2 days, 1 nightOvernight Camping in Fayoum Oasis
The Fayoum safari, given the night it deserves. Everything the day trip covers, plus dinner over a fire in the dunes, a sky with nothing between you and it, and sunrise over the Magic Lake before anyone else arrives.
Desert driving, walking on soft sand, and a night at a camp with deliberately basic facilities. Nights from November to February get properly cold.
Where You’ll Go
What You’ll Do
- 1
Day 1 — morning: out of Cairo, into the desert
Early pickup and the drive to Fayoum. Breakfast in the desert — Bedouin tea, eggs, cheese, bread — then the first sandboarding run on the old safari track.
- 2
Day 1 — Wadi El Hitan
The Valley of the Whales and its museum: whale skeletons lying in the sand where they were excavated, on the UNESCO trail.
- 3
Day 1 — afternoon: the Magic Lake
4×4 across to the lake for a barbecue lunch, a boat out on the water, and more of the dunes that ring it.
- 4
Day 1 — evening: camp
Camp goes up as the light goes. Bedouin-style dinner around the fire, and then the part you came for: the sky, with Cairo's glow far enough away to stop mattering.
- 5
Day 2 — sunrise and breakfast
Up for first light over the dunes, then breakfast at camp.
- 6
Day 2 — morning safari and Wadi El Rayan
A second run through the desert, then Wadi El Rayan — the lakes, the waterfalls and a boat out on the water before the drive back to Cairo.
Included
- ✓Private air-conditioned transport from Cairo and back
- ✓4×4 desert driving on both days
- ✓Camping equipment — tent, mattress and blankets
- ✓Barbecue lunch, Bedouin dinner at camp and breakfast
- ✓Sandboards
- ✓All entrance fees for Wadi El Hitan and Wadi El Rayan
- ✓Your host and guide throughout
Good to Know
The practical truth about this one — timings, conditions, and what we can’t promise.
- Desert nights get cold from November to February — properly cold, not just cool. Bring layers.
- Camp facilities are basic by design: this is a desert camp, not a lodge.
- A head torch is worth more than a phone light out there.
- October to April is the season. Summer nights are pleasant but the days are punishing.
- The whole trip starts and ends at your Cairo hotel — no separate logistics to arrange.
More experiences to add
Evening into the early hours, with an optional overnightStargazing in Fayoum Oasis
A hundred and fifty kilometres from Cairo's light, over a UNESCO valley that keeps some of the darkest skies within reach of the capital. Dinner around a fire, then an astronomy guide walking you through what's actually overhead — the Milky Way's full arc, and planets you can find without a lens.
Half day, or added to a Fayoum day tourKayaking in Fayoum Oasis
Flat, sheltered desert water with dunes running straight down into it. An hour or two of paddling on the Magic Lake or Lake Qarun — the quietest way to see the Fayoum lakes, and the easiest thing in the world to add to a safari day.
About 2 hours at the wheelPottery Experience in Tunis Village, Fayoum
Tunis Village sits on a ridge above Lake Qarun and is, improbably, Egypt's pottery capital — the result of a school the Swiss potter Evelyne Porret founded here in 1980 and the hundred-odd local potters who trained in it. You spend two hours at a wheel with one of them.