Egypten

Eat

thumb|Falafel Egypt can be a fantastic place to sample a unique range of food: not too spicy and well-flavoured with herbs and aromatic spices like parsley, cilantro, dill, cumin, cinnamon, and cardamom. For a convenient selection of Egyptian cuisine and staple foods try the Felfela chain of restaurants in Cairo. Some visitors complain, however, that these have become almost too tourist-friendly and have abandoned some elements of authenticity. A more affordable and wider-spread alternative is the Arabiata restaurant chain, Arabiata is considered by locals to be the number one destination for Egyptian delicacies as falafel and fūl too.

Beware of any restaurant listed in popular guidebooks and websites. Even if the restaurant was once great, after publication, they will likely create a "special" English menu that includes very high prices.

As in many seaside countries, Egypt is full of fish restaurants and markets so fish and seafood are must-try. Frequently, fish markets have some food stalls nearby where you can point at specific fish species to be cooked. Stalls typically have shared tables, and locals are as frequent there as tourists.

McDonald's has food which you may not find in your home country like the McFalafel and the long-streched Chicken Fillet.

Drink

See also Stay healthy:Fluids section for hygiene and related info.

Sleep

Egypt has a full range of accommodation options, from basic backpacker hostels to five-star resorts. Most major hotel chains are represented in Greater Cairo, Sharm el Sheikh and Luxor, at least. You can reserve most of your accommodation online or contact a local agent who can organise both accommodation and trips.

Walk-in rates give you great discounts over online reservations, e.g. half-price in Aswan. Generally, online reservations are more expensive due to it being used by so many tourists. However, in Egypt most hotels do not have their own website and do not have to commit to the agreement with online reservations sites to offer the same price online as offline. Nevertheless, have a screenshot of the actual online price ready, just in case you encounter a hotel that is willing to overcharge you. In high season, it is best to reserve the first night and haggle for the following night(s). Otherwise, if there is no general shortage of rooms and less than 60% are booked (usually displayed at the top of online reservation sites), then check out an area with many hotels and go there asking around. Hotels will also happily accept you cancelling your existing online reservation in person for a discount. When reserving online, often you have the flat price, with tax and fees added. Generally, you will get at least these taxes and fees as discount (10-15%) when cancelling the reservation in person and/or when bargaining.

Some online hotel sites state that payment is required i…

Stay safe

Egypt is often labelled as an unsafe country by many foreign governments — a reputation that's not entirely unwarranted — but the average traveller should not be too overly concerned or cautious of their surroundings.

Travelling in Egypt is, more or less, similar to travelling in Morocco, Jordan, Palestine or Turkey.

Perhaps the biggest safety concern is terrorism. The Sinai Peninsula in particular is a hotspot for terrorist activity.

Respect

Egyptians, in general, are friendly and welcoming. As is the case in many Muslim-majority countries, Egyptians consider it shameful to not give a guest a warm welcome.

Egyptians, North Africans, and Arabs in the Gulf share a common culture and form the Arab world; therefore, much of what is considered good manners in Arab world is very much applicable to Egypt.

First-time visitors to the Arab world should keep the following rule in mind: be smart about what you say or do openly. Any action that causes an Egyptian to lose their honour (face) will not be taken positively.

Connect

Egypt has a reasonably modern telephone service including four GSM mobile service providers. The mobile phone providers are Vodafone, Etisalat, We and Orange. According to OpenSignal all of them are similarly good. Actual 4G download speeds are around 15 MBit/s. Vodafone has the most consistent network quality. If you plan to visit rather remote areas, also Vodafone has the widest 4G coverage. (updated September 2022)

Mobile Internet SIM cards can be bought for around €5/US$5 (Dec 2022) including 10 GB for 1 month at the airport or for around LE130 per 8GB in the city. As of April 2021 a SIM card with 18GB was USD10 at the Hurghada airport.

Roaming services are provided, although you should check with your service provider.

Internet access is easy to find and cheap, and often free. Nowadays, most coffee shops, restaurants, hotel lobbies and other locations now provide free WiFi. Connections can be unsafe and under surveillance, try to use a proxy or VPN for your privacy.