Giza

Separate days for the plateau, the Grand Egyptian Museum and Saqqara

Plan two separate days for Giza: one for the pyramid plateau, which opens at 07:00, and one for the Grand Egyptian Museum, 2 km away, which needs at least four hours. Add a third day for Saqqara, Memphis and Dahshur to the south, with a car and driver booked a day ahead.

For the mosques, bazaars and Coptic churches across the river, turn to our Cairo guide.

• Plateau day: be at the gate when it opens at 07:00. If you want to go inside the Great Pyramid, buy that separate ticket first, because interior visits need an early start. Walk the site anti-clockwise, head out west of the pyramids for the panorama and finish down at the Sphinx.
• Museum day: Grand Egyptian Museum tickets are sold online only, so buy before you go. The Tutankhamun gallery is the highlight; reach it while your energy is fresh. On Wednesdays and Saturdays the doors stay open until 21:00.
• South of Giza: Saqqara comes first: the Step Pyramid of Djoser, the Serapeum and the Imhotep Museum. Memphis and Dahshur, with its Red Pyramid, fill the afternoon. Saqqara opens 9AM to 5PM, closing at 4PM in winter.

Giza station sits on the main line to Luxor and Aswan and most trains stop there, so you can head up the Nile valley without crossing to Ramses; some seasonal sleepers even start here.

Many visitors prefer the smaller gate at the south-east corner near the Sphinx, where tickets are sold from an office in an alley on the right; you enter almost beneath the Sphinx and walk uphill to the pyramids.

Best time to visit Giza for heat, dust and crowds on the plateau

Visit Giza between October and April and arrive at the 07:00 opening, because the plateau has almost no shade. Winter highs run between 16 and 20°C with nights below 7°C, while summer highs can touch 40°C; March and April bring Saharan dust storms, and Fridays bring large crowds of Egyptian families.

Between October and April the midday sun is not hot, but the UV is still strong; a hat matters in January as much as in June. Bring a fleece for the first hour after opening. The complex closes at 16:00 in winter and 17:00 in summer.

The pyramid interiors are hot and humid in any season. If you come between May and September, be through the gate at opening and leave the plateau before the midday heat. Save the museum galleries for the afternoon.

March and April bring the spring windstorms that carry Saharan dust off the desert; on a bad day the pyramids fade into a brown haze. Pick a weekday over a Friday if you can.

The sound and light show plays after dark at the foot of the plateau, with the first performance in English. Show times shift by half an hour with the seasons: 7PM, 8PM and 9PM from October to March, starting at 7:30PM from April to September.

Nazlet El-Semman food, tipping and camel rules at the pyramids

Eat in Nazlet El-Semman, the neighbourhood at the pyramid entrance, for cheap Egyptian food such as falafel at El Gizawy, or at Khufu's Restaurant inside the site. On the plateau, expect requests for a tip for any favour, never climb the pyramids, and pay camel or horse handlers only back at the starting point.

Pizza Hut and KFC face the Sphinx from across the road by the main ticket gates.

El Gizawy in Nazlet El-Semman serves falafel and Egyptian pasta to a mostly local crowd. El Mandara Coffee Shop on Abou Al Mohsen is a plain local café for black tea, Egyptian coffee and a water pipe.

Alcohol is rare on this side of the river outside hotels. The Mena House's Khan El Khalili restaurant has been open for more than a century and is the smartest place in Giza for lunch or a cold beer, at Western prices.

The hustlers posing near the Sphinx usually give up if you shake your head and say nothing. Before riding a horse or camel, look at how the animals are kept. Extra demands at the end are part of the routine.