11 Essential Travel Tips for Your First time Egypt
1. Try Koshary
Koshary is Egypt’s national food! It’s amazing!!! I didn’t understand the hype until I tried it myself. I love Koshary so much that I brought not one, but TWO boxes of it when I left Egypt in my carry-on bag. Koshary originated in the 19th century when Italians came to Egypt and brought a lot of culinary influence. It’s made out of macaroni, rice, garbanzo beans, and lentils as a base; and then it’s topped with Italian-style marinara sauce, garlic and vinegar sauce, hot sauce, and fried onions for crunch. Sounds like a lot but I promise it’s fantastic.
💰 Budget Tip! Koshary is also extraordinarily cheap by Western standards, a bowl costs (on average) 20 EGP, or a little more than $1 USD. It’s a perfect staple food.
Where to Try Koshary in Cairo: Koshary El Tahrir
My favorite Koshary spot in Cairo was Koshary El Tahrir – they give you the sauces and toppings in separate packets so it was perfect for takeaway, and even taking through security at the airport! 👉 Fun Fact: Koshary is actually vegan – I was traveling with my friend who was a vegetarian and it was a great option for her.
2. Carry Your Passport Everywhere for the Crazy Police Checks
Random police checks are just part of the Egypt experience. Expect your tour bus or private driver to be pulled over, sometimes over and over and over again, and you’ll have to show your passport to the police every time – I have no idea what they do with the passport information.
In my experience, when I was pulled over in a large bus like a GoBus, they just looked at the passport and that’s it, but when you get pulled over in a private car they take all the passports and disappear for a few minutes. There is a debate on whether you should carry your passport with you while you’re traveling so it doesn’t get stolen, or leave it back at the hotel so you don’t lose it. In Egypt, you definitely want to carry it with you at all times.
This is a photo from the Library of Alexandria I wrote about here, it shows the standard process for getting wifi in most places in Egypt.
3. Get a local SIM card. You will NEED one.
In some places, like Western Europe, I got away with traveling without needing to buy a local SIM card because there is a lot of free Wifi. Egypt is not one of those places. Not only is wifi pretty rough in Egypt (I used over 40GB of data during my month in Egypt!I had to hotspot my laptop even in places that advertised Wifi). In almost all locations, including at the airport and at Starbucks, you needed an Egyptian cell number to access the Wifi.
To access public wifi in Egypt a window pops up where you put in your cell number and they send a code to it, and then you enter the code to log in for service. The public wifi only works with Egyptian numbers, so even if you have an international plan with your home country’s phone number it won’t work.
Some of the attractions included in our Nile Cruise
4. Take a Nile Cruise – It’s the Best Way to See the Country!
Taking a Nile River Cruise from Luxor to Aswan was one of the best things we did in the country! Egypt looks so vast on a map, but in fact, most of the population lives in a pretty small area. All of the tourist attractions, cities, and ruins are either located at the coast, where Egypt meets the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, or along the Nile River. Because of this, Egypt is accessible best by waterways, which makes it the perfect place to take a cruise!
I know it sounds silly and touristy, but the Nile cruise we took from Luxor to Aswan remains one of the most amazing experiences of my life! There was a time between Kokombo Temple and Aswan when I was looking out the window and the banks of the Nile were totally undeveloped. There were cows and palm trees, and I thought “This is what the world looked like 200 years ago”. It was magical, and only an experience you can get by boat.
5. Keep Small Bills on You for Baksheesh (Tips/Bribes)
Egypt runs on “Baksheesh” which literally translates to “tips” (but sometimes means “bribes”). You’re going to be asked for Baksheesh from everyone. Bell boys, taxi drivers, tour guides, and even airport security! Always have lots and lots of small bills on you (think 10, 20, Egyptian Pound Notes and coins) for Baksheesh.
This guy flashed us a phony badge saying he worked at the Pyramids
6. Know When to Say “La!” to Touts
Egypt gets a bad rap. I’m convinced this is because people come to Cairo, go to the great pyramids (which are insane and full of harassing touts), and then go home and they think all of Egypt is like that. It’s not! Every Egyptian person I met who didn’t work in tourism was the nicest person you’ll ever get the honor of meeting, but some of the touts play rough and dirty and give tourists a hard time.
What is a Tout: A tout is a fake guide or anyone who harasses tourists for tips. Touts are common in some parts of Africa and Asia. 👉 Continue Reading About When We Were Harassed at the Great Pyramids
7. Carry Toilet Paper – Always! (or Learn to Use the Egyptian Shatafa)
In Egypt they don’t really use toilet paper, instead, they use a Shatafa, which is an Egyptian Bidet. Sometimes it’s a hose coming out from the side of a toilet, sometimes it’s a pipe sprouting up from the toilet bowl, and sometimes (like in the West Desert) it’s just a bucket and a ladle 😅
A lot of places in the world only use Bidets, but since I’m used to toilet paper I carried it with me all through Egypt. In some places where tourists are common, like at the pyramids or in airports, they will have toilet paper but you’ll probably have to give a bathroom attendant a few Egyptian Pounds for it.
8. Don’t Plan Anything Big on a Friday – It will probably be crowded!
Friday is the holy day in Egypt, everyone has off of work and a lot of services are shut down either for the whole day or in the mid-afternoon for Friday Prayers. Because it’s the day off, there’s less traffic in big cities like Cairo, but the tourist locations are packed!
9. Use Uber in Cairo to Get Around – It’s the Fastest, Safest, & Cheapest Way to Get Around
Uber in Cairo and Alexandria was incredibly convenient, fast, and accurate. The only time I used a traditional taxi in Cairo was coming from the airport because you can’t be picked up by Uber there, and it was such a headache (coming from the airport is supposed to be 150-300 EGP, they started off the negotiations at 1000). Uber is what the locals use and for female travelers, it’s peace of mind to have your trip tracked.
Tip: You will need an Egyptian SIM card and Egyptian phone number to use Uber in Egypt. You can get an Egyptian SIM when you arrive at Cairo airport – I recommend Orange!
10. Carry Cash – Lots of It!
- Egyptian currency is the Egyptian Pound.
- The Symbol for the Egyptian Pound is E£, it has an E in front of it to distinguish it from the British Pound symbol, £.
- Sometimes the Egyptian Pound is written as “LE”.
Egypt is a cash-is-king country. I thought I was good on cash taking out $250 USD worth in Egyptian Pounds upon arrival at Cairo Airport – nope! I wound up having to take out over 4x that amount during my month there, pretty much nowhere took credit card. I recommend taking out a lot of cash when you arrive at Cairo airport, there are ATMs in a lot of major areas but in some places we visited – like Bahariya Oasis – there were none.
Most importantly, make sure your ATM is connected to a bank. We had a really bad private guide for our Great Pyramids tour. I needed an ATM for the entrance fees and he pressure me to use one that was in a gift shop. The ATM wasn’t tied to a bank and used really confusing language. This ATM had the most confusing wording, so I had no idea if I was saying yes or no to the conversion rate, and it wanted to charge me $50 just in fees!
Bank ATMs I used in Egypt:
- HSBC
- Banque de Caire
- CEB: Central Bank of Egypt
11. Be Patient – Egypt Runs on Egypt Time
Egypt runs on Egypt time. On my first day in Cairo, I was supposed to take a 1 PM bus to Alexandria, but I was running very late. I figured I missed that bus and was just hoping to make the next one. I told the guy at the GoBus ticket counter what happened and asked if I could exchange my ticket for a later one, and he told me I didn’t miss my bus at all! It was already about half an hour after the bus was supposed to take off at this point.
On that trip I asked the driver what time we would be getting into Alexandria since we were already running late, he said “2 maybe 2 and a half hour – tops”. It wound up taking over 4 hours. This guy makes the same trip every day. On my bus back to Cairo from Alexandria, it took closer to 5 hours!
Egypt runs on Egypt time; Every bus, train, Uber I took arrived at its destination much later than it was supposed to. There’s no point in fighting against it – being frustrated doesn’t help your train get to its destination any sooner! So, it’s easier to just go with the flow and be grateful you get to experience one of the most magical countries to travel in – Egypt.
