Egypt Travel Tips: 20 Dos & Don’ts for Your First Trip to Egypt

I’ve been traveling for a while and I was not ready for Egypt – It’s chaotic, noisy, overwhelming, magical, and amazing all at once. Here are 20 know-before-you-go essentials for your next trip to Egypt!

Please note that some links on my site are affiliate links, including Amazon Affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases – You can read more about this on my privacy policy page.

20 Essential Travel Tips for your first time in Egypt

1. Don’t be surprised that no one wears masks

Coming from Peru, the strictest country I’ve visited so far in a post-covid world, it was wild to see a whole country entirely mask-free, even in the airport!

Egypt never really implemented Covid protocols like social distancing and wearing masks, even though wearing masks was codified into Egyptian law in 2020 – every country handled the pandemic differently!

2. Do know that people smoke everywhere

I was so surprised when I noticed my customs officer lighting up inside the airport. It’s like NYC in the 90s in Egypt.

My taxi drivers smoked, and there was an ashtray in every hotel room, it’s something as a visitor you just get used to.

3. Do know that Arabic is a shout-y language

On one of my first days in Egypt, my driver had to call someone. Over the phone, I heard what I thought was an argument. I asked him, why are you fighting with this man? His response: “I’m not fighting. That was my brother. ”

Arabic, a bit like German, can sound harsh and the vocal inflections can read like shouting.

People DO shout at each other here (and if someone is bothering you a LOUD “La” (no) is what is required to get them to stop), but if you hear two people talking loudly and emphatically in Arabic, they’re likely not upset with each other and it’s just how the language sounds to English speaking ears.

4. Do enjoy the cats!

I. Love. cats. In Egypt, they’re almost as common as pigeons are in NYC. Some are street cats, and some are outdoor cats owned by people, restaurants, or stores.

You can tell the difference by which ones are friendly and which are afraid of people.

5. Don’t let the harassment get to you

From everyone’s reports on the crazy harassment, I had my guard up in Egypt. In this way, I was pleasantly surprised.

Outside of the airport and major tourist attractions like the Pyramids of Giza, Luxor Temple, etc, Egypt was fairly easy to travel in.

Taxi drivers more or less quoted me correct prices, and a simple no (La in Arabic) was all I needed for anyone trying to sell me things I didn’t want. Honestly, Alexandria was more relaxing to travel in than most large European cities I’ve been to.

I even felt bad at one point, a taxi driver had misunderstood me in Alexandria and taken me to the wrong bus station.

A nice man helped me explain it to him, and then helped me buy a new ticket and find a cafe. He was so helpful and took 20 minutes out of his day for me.

I had just arrived in Egypt, and assuming he was just doing it for a tip or to be a flirt I immediately said “my husband is waiting for me in Cairo” and tried to give him 50 EGP baksheesh (tip) for showing me the cafe.

He actually refused the money and looked a bit hurt – I was so embarrassed, trying to tip a well-meaning stranger.

That being said, there IS crazy aggressive harassment in main tourist areas.

Try to go with a guide to the pyramids and temples, and have your hotel arrange an airport pickup so you don’t have to deal with the scammy taxi drivers.

6. Don’t expect a good wifi connection

The wifi in Egypt, even in big cities like Alexandria and Cairo, is rough at best. Even at Starbucks, I was only able to get .2 MPBS (a decent signal is 20MBPS).

Since I was trying to work on this blog while traveling, I didn’t expect to be without decent service 70% of the time in major cities. This is just a “know before you go” type thing.

Most of the time I had to use cellular data instead of relying on wifi.

Tip: you’ll need a local SIM card in Egypt because all public wifi (including at the airport) functions by sending an SMS code to an Egyptian phone number. I tried it with my US Google-Voice number (that can receive SMS) but it only worked with an Egyptian SIM card.

7. Do know that you need a visa!

You will need a visa to enter Egypt, but it’s not a formal visa, they didn’t even check my passport or ask for my name when I got one.

You can buy it at Cairo airport right before immigration at a bank, it’s $25 USD, cash. I’ve heard some people report scams like someone saying “there’s a $2 tax” or not giving change, but I didn’t experience any of that.

I gave the teller $30 USD and he gave me $5 change, in American money that I had brought with me, it was very simple.

8. Do dress appropriately

What women should wear in Egypt

There’s a big fuss made out of what women can and can’t wear in Egypt.

In places like Alexandria, where there were very few western tourists, I would look around and be the only woman with her forearms showing in a T-Shirt. But that doesn’t mean people treated me differently. Everyone was respectful and kind.

That being said, I was in long pants and a T-shirt. Not exactly scandalous clothing, but the idea that women need to 100% covered up for Egypt is wrong.

In the more touristy areas, you see lots of women wearing shorts and spaghetti strap tops, but I wouldn’t recommend it in order to receive less attention and respect the culture.

What everyone should wear in Egypt

While Egypt is can get incredibly hot because it’s a desert a lot of the heat is lost at night. I would recommend everyone bring a light jacket for after sundown.

Also would definitely recommend closed-toed shoes, between the street animals and the donkeys you can occasionally see pulling carts (even on the highway!) there can be a bit of muck on the streets you don’t want touching your toes!

9. Don’t bring large camera equipment

Egypt is very strict about photos. I had to check my tiny drone at the airport upon arrival and thought that would be the worst of it, nope!

If someone sees me filming somewhere, even on my phone, if it’s any sort of private property or business I will likely be told to stop.

Sometimes people are just saying this, and if you slip them 10-20 EGP as a “tip” (bribe) you’ll be able to film wherever you want, but if you’re planning on traveling with any large camera equipment, i.e. gimbals & shotgun mics, consider leaving at home.

10. Do carry small bills for Baksheesh

Baksheesh means tip, but it could also mean “bribe” depending on the context.

If you want to do something you aren’t actually allowed to do, like take a photo climbing a pyramid or take a photo somewhere pictures aren’t allowed, instead of saying “stop” some guards will simply ask for a tip.

Always keep 10s and 20s (100 EGP is $6 US) on hand while traveling in Egypt because you never know when you’ll owe someone a tip, but don’t let anyone demand a tip from you.

At the Cairo airport, I used the taxi stand and the guy was a creep. I hadn’t learned how to deal with Egyptian guys yet. He tried to give me his number, and when I refused to take it he then demanded money from me as a tip (a tip for what? Making me uncomfortable?). Don’t let anyone bully you like this.

A lot of people will do things like just grab your bags out of your hand and expect a tip for it after.

At the airport when I was leaving, there was a long line at security, and someone who worked the X-Rays asked to look at my ticket and then said: “follow me”. He took me to a separate scanner, and then at the end asked for a tip.

I thought he was just doing his job, but apparently, he had fast-tracked me and I had to pay for the service!

This is a pretty lighthearted instance of airport tipping in Egypt but some tourists have reported security officers holding their boarding passes or passports hostage for tips.

While I didn’t experience anything like that, it’s something to keep an eye out for.

Note: Scams aside, Egypt is a tipping culture. Your taxi driver, bell boys, and tour guides (basically everyone) will expect a tip.

11. Do be aware of the 26% tax and service fee

If you go to a nice restaurant in Egypt you’ll see on the bottom “12% service + 14% tax added” which adds up to 26% on top of the prices listed on the menu.

This is about the same as NYC, where you tip 15-20% and there’s an 8% tax. This VAT also applies to hotels, on Booking.com the amount I paid online included VAT but with services like Hostelworld.com where you pay on arrival the VAT was not included in the total amount until the end.

Where this differs from America is that hotels also charge a service fee. Meaning, you will be paying 26% more for your hotel than what’s posted online.

The nicer hotels will have taxes/fees wrapped into the price, but not always.

Service charges are set by the government, and don’t always wind up making it to the servers. So, make sure to tip on top of the service charge if you receive good service!

12. Do know some Arabic

I had gotten to a conversational level in Spanish before I left Peru, and thought I could tackle some Arabic – wrong!

Arabic uses a completely different alphabet and is wildly more complicated for a native English speaker like me to learn vs. Spanish.

Here are some words to know in Arabic:

No: La

Yes: Naam

Thank you: Shukran

No Thank You: La, Shukran

Excuse me/you’re welcome/sorry: ‘Afwan

Salam Alaikum: Literally translates to “peace be upon you” but it is used as a greeting. In response to Salam Alaikum, some will respond with the same – or shortened to just say “Salam”.

13. Don’t drive yourself!

Edit: I was wrong (sorry 😅). Foreigners can technically drive in Egypt as long as they have both a valid driver’s license and an International Driver’s Permit.

I do not have an International Driver’s Permit so I wouldn’t have been able to rent a car in Egypt, but it IS possible as a foreigner if you really want to! Is it advisable? Probably not! The traffic is crazy.

If you’re a foreigner driving outside of Cairo you’re also likely to be not allowed through police checks (which are common!) and sent back unless you’re accompanied by a guarded traffic convoy that is dispatched from the office of tourism.

Not only are foreign tourists not allowed to drive themselves in Egypt, once with a private guide we asked our driver to stop at a fruit cart on a street in Giza – police came and told us we needed to get back in the car.

Our guide told us tourists weren’t allowed outside on common roads, just tourist sites outside of cities.

I don’t know how legally true this is, but we did get told by the police we weren’t allowed to be out of the car on a countryside road. Our guide had to finish buying the fruit for us. So if you’re planning an Egyptian road trip you’ll need to pick a different country!

Note: you won’t need a guide to wander the streets of Cairo, Luxor, Aswan, Sharm el sheik, or Alexandria, i.e. places where tourists normally go. We were literally in the middle of nowhere in a residential area when the cops stopped us.

14. Do be prepared for the corruption

There’s a lot of low-level (what I would call) “corruption” in the tourism industry.

If there is a place you want to visit, like Edfu temple, if you’re taking a tour they will also make you take a horse and carriage ride. No Tuktuks or taxis will stop for you, and no tour guides will give you another option.

That’s because in Edfu, even though its’ not a “formal rule” you need to take a Horse and Buggy to the temple, about 50 people make their living off of selling horse and buggy rides (which cost more than taxis) to tourists visiting the temple.

The money from the temples a lot of the time goes to the government, so locals are incredibly aggressive with any side hustles related to them.

This makes for a less enjoyable experience for tourists because doing things you don’t want to do (and being harassed for tips after) is frustrating, but just know it’s not necessarily your guide’s fault for adding these unpleasant experiences to the itinerary.

15. Do haggle!

In Egypt, if you ask someone how much for a hotel room or a tour it almost always depends on their mood.

For example, I saw on booking.com an okay airport hotel for $55 a night, but it was past check-in time so I had to call them to reserve. The guy quoted me at $100! For the same exact room.

I told him on booking it was $55 and he said: “Okay, for you – $55 no problem”. It’s way easier to just not haggle and use services like Hostelworld.com, booking.com, and Uber if you don’t know how much things should cost.

I wrote a guide to haggling in Egypt here.

Tip: As a tack on to all of our tours we kept getting taken to the most ridiculous gift shops selling perfume, papyrus, and alabaster – all “famous” Egypt-y items, at an insane upcharge.

Even bartering at these places you’re paying 1000x what the amount should be. I remember feeling pleased with myself for getting a guy to come down to $80 on an Alabaster vase at one of the places our tour guide brought us to, only to see the same thing in a market for $15.

I wouldn’t even barter at these places unless you don’t mind overpaying.

16. Do bring your own toilet paper

In Egypt they don’t typically use toilet paper, instead, they use a Shatafa.

A Shatafa is an Arab bidet. Sometimes it’s a hose attached to the toilet, or it could just be a pipe coming up from the center.

Usually, there are only Shatafas in public bathrooms and no toilet paper. So, definitely always carry your own while traveling in Egypt.

17. Don’t worry about police checks

Nothing really prepared me for the police checks going from Cairo to Dahab, which is on the Sinai Peninsula.

Because of the geographical location, Egypt has a history of conflict in the region, and thus any transport between Cairo and the peninsula is highly regulated.

I like taking overnight buses because usually I can just fall asleep and wake up at my destination. Not always the case in Egypt! During my bus ride to Dahab, there were between 5-10 police checks.

No one had said anything about this when I bought the tickets or at the station, and there was nothing like it on our overnight bus from Cairo to Luxor, it was kind of a “you need to know” thing.

But because no one told me, I kept thinking “surely, this has to be the last one” – nope!

Just as I would nod off back to sleep there would be another police check, and another, and another. I don’t really even know what they were checking for, you just have to hold out your passport and they barely glance at it.

I honestly don’t know what information the police get out of these checks, since they don’t take enough time to do anything, and we didn’t have to lower our masks to confirm our identities with the passport.

Around two or three times throughout the night when the bus was stopped we had to do luggage checks – and those were crazy.

Anyone who had a bag in the storage under the bus had to get out, remove their bag, and line up all the open bags in a row for armed guards to inspect. The thing is… The cops just looked at the bags.

They didn’t take the time to look through the bags, so everyone taking out their luggage and lining it up seemed more like a waste of time than anything else.

18. Do be patient

Egypt runs on Egypt time. A bus from Cairo to Alexandria says it takes 2 hours max, expect it to take four. Even if you ask the bus driver who takes this trip every day he’ll say it takes two hours… and then it will take 4.

The train that’s supposed to arrive at 10 AM will arrive at noon, just factor this into your trip planning.

I learned it’s better to just lay back and appreciate your time in Egypt because there’s no point in getting stressed about something you can’t change!

19. Do know that people like to look like they’re doing their job

I checked my drone at customs when I first arrived at Cairo airport. Even though I was only there to check my drone, which I was declaring willingly, the customs agent opened my big bag with my clothes in it.

She took out my travel pillow, took ALL the stuffing out of it, put the stuffing back in, then she took one dress out of my bag and made a big show of patting it down and checking the seams. And that was it.

I carry an 80L bag with me, but she just (super thoroughly) checked like 2 items.

You’ll see that a lot in Egypt, like with the police checks I mentioned above, people really like to look like they’re doing their jobs.

20. Do know that Egyptian people are so kind

Egypt gets a bad rap. I’m convinced this is because people come to Cairo, go to the pyramids, and then go home.

The harassment is BAD at the pyramids, and I can understand why some people would go home with a bad idea of the country if that’s all they saw.

But really, genuinely, every Egyptian person I met who didn’t work in tourism was the nicest, kindest, and most generous person you’ll ever get the honor of knowing.

Egypt Travel Tips: Conclusion

So, there you go! I hope these 20 tips arm you with everything you’ll need for your upcoming trip to Egypt.

I’ve traveled all over the world and as of right now, Egypt is the most difficult country I’ve traveled in. Between the noise and craziness of Cairo, the overshot bureaucracy at the airport, thirsty men, and the police-state legislation in the Sinai Peninsula – it was a rough time. Truly.

That being said, Egypt was also the most amazing place I’ve ever been in my entire life. The discomforts you will experience are paid back tenfold in rich history, amazing experiences, and kind people.

Feel free to reach out if you have any more questions about Egypt! I’m always here to help.