Cairo does not reward a rushed two days. The sites are far apart, the traffic is genuinely bad, and the heat for much of the year removes the middle of the afternoon from the working day. Three is the minimum that works.
The organising principle below is simple: outdoors early, indoors at midday, outdoors again after four.
Day one: Giza
Early. At the pyramids for opening. This is not optional advice — by eleven in summer the plateau is punishing and there is no shade anywhere on it. Buy at the official window, ignore everyone who approaches you on the road, and walk out to the panorama point for the view of all three.
Late morning. The Grand Egyptian Museum is two kilometres away and air-conditioned. Check its current opening status before you build the day around it — the schedule has moved repeatedly.
Afternoon. Stay inside it. The Tutankhamun galleries and the grand staircase will take three hours without difficulty.
Evening. Back into town, or a rooftop in Giza with the pyramids floodlit.
Day two: Islamic Cairo
Early. Taxi to Bab al-Futuh and walk south down Al-Muizz Street — the densest concentration of medieval Islamic architecture in the world, and best in the morning light before the crowds.
Late morning. Al-Azhar, founded 970, then across into Khan el-Khalili. Get past the first hundred metres of tourist stalls into the working lanes.
Lunch. El Fishawy, open since 1797, for mint tea in the middle of the bazaar.
Afternoon. Indoors: the Museum of Islamic Art at Bab al-Khalq is quiet, air-conditioned and one of the finest collections of its kind anywhere.
Late afternoon. Al-Azhar Park an hour before sunset. Walk to the western terrace and stay there. This is the best hour in Cairo.
Day three: the old city and the museums
Early. Metro Line 1 to Mar Girgis for Coptic Cairo — the Hanging Church, Abu Serga, the Ben Ezra Synagogue and the Coptic Museum, all inside one walled compound. The churches close early, so this genuinely has to be the morning.
Midday. A short taxi to the National Museum of Egyptian Civilisation for the Royal Mummies Hall — dark, cool, silent, and the most affecting room in the city.
Afternoon. Ibn Tulun, from 879, and the Gayer-Anderson Museum attached to it. Climb the spiral minaret.
Evening. A felucca at sunset, then Downtown for dinner.
What to book ahead
Very little. The GEM should be booked online. Everything else is bought at the gate.
Do arrange a driver for the day if you are going to Saqqara — it is cheaper than a tour for two people and you control the pace.
If you have a fourth day
Saqqara, Dahshur and Memphis — the Step Pyramid, the Serapeum, the painted tombs, and far fewer people than Giza. A full day with a driver.
Or Alexandria by train, two and a half hours each way, for the library, the catacombs and the sea.
What to skip
The sound and light show at the pyramids divides opinion sharply and is dated. The dinner cruises are for tour groups. Anything sold to you on the street outside a monument.
The heat rule, stated plainly
From May to September, Cairo runs 35 to 42°C with strong sun and almost no shade at the archaeological sites. The pyramids plateau, Saqqara and Al-Muizz Street all become genuinely unpleasant and, for some people, unsafe between about eleven and four.
Every itinerary above is built around that. Reverse it in December and January, when the middle of the day is the best part and the mornings are cold enough to want a jacket.
Ramadan
Worth checking against your dates. During the fasting month most restaurants close during daylight, monument hours shorten, and the traffic in the hour before sunset is the worst of the year as the entire city rushes home.
Then the evenings are extraordinary — Al-Muizz Street and Khan el-Khalili during Ramadan nights are the best they ever are, lit and packed with families until two in the morning. It is a very good time to come as long as you plan around the days rather than being surprised by them.
Fridays
The Egyptian weekend is Friday and Saturday. Friday midday prayers close many shops for a couple of hours and the mosques are not open to visitors then. Museums and monuments mostly stay open.
Two days, if that is all you have
Drop day three. Do Giza and the GEM on the first, Islamic Cairo and Al-Azhar Park on the second, and accept that you have not seen Coptic Cairo or the mummies.
The thing not to do is compress all three into two by rushing — Cairo punishes that with traffic, and you will spend the saved time in a car.