Is Siwa Oasis Worth Visiting? An Honest Review + Best Things to Do

Beyond the incredible temples and pyramids you’ll see in Egypt, there’s a peaceful oasis tucked deep in the desert. I’ll admit, the first time I heard about Siwa Oasis was from an Instagram post of a traveler floating effortlessly in a bright turquoise salt pool in the middle of nowhere. And that was it, we were instantly sold. We knew we had to see it for ourselves.

But if you’re actually thinking about going, it’s worth asking a few real questions. Is Siwa Oasis worth visiting for you? What are the best experiences there? And how do you even plan the trip?

We spent a full month traveling through Egypt, from Alexandria all the way to Abu Simbel, so we’ll share our honest insights on Siwa Oasis, whether it’s worth the journey, our favourite experiences, and tips to help you plan it all.

Is Siwa Oasis Worth Visiting

A question we get asked often is if Siwa Oasis is actually worth visiting. And it’s a fair question. Getting to Siwa is not exactly easy. The journey takes around 10 hours by car, which is a big time commitment, especially when your time in Egypt is limited and there are so many incredible places competing for attention. 

In short, Siwa Oasis is absolutely worth visiting. The real question is whether it is worth visiting over other amazing experiences in Egypt like exploring Cairo, wandering the temples of Luxor, sailing the Nile, seeing the iconic Abu Simbel, relaxing in Aswan, diving around Sharm el Sheikh, or strolling through historic Alexandria. 

Siwa Oasis Vs. Other Regions in Egypt

Here’s our honest take:

Having spent nearly a month exploring many of Egypt’s highlights, Siwa Oasis easily ranks among the top three regions we visited. The area is not only showcases towering desert dunes, ancient culture and ruins, floating salt pools, local artisanal crafts, and unforgettable sunsets, but it is also incredibly rich in history.

The area does not have the same grand temples and archaeological sites found in Cairo or Luxor, but it more than makes up for it with the incredible variety of nature experiences. In our opinion, it is easy to get ‘temple overload’ visiting Egypt, so Siwa Oasis offers a refreshing change of pace.

Overall, this is how we would rank the regions we visited in Egypt, starting from favourite to least favourite: 

Luxor > Nile Cruise > Siwa Oasis > Cairo > Alexandria > Abu Simble > Sharm El Sheikh.

Where is Siwa Oasis – How to Get There

Siwa Oasis is located about a 10 hour drive west of Cairo, not far from the Libyan border. There is no direct desert highway to reach it, so the journey follows Egypt’s northern coastline, passing nearby Alexandria and Marsa Matruh along the way.

Some shorter Siwa Oasis tour itineraries simply make the full 10 hour drive straight to Siwa. However, if time allows, we would recommend breaking up the trip and spending a day or two exploring Alexandria and relaxing along the beaches of Marsa Matruh. This is what we did and we’ll share exactly how we planned this itinerary. 

How to Get to Siwa Oasis

In terms of how to get there, the easiest option is to join either a private guided tour or a shared group tour. Once in Siwa Oasis, most of the main attractions are spread out across the desert, making them difficult to reach without a vehicle.

While it is technically possible to take a bus from Cairo, this is not something we would recommended. The journey is long and transportation options within Siwa are limited if arriving independently.

Another thing to keep in mind is that Siwa sits close to the Libyan border, so the route passes through multiple military checkpoints. We had our passports checked countless times along the way, which can sometimes feel like a stressful process.

For most travelers, joining a tour simply makes the entire journey smoother and removes the hassle of navigating transportation and checkpoints on your own.

How Many Days to Visit Siwa Oasis

This is another important factor to consider when deciding which tour to book. Tours to Siwa Oasis can be as short as two days and extend up to about seven days, although the most common option is a two night tour.

Overall, we would recommend spending at least three to four days in Siwa Oasis. The journey from Cairo takes around ten hours, which is a really long drive. On a two day tour, pretty much most of your tour time will end up being spent in the car.

A three day tour would be the minimum recommended length, but ideally four to five days to allow enough time to actually explore Siwa and enjoy the experience without feeling rushed.

How We Visited Siwa Oasis

We visited Siwa Oasis on a private customized tour with Oriental Tours Egypt as part of our larger one month trip through Egypt. While we had checked plenty of other standard tour options, we wanted something that better matched our travel pace and allowed more time for photography.

As we mentioned in several of our other Egypt guides, we would recommend booking private guided tours since they give you much more flexibility and an overall richer experience. In both Luxor and Siwa, we ended up befriending our guide and driver which made the experience that much more fun! 

The Siwa Oasis Tour and Route We Did

So instead of doing the classic 3 days Siwa Oasis tour, we opted instead for a 6 day tour that brought us through Alexandria, Marsa Matruh, and then 3 nights in Siwa Oasis before returning to Cairo.

Breaking up the trip like this made the long ten hour drive much more enjoyable. It also gave us time to explore the famous historical sites in Alexandria (like the Library of Alexandria) and relax at a local beach resort in Marsa Matruh before arriving in Siwa. When we arrived at the resort, one of the locals asked where we were from and how we found out about this place. So that’s a clear indication that we arrived at a local hotspot!

If you’re interested in following the same itinerary, you can always reach out to Oriental Tours Egypt and ask them for the same tour that Ryan from WaylessTravelers did. The team can help arrange everything and even offer a 5% discount on the total price when mentioning WaylessTravelers.

Alternatively, if you prefer booking it yourself, this 7 Days Siwa Oasis Tour including Alexandria is very similar to the tour that we did and includes many of the same highlights. 

Best Siwa Oasis Tours

So with this in mind, here are a few Siwa Oasis tours we would recommend based on the time you have available. As previously mentioned, we would recommend a minimum of a 3 day tour, but ideally 4-5 days to best experience the region.

3-Day Siwa Oasis Tour

Siwa Oasis All Inclusive 3 Days from Cairo (Private and Shared): this tour covers almost all the Siwa highlights including Siwa Oasis, Great Sand Sea, Mountain of the Dead, Temple of the Oracle of Amun etc… the catch is that you’ll be doing 20+ hours of driving and only about 1.5 days actually spent in Siwa. 

4-Day Siwa Oasis Tour

4 Day Private Siwa Oasis Tour: On this 4 day tour, you’ll be seeing the same Siwa Highlights but slightly expanded.

You’ll also be visiting Fatnas Island for sunset, spend more time in the Great Sand Sea safari, visit the Museum of Siwan Traditions, and visit additional Salt lakes. You’ll have more time at each stop, less rushed desert experience, and an overall more comfortable pacing.

7-Day Siwa Oasis Tour

7 Days Siwa Oasis Tour including Alexandria: This tour offers not just a Siwa tour, but more of a multi-region Egypt itinerary. It includes all the Siwa highlights listed above, plus adds coastal regions of Alexandria and Marsa Matruh.

In this way, you’ll be breaking up the long 10 hour drive with two beautiful overnight stops, and the overall tour experience is more varied with history in Alexandria, beaches at Marsa Matruh, and desert in Siwa.  

Best Experiences in Siwa Oasis

To further help you decide if Siwa Oasis is worth visiting, we’ll highlight our favourite experiences during our trip. Most of these places are included in standard Siwa Oasis tours.

I remember while planning our trip to Siwa, it was surprisingly difficult to find detailed information or good photos that really showed what the region looks like and what the experience is actually like. Hopefully this small guide helps fill that gap and gives a better idea of what visiting Siwa is really like.

1) Temple of the Oracle (Amun Revelation Temple)

When you visit the Temple of the Oracle in Siwa, you’ll be visiting one of the most famous oracle sites in the ancient world.

The story goes that in 331 BC, Alexander the Great traversed through the desert to visit this temple and consult the oracle of Amun. The priest delivered a prophecy declaring Alexander to be the son of the god Amun, essentially confirming his divine rule. This moment became a powerful piece of propaganda to help strengthen his legitimacy as the ruler of Egypt and beyond!

Today, the temple is mostly in ruins but you can still visit the room where Alexander received the prophecy. There is actually a funny story about Alexander and how he received the prophecy, but we’ll let your guide share that story with you. Despite the ruin’s poor condition, you can still really get the sense of mystery in this place. 

2) Off Roading the Great Sand Sea

We love experiences that take us deep into the remote corners of the planet and allow us to witness the sheer scale and beauty of nature. This was definitely one of those moments.

On the 4×4 Great Sand Sea off roading tour, you head far beyond Siwa into the vast Sahara in a powerful, customized 4×4. Your driver tears across the dunes like a roller coaster, climbing steep ridges and plunging down massive sandy slopes.

Along the way, you will stop at several incredible spots in the desert. One of the most fascinating is an area where you can still see fossilized remnants of ancient sea life, a reminder that this endless desert was once covered by an ocean. There are also plenty of opportunities to admire the towering dunes, try sandboarding down the slopes, and simply take in the desert landscape while sipping on hot tea.

If you like adventure and thrilling experiences, this one is an absolute highlight!

3) Shali Fortress Sunset

This was our favourite archeological site in all of Siwa Oasis. The Shali Fortress was built in the 13th century using a unique local material called kershef, a mixture of salt, mud, and palm trunks. The architecture is unlike anything else in Egypt and instantly transports you back in time, almost like stepping onto the set of ‘Aladdin’. 

But what we loved most was climbing to the top of the fortress at sunset. The entire structure is a maze of tightly packed homes, narrow alleyways, and elevated defensive walls that were originally built to protect the people of Siwa from raids. Standing above it all, watching the sun sink over the oasis, you really start to imagine what this ancient desert city must have looked like when it was still alive with people.

4) Floating in the Salt pools of Siwa

We kept seeing photos on Instagram of people swimming in these perfectly heart shaped turquoise salt pools around Siwa Oasis. They looked incredible and honestly seemed like the ultimate photo opportunity.

But once again, the dreamy influencer version did not exactly match reality.

The truth is that these pools are part of an active salt mine. There are trucks moving around the area, and many of the pools are large rectangular pits that have been dug out during the mining process. The water is still that beautiful bright turquoise, and the salt content makes it incredibly easy to float, but it is definitely not the untouched natural oasis the photos sometimes make it seem like.

We experienced something similar in the Atacama Desert where the salt pool was literally in the middle of a remote and expansive salt flat. This was not the same.

If you are feeling adventurous, you can ask your driver to take you deeper into the mining area to look for more uniquely shaped pools. We tried this ourselves hoping to find one of those famous heart or circle shaped ones, but we never came across any like the photos we had seen online.

Important Tips for Visiting the Salt Pool in Siwa

Nonetheless, floating in the salt pools is still a really fun and refreshing experience, especially after spending time in the desert heat. Just keep in mind there are no proper shower facilities. At the main rectangular pools there is sometimes a small water truck nearby where people can rinse off.

But if you head to one of the more remote pools like we did, there will not be any water available. We ended up bringing a couple of large jugs of water with us so we could rinse the salt off afterward.

Final tip: since the concentration of salt here is so high, you can only stay in the pool for around 30 minutes, otherwise it may irritate your skin. 

5) Mountain of the Dead (Gebel al Mawta)

The Mountain of the Dead is like equivalent to Luxor’s Valley of the Kings, but on a much smaller scale.

Instead of the grand underground tombs of powerful pharaohs, this hill is filled with hundreds of tombs belonging to the wealthy locals and officials who lived in Siwa Oasis. Walking through the site, you can still visit several of the tombs decorated with colourful paintings that blend Egyptian and Greco Roman Styles.

For us, although nowhere near as extravagant as the Valley of the kings, seeing the difference of artwork and art styles was fascinating. 

6) Cleopatra’s Spring

Although the Cleopatra’s Spring appears on almost every Siwa Oasis itinerary, we personally found it to be more of a quick tourist stop than a major highlight. According to local legend, Cleopatra once bathed in these natural springs, which is where the name comes from. In reality, the site is simply a circular stone pool fed by natural spring water, surrounded by souvenir shops and cafés. 

We only stopped here for about five minutes, mostly just to check it off our list, so we want to help set the right expectations. We had originally imagined something that looked more like an ancient Roman or Egyptian bath complex, similar to the ones we saw near Kas in Turkey, but in reality it is much simpler than that.

7) Stay at Taghaghien Island Resort Siwa

Most visitors choose to stay in downtown Siwa, but if you have the option, we highly recommend staying at Taghaghien Island Resort. Set on its own private island, the resort is surrounded by a peaceful lake and feels completely removed from everything else.

The property is made up of individual cabins, and there are plenty of cozy spots to unwind, from swinging benches to a small pool. What makes it even more unique is that the entire island sits on a natural salt formation.

After long days of exploring, one of our favourite rituals was simply sitting by the water and watching the sunset in complete silence. It is the kind of place that makes you slow down without even trying. And then after dinner at their on-site restaurant, we would watch the stars and play dominoes.

If Taghaghien island Resort is not available, these are two other local stays that really capture the essence of Siwa: Albabenshal Lodge Siwa and Tanirt EcoLodge

8) Eat some of the best Dates in Egypt

Siwa Oasis is one of Egypt’s largest date-producing regions, and honestly, it might just be where you’ll find the best dates in the country. Back home in Canada, dates are usually refrigerated, dried, or preserved, so we had never really experienced what truly fresh dates taste like. Now we get the hype.

In Siwa, dates come in every form you can imagine. Fresh, soft, chilled, stuffed with walnuts, and ranging in colour and ripeness. Each one tastes slightly different. Our driver was so excited to stock up and bring some home to his family, which says a lot. Naturally, we did the same and ended up snacking on them throughout the day.

They are not just delicious, but apparently they are also incredibly energizing. Locals often eat dates during Ramadan to help refuel after fasting, which makes perfect sense once you try them.

9) Spend a night in the Desert at Al Nyhaya

We’ve always wanted to spend a night at an eco-camp in the middle of the desert, so when we were researching for Siwa, we came across Al Nyhaya Desert Camp. This private, exclusive hideout in the heart of the Great Sand Sea is the kind of place you go to fully disconnect and lean into the slower rhythm of desert life.

They offer healing retreats, stargazing experiences, and traditional Bedouin-style stays that feel both raw and intimate. Your time here revolves around simple moments like watching the sunset melt into the dunes, gathering around the fire for dinner, and falling asleep under a sky packed with more stars than you knew existed.

It’s not a fully luxury experience in the traditional sense, but more about connecting with the local culture and nature.

We really wanted to stay here but unfortunately, our Siwa Oasis itinerary was already set. Maybe next time!

10) Sunset at Gabal Dakrur

Other than Shali Fortress, the sunset at Gabal Dakrur was easily the most magical we experienced in Siwa. Rising from an otherwise flat desert, this rocky hill stands out both visually and culturally.

Gabal Dakrur is known for its healing traditions. During the peak summer months, locals practice sand therapy, burying people in the hot sand as a natural remedy believed to help with joint pain, rheumatism, and other conditions. It also holds spiritual importance as one of the main sites for the Siyaha Festival, where the community gathers for a multi-day celebration centred around unity, forgiveness, and shared meals.

But beyond its cultural significance, it is simply an incredible place to watch the sun go down, with panormaic views over the Siwa desert. Our local guide recommended this spot to us and it was magical. The best part? We had the site all to ourselves! 

This post is part of our series about Egypt. If you want to learn more about the traveling in Egypt including itineraries, travel tips, recommended activities and more, check the guides below:

Best Egypt Nile Cruise: Sailing on the Dahabiya Amoura

How to Visit Abu Simbel: Everything You Need to Know (2026) 

14 Unique Things to Do in Luxor: Complete 4-Day Itinerary

Siwa Oasis or Black/White Desert

With limited time in Egypt and wanting to experience the desert, two main options came up: Siwa Oasis and the Black/White Desert. So we wanted to share our take on which one is better depending on the kind of experience you’re after. 

Black and White Desert, Egypt

For the Black and White Desert, most of the trips are just 2 days and 1 night.

You’ll pass through Bahariya Oasis, visit spots like Crystal Mountain, and head into the White Desert, all located about 4 to 5 hours from Cairo. The experience is very raw. You’ll spend the night camping in a tent in the middle of the desert with minimal facilities.

If you’re after pure nature immersion and don’t mind roughing it a bit, then the 2-Day Bahariya Oasis Black and White Desert Tour is a great choice. If you want something a bit more exclusive, there is also this Alternative Black and White Desert Tour.

Siwa Oasis

For us, we ended up choosing Siwa Oasis because we wanted a mix of culture, nature, history, and a more comfortable overall experience. In Siwa, our highlights included exploring Shali Fortress, learning about the Temple of the Oracle and prophecy that was given to Alexander the Great, floating in the salt pool, adventuring through the Great Sand Sea, and also connecting with the local culture in Siwa. 

Using WISE card in Egypt

When taking cash out of an ATM while abroad, you will most likely be charged both a foreign exchange fee and a foreign transaction fee by that country’s ATM. With my Canadian card, this can easily be 3-4$ + 2.75% + a markup on the exchange rate charged by my bank, and then another 3-5$ charged by the foreign ATM.

This can be really costly. For this reason, we recommend using WISE card which has only minimal fees and just about no foreign currency exchange markup. This helps me save at least 5-7$ every time I take out money from an ATM. If you want to see our full review of the card showing exactly how WISE can help you save, check out our WISE Travel card Review post.

Summary: Is Siwa Oasis Worth Visiting

At the end of the day, Siwa Oasis is one of those places that feels completely different from the rest of Egypt. It’s quieter, slower, and a lot more about the immersive experience than just ticking off sights. If you’re looking to balance out the intensity of temples and cities with something more laid-back and unique, Siwa is absolutely worth considering.

It does take a bit more effort to get there, but that’s also what makes it feel so special. Whether it’s floating in salt pools, watching sunsets over the desert, or simply enjoying the stillness, Siwa ended up being one of the most memorable parts of our entire trip.

Looking for more travel inspiration?

Incredible volcanoes and ancient Mayan civilizations: Tikal and Antigua in Guatemala.

Hiking in the Andes and discovering Machu Picchu: Travel itinerary in Peru, hiking to Machu Picchu

Exploring ancient cave dwellings and riding hot air balloons in Cappadocia

Exploring and sailing on the Turkish Coast

Hiking in one of the US’s best national parks and road tripping through Utah

Discover Vietnam and the exciting northern Ha Giang Loop, as well as the Unesco city of Hoi An.

Discover Japan through the bustling city of Tokyo, the ancient culture of Kyoto, savouring the food of Osaka, the bowing deers of Nara, or off-the-beaten path on the coast of Izu Peninsula.