Guide Plans & Access Options

Yes, without reservation. Every site history, visitor tip, practical information section, opening hours table, and ticket price we publish is freely accessible to anyone who visits this website — no registration, no login, no paywall. The paid plans exist for readers who want additional materials: offline PDF guides for use without an internet connection, printable trip itineraries designed around specific durations and interests, and for the Scholar tier, direct access to our research team's expertise. We are committed to keeping the core editorial content free because we believe accessible heritage information is a public good.

The Explorer plan is aimed at independent travellers who want comprehensive offline access to our guide content and ready-made itinerary frameworks. It includes all 120+ site guides in downloadable PDF form, six pre-built itineraries covering the most common Egypt travel circuits (ranging from five days to a full Nile cruise schedule), and downloadable maps. The Scholar plan builds on this by adding direct research support: a dedicated email address for putting questions directly to our Egyptology team, one custom itinerary prepared to your specifications, and access to our specialist guides on Ptolemaic papyrology, hieroglyphic epigraphy, and iconographic programmes of major temple sites. Scholar subscribers also receive our quarterly newsletter summarising significant excavation findings from the previous three months.

Custom itineraries are included in the Scholar plan: you receive one fully prepared custom itinerary per subscription year, tailored to your specific dates, interests, and travel constraints. This means we will account for seasonal closures, known crowd patterns, driving or ferry logistics between sites, and the right balance of depth versus coverage for your available time. If you have a particularly unusual routing — say, focusing on Greco-Roman sites across the Delta, or a Western Desert oases circuit combining Siwa, Bahariya, and Farafra — we can handle that. Explorer plan subscribers who want a custom itinerary as a one-off addition can request this through the contact form at an additional fee of USD 35 per itinerary.

Once your subscription request is processed — which typically takes one working day from receipt of your contact form submission — you will receive a confirmation email from [email protected] containing download links for all PDF materials included in your plan. Files are formatted for both on-screen reading and quality print output, and are sized to be manageable on mobile devices. Links remain valid for the duration of your twelve-month subscription period. If you lose your download links or need to re-access materials, simply contact us and we will resend them promptly.

No. Both the Explorer and Scholar plans are single one-time payments with no automatic renewal. You will not be charged again without explicitly requesting an extension. Approximately one month before your twelve-month access period expires, we will send you an email noting the expiry date and explaining how to renew if you wish to continue — but you are under no obligation to do so, and no further charge will ever be made without your explicit request and confirmation.

Individual plan subscriptions are licensed for personal use by the subscriber only. Schools, universities, and other educational institutions that wish to use our materials in classroom settings, distribute them to students, or incorporate them into course packs should contact us directly at [email protected] to discuss our institutional licensing arrangements. We offer substantially reduced rates for accredited educational institutions, and custom content packages for specific curricula — for instance, materials aligned to specific GCSE, A-Level, or IB history units covering ancient Egypt are something we have produced for UK schools. Please include details about your institution and the intended use when you contact us.