Valley of the Kings and Queens Tour with Lunch

In the $55

Hotel pickup and drop-off, the English-speaking Egyptologist guide, and lunch at a local restaurant are all included. Wikivoyage warns of a queue of at least 15 to 30 minutes at the Valley of the Kings in peak season. The $55 shown is per person with all taxes and fees included, and reserve now and pay later applies.

The only stated exclusion besides tips is a Spanish, German or French guide, which costs extra as an add-on. Drinks with lunch are not stated as included.

The Ticket Question

Entrance fees are included only if the option is selected, and the listing displays no add-on price, so the real total appears only at checkout. The official prices for comparison are the Valley of the Kings general ticket at EGP 750 for foreign adults, the Valley of the Queens at EGP 220, and nothing at all for the Colossi of Memnon, which have no entrance fee. If you pay on the day, note that the Valley of the Kings takes card payment only, no cash, at the ticket office or online.

Two named tombs sit outside any general ticket. Tutankhamun's KV62 costs an extra 700 EGP and Seti I's KV17 costs 2,000 EGP, and neither is mentioned in this listing, so assume the tour covers the standard tombs only. The general ticket covers 3 tombs of your choice from those open that day, and the open set rotates, so no operator can promise a specific tomb in advance.

Nefertari's Tomb, and What Not to Expect

The Valley of the Queens ticket covers all 3 available tombs except Nefertari's QV66, which needs its own expensive ticket, listed at 2,000 EGP by Earthtrekkers and LE2500 by Wikivoyage. Sources disagree on whether QV66 is currently open at all, so this page makes no promise about it. Treat any visit to Nefertari's tomb as a separate, uncertain plan and not part of this $55 tour.

Pickup and the Drive Over

The day starts with pickup from most Luxor hotels. No starting time is published, so the exact hour appears when you check availability for your date. From the East Bank the group crosses to the West Bank burial ground of the Theban Necropolis, where the Valley of the Kings, the Valley of the Queens and the mortuary temples all sit within a short drive of each other.

Stop 1: the Valley of the Kings

The first stop is the famous valley where New Kingdom royal burials took place from roughly 1550 to 1069 BC. The listing cites 63 royal tombs, and the Ministry counts over sixty plus about twenty unfinished ones across an East and a West Valley. Your general ticket covers 3 tombs from those open that day, and only a share of the tombs open to visitors at any time, with the set rotating as tombs close for restoration.

Expect an electric tram from the visitor centre toward the tomb area, about a three-minute ride, at 20 EGP round trip. One honest note: guides are not permitted inside the tombs, so your Egyptologist explains each tomb outside the entrance and you go down the steps on your own. There are steps and sloping corridors, and visitors move in single file inside.

Stop 2: the Valley of the Queens

Next comes the lesser-visited valley the listing counts at nearly 80 tombs. Wikipedia documents 110 tombs in total, 91 in the main wadi, and burials here run from roughly 1560 BC to 1130 BC. The ancient name Ta-Set-Neferu means the Place of Beauty.

The standard ticket covers all 3 available tombs, which belonged to queens, princes and other members of the royal families. It is noticeably quieter than the Kings valley, and walled paths and shelters cover the popular tombs.

Stop 3: the Colossi of Memnon

The last stop is the pair of seated statues of Amenhotep III, about 18 metres high including their bases and roughly 720 tons each. They are what remains of his vast mortuary temple, and after an earthquake in 27 BC the northern statue was reputed to sing within an hour or two of sunrise, a sound last reliably recorded in 196 AD. There is no entrance fee, and the listing calls it a great place to snap photos.

Lunch and the Return

Leaving the Colossi, the group sits down to an Egyptian lunch at a local restaurant with fellow travellers. After lunch the driver drops everyone back at their Luxor hotels. The listing gives no return time, only the 5-hour total.

If You Want Hatshepsut's Temple

This itinerary skips Deir el-Bahari entirely, and Hatshepsut's terraced temple is one of the main sites on the West Bank. If that is a priority, the shared West Bank half day with Hatshepsut and lunch swaps the Valley of the Queens for her temple at a lower price, or the private West Bank day covers both valleys and Hatshepsut together.

If Tickets Must Be in the Price

Entry fees here are an option at checkout with no published add-on price, which makes the final cost unclear until you book. The private Kings and Queens day includes admission to five West Bank sites in its $89.24 price, so heavy sightseers may find the arithmetic simpler there.

If You Cannot Manage Steps and Heat

Tombs mean descending steps and ramps into underground corridors, and the tram helps but does not remove the walking. The listing states no wheelchair provision, so travellers with limited mobility should check directly before booking. The heat is the other limit: Luxor's mean daily maximum tops 41 C in July, and US News advises avoiding the valley in summer entirely.

The listing itself says bring comfortable shoes, sunglasses and a hat.

If You Want the East Bank Too

Five hours buys you three West Bank stops and nothing else. Karnak and Luxor Temple need a separate half day or a full-day listing such as the shared East and West Banks day, which adds Karnak and Luxor Temple to a West Bank morning. Also note the listing states no group size beyond small group and no bad-weather policy, so keep the 24-hour cancellation window in mind when you fix your date.

Official Tickets in Egyptian Pounds

The Ministry lists the Valley of the Kings general ticket at EGP 750 for foreign adults and EGP 375 for foreign students. That ticket covers 3 tombs of your choice from those open that day. Extras sit on top: 700 EGP for Tutankhamun's KV62, 2,000 EGP for Seti I's KV17, 220 EGP for Ramesses V and VI's KV9, and 200 EGP for the tomb of Ay in the West Valley.

In the Valley of the Queens the ticket is EGP 220 and covers all 3 available tombs, with Nefertari's QV66 separate and its current status unconfirmed. Cash is no longer accepted at the Valley of the Kings, so bring a card. The full breakdown is in the Valley of the Kings tickets guide.

Hours and the Heat

The Ministry lists the Valley of the Kings as open daily from 6:00 AM, closing at 5:00 PM, though some sources give 4:00 PM in winter, so check locally. The site draws an average of 4,000 to 5,000 tourists a day, and peak crowds fall between 10 am and 2 pm, so arriving at opening is the standard advice. Summer is the real constraint: mean daily maxima run 39.1 C in May, 41.2 C in June and 41.4 C in July, and the record is 50.0 C. The tombs themselves stay cooler than the desert outside because they run underground, but the queues and the tram wait do not.

October to April is the comfortable window.

What Fits Around a 5-hour Morning

A 5-hour tour leaves most of a Luxor day free. Luxor Temple stays open daily from 6:00 am to 8:00 pm, so it works in the evening at EGP 500 for foreign adults. Karnak opens 6:00 am to 5:00 pm at EGP 600 including the Open Museum.

If you want more West Bank, the Temple of Hatshepsut is best at opening or just before closing, and a Luxor hot air balloon flight at dawn pairs naturally with this tour on the following morning. For the second valley in depth, read the Valley of the Queens guide and Tutankhamun's tomb page before deciding on the extra tickets.