12 Things to Know Before Leaving on Your Egypt Vacation

Egypt is a fascinating destination full of so much history and culture. There are some things that I definitely think you’ll want to know before your go on a vacation to Egypt. Whether your trip is already booked or you dream of going to Egypt one day, I’m sharing things you want to know before heading to this magnificent destination.

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Your trip to Egypt will be the best possible if you are prepared with realistic expectations. We loved our time in Egypt but I wish I’d known a few things before we arrived. So today I’m sharing what I wished I’d know so that you can be better prepared for your Egypt vacation.

Egypt Safety. There is security everywhere. Our hotel had three levels of security to pass in order to enter. That said, we did feel safe but we did not leave our hotel or group to go out exploring the streets on our own. This is a trip where it’s best to have a plan ahead of time and not plan on winging it each day.
The hasseling in no joke! The street vendors are extremely aggressive. Do not accept anything they are handing you. If you touch it, they expect you to buy it. If you don’t want anything from them, say a firm no and keep walking. There are some vendors who offer boat rides or camel rides. Be very clear about what you will pay. Our guides told us that the vendors will often add more money to get off of the boat or camel and they will say you didn’t understand.
Have small bills on hand for tipping. If you use a public bathroom, a tip/fee will be required to enter. Tips are also expected in hotels and other places you visit. Since we were on a group tour, our guides collected tips from all of us and dispersed them as needed. That was a perk of being with a tour.
When to go? It gets extremely hot in the summer, so I recommend avoiding going May to September. We were there in March and it was an ideal time to be there. It was actually cold and our guides said that it was the coolest they’d ever been!

5. Be aware that some sites have extra charges. Admission to the temples and museums would be easy enough to navigate on your own without a tour guide but just be sure to look and see if extra things you are interested in require an additional fee. For example, at the Giza Pyramid site, there was an extra charge to go down into a tomb inside of the pyramid. This was something that we were excited to do. At the Valley of the Kings, you need to buy a photography permit if you want to use something other than your cell phone to take pictures. At Egyptian Museum in Cairo, you need to pay an additional fee to enter the Royal Mummy Exhibit. You won’t want to miss that!

6. What to wear. Egypt is a very conservative country. Every local woman I saw was completely covered including a hijab covering her head. That said, you don’t need to cover up that much but it’s respectful to also dress conservatively. Since we were there in cooler weather, it wasn’t an issue for us but if you are there in warmer summer months consider wearing maxi dresses, loose-fitting blouses, and lightweight pants. Also, be sure to wear really comfortable shoes since there is a lot of walking on uneven ground at the temple sites.

7. Do not drink the water! Plan to pick up bottled water whenever you have a chance. Our tour company went as far as telling us to keep our mouth shut in the shower so stray drops didn’t get swallowed. They also recommended using bottled water when brushing teeth.

8. Consider going with a group tour (we went with Fun for Less) or hiring a private guide. There are definitely pros and cons to group travel but for this trip, I recommend some sort of a tour. You could do a full tour for your entire time or hire private guides or private tours each day. The tour guides go to years of school in order to be a guide in Egypt. They know so much about the sites and history and it’s a great way to learn about all of the places you are seeing. Plus, they can handle the transportation, admission tickets, and give general safety advice.

Guides make it easy to enjoy each site and get the most out of it.

9. Driving in Cairo is intense. If at all possible, avoid doing the driving in Cairo. They do not follow any street guidelines and go whichever way appears to be the fastest. You will see motorcyclists holding babies and groceries, little sedans packed with 12 people, vans driving along with the doors wide open, and so much more. I loved watching the people maneuver on the streets but I was happy I wasn’t the one doing the driving.

10. When you arrive at the airport, you need to get a visa. You can go to any of the money exchange counters and they can help you. Have $25 USD in cash to pay for this. Take the visa along with your passport to passport control and they will add the visa to your passport and give the page a stamp. Be sure that your passport is valid for 6 month following your entry into Egypt. Also, be sure the know the address of the hotel/accommodations where you will be staying as they may ask you about where you are going.

11. Plan to fly between cities in Egypt. Egypt is a very big country and the most efficient way to get from city to city is by taking a flight. We flew from Cairo to Abu Simbel to Aswan. We then took a Nile cruise to Luxor and then flew from Luxor back to Cairo. Lots of flights! I’d pack as little as possible so that you are not managing all of your luggage on all of these trips to the airport. You can check out my tips for traveling only with carry-ons which we definitely did on this Egypt trip and we were so happy that we did.

This was such a small airport. Our plane was the only one there!

12. The food is really good! We mainly ate in our hotels (there were several restaurant options), on the Nile cruise, or in a mall. Because of both food safety and personal safety, we didn’t venture out on the local streets to try food. This is normally one of our favorite things when we travel but this wasn’t the trip for that. The food we ate was all so fresh and delicious. We ate a lot of pitas and hummus along with vegetable salads, fruit, and meat dishes. We also packed a lot of snacks because we never stopped for lunch and those got us through until dinner.

The hummus and baba ganoush were some of our favorite foods in Egypt.

Prepare to have one of the most epic trips ever when you visit Egypt. I honestly didn’t know what to expect but I would have been even more excited before the trip if I’d know about all of the amazing sites we were going to see. The temples you will see are so old - they were built 5,000 years ago. Seriously, wow! The tombs, the hieroglyphics, the temples, the Nile, the people, it’s all so wonderful.