Best Things to Do in Alexandria, Egypt

Set on the edge of the Western Desert, the El Alamein War Cemetery and Museum marks the site of one of World War II’s most decisive turning points. The Second Battle of El Alamein in October–November 1942 saw Allied forces under Field Marshal Montgomery halt the Axis advance into Egypt, shifting the momentum of the entire North African campaign. The Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery holds over 7,000 immaculately maintained graves, the headstones arranged in silent rows overlooking the desert scrub where the fighting raged. A German memorial and an Italian mausoleum nearby complete a sobering triangle of remembrance. The adjacent El Alamein Museum houses tanks, artillery, maps, and personal artefacts that tell the human story behind the statistics. Visiting on a clear morning — when the desert light is sharp and the silence absolute — creates an atmosphere of profound reflection. For travellers driving the Mediterranean coast road west of Alexandria, El Alamein is an essential and deeply moving detour that brings the weight of twentieth-century history into vivid, immediate focus.

The Freedom House Museum at 1315 Duke Street in Alexandria, Virginia, occupies a building that served as the headquarters of Franklin and Armfield, one of the largest domestic slave trading firms in antebellum America. Between approximately 1828 and 1861, the property functioned as a holding facility where enslaved people were detained before being transported in coffles to the Deep South, a fate that separated thousands of families and defined the human geography of American slavery at its commercial peak.

The museum has developed a significant interpretive program that centers the experiences of the enslaved individuals who passed through the site, drawing on historical documentation, archaeological research, and community oral history. Exhibits examine the mechanics of the domestic slave trade, the scale of the Alexandria trade corridor, and the lives of individuals whose names and stories have been recovered through sustained archival research. The building’s physical fabric has been preserved in ways that honor the gravity of what occurred there.

The museum is open throughout the year and offers both self-guided and docent-led tours. It draws visitors with a specific interest in African American history, slavery scholarship, and the complex heritage of the Old Town Alexandria neighborhood. Educational programming for schools and community groups is a significant part of the museum’s mission, and its position within a gentrified commercial neighborhood carries its own interpretive dimension that the museum addresses directly.

Freedom House occupies an important and uncomfortable position within Alexandria’s otherwise well-appointed historic downtown. For visitors who engage with it seriously, the museum provides a direct and historically grounded encounter with the economic infrastructure of American slavery in a city that has long maintained a more comfortable historical image. It warrants a full hour of unhurried attention and careful reflection.

Gadsby’s Tavern Museum at 134 North Royal Street in Alexandria, Virginia, preserves two of the finest examples of Georgian commercial architecture in the country. The tavern complex, comprising a 1785 tavern and a 1792 City Hotel, once served as a gathering place for the colonial and early American elite, hosting figures including George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison during their travels through the region.

Inside the museum, restored rooms recreate the atmosphere of 18th-century tavern life with period furnishings, tableware, and interpretive exhibits. The ballroom on the upper floor is particularly notable, having hosted lavish assemblies and dancing celebrations that were central to Alexandria’s social calendar. The ice well in the basement, an engineering curiosity of its time, illustrates the practical ingenuity built into the original structure.

The museum is open throughout the year, with spring and autumn generally offering comfortable temperatures for exploring Old Town Alexandria on foot before or after a visit. Summer brings higher visitor numbers, particularly from families interested in the colonial history that saturates this neighborhood. Some evenings feature living history programming and period-style dining events that animate the tavern’s original hospitality function.

Gadsby’s Tavern sits at the heart of Old Town Alexandria, just steps from the waterfront and a dense cluster of historic buildings, galleries, and independent restaurants. The site serves as an anchor for understanding Alexandria’s role in early American commerce and civic life, complementing nearby attractions such as the Carlyle House and the Alexandria History Museum at the Ramsey House.

Stretching along Alexandria’s northeastern waterfront, the Montazah Palace Gardens encompass 150 hectares of manicured parkland, private beaches, and royal architecture that once served as the summer retreat of Egypt’s royal family. The grounds were originally developed by Khedive Abbas II in the early twentieth century, with the landmark Salamlik and Haramlik palaces rising above the Mediterranean coastline in a distinctive fusion of Ottoman and Florentine Renaissance styles. Today the palaces function as a presidential rest house, but the sprawling gardens remain open to the public, offering shaded promenades, ornamental lakes, and sweeping sea views from the famous Al-Montazah Bridge. Families gather here on weekends to escape the city’s bustle, while romantics favour the golden hour light that bathes the terracotta towers in warm Mediterranean glow. The adjacent private beach clubs provide calm swimming away from the crowded corniche. Whether you come for botany, history, or simply a tranquil walk above the sea, Montazah rewards visitors with a glimpse of Alexandria’s elegant, sun-drenched past.

In the middle of a modern Alexandria neighbourhood, excavation work in the 1960s exposed the only Roman-period theatre discovered on Egyptian soil — a semicircular structure of white marble with thirteen seating rows preserved to a height that conveys its original scale with unusual clarity. The Roman Amphitheatre at Kom el-Dikka sits within an open archaeological site that continues to yield remains of the late antique city above which modern Alexandria was built, revealing multiple layers of urban history simultaneously.

The theatre, believed to have functioned as an odeon or lecture hall rather than a gladiatorial venue, reflects Alexandria’s character as a city of intellectual life even in its Roman phase. Surrounding remains include a residential neighbourhood with mosaic floors in situ, Roman-period baths with intact hypocaust systems, and a lecture hall complex possibly associated with the city’s scholarly institutions. Together these elements make Kom el-Dikka the densest concentration of legible Roman-period archaeology in Egypt.

The site pairs naturally with the Catacombs of Kom el Shoqafa nearby in a single morning itinerary; both lie within easy walking distance in central Alexandria. Allow sixty to ninety minutes at Kom el-Dikka; the open-air setting makes visits in moderate temperatures more comfortable. A site museum provides context, though major portable objects are housed in the Greco-Roman Museum when operational.

Within Alexandria’s archaeological geography, Kom el-Dikka fills a particular gap by providing physical evidence of the city’s Roman period that is largely absent elsewhere. The theatre — small, intact, and set in its original urban context — communicates the scale of a Roman provincial city in ways that documentation cannot, making it one of the most legible ancient sites in all of northern Egypt.

SEA LIFE Loch Lomond in Balloch brings the wonders of the underwater world to the southern gateway of Scotland's most famous national park. Located in Drumkinnon Tower on the banks of Loch Lomond, this family-oriented aquarium showcases freshwater and marine species in immersive, themed displays designed to educate and inspire. Highlights include walk-through tunnel displays, ray touch pools, and exhibits dedicated to the native wildlife of Loch Lomond itself — including pike, perch, and brown trout found just outside the door. The aquarium is part of the global SEA LIFE network, which runs conservation programs for rescued and rehabilitated sea turtles, sharks, and seahorses. Interactive feeding demonstrations and keeper talks take place throughout the day, making visits engaging for children and adults alike. The location inside Drumkinnon Tower adds a distinctive architectural character to the experience, and large windows afford scenic views over the loch between exhibits. SEA LIFE Loch Lomond is ideal for families looking to combine a national park visit with an indoor attraction, particularly on days when Highland weather turns unpredictable. Advance online booking is recommended during school holidays and summer weekends. With Loch Lomond Shores retail village and boat hire nearby, Balloch offers a full day of varied attractions anchored by the breathtaking loch itself.

Woodlawn and Frank Lloyd Wright’s Pope-Leighey House at 9000 Richmond Highway in Alexandria, Virginia, present two distinct chapters of American architectural history on a single shared property managed by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The juxtaposition is unusual and instructive: Woodlawn is a Federal-style mansion with roots in the early 19th century, while the Pope-Leighey House is a Wright-designed Usonian home from 1940, representing his vision of affordable, organically designed housing for middle-class Americans.

Woodlawn was completed around 1805 on land that George Washington bequeathed to his nephew Lawrence Lewis and Lewis’s wife Nelly Custis, Washington’s step-granddaughter. The house reflects the aspirations and social rituals of Virginia’s planter class in the early republic. The Pope-Leighey House, constructed in cypress, brick, and glass, demonstrates Wright’s characteristic horizontal lines, built-in furniture, and integration with the landscape. Guided tours of both structures draw on distinctive interpretive approaches suited to each building’s era and design philosophy.

The property is open seasonally, with spring and autumn being particularly rewarding for the combination of architectural tours and the surrounding grounds. Special events, including design-focused programs and seasonal celebrations, are scheduled throughout the year. Visitors with specific interest in Wright’s work should confirm the touring schedule in advance, as access to the Pope-Leighey House may vary by season.

The property’s location along Richmond Highway places it within a broader corridor of Northern Virginia heritage sites, including Gunston Hall and George Washington’s Mount Vernon, that together offer a substantial survey of early American plantation-era architecture. The addition of the Wright house gives Woodlawn a conceptual reach that extends well into the 20th century, making the combined site genuinely unlike any other in the region.