Egypt
Egypt13 guides across 2 destinations — where to go, when, what it costs and what to eat.
Destinations in Egypt
Practical essentials for Egypt
Egyptian pound (EGP)
Arabic; English is widely used in hotels, at tourist sites and among educated Egyptians, much less so elsewhere
Type C/F, 220V 50Hz
Uber and Careem are the practical door-to-door option in the cities; in Cairo, three metro lines also run on paper tickets bought at the station.
Baksheesh is constant - keep small notes for porters, attendants, guides and drivers - while smarter restaurants already add a 10-12% service charge.
Not safe to drink - use bottled water and avoid unpeeled raw fruit and vegetables.
Right-hand side; the 1949 International Driving Permit is required alongside your national licence.
122 (police), 123 (ambulance), 180 (fire), 126 (tourist police)
Country-level guidance, checked against official sources. Currency, fares and entry rules change — confirm anything time-critical before you travel.
Recent stories from Egypt
Cairo Beyond the Crowds
The pyramids will always draw the masses. But Cairo rewards those who linger — in hilltop gardens, thousand-year-old lanes at dawn and slow felucca sails on the Nile.
Cairo in Every Season: When to Go and What Changes
Cairo never closes, but it changes character with the calendar — mild winter days at the pyramids, spring dust winds, furnace summers and the lantern-lit nights of Ramadan.
Is Cairo Worth It? A First-Timer's Honest Briefing
Cairo divides travellers like almost nowhere else — an honest briefing on how long to stay, where to base yourself, what to skip, and what it really costs.
Cairo Cheap Eats That Punch Far Above Their Price
Egypt's everyday food — koshari, ful, ta'ameya, hawawshi, feteer — is cooked at volume, costs pocket change and outclasses most tasting menus; here is how to eat a full day of it in Cairo.
Luxor on a lean budget: the smart traveller's playbook
The world's greatest open-air museum is also one of its most affordable destinations — if you use the local ferry, time your tickets and bargain with a smile. A practical guide to doing Luxor well for less.
Luxor is a city of mornings: four of them, in order
Every monument here rewards the first two hours of light and punishes the middle of the day, which is why Luxor is planned morning by morning rather than day by day - four of them, plus the evenings.
The Cairo Districts Most Travelers Never Reach
Giza, the museum and the bazaar barely touch Cairo itself — here are five districts worth stealing time for, and how to fit them into a trip.
From dawn ful to midnight tea: eating your way through Luxor
Upper Egypt's table runs on fava beans at sunrise, slow tagens at noon and hibiscus tea long after dark. A full day of eating in Luxor, hour by hour.
A weekend in Cairo, hour by hour
Two days is tight for a city of twenty-plus million and five thousand years — but with an early start and a firm plan, Cairo gives you the pyramids, the medieval city and the Nile. Here is the schedule.
The souq lanes and West Bank villages of Luxor
One cheap ferry ride and fifty metres past the souvenir stalls, Luxor turns local: farming villages laid over a necropolis, painted tombs nobody queues for, and a market that still shops for itself.
What to eat in Cairo: the essential dishes and where to find them
Egyptian food is one of the great underrated cuisines — ancient, generous and absurdly affordable. These are the dishes that define Cairo, and the kinds of places that do them justice.
3 Days in Cairo: Pyramids, Museums and the Nile
A three-day route through the essentials — Giza at opening time, the Grand Egyptian Museum, medieval bazaars and a felucca at sunset.