Luxor from Hurghada: one day, balloon flight or two days – what to choose
Updated October 3, 2026 · 7 min read
In short. For most people the best choice is “Hurghada: Luxor, Valley of the Kings & Tutankhamun’s Tomb”: one day, from €67.50 per person, rated 5 from 1,689 reviews – the highest rating of all twelve offers in our Luxor section: see dates and prices for the Valley of the Kings tour. If a late departure matters to you – “Hurghada: Luxor Tour with Valley of the Kings & Tutankhamun”, from €80.03, 4.9 from 1,825 reviews, with a late-morning departure: see the programme with a late-morning departure. If you want the hot-air balloon – the two-day tour with hotel, balloon and boat ride from €232.09: see the two-day tour with balloon.
In our Luxor day trips from Hurghada section we have 12 offers from €67.50. The price range is very wide, and it comes down almost entirely to one item – the hot-air balloon.
Five offers side by side
| Offer | Format | Duration | From | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Luxor, Valley of the Kings and Tutankhamun’s tomb | one day | 1 day | €67.50 | 5 · 1,689 reviews |
| Luxor tour with the Valley of the Kings and Tutankhamun | one day, late-morning departure | 1 day | €80.03 | 4.9 · 1,825 reviews |
| Luxor and Tutankhamun’s tomb in a small group | small group | 15 hours | €68.77 | 4.6 · 962 reviews |
| Luxor in a small group and balloon at sunrise | one day with balloon | 18 hours | €206.31 | 4.5 · 503 reviews |
| Two days in Luxor with hotel, balloon and boat ride | two days | 2 days | €232.09 | 4.4 · 1,197 reviews |
The first three rows cost about the same – from €67.50 to €80.03. The last two are more than three times as expensive, and the difference is the same for both: the hot-air balloon ride.
The balloon costs more than the trip itself
The one-day small-group tour with a sunrise balloon ride costs from €206.31; the same day in a small group without the balloon costs from €68.77. The difference is €137.54 per person, and that is the price of a single item on the programme.
The second thing to understand about the balloon: it flies at sunrise, and that sunrise is in Luxor. Either you stay the night there, or you leave Hurghada at night. The one-day balloon option lists eighteen hours in its description – that is exactly the night departure. The two-day tour solves the same problem with a hotel in Luxor, which makes it fairer to your sleep, though it costs more.
See the one-day tour with sunrise balloon ride
The two-day tour is rated 4.4 from 1,197 reviews, the lowest of the five in the table. That doesn’t mean it’s bad; it means that with two days there are more places where something can go wrong: the hotel, the second breakfast, the balloon schedule, the weather.
See the two-day tour with hotel and balloon
Pick-up time – the main question for the one-day tour
The most popular offer in the section states a late-morning departure right in its description. That’s unusual: most one-day Luxor tours start well before sunrise, and the descriptions usually don’t give a pick-up time at all.
A late departure changes the whole day. You get to sleep in, but you visit the temples during the hottest part of the day and come back late in the evening. An early departure gives you a cool morning on the west bank, but costs you a night’s sleep. Which option is better depends on you, not the programme – which is exactly why it’s worth asking for the exact time before you pay.
See the tour with a late-morning departure
The small group is the third format. “Luxor and Tutankhamun’s Tomb in a Small Group” is advertised as fifteen hours from €68.77, with the Temple of Karnak, the Valley of the Kings, the Temple of Hatshepsut and an optional felucca ride on the Nile. Fifteen hours is the shortest of the durations given in hours in this table.
“Tomb of your choice” – check which one exactly
The description of the top-rated offer says: a choice of Tutankhamun’s tomb or the tomb of Ramesses V and VI. The word “or” here means it’s one option, not both, and that it may cost extra.
Ask three things: whether entry to Tutankhamun’s tomb is included in the starting price, whether it’s paid on site, and exactly what changes if you choose the other tomb. The descriptions don’t say – and the difference in the ticket is the difference in the reason many people go to Luxor at all.
See the tour with the Valley of the Kings and Tutankhamun’s tomb
Luxor or Cairo
These are two completely different days, and choosing between them by price alone is the wrong approach. In Giza you see the pyramids and the museum; in Luxor, temples and painted tombs, and the west bank of the Nile, where you need to look inward, not upward. The road to Cairo is longer, and the cheapest bus tour there starts at €54.80, while Luxor starts at €67.50. We’ve broken down the Cairo options separately: Cairo from Hurghada: bus or flight.
If you only have time for one long trip and this is your first time in Egypt, most people choose the pyramids. If you’re more interested in tombs and wall paintings, Luxor gives you more for less money – and a shorter journey.
Who should skip this trip
Fifteen to eighteen hours on a bus, plus walking across open sites in the heat, is a strain, and the descriptions say nothing about how much walking is involved. If anyone in your group copes poorly with heat or long seated journeys, a one-day Luxor trip is the worst day to find that out. The two-day option spreads this load out, but adds moving around with luggage.
With school-age children, a day like this is possible but needs preparation – we’ve covered that separately: Hurghada with kids 6–10. With small children, it’s better to skip this trip entirely; what’s left is gathered here: Hurghada with kids. If you want a relaxed holiday, you’ll find alternatives here: relaxed trips.
None of these offers states a minimum age in its description. Ask the operator and request a written answer.
Our recommendation
Take “Hurghada: Luxor, Valley of the Kings & Tutankhamun’s Tomb” for €67.50. It’s the cheapest offer in the section and, at the same time, the only one rated 5 – with 1,689 reviews, that combination is rare. The description names the Valley of the Kings, the Temple of Hatshepsut and the Temple of Karnak; confirm the departure time and the conditions for entering the tomb.
See dates and prices for the Valley of the Kings tour
Paying an extra €12.53 for the tour with a late-morning departure is worth it in one case: if getting up at night is worse for you than the daytime heat. And only take the balloon together with an overnight stay – spending eighteen hours travelling for a single flight only makes sense if you know for certain that’s why you’re going. Other long-distance destinations are gathered in Cairo and the pyramids from Hurghada, and what you can see on the Red Sea itself is here: Red Sea: what to see.
