of small alleys. For their own protection, inhabitants of the village were not allowed to live beyond the walls of the village. To this day there are only three entrance gates for the entire village.

Equally as impressive as the town of Shali are the rock tombs in nearby Gebel al-Mawta and the Temple of the Oracle on Aghurmi Hill. This is where Alexander the Great once summoned the God Amon for advice. There's a stunning panoramic view out across two salt lakes, the Siwa Oasis and Dakhrour Mountain. You'll end the day with a relaxing bath in the warm and cold water springs at the edge of the Great Sand Sea, that stretches beyond the Siwa Oasis.

Day 5: Siwa Oasis - Free time

Today, you can wake up slowly and enjoy a leisurely breakfast. The rest of the day is yours to spend as you wish. If you're feeling energetic, you can hire bikes and explore Siwa and its surroundings on your own. You'll pedal through streets lined with small loam houses and donkeys pulling carts. You'll see women in tradition dress: grey-blue cloths with colourful embroidery on their heads. The area is covered with palm trees and whilst cycling along you'll come across several freshwater springs. It's a very different kind of travel experience to pedal through the desert on a wobbly bike! Once you return to the centre of the oasis, tired and dusty, you can rest your tired legs, satisfy your appetite and enjoy a refreshing glass of lemonade at one of the many restaurants in Siwa.

At the end of the afternoon, you can find a sand dune and watch a fiery golden sunset sink into the horizon. The warm sand will tickle your feet, the sun will turn the horizon every shade of red and orange and the silence is deafening.

Day 6: Siwa Oasis tour - Cairo

Today marks the end of your Siwa Oasis tour and you'll return to Cairo. It's a long drive, but you'll have a personal driver.... so you can simply lean back and enjoy the view.

Once you reach Cairo we can make arrangements for you to stay at our small city hotel before you continue travelling through Egypt. After a night in Cairo, you can take a train or plane to Luxor for our Valley of the Kings tour. Luxor is the cultural and spiritual epicentre of ancient Egyptian civilisation and therefore it's a must-see during an Egypt trip.

Another option would be to travel to Aswan for our Abu Simbel tour. While in Aswan you'll see the Nile at its best, and it's also the starting point for our Nile cruises.