Egypt is a great place for contrasts: splendid thins gleam in the dust.
Gustave Flaubert, Flaubert in Egypt a Sensibility on Tour
Egypt, the land of the Pharaohs. Cradle of civilisation and keeper of history’s best-preserved secrets. It’s a country of deep fascination, intriguing culture, and countless stories. A trip to Egypt is a rewarding lifetime experience. This is particularly recommended for everyone who loves history, warm hospitality, and the memories of an incredible adventure. Is visiting Egypt on your bucket list? If so, read below and discover the best Egypt travel guides.
Egypt was a long-time bucket list country of mine. I have been passionate about Egyptian history since I was a child and my original plan was to become an Egyptologist, but life took a different turn. Despite this, my love for Egypt never faded and I spent over a month touring this beautiful, incredible country. All the guides in this blog are the results of my research and my direct experience. I try to update them as often as possible to give you always fresh information. Enjoy!
Exploring Egypt
From the chaotic streets of Cairo, to the golden sands of the Sahara Desert, to the crystalline waters of the Red Sea; Egypt doesn’t fail to impress. Many people often visit Egypt just for the Pyramids. Nevertheless, they later fall in love with the diverse cultural scene of Cairo, the vivid colours of Nubia and wild landscapes of the Western Desert. It’s true, Egypt is bustling in ancient history. However, there is also so much more that a single visit to the Pyramids can’t really give you a sense of the real Egyptian culture.
Exploring Egypt means that you will encounter different cultures, believes, landscapes and habits you probably don’t expect. It’s sense-awakening but for some travellers it might be culturally shocking.
If you are planning a trip to Egypt, you should educate yourself about Egyptian culture. Moreover, you should get all the best information before your trip. The Egypt travel guides below will help you planning the trip of a life time!
Essential things to know BEFORE visiting Egypt
The capital of Egypt is Cairo. This is a huge metropolis, the largest city of the country hosting more than 10 millions people. I wouldn’t blame you if you feel intimidated by this ancient, wild place. Indeed, Cairo is quite hard to explore on your own if you don’t know how to move. If it’s your first time in Egypt, a good practice is focusing just on certain neighbourhoods. Such as Islamic Cairo. This will avoid you getting around without a clear direction.
Please note that Giza, although close to Cairo, it’s a completely separate city. They are far from each other about 45/50 mins by car (on a good day). Therefore, if you are planning just a trip to the Pyramids look for an accommodation in Giza not in Cairo as you will loose part of the day just for the transfer.
Booking your hotel in advance is essential to avoid last minute scams and stay at your preferred accommodation. I always get the best rates on Booking.com and I booked here all my stays in Egypt.
Visa and Egyptian currency
You will need a tourist VISA to enter the country. This costs $25 USD per person and it’s doable on line at Visa2Egypt or in person at your arrival. BE AWARE that if you decide to do it in person YOU MUST carry USD dollars in cash with you. In fact, the VISA office don’t accept any other type of currency or card payments.
At your arrival, don’t look for an immigration office but for a BANK OFFICE. This is located immediately at the right side BEFORE the line for the passports checks. Here you can buy the visa! If you do it online (as we did) be aware of fake visa websites! Trust only Visa2Egypt. Here, you’ll have to upload a copy of your passport and a photo of you in passport size (max 5MB). I received my visa in about 48 h but it may take up to one week. With your e-visa, you can go straight to the passports checks. The immigration officer will collect your paper and put a stamp on your passport. He will keep your e-visa, so every time someone ask you for the visa, he/she means the stamp in your passport.
Egypt currency is the Egyptian Pound. BEWARE that if you are travelling from the UK or Italy there is no way you can obtain Egyptian pounds before your trip. You have to withdraw the Egyptian currency at the local ATMs (there are various inside and outside the airport).
Egypt plug type
Egypt plug types are Plug C and plug F. These are the same typologies used in Portugal and Italy. If you are travelling from the UK, you’ll need to buy and adapter. I always use an universal adapter so that I don’t need to buy one for every destination I visit.
Religion and Restrictions in Egypt
Egypt is a Muslim country. Despite it is more liberal than other Muslim countries, it is advisable to bring conservative clothes. You should wear these in all the Muslim Areas (e.g. Islamic Cairo) and in the cities of Cairo and Alexandria.
Smoking (tobacco) is allowed everywhere. Many restaurants have a “non smoking area” and you can ask to seat there if you can’t bear a cloud of smoke all around.
Be cautious in street photography/videography, especially in Cairo. It’s forbidden to photograph governmental/military buildings. This applies also to historical locations/buildings used for governmental/military scope. Be careful as you can risk the prison for this!
Bringing/buying drugs in Egypt is strictly forbidden and punishable with prison. Moreover, the use of some medicines is forbidden/restricted. You should check what is or not allowed with your GP. If you are taking some specific medications bring your doctor prescriptions written in English. Keep all your medicines (also the general ones as ibuprofen) in their original package. Moreover, separate them from other products for possible inspections.
Entry Tickets and discounts in Egypt
Unfortunately you can’t buy online tickets for attractions in Egypt (e.g. the Pyramids/Luxor). If you find them online, it’s a scam!! Tickets are sold exclusively at the ticket counters outside the attractions. Moreover, to distinguish them from fake ones, the legit ones have a hologram proving their authenticity.
If you are a student you have the right of entry fee discount up to 50%. However, you have to present an ISIC card for this. Nevertheless, if you are older than 30 (in some locations 25) years old, your ISIC card is not valid! I know this is quite unfair. In fact, most PhD students (like me when I visited Egypt) are older than 25. Apparently, this is also against the ISIC rules (I did a complain about it). However, you can’t do much against this. You can try to “fight” with the guy at the ticket counter and hope for the better. My ISIC card was accepted in most sites. Nevertheless, it was categorically refused in Luxor (everywhere except the Luxor Temple) and at the Egyptian Museum.
Uber in Egypt
Uber in Egypt is safe and reliable. We used it in Cairo, Alexandria and Hurghada. However, if you see on the app that your driver accept your ride but will make you waiting more than 5 mins to reach you; cancel your booking and try again! We noticed this little scam in Cairo. Drivers super far away from us blocked our ride and took ages to reach us when another driver was nearer.
They do this because after 5 mins waiting, you are legally forced to pay 10LE if you cancel. Ergo, they get paid anyway even if they don’t come! This happened to us 5/6 times but most of the rides were completely fine. We reported this to Uber. It looks like they took the information very seriously. We received an email confirming they were taking actions against these scams. I am not sure if this is still happening.
Tipping in Egypt
Tipping in Egypt is a large part of the Egyptian culture. In fact, you are expected to tip for everything. Want to go to the toilet and need paper? Tip. Someone opened your car door? Tip. A guy inside the Karnak temple is pointing something invisible speaking to you in Egyptian? Tip. Would you like a cup of free tea? Tip. Tipping doesn’t meant that you have to run out of money in a second.
Tipping can be done responsibly and kindly so don’t let them rip you off. Some of the Egyptian guides and people we talked about it found asking directly for a tip “rude”. Nevertheless, most people are not of the same opinion and won’t be afraid of asking you money or complain the tip received is not enough.
It is up to you judging who deserve a tip or not. Before tipping, we asked to some Egyptian friends some guidance and they told us that most of the tips are around 5-20 LE. I tipped 50-100 LE only people who helped/guided us half/whole day (on the top of the price paid for the service).
Safety in Egypt
Egypt is a relatively safe country to get around. However, pickpockets, particularly in big cities like Cairo or Luxor might happen. As you will walk a lot in crowded places, I recommend to place your passport and cash in a Invisible Money Belt. My best suggestion is to keep on your wallet only small pieces of cash and hide the rest in the money belt. Indeed, this is very discrete and will ensure you can go around safely and without gaining unwanted attention.
Where I have been in Egypt
Egypt Travel Guides
