Oases and Deserts of Egypt — by route, not by name

Five main ones in the Western Desert: Fayoum, Bahariya, Farafra, Dakhla and Kharga, which together form the circuit people mean by "the oases". Siwa is a sixth but sits far to the north-west near the Libyan border, on a completely different road, and is always visited as its own trip. Fayoum is really a depression fed from the Nile rather than a true desert oasis, which is why it is close enough to Cairo for a day trip.

Through Bahariya Oasis, roughly 370 km from Cairo — four to five hours by road. You transfer to a 4x4 at Bawiti and drive on into the Black Desert and then the White Desert, camping among the chalk formations. There is no way to do it as a day trip from Cairo and no realistic way to do it without a driver: there is no signage, no phone signal and nothing to navigate by.

Not practically. Siwa is about 750 km from Cairo along the north coast through Alexandria and Marsa Matruh; Bahariya and the White Desert are 370 km due south-west on a different road. There is a desert track between them but it needs permits, a convoy and days. Treat Siwa as its own three or four-day journey and the White Desert as a separate two or three-day one.

Yes, and it is the most underrated site within reach of Cairo. Wadi Hitan — the Valley of the Whales — is a UNESCO World Heritage site in Fayoum holding the fossil skeletons of early whales that still had hind legs, lying in the sand where they died around 40 million years ago. It is roughly a two-hour drive from Cairo and fits into the same day as Lake Qarun and the waterfalls.

October to April, without exception. The Western Desert regularly passes 40 °C between May and September with no shade of any kind, which makes both the driving and the camping unpleasant and, in the worst of it, unsafe. In winter the days are perfect and the nights drop close to freezing, so a winter trip means proper warm layers rather than a light jacket.

Two days is the minimum for the White Desert — out to Bahariya, camp, and back. Three gives you the oasis itself as well as the sand. Five is what the full circuit takes if you want Dakhla and Kharga, which is where the Roman temples and the Christian necropolis are. Fayoum on its own is a single long day from Cairo.

A stretch of volcanic hills between Bahariya and Farafra, capped with a layer of black dolerite that has weathered into dark gravel over orange sand. It is a stop rather than a destination — you climb one of the cones for the view over the plain, take twenty minutes, and drive on to the White Desert, which is the reason you came.

On the standard routes, with an operator, yes — Bahariya, the White Desert, Farafra, Dakhla, Kharga and Siwa are visited regularly and the logistics are well established. Parts of the desert near the Libyan border are restricted and some areas require permits, which is the main reason to travel with someone who arranges them. Independent self-driving in this region is not something we would recommend to anyone.