Egypt Travel Guide

It is ordered by when you need it rather than by when it was written. Start at the top if you are
still deciding whether to go, and skip to the middle if your trip is already booked.

Once you are there

• Tipping in Egypt How baksheesh actually works, and why small bills matter more than the amount.
• Water, food and getting sick The tap, the ice, the salad, and the restroom question nobody else answers.
• Monument entrance fees The ministry-verified gate fee for every major site, with the official source named.
• Cairo airport Terminals, the arrivals hall, and the hour between the aircraft door and your car.
• Language and how to communicate What is spoken, where English gets you through, and the handful of words worth learning.
• Is Cairo safe What the city is actually like to move around in, and what genuinely goes wrong.
• What food costs Street counter, local restaurant or hotel dining room, and what separates the three.
• The Grand Egyptian Museum What is in it, how long it takes, and what to see if you only have a morning.
• Valley of the Kings Which tombs the standard ticket covers, which need a separate one, and when to go.
• Arabic phrases worth learning The handful of words that change how a day in Egypt goes.
• Uber and Careem in Cairo How ride hailing works here, where it does not, and what to do instead.
• The Giza sound and light show What the evening actually is, which session is in English, and where to sit.
• Photography in Egypt Camera rules at the monuments, the light through the day, and asking people first.
• What women wear in Egypt Fabric, cut and the scarf, plus what changes at a mosque and at the Red Sea.
• What men wear in Egypt Shorts, shoes and the mosque rule, and why covering up is the cooler option.
• Haggling in Egypt Where a price is fixed, where it is not, and how the conversation actually goes.
• Egyptian food worth eating The dishes you will meet, where you meet them, and how to order without pointing.

Going deeper

• The balloon flight over Luxor What the dawn morning involves, and why cancellations are a good sign.
• Recognizing the Egyptian gods Head, crown and what they hold: ten minutes that change every temple you walk into.
• The pharaohs Who they were, how the office worked, and the ones whose names you will keep meeting.
• Reading hieroglyphs How the script works, and enough to pick out a royal name on a wall.
• Amulets and what they meant The ankh, the scarab and the Eye of Horus, and the job each one was given.
• The Egyptian calendar Three seasons set by the river, and the five days that belonged to no month.
• The Sinai Peninsula The desert, the mountain and the Red Sea coast, and how they fit a trip.
• The Nile The river that made the country, and what you are looking at from the deck.
• The Abu Simbel sun festival The two mornings the light reaches the sanctuary, and what it takes to be there.
• Climbing Mount Sinai The night ascent, the descent nobody plans for, and the monastery at the foot.
• The Egyptian Museum in Tahrir What is still there after the move, and why the old building is worth the hour.
• The Civilization Museum The royal mummies and a sweep of Egyptian history that is not only pharaonic.

If something here raises a question that the page does not answer, ask us. The answer usually
ends up on one of these pages afterwards, and the quickest answers to the questions travelers ask us most often are collected in our Egypt travel FAQ.
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