Safaga: Cairo Day Trip by Plane with Giza Pyramids & Egyptian Museum

Some journeys are worth waking before the sun. While Safaga's harbour and long open beaches still lie in the dark, you make the short transfer to Hurghada Airport and lift off for Cairo - trading the breezy port town for the greatest history lesson on earth, and leaving the many hours of desert road behind you.

In Cairo your Egyptologist guide is waiting at the museum you chose: the storied Egyptian Museum on Tahrir Square or the vast new Grand Egyptian Museum. Tutankhamun's treasures, painted coffins and the faces of pharaohs bring five millennia into sharp focus. Then comes the reason you flew - the Giza Plateau, where the three Pyramids rise from the sand and the Great Sphinx meets your eye as it has met travellers' for thousands of years.

Close up, the scale is almost impossible to put into words. These are the last standing wonder of the ancient world, built by hand more than four and a half thousand years ago. Over a relaxed lunch and a walk through a Cairo bazaar, you begin to feel why this one skyline has drawn pilgrims, pharaohs and explorers for longer than almost anywhere on the planet.

Everything is taken care of: pickup from your Safaga hotel, the transfer to Hurghada Airport, round-trip flights, air-conditioned transport, entrance fees and lunch are all included. Optional extras - a Nile boat ride, entry inside the Great Pyramid or a camel ride - are yours if you want them. By evening you are back on the Safaga coast, carrying one of Egypt's most remarkable days with you.