QuickPass is a volunteer-run heritage guide written from Downtown Cairo. Everything on this site is free to read, carries no advertising, and takes no commission from any tour operator, hotel or ticket reseller. We write practical, honest notes on what to see, when to go, what each ticket includes and what each visit is actually like — the things we wished someone had told us before our own first trips.
Every note in the guide is based on a visit by one of our volunteers, who buys an ordinary ticket and walks the site like any other visitor. We write what we found — the room worth your time, the supplement that is not worth it, the side door that skips the queue, the hour to avoid. No site, operator or hotel pays to appear here, and nothing is hidden behind a paywall.
A volunteer buys a normal ticket and walks the museum or the site during the published hours. No press passes, no comped entry, no organised familiarisation trips. The cost is covered by the guide's small running fund.
The note is built around the four things you actually want to know at the gate — what the ticket includes, what is worth the supplement, the room or stop worth your hour, and the one to skip. Plain language, no marketing.
Each note carries a photograph taken by the volunteer who walked it — so you recognise the place when you arrive, and so you know the picture is real rather than a stock image of somewhere else.
Notes are re-walked on a published rota — every place at least twice a year, the busy ones each season. Closures, ticket changes and restorations are reflected within a week, and readers can flag anything they find out of date.
A representative slice of the free archive, re-walked during the spring 2026 rota. Each note on the live guide carries the current opening hours, a ticket breakdown in Egyptian pounds, and a paragraph from the volunteer who walked it. The previews here lead to the full notes inside the relevant section.
Two and a half hours if you go straight to the second-floor jewellery rooms. The basement gets humid on rainy days — leave it for last. The left desk sells the camera permit with no queue.
Arrive at 06:45 for the first opening — the Hypostyle Hall is empty for forty minutes. The open-air museum near the inner enclosure has a small separate ticket and is easily missed; it is worth it.
Best after dark when the columns are lit — between 18:30 and 20:00. The combined Luxor + Karnak ticket saves about a third. Avoid the open courtyards at midday in summer.
The general ticket includes three tombs. Pay the supplement for Seti I, skip the one for Tutankhamun — the chamber is small and the photographs you have seen are better than the visit.
Almost no shade. Visit before 09:00 or after 16:00. The shuttle from the gate runs continuously — pay the small fee, the walk is unpleasant in any season.
The boat ride from Marsa is part of the value; agree the fare before boarding. Late-afternoon light at 16:00 flatters the carvings. The southern landing has cheaper boats than the front jetty.
The 04:00 road convoy from Aswan is still cheaper than a flight and gives you ninety minutes on site. Both temples fit easily — do not skip the smaller temple of Nefertari. Bring a hat.
The most undervisited major site on the west bank. The Sea Peoples relief on the outer enclosure is the most complete battle scene in Egyptian art, and the wall colour survives better than at Karnak.
The painted astronomical ceiling — cleaned to near-original brightness in the 2018–2021 campaign — is the best-preserved colour programme on any temple ceiling in Egypt. A three-hour round trip from Luxor.
The double temple of Sobek and Horus, best at sunset. The small crocodile museum next door is included in the ticket. Reachable independently by train and taxi if you are not on a cruise.
For a one-hour felucca, negotiate at the southern landing — the rates are lower than at the Winter Palace dock. The sunset crossing to Banana Island is the better photograph than the temple side.
The archive is large enough to be intimidating, so every note is filed into seven sections — each one answering a specific question a visitor actually has. If you are planning a three-day Cairo trip, you do not need 106 notes; you need the eight that match your mornings and the two that solve your afternoons. The sections do that filtering for you. All of them are free; none of them require an account to read.
The major museums in Cairo, Alexandria, Luxor and Aswan — what each ticket includes, the room worth your hour, and the side door that skips the queue.
The open-air pharaonic sites — pyramids, temples, valleys — with the practical visit information and the best window of the day to avoid the heat and the buses.
Worked one-day plans for Cairo, Luxor, Aswan and Alexandria, timed in real minutes with named lunch stops and honest transfer times.
Neighbourhood and region notes — Coptic Cairo, Islamic Cairo, the Khan, the Luxor corniche, Aswan as a river city, the Sinai monasteries.
The practical pre-trip basics — visa, SIM card, money, taxis, dress code, water, tipping, useful phrases. Re-checked twice a year.
Month-by-month notes on weather, crowds, closures, the cruise season and the dust-storm window — so you choose the right weeks to travel.
Notes re-tagged for families with kids — which museum has interactive rooms, which site has shade, which restaurant near each site has a children's menu.
Yes. Every note on QuickPass is free to read, with no account, no paywall and no advertising. The guide is run by volunteers and covered by a small running fund (described on the how it's funded page). We do not sell anything, we do not take commission on bookings, and we do not run sponsored content. The only thing we ever ask is that you tell us when a note is out of date.
No. QuickPass is not a tour operator, not a ticket reseller and not a booking agent. We are an independent volunteer guide. When a note recommends something — a guide for a specific site, a felucca landing, a restaurant near a museum — the recommendation is unpaid and the named business does not know we exist until a reader mentions us.
Every note is dated. We re-walk each place at least twice a year and the busy Cairo and Luxor sites each season. Closures, ticket-price changes and restorations are reflected within a week. The last re-walk date is at the foot of every note, and readers can flag anything they find out of date through the ask the desk page.
A small group of Cairo-based volunteers — a retired antiquities inspector, two working translators, a school history teacher and a librarian. None of us is paid by a tour operator or a hotel. We started the guide in 2022 because the existing free information about visiting Egypt was either thin and out of date or stuffed with affiliate links, and we wanted something honest in between.
Yes, and the most useful help is information. If you have just visited a site and something has changed — a new ticket price, a closed tomb, a moved entrance — write to the desk and we will update the note with your observation credited (or anonymous, your choice). We also welcome volunteers based in Egypt who can re-walk sites; write to us if that is you.
Planning museums? Start with Great Collections. Heading to Luxor and Aswan? Start with Temple Routes. Travelling with kids? Start with With Children. Everything is free to read.
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