Alexandria is Egypt's Mediterranean port, founded by Alexander the Great and layered with Greek, Roman, Jewish, and Arab history, with a sweeping Corniche, superb seafood, and a gentler mood than Cairo. This guide covers things to do in Alexandria and how to get there from Cairo.
Alexandria travel guide essentials: things to do in alexandria egypt, alexandria corniche, bibliotheca alexandrina, catacombs of kom el shoqafa, and how to get from cairo to alexandria. Alexandria is Egypt’s second city and its most European-feeling: a Mediterranean port of wide boulevards, faded belle époque apartment blocks, and a seafront Corniche curving for kilometres along a coast whose light painters and writers have chased for centuries.
Alexander the Great founded the city in 331 BC, and under the Ptolemies it became the ancient world’s great centre of knowledge, home to the Library of Alexandria, the Lighthouse (one of the Seven Wonders), and the Mouseion, the scholarly institution that gave us the word museum. The library vanished, earthquakes toppled the lighthouse, and the Mouseion is gone. What remains is a working city of more than 5 million people that wears its layered past lightly, in catacombs and column fragments, while getting on with excellent fish and a beautiful sea.
Alexandria offers what Egypt’s other big sites do not: a Mediterranean seafront, superb seafood, and neighbourhoods where Greek, Roman, Jewish, Coptic, and Islamic history overlap. The pace is slower than Cairo and the sea air is fresher. And walking where Cleopatra ruled and the ancient world’s greatest library stood is genuinely charged.
It is a long day trip from Cairo (about 2.5 hours by train) and a natural overnight on any Egypt itinerary.
Opened in 2002 near the site of the ancient library, the Bibliotheca Alexandrina is a landmark of contemporary architecture: a vast tilted disc about 160 metres across, its Aswan granite wall carved with characters from scripts around the world. Built with shelf space for 8 million books, it also houses a Manuscript Museum, an Antiquities Museum with finds from Alexandria’s harbour, and a planetarium.
The main building and some museums are ticketed separately, so check current prices at the entrance. Allow two to three hours. The light falling through the slanted roof into the terraced reading room is worth the visit alone.
Alexandria’s most important ancient site was discovered in 1900 when a donkey fell through the ground into the shaft. Dating from the 2nd century AD, the catacombs descend three levels and capture Roman Alexandria’s cultural fusion perfectly: Roman architecture, Egyptian gods such as Anubis dressed in Roman armour, and Greek inscriptions. Nothing else in Egypt looks like it. Entry is 200 EGP. The lower levels stay cool in any season.
Built between 1477 and 1479 by Sultan Qaitbay on the site of the ancient Lighthouse, and partly from its fallen stone, this Mamluk fort guards the tip of the Eastern Harbour. It is well preserved, and the ramparts look out over the harbour and open sea. Entry is 200 EGP. The walk out along the harbour toward the fort, with the city curving behind you, is one of Alexandria’s best views.
The Corniche is the city’s living room. Walk from Fort Qaitbay along the Eastern Harbour toward the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in the golden evening light, as fishing boats return. Harbourside restaurants grill fresh fish over charcoal at prices that will surprise anyone used to Mediterranean seafood elsewhere.
On Saad Zaghloul Square stands the Cecil Hotel, opened in 1929 and a wartime haunt of Somerset Maugham and Winston Churchill. Now run as the Steigenberger Cecil, it keeps its period character.
A rare Roman theatre in Egypt: a small horseshoe of white marble seating from late antiquity, uncovered by excavations beginning around 1960. The surrounding site reveals the Roman city beneath modern Alexandria: baths, a colonnaded street, some 20 lecture halls from the ancient university, and the fine mosaics of the Villa of the Birds. Entry is 200 EGP. Often overlooked, it is excellent.
At the eastern end of the Corniche, the huge Montazah gardens surround royal palaces built by Khedive Abbas II (the Salamlek, 1892) and King Fuad (the Haramlik, 1932). The gardens are open for a small fee; the palace interiors are generally closed. Stroll through to the small beaches on the bay.
Alexandria had one of the ancient world’s largest Jewish communities and later a thriving Greek one. The Eliyahu Hanavi Synagogue downtown (first built in 1354, rebuilt in 1850) reopened in 2020 after a major state restoration; access is subject to security arrangements, so confirm before visiting. The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria still serves the small, historic Greek community.
The Graeco-Roman Museum reopened in October 2023 after nearly two decades of renovation and holds the finest collection from Alexandria’s ancient city. Entry is 400 EGP.
Alexandria’s food centres on the sea.
Fresh fish and seafood: Harbourside and Anfushi restaurants display the day’s catch. You choose your fish, it is priced by weight, and it arrives grilled or fried with bread, tahini, salads, and lemon. Sea bass, red mullet, shrimp, and calamari are the standards, and a full seafood meal remains very good value.
Liver sandwich (kebda Iskandarani): Chopped liver fried with peppers, garlic, and chili, stuffed into bread. Alexandria’s signature street snack, sold from small shops and carts for very little.
Hawawshi: Spiced minced meat baked inside flatbread, an Egyptian street staple found at bakeries across the city.
Konafa and sweets: Shredded pastry filled with cream or nuts and soaked in syrup. Alexandria’s pastry shops do it especially well, above all during Ramadan.
Cafés: Alexandria’s café culture owes much to its Greek and cosmopolitan past. The Trianon on Saad Zaghloul Square is the classic address for coffee and pastries with a view of the square.
Nightly rates vary widely by season; summer is the most expensive.
Budget to mid-range: Paradise Inn Windsor Palace Hotel: A belle époque landmark on the Eastern Harbour Corniche, with sea-view rooms at good-value rates.
Mid-range to upscale: Helnan Palestine Hotel, Montazah: Set within the Montazah gardens on the bay, with the palace grounds as a backdrop. Steigenberger Cecil Hotel: The 1929 landmark on Saad Zaghloul Square, with harbour views and old-world character.
Luxury: Four Seasons Hotel Alexandria at San Stefano: The city’s finest modern hotel, on the Corniche at San Stefano, with a private beach and pools.
Train (recommended): Egyptian National Railways runs frequent services from Cairo’s Ramses Station to Sidi Gaber and Misr stations in Alexandria. The fastest trains, including the Talgo service introduced in 2022, take about 2.5 hours; slower trains take longer. First-class fares are modest by international standards but have risen repeatedly, so check current prices with Egyptian National Railways or at the station.
Bus: Go Bus and other operators run air-conditioned coaches from several points in central Cairo, taking about 3 hours depending on traffic.
Car: The Desert Road (about 220 kilometres) takes around 3 hours by private car, plus however long Cairo traffic adds.
The historic Raml tram, running since 1863 and one of the oldest in Africa, was shut down in 2026 for rebuilding as a modern metro-tram, with replacement buses covering the route. Uber and taxis cover the city well, and most major sites are walkable from the Eastern Harbour.
April to June and September to November are best: mild temperatures (20 to 28 degrees), manageable crowds, and pleasant evenings on the Corniche.
July and August are Egypt’s peak domestic holiday season, when Cairene families flood in to escape the heat. Beaches are crowded, hotels fill, and prices rise, but the sea is warm and the mood festive.
December to March: Cool (12 to 18 degrees), sometimes rainy and stormy, with fewer crowds. The Corniche in winter light has its own beauty.
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Alexandria rewards arriving without expectations. You come for the history, for the lost library, the lighthouse, and Cleopatra’s city, and those things are here, embedded in the walls, the harbour, and the catacombs. But what moves you is the Corniche at golden hour, grilled fish at a harbourside table, and the particular Mediterranean light on old buildings that Lawrence Durrell spent four novels trying to describe. Go and see it for yourself.
