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Grand Egyptian Museum & Pyramids

For those who have been to both, should they be split up in two days? We originally thought to to do the Pyramids and GEM in one day; however, the more we read about how vast the new museum is, the more we wonder if that is almost a day in itself. We are not hiring a guide for this area; we don't want to be rushed through each area, particularly GEM, in an hour and a half which seems to be the norm for most tours.

We are four active adults going to Cairo/Giza for the first time. We all love well done museums but info out on sites like TA say the museum can be 2 hours or it can be 2 days. Big difference so we are trying to zero in some on what makes sense without shortchanging anything. We are staying at the Marriott Mena House so we will be close to both.

Posted by
8464 posts

If you've traveled before just go with your own flow. Don't think "oh so and so said it should take this amount of time so we should plan on leaving." We managed to visit both the same day without any advice other than knowing opening and closing hours. However one person in our party at one point while we were touring the museum on our own decided to get a guide based at the museum. Our day was like 9am to 7pm. We went to dinner after the Pyramids.

Posted by
24 posts

Thanks. We do normally go with our own flow anywhere in the world. We just don't want to shortchange either GEM or the pyramids which is what we are trying to determine since this will be our first time there. How long did you actually spend at the museum?

Posted by
8464 posts

We were there a couple of hours. But we have been to many museums (Berlin has a great collection of Egytian stuff) and had experienced the great King Tut exhibit here in Chicago's Field Museum in the late 1970's https://www.wttw.com/remembering-chicago/tutmania-field-museum so the Egytian Museum did not feel like a big deal. Seeing the Pyramids appear from distance on the road to the site was the most wow awesome experience of all and the Abu Simbel temple south of Aswan second.

Posted by
2178 posts

They are both doable in one day. We were on a tour and our hotel was in Giza (with a terrific view of the pyramids), With transport and walking to the pyramids from the entrance, we spent the morning. But that included going to the (nearby) Sphinx on our bus. I would definitely find a way to see it as well. (When will you get the chance again?) Just for that reason I would hire a local tour guide for those things.

The new museum wasn't done when we were in Cairo, but our group spent 3-4 hours at the old one (including about a full hour with the tour guide, then 2-3 hours to explore on our own. That was about the right time for us before our knees were done in (since replaced!). When our group tour was over we had a full day before our flight. We stored our bags at the hotel, returned to the Coptic section by taxi to revisit it. Then we taxied to the old museum. The driver tried to have us get out a couple of blocks before the museum but we refused to get out until he drove us to the entrance. Have your hotel call a taxi for you and find out what the correct fare should be and where they will drop you off (at the entrance, not 2 blocks away....watch out for this). Take a taxi back to your hotel but be sure to discuss price before getting in.
Traffic in Cairo is worse than Rome or even Boston, by far. Allow enough time. I don't know the location of the GEM. If you will visit both museums, make that with the pyramids a two day option. And add on the Coptic/Old Egypt center.
(BTW, we saw the Tut exhibition in LA back in the 70s also, so skipped it in Cairo.)
Have a great trip!

Posted by
208 posts

We did both in one day last spring. The museum is quite extensive, so I'm sure we missed some things (which was ok for us).

Posted by
24 posts

Coffee girl, how long were you at the museum? In hindsight, if you could add more time, would you? And how much more time?