Famous for ancient wonders like the Pyramids of Giza and Abu Simbel, Egypt feels both timeless and alive: its beauty lies in the way history and everyday life blend so effortlessly. Wander through Cairo’s lively streets, visit a colourful Nubian Village, or swim with dolphins in the Red Sea.
Transport in Egypt is varied and generally affordable, but it helps to plan ahead. For long distances, domestic flights are often the quickest option e.g. between Cairo, Luxor, Aswan and the Red Sea resorts. I always search for the best flight deals using Skyscanner to compare times and prices across airlines.
Trains are another popular way to travel, with sleeper services linking Cairo to Luxor and Aswan. They’re a great budget option and you’ll get to see the countryside pass by. Buses run extensive routes too, but journeys can be slower in hot weather.
Within cities, taxis and ride-hailing apps like Uber or Careem make getting around easy, and in Cairo the metro is cheap and efficient for avoiding traffic.
For shorter stretches along the Nile, feluccas and local boats add a more traditional way to experience river travel.
Hiring a car is an option if you’re a confident driver, or you could hire a car with a local driver. For harder-to-reach places like Abu Simbel in the south, I recommend booking onto a guided tour with transport from Aswan.
Egypt has scorching hot summers (best avoided!) but mild, pleasant winters. The shoulder seasons (March/April, October/November) are an excellent time to visit. It will still be hot and sunny, but more bearable than the heat of high summer. Press/hover over the tiles below for a month-by-month breakdown.
There are plenty of beautiful accommodation options in Egypt to suit every budget, from luxury resorts near the Red Sea to backpacker hostels in Cairo and Aswan. The main thing to look out for is fake reviews, so read these carefully and watch out for unnatural-sounding language. If it sounds fake, it probably is! I always book my accommodation through trusted providers like booking.com and Hostelworld, but still always read the most recent reviews carefully.
Most visitors to Egypt will need a visa, but there are sometimes exemptions if you’re only travelling to the resort areas of Sharm el Sheikh, Dahab, Nuweiba or Taba, so check before you go.
I always recommend checking the official government advice from your own country of citizenship. For example, I’m from the UK so I use the UK Government’s Foreign travel advice website, and navigate to the “Entry requirements” section of the country I wish to visit. That will show me the most up-to-date advice and the correct links to use to apply for a visa officially, without being scammed. E.g. “Egypt: Entry requirements”.
Be aware that if you just google “Egypt visa”, you’ll find lots of 3rd party websites offering to do the application for you, which at best will charge you quite a lot of money and at worst may scam you completely.
If you would rather someone else take care of the application for you to save you time and hassle, I can recommend iVisa. iVisa offer an end-to-end visa application service where they take care of the entire application for you. You just need to sign up via their website and fill out the information they need from you for the application. Note that they charge a fee for this service, so it will be more expensive than applying directly yourself.
Here are some of the resources I’ve found particularly useful for travelling in Egypt. Download the apps before you go to ensure a smooth and stress-free experience! Check out my Useful Travel Resources page for my complete go-to list of websites and apps.
Currency:
Egyptian Pound (EGP)
Capital City:
Cairo
Languages:
Modern Standard Arabic, Egyptian Arabic,
Saʽidi Arabic, Nubian languages, Siwi Berber,
and more…
