Best time to visit Aswan
Egypt · Middle East
All twelve months scored on daily temperature, rainfall, humidity and holiday crowding.
The year in Aswan
Tap a month for its page
- JanJAswan in January: sweet spot
- FebFAswan in February: sweet spot
- MarMAswan in March: good
- AprAAswan in April: avoid
- MayMAswan in May: avoid
- JunJAswan in June: avoid
- JulJAswan in July: avoid
- AugAAswan in August: avoid
- SepSAswan in September: avoid
- OctOAswan in October: avoid
- NovNAswan in November: good, busy
- DecDAswan in December: good, busy
- Sweet spot
- Good
- OK
- Avoid
- Busy
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Things to do
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Things to do in Aswan
- Elephantine Island: Nubian Villages & Aswan Museum Nubian villages of Siou and Koti occupy this island.
- The High Dam Despite being a very important piece of infrastructure, the Aswan High Dam is (to put it delicately) a bit of a letdown even for dam lovers.
- Unfinished Obelisk The largest known ancient obelisk, carved directly out of bedrock.
- Mausoleum of Mohammed Shah Aga Khan Tomb of the 48th iman of the Islami sect and his wife.
- The Low Dam This was built 1899-1902 across the First Cataract, upriver from town.
- Kalabsha Temple Like Philae, this temple and its surrounding ruins were moved by UNESCO to save them from the floodwaters of Lake Nasser.
- Philae Temple Built to honour Isis, this was the last ancient temple built in the classical Egyptian architectural style.
Tours and tickets in Aswan
Each site opens on its own search: choose your dates there. A few open on their home page, where you type the place too. Links marked Ad pay us a commission if you book, at no extra cost to you; most pay nothing, and what a site pays never decides whether it is listed or where. How we rank
Sights and their lines from Wikivoyage (Aswan), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; in order of how often each one's Wikipedia article was read on phones in the last 12 months.
Month by month
No fare history for this route yet, so this ranking is climate and crowds only — the price column will fill in as the scanner collects.
| Month | Max °C | Rain days | Humidity | Sun h/day | Verdict | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 23° | 0d | 43% | 9.9h | sweet spot | 23C max, 0 rainy days |
| Feb | 25° | 0d | 35% | 10.3h | sweet spot | 25C max, 0 rainy days |
| Mar | 30° | 0d | 25% | 11.5h | good | 30C max, 0 rainy days |
| Apr | 35° | 0d | 19% | 11.7h | avoid | extreme heat: 15 days over 35C |
| May | 39° | 0d | 16% | 12.1h | avoid | extreme heat: 26 days over 35C |
| Jun | 41° | 0d | 16% | 12.5h | avoid | extreme heat: 30 days over 35C |
| Jul | 42° | 0d | 18% | 12.2h | avoid | extreme heat: 31 days over 35C |
| Aug | 42° | 0d | 20% | 12.0h | avoid | extreme heat: 31 days over 35C |
| Sep | 40° | 0d | 22% | 11.4h | avoid | extreme heat: 29 days over 35C |
| Oct | 36° | 0d | 27% | 10.9h | avoid | extreme heat: 19 days over 35C |
| Nov | 29° | 0d | 38% | 10.7h | goodbusy | busier than usual |
| Dec | 25° | 0d | 45% | 10.0h | goodbusy | busier than usual |
Rain days are the days with at least 1 mm of rain, as a weather station counts them.
Weather read at the Corniche, 16 km from the airport (ASW): ten years of ERA5 and ERA5-Land reanalysis, through Open-Meteo's open data.
A busy month is a crowded one, not a bad one — usually it is crowded because the weather is good. It is flagged rather than scored down, and crowds alone never make a month “avoid”: that is reserved for weather worth skipping.
How busy it gets
Then and now
Aswan's August days now average 41.7°C, 2.1°C warmer than in 1981–1990. 5 of 12 months are clearly warmer.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1981–90 | 22.0° | 24.0° | 28.8° | 34.6° | 38.3° | 40.3° | 39.8° | 39.6° | 38.8° | 34.6° | 28.1° | 24.2° |
| 2017–26 | 23.1° | 25.1° | 29.9° | 34.9° | 39.1° | 41.3° | 41.5° | 41.7° | 40.0° | 36.0° | 29.4° | 24.9° |
| Change | +1.1° | +1.1° | +1.1° | +0.2° | +0.7° | +1.0° | +1.7° | +2.1° | +1.2° | +1.4° | +1.3° | +0.8° |
The average daily high, month by month, for the nearest ERA5 grid cell. Bold is a clear change; grey is within the ordinary spread between years. Every destination, ranked.
Getting there
How far Aswan is, and what it costs, depends on where you set off from — the months above do not.
Open in Rome2rio for every way from to Aswan, flying or not.
Before you go
Type C and F plugs at 220 V. Drives on the right. The currency is the Egyptian pound. UK Foreign Office: avoid all travel to parts, avoid all but essential travel to parts. Global Affairs Canada: Exercise a high degree of caution (with regional advisories). US State Department: Level 2: Exercise Increased Caution. Everything for Egypt: cost of living, languages, emergency numbers and health.
Being there
On arrival
- Paying — Cards work in most hotels, tourist restaurants and big stores; small shops, markets, taxis and street food are cash only. Keep small notes, as change is scarce.
- UPI, for visitors from India — Not accepted for paying here; bring a card that works abroad.
- Tipping — Small tips (baksheesh) are part of daily life: about 10% in restaurants unless service is added, and round up taxi and ride-app fares.
Getting around Aswan
- Apps — Rides: Careem, inDrive, Uber. Maps: Google Maps, Apple Maps. Messages: WhatsApp. If no ride-app driver accepts a card-paid trip, switch the payment to cash.
Aswan is compact enough to negotiate primarily on foot. For the sights on the river islands or on the West Bank, you must cross the river by motor boat or felluca. More on Wikivoyage
From the Wikivoyage article on Aswan, written by travellers and licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Help
- Emergency — police 122 · ambulance 123 · fire 180 · tourist police 126.
TravelCharika is not an emergency service: we cannot call for help or send anyone. Numbers can change; if one fails, ask someone local or your hotel.
Your embassy — : how to reach your embassy or consulate abroad. A guess from your city, : a city is not a passport.
Put together by hand from the sources listed, checked 3 October 2026. Apps, cards and rules change, so check before you rely on one.
Sources (12)
- gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/egypt/getting-help
- uber.com/global/en/cities/cairo
- careem.com/en-AE/ride
- roughguides.com/egypt/travel-tips
- en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Egypt
- en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Cairo
- cairometro.gov.eg/en/bookings/3
- cairometro.gov.eg/en/bookings/4
- developers.google.com/maps/coverage
- apple.com/ios/feature-availability
- pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2286608
- rbidocs.rbi.org.in/rdocs/AnnualReport/PDFs/09PAYMENT290526C6588B796E664822A2BD0DEB6452CAD4.PDF
Aswan in pictures
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Marc Ryckaert (MJJR), CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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Marc Ryckaert (MJJR), CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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Marc Ryckaert, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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Marc Ryckaert, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
What Aswan is like
Aswan (Arabic: أسوان àswân) is the southernmost city of Egypt, some 870 km south of Cairo, just below the Aswan Dam and Lake Nasser, with a population of 275,000. Aswan is far more relaxed and smaller than Cairo and Luxor. More on Wikivoyage
- Worth seeing
- Nubian Museum (opposite Basma Hotel and south of Old Cataract Hotel, at the southern edge of Aswan town on Sharia Abtal al-Tahrir, approximately half-hour walk from the city centre). More on Wikivoyage
- Worth doing
- Rent a bike. Bikes available at many hotels. More on Wikivoyage
- Getting in
- Aswan International Airport (ASW IATA) (25 km SSW of the city, on the west bank and just south of the high dam). More on Wikivoyage
- Staying safe
- Aswan is generally a very safe city. However, do watch out for quite blatant attempts at pickpocketing in the souq. More on Wikivoyage
From the Wikivoyage article on Aswan, written by travellers and licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; the full article has far more. The numbers above are measured; this is experience.
Around Aswan
Also in Egypt
- Alexandria best Jul, Aug, Sep
- Cairo best Feb, Apr, Nov
- Hurghada best Feb, Apr, May
- Luxor best Feb, Mar, Nov
Nearby
Kind of place
Aswan is in Egypt, Middle East. Distances are great-circle, so a short one can still be a long way round.
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