Cairo to coast: mixing culture and beaches on family holidays in Egypt

Immersed in Cairo, awed all over again by Giza and Sharm El-Sheikh, Kate Wickers takes a family holiday in Egypt for the first time in 15 years and finds the sequel as good as the original.

Khan el-Khalili and al-Muizz Street, Cairo

It’s a tricky dilemma whether to keep the memory of a treasured family holiday in Egypt as exactly that, locked away to look back on through rose-tinted glasses, or try to recreate it, years later, when your family has grown.

Not known for being risk averse, I put the idea to my husband, Neil, and our sons: Josh aged 24, Ben 23, and Freddie, aged 19. “We loved Egypt! Let’s go again!” they all agree. The big draw to Cairo in 2025 (beyond revisiting the pyramids) is the recent opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum, known as GEM. Twenty years in the making, it has cost an estimated £776 million to build and has the world’s largest archaeological collection, with 100,000 artefacts (much more on this later, as they say).

Turns out we’re still as obsessed with Egypt after all these years

Josh, Ben and Freddie were just nine, eight, and five on our last family holiday in Egypt, and already entranced by the ancient Egyptians, an obsession that had been fuelled by visits to The British Museum, and watching ‘Scooby Doo, Where’s My Mummy?’ on a loop. Ben was the keenest; a wannabe archaeologist, with a kids’ guide to hieroglyphics, notepad and torch stashed in his backpack. While Josh only had eyes for Tutankhamun, who had become a boy king at his age (he also had a knack for discovering anything vaguely phallic to satisfy his bothers’ schoolboy humour). Freddie was simply obsessed with all things mummified.

Arriving in Cairo had been an eye opener. This is a city that delivers chaos, noise and heat in equal measures, and it seems even more hectic, raucous, and sweltering than I remember as we drive from the airport. I note, with pleasure, that everyone is as wide-eyed as the first time; excitedly pointing out daredevils riding donkeys on the motorway, pomegranate sellers weaving their carts through the traffic, and soaring, golden minarets.

Four Seasons Nile Plaza, Cairo

Where to stay in Cairo on a family holiday in Egypt

Our base for exploring is Four Seasons Nile Plaza, which feels wonderfully evocative of 1920’s Cairo with luxurious, dark wood panelled suites opening on to balconies with Nile views, from where we watch traditional feluccas sail at sunset, and black ibis, with distinctive hooked beaks, fly in formation down the centre of the river. On our first evening we dine on Arabic dishes at the hotel’s Middle Eastern restaurant, Zitouni, wolfing down baba ghanoush and kharof (grilled lamb chops with nuts, raisins and yoghurt), all agreeing that it feels great to be back (and me thanking God that the years of picky eating are over).

Kate & family return to Giza

The Pyramids are everyone’s must-see, with good reason

In 2009, the Pyramids of Giza weren’t within an official compound and there were few regulations. To reach these ancient monuments you had to navigate your way through a bounty of illegal ticket touts, unofficial guides and persistent mahouts (camel owners) offering rides. The only legitimate ticket you needed was to enter the Great Pyramid of Khufu, where a series of narrow and stuffy, back-bending tunnels led to the inner sanctum. Sixteen years ago, it was only Freddie who managed to walk upright along these low shafts. We enjoy a good laugh, remembering, how in 2009, we encountered a group of metaphysical travellers, two of whom had climbed into an ancient sarcophagus and were busy trying to channel Egyptian spirits, while the only guard snoozed on the job. It was clear that things couldn’t go on as they were, but change hadn’t been fast.

Things have changed for the better since our last family holiday in Egypt

In spring of 2025, the Giza Plateau was finally fenced off and a state-of-the-art visitor centre opened, heralding a new era of order. Now, all visitors must enter through a central ticket office (separate tickets are still needed to venture inside the pyramids), and buses are provided as shuttles to key points of interest. We begin at a panoramic viewpoint of the three main pyramids – Khufu, Khafre, and Menkaure – before walking around the perimeter of each, and ending at the Sphinx, its far-reaching gaze ever serene.

You’ll still find mahouts offering camel rides (although these days they must hold a license), but gone is the constant hassle from touts, unsanctioned guides, and kick-knack sellers. Ben is keen to recreate photographs that we took last time, and as the five of us pose, with arms wrapped around each other, I think of all that has passed over the years, including the loss of loved ones. Perhaps I should have been prepared for moments of nostalgia, tinged with melancholy. “I wonder when we’ll come back again?” ponders Neil, snapping me back instantly to the wonderful here and now.

Hit Khan al Khalili Bazaar for football shirts and medieval vibes

Khan al Khalili Bazaar has been the bustling commercial soul of Cairo’s old city since the Middle Ages. We spend a couple of happy hours getting lost in its confusing maze of alleys and bazaars; marvelling at mosques, many built in the 9th century, while snacking on sticky baklava dripping with honey. When we last shopped here, holiday pocket money was spent on painted clay scarab beetles and models of the pyramids, and they all looked to me to barter.

This time I let them get on with it as they haggle over the cost of Egyptian footy shirts. The knitted Nubian hats they all buy will be perfect for festivals Josh explains. Another welcome change is how my sons look out for me. “Where’s Mum gone?” I hear on several occasions, when I’ve paused to peruse a trinket stall or stopped to take a photograph. After years of counting heads, it’s their turn to make sure that I’m not lost in the melee.

READ MORE: Cairo’s new digs: Let kids uncover Ancient Egypt from a modern hotel

Kagemni Frescoes, Giza

Make a detour to Saqqara to see the OG Pyramids

The Step Pyramid of Djoser in Saqqara predates those in Giza by 100 years, built around 2630BC. Sitting 40 kilometres from Cairo it’s worth the journey to see this unique edifice, as well as tombs recently opened, including that of Kagemni (advisor to King Teti around 2330BC) with its frescoes of ancient Egyptian rural life. On route back to Cairo, we call in at Memphis (once the capital of Egypt, founded in 3100BC), where an open-air museum holds yet more treasures, such as Egypt’s second largest sphinx, and a huge statue of Ramesses II, which lies prostrate, cut off from the knees.

The Egyptian Museum in Cairo is another unmissable original

We all hold fond memories of the old Egyptian Museum, opened in 1858, and find it just as chaotically catalogued and imagination-stirring as ever. Although many artefacts have been moved to GEM, the vintage display cabinets still bulge and, until the GEM Tutankhamun Gallery opens, King Tut’s treasures remain here, among them his solid-gold death mask decorated in lapis lazuli, turquoise and carnelian, and his beautiful golden sarcophagus and throne. Later, while gazing at mummies, including those of a baboon, bird and dog, I tease Freddie about the number of times he queried, when he was five, if mummies were really real?

READ MORE: 10 experiences of a lifetime you need to share with your kids

Egyptian Soldiers, GEM, Giza

GEM is the new must-do on any family holiday in Egypt

We save a visit to GEM for our last full day. In June it’s low season, and, at the opening hour of 8.30am, there are just a handful of other visitors as we enter the grand hall, where the colossal 11-metre-tall, granite statue of Ramesses II stands, 3,200 years old. The museum is spectacular and although still in the stage of soft opening, with two galleries yet to welcome visitors, you could easily lose days here. Highlights include the grand staircase lined with major pieces (the sculpted head of King Akhenaten is one such beauty), which lead to huge windows from which you can gaze across the desert to the pyramids.

Once in the galleries, we scatter, coming back to find each other when something interesting has caught our eye, such as the unnerving statue of Scribe Nefer, with his realistic, staring, kohl-lined eyes of polished crystal inlaid with copper (that we take turns gazing into), a gargantuan mummified crocodile, and canopic jars used to preserve the deceased organs (my sons’ fascination with the macabre has not wavered over time).

READ MORE: The best destinations for holidays with children of every age, and stage

Four Seasons Sharm El-Sheikh

How to add beach time to your family holiday in Egypt

As with countless other family trips, I stick to my rule of culture first, beach second. After four days in Cairo, we are dreaming of swimming in the cool, clear waters of the Red Sea. On the Sinai Peninsula sits Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt’s premier beach and diving resort. Situated in a land of great contrasts, where granite mountains meet the Red Sea and are transformed into a 40-mile belt of coral reefs, it lounges on the edge of an underwater national park that teems with psychedelic marine creatures. Four Seasons Sharm El-Sheikh is secreted away from the main tourist drag of Naama Bay in vast palm-studded gardens. Since we were last here the resort has grown to 280 Egyptian-inspired rooms, ranging from guestrooms to villas with trademark geometric designs, arches and domes.

READ MORE: 20 best family beaches in the world for this year and next

Perfect diving conditions, Sharm El-Sheikh

Four Seasons Sharm El-Sheikh is perfect for water babies

Within an hour of checking in we head excitedly down the jetty armed with snorkelling gear to explore the ‘house’ reef. We’ve only been in the water a matter of seconds before spotting angel fish, parrotfish, and masked puffer that inflate obligingly as we swim by. Chocolate dippers, that look as if their tails have been dipped in chocolate, dart in and out of blue and pink finger corals.

We tick off sightings of yellow-tail tang and three varieties of butterfly fish (black-backed, threadfin and crown), and my favourite, the Picasso fish, named after the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso because of its abstract markings. Last time we were here, Freddie, aged five, was too nervous to venture far from the jetty, so it feels wonderful to strike out further as a family, though I soon discover, as I watch them dive down through shoals of shimmering damselfish, that it’s difficult to grin while breathing through a snorkel.

Sanai Blues water sports’ centre, based at Four seasons Sharm El-Sheikh, offers guided snorkelling excursions and all levels of dive experiences, from introductory dips in the pool to advanced night dives in open water.

We head out by speed boat to Thomas Reef, one of six that lie in the gulf of Aqaba, equidistant between Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Our guide has timed the tide right, so it’s effortless to circumnavigate the entire reef, while spotting crocodile fish, blue-spotted ray, lionfish, and shoals of barracuda. An unexpected highlight comes as we’re cruising home and over 50 spinner dolphins join us, living up to their name by jumping and spiralling in front of the boat.

READ MORE: Voyage of discovery: how diving with kids teaches them life lessons too

Kate and family, Valley of Holes, Egypt

Verdict? Our family holiday in Egypt was an epic sequel

This is an effortless family holiday, where the only decision to make is whether to sunbathe or snorkel or which of the resorts many restaurants take our fancy for dinner (Reef Grill for charcoal grilled meat and local seafood, and pan-Asian Yatai for delicious sushi and tender yakitori skewers prove to be our clear favourites).

We head away from the Sharm El-Sheikh coast for just one day of desert adventuring by dune buggy and quad bikes. Through the South Sinai’s Valley of Holes, we take it in turns to ride both, but it’s at the helm of the chunky dune buggy I feel the most relaxed. With scarves wrapped around our heads and mouths we look like extras in a Star Wars movie, bumping over sandy tracks, waving to caravans of camel and their Bedouin owners, who still live a traditional, nomadic life.

Close to sunset, we call in at a settlement to sit on finely woven carpets and drink tea, poured from silver pots. There’s no doubt in my mind that our return to Egypt after so many years has been an epic sequel which, one day, could so easily become a happy trilogy.

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