🇪🇬Egypt

What the visa costs now

The price changed twice this year. Anything you read from 2025 is wrong.

• All of these give you 30 days.
• The visa on arrival is still implemented as a USD 25 sticker plus a USD 5 surcharge sticker, which looks odd in your passport and is correct.
• Cash counters take US dollars, euros or pounds sterling. Bring clean, undamaged notes; torn ones get refused.
• Buy the visa at the bank counter before immigration, not from anyone who offers to help you in the hall.
• visa2egypt.gov.eg is the only official e-visa site. The commercial lookalikes charge USD 80 to USD 150 for the same document, and they are the most common way visitors overpay.
• Your passport must be valid for 6 months from arrival and have at least one blank page.

The free Sinai stamp

If you are flying to Sharm El-Sheikh and staying in the resort area, you may not need a visa at all.

• A free entry permission stamp is issued on arrival for stays of up to 15 days at Sharm El-Sheikh, Dahab, Nuweiba and Taba resorts.
• It confines you to the Sinai coastal strip. It does not cover Cairo, Luxor or even the trip to St Catherine's Monastery in most readings.
• If you plan a day trip to the pyramids, buy the full visa. People get caught out on exactly this, having taken the free stamp and then booked an excursion.
• The Sinai permit cannot be extended or converted.

Crossing from Israel at Taba

• Staying in Taba only: USD 20 border tax.
• Travelling into Sinai: USD 120 border tax.
• Travelling beyond Sinai: USD 120 border tax plus the USD 30 visa plus roughly USD 20 for a guarantee letter.
• ATMs at Taba are unreliable. Bring US dollars in cash before you get there.

Where your nationality lands

• Egypt publishes its visa-on-arrival list inconsistently and airline staff and airport officers do not always apply it the same way.
• When in doubt, buy the e-visa before you fly. It costs the same USD 30, it removes the argument at the counter, and an approved e-visa is accepted everywhere the visa on arrival is.
• Overstaying carries a fine paid at the airport, and a modest grace period is usually tolerated. Do not rely on it.

• Satellite phones and radio equipment are confiscated unless you have prior clearance from the Ministry of Telecommunications, and high-value electronics and recording equipment should be declared on arrival.
• Drones may not be brought in. They are seized at Cairo and Hurghada with or without paperwork, and are rarely returned.
• Antiquities may not be exported. This covers coins, fragments and anything a seller describes as ancient; the penalty is a prison sentence rather than a confiscation.
• Coral, shells and marine life from the Red Sea are protected. Taking a piece of coral from Sharm or Dahab is an offence, and dive bags are checked.
• You may carry no more than 5,000 Egyptian pounds in or out, and foreign currency worth more than USD 10,000 must be declared on arrival - there is no limit on how much of it you bring, only on not declaring it.

Your medicines may be illegal here

• Some prescribed and over-the-counter medicines are controlled substances in Egypt and need advance permission from the Egyptian Ministry of Health.
• Carry a doctor's letter stating your condition, the medicine, the quantity and that it is for personal use.
• Keep everything in original labelled packaging.
• Check before you fly with the Egyptian consulate if you take anything in the painkiller, sedative, stimulant or psychiatric categories.
• Tramadol in particular is heavily controlled in Egypt and people have been detained over it.

Getting treated

• Do not use the hotel doctor as a first resort. The FCDO notes specifically that hotel doctors have overcharged for treatment and medicines.
• Pharmacies outside hotels supply the same medication far more cheaply, and Egyptian pharmacists are well trained and helpful. Many drugs needing a prescription at home are available over the counter.
• Private hospitals in Cairo are good and expect payment or insurer confirmation up front.
• Travel insurance covering treatment and medical evacuation is essential, particularly if you are diving.
• Diving cover is usually a separate add-on and a recompression chamber evacuation is expensive. If you are diving, check the policy explicitly.

The stomach

Traveller's diarrhoea is close to universal and it is largely preventable.

• Do not drink the tap water and do not use it to brush your teeth. Bottled water is cheap and everywhere. Check the seal.
• Ice is the thing people forget, along with salad, unpeeled fruit and fruit juice diluted with tap water.
• Hot, freshly cooked food from a busy place is the safe bet, including street food.
• Carry oral rehydration salts and loperamide. The salts matter more.
• Buffets that have been sitting out are the usual culprit at resorts, not street stalls.

The rest

• No vaccinations are required unless arriving from a yellow fever risk country. Hepatitis A and typhoid are recommended, plus routine cover. See a travel clinic 8 weeks ahead.
• Do not swim, paddle or wade in the Nile, canals or irrigation channels. Schistosomiasis, also called bilharzia, is present in fresh water throughout the country. The Red Sea and hotel pools are fine.
• Rabies is present. Do not touch dogs, cats or monkeys, and treat any bite or scratch as urgent.
• Dengue occurs and mosquito precautions during the day are sensible.
• Sun and heat are the commonest problems. Hat, sunscreen, far more water than you think, and shade from 11:00 to 15:00.
• Dust and air quality in Cairo aggravate asthma. Bring your inhaler.

The seasons

• October to April is the season everywhere, and it is genuinely pleasant.
• May to September in Luxor and Aswan is punishing, regularly over 40 °C. Sites are visited at dawn and the middle of the day is spent indoors. Hotels are correspondingly cheap.
• The Red Sea works year round. Summer is hot but the sea and the air conditioning make it manageable.
• Book ahead around Christmas, New Year and Easter, when Luxor and the Red Sea fill.
• Ramadan changes the rhythm rather than closing things, and resort hotels operate normally.

Where to stay

• Giza, with a pyramid view, is a specific and worthwhile splurge. Waking up to them from a balcony is the trip's best moment for many people.
• Zamalek and Garden City in Cairo are calmer, greener and better for walking than Downtown.
• Downtown Cairo is cheap, characterful, noisy and central.
• Luxor's east bank for the town and the temples, the west bank for quiet and the tombs.
• Hurghada and Sharm El-Sheikh are all-inclusive resort towns and the value is remarkable. They are not Egypt in any cultural sense, and that is fine if it is what you want.
• Dahab is the low-key alternative, backpackerish and much better for diving without the resort machinery.
• Nile cruise boats are floating hotels, and the difference between a good and a bad one is large. Read recent reviews rather than the brochure.

Safety in your room

The FCDO notes reports of sexual assault predominantly at Red Sea resorts, including cases involving minors.

• Do not allow hotel staff into your room when you are alone. This is the FCDO's own advice and it is specific for a reason.
• Use the door chain, and ask for identification.
• Supervise children in resort kids' clubs and pools rather than assuming the supervision is what it would be at home.
• Choose established, well-reviewed properties, particularly for a family holiday.

Practical

• Passport registration at check-in is required and is normal.
• Power cuts happen. A property with a generator is a different experience in summer.
• Check the air conditioning works before you accept the room, not afterwards.
• Bottled water is usually provided and you will drink a lot of it.

Buy local

• Vodafone, Orange, Etisalat and WE are the four networks. Vodafone has the widest coverage and is the usual choice.
• A tourist SIM with a generous data bundle costs the equivalent of a few US dollars and is far cheaper than any travel eSIM.
• You must register with your passport. Buy from an official branded shop rather than a kiosk, so it is registered properly.
• Airport counters work and cost more. A shop in town is cheaper if you can wait.
• eSIM is supported by the main networks and by Saily, and is the easy option for a short trip.

Restrictions and reality

• WhatsApp, FaceTime and Skype voice calls are frequently blocked or degraded. Text and media messaging work.
• A VPN installed before you arrive is worth having. Some are themselves blocked, so install two.
• Speeds are good in Cairo, Alexandria and the Red Sea resorts and drop sharply in Upper Egypt and the desert.
• Cruise boats on the Nile have patchy coverage between Luxor and Aswan, which is part of the appeal.
• Power cuts affect mobile networks. Egypt has had rolling load shedding in recent summers.

Practical

• Keep the phone charged and carry a power bank. You will use the phone constantly for maps, translation and photographs.
• Google Translate with Arabic downloaded offline is genuinely useful, especially the camera mode for menus and signs.
• Save your hotel's name and address in Arabic script to show a taxi driver.

Sockets in Egypt are Type C and F at 220 V, 50 Hz - two round pins, the same shape as continental Europe.

• A Europlug fits every socket, and Schuko plugs fit the earthed ones.
• British, American and Australian plugs need an adapter.
• Older buildings and Nile cruise boats frequently have unearthed sockets, and boats sometimes run their own supply overnight at reduced voltage.
• 220 V, so American 120 V-only equipment needs a converter.
• Adapters are cheap in any hardware shop; airport and hotel shops charge several times the price.
• Sinai resorts and desert camps run on generators for part of the day, and the sockets there are the same shape with a supply that varies.

Photography rules that carry real consequences

• Do not photograph military or police installations, bridges, canals or government buildings. This is taken seriously and people have been detained for it.
• Drones are effectively banned without a permit that tourists do not get. Bringing one in risks confiscation at the airport.
• Ask before photographing people, and expect to be asked for baksheesh afterwards.
• Photography permits are charged separately at some sites, notably inside certain tombs in the Valley of the Kings. Buy the ticket rather than risk a confiscated phone.
• Tripods usually need a permit anywhere official.

The week and the calendar

• The weekend is Friday and Saturday. Government offices and banks close, and Friday midday prayers quieten everything for an hour or two.
• Sites and museums open normally at weekends and are busier.
• Ramadan falls across February and March in 2027. Do not eat, drink or smoke in public during daylight; restaurants in tourist areas stay open. Iftar at sunset is worth being invited to, and you will be.
• Egyptian time is elastic. Confirm pickups the evening before.

Dress and conduct

• Cover shoulders and knees away from resorts. Women will find this reduces attention markedly.
• Mosques welcome visitors outside prayer times, shoes off, women covering their hair.
• Coptic churches and monasteries have similar expectations.
• Public displays of affection are frowned on.
• Same-sex relationships are not illegal as such but are prosecuted under other laws, and dating apps have been used to entrap people. This is a real risk rather than a theoretical one.
• Alcohol is legal for non-Muslims, sold in hotels, licensed bars, resort towns and the Drinkies chain. Public drunkenness is not tolerated.
• Use your right hand for eating and passing things.

Everyday

• Electricity is 220 V at 50 Hz with European two-pin plugs.
• Power cuts have been common in recent summers. Keep a power bank charged.
• Toilets often lack paper. Carry tissues, and small notes for attendants.
• Arabic numerals on price tags are sometimes the Eastern Arabic forms, which look nothing like the ones you know. Learn the digits or use your phone's camera translation.
• Site tickets are now largely digital and card-only at the big monuments, which is a recent change and a good one.
• Antiquities cannot be exported. Anything genuinely old that a shop offers you is either fake or is going to be confiscated at the airport.
• Egyptians are extraordinarily hospitable once you are past the commercial layer. Accepting tea and talking to people is the best part of the country.

The currency

• The Egyptian pound floated in March 2024 and has traded in a range of roughly 49 to 52 to the US dollar through 2026.
• Inflation was 14.9 percent in July 2026, which is a great deal calmer than it was, but prices still move.
• Egypt is genuinely cheap for food, transport and services. It is not cheap for entry tickets to the major sites, which are priced for foreigners and have risen steeply.
• Change money at banks or official exchange offices, not on the street. Street rates that look better are the setup for a switch.
• ATMs are widespread in cities and resorts and dispense pounds. Use bank-branch machines, decline the machine's conversion, and be aware many have low withdrawal limits.

Baksheesh, explained properly

This is the thing visitors find hardest, and understanding it makes Egypt much more enjoyable.

• Baksheesh is a small payment for a small service, and it is a normal part of an economy where many wages are very low. It is not begging and it is not usually a scam.
• Someone opens a door, points at a tomb, watches your shoes, takes your photo: a few pounds.
• The tool is small notes. Get a thick stack of 5, 10 and 20 pound notes early and keep them in a separate pocket from your real money.
• You may decline. A firm, friendly "la, shukran" repeated works, and it is not rude.
• What is a scam is different: someone who takes your camera to "help", then demands payment to return it; a guard who beckons you past a rope and then demands money; a "free" gift pressed into your hand.
• Never hand over your passport or your phone.

Tipping

• Restaurants: 10 percent, on top of any service charge, which usually does not reach the staff.
• Hotel housekeeping: a small note daily.
• Nile cruise and tour staff: there is usually a suggested tipping envelope, and it is a real part of their pay.
• Drivers and guides: budget for it. A private guide for a day expects a meaningful tip.
• Egyptian pounds are better than dollars for tipping, despite what you will be told, because changing small foreign notes is hard for the recipient.

Cards and cash

• Resorts, good hotels and larger restaurants take cards. Very little else does.
• Carry cash daily, more than you think, in small denominations.
• Prices are quoted in pounds, dollars and euros depending on who is asking. Establish the currency before you agree.
• Keep some US dollars in reserve for the visa, the Taba border and emergencies.
• Bargaining is expected in bazaars and with taxis, and not in shops with marked prices. Start low, stay cheerful, and be willing to walk.

Between cities

• The sleeper train from Cairo to Luxor and Aswan is the classic Egyptian journey. Private cabins, dinner and breakfast included, and you wake up in Upper Egypt having saved a hotel night.
• Ordinary trains are much cheaper and slower, and foreigners are sometimes steered towards particular services.
• Domestic flights are cheap and quick. EgyptAir flies Cairo to Luxor, Aswan, Hurghada and Sharm several times a day.
• Long-distance coaches run everywhere. Go Bus and Blue Bus are the comfortable operators.
• 12Go covers most of these, including Cairo to Luxor and Luxor to Hurghada, which is handy because Egyptian rail booking sites are awkward from abroad.
• Nile cruises between Luxor and Aswan are transport as well as a holiday, typically 3 or 4 nights.

In Cairo

• Uber and Careem work well and are cheap, and remove the fare negotiation entirely. This is the single biggest quality-of-life improvement for a visitor.
• The metro costs a few pounds and is the fastest way across the centre at rush hour. Women-only carriages are marked and are the front two.
• Street taxis need a price agreed first, and the meter in the white cabs is often "broken".
• Microbuses are for locals and are hard to use without Arabic.

Driving

• Do not drive in Cairo. Really.
• Outside the cities you need an International Driving Permit, and the FCDO advises against driving outside main cities at night.
• Road accidents are common and enforcement is limited. Coaches and lorries drive fast and overtake blind.
• Convoy requirements have applied on some desert routes. Check locally before driving in Sinai or the Western Desert.

Apps

• Uber and Careem for taxis.
• Google Maps works, and offline maps matter because coverage drops.
• Google Translate with Arabic downloaded, especially the camera mode.
• XE or similar for currency, because the pound moves and prices are quoted in three currencies.

Tolls on the desert highways, and a driving culture that a visitor is rarely ready for.

• Cairo traffic ignores lane markings entirely and merges by contact and horn. Almost every visitor who tries to drive it regrets the decision within an hour.
• A car with a driver is cheap and standard for Cairo, Luxor and the Red Sea transfers.
• The desert highways are tolled at plazas and are fast, straight and monotonous.
• The alcohol limit is zero.
• Night driving between cities is discouraged - unlit vehicles, animals and police checkpoints - and some routes still require a permit or convoy.

Where not to go

• The FCDO advises against all travel to some parts of Egypt and against all but essential travel to others, including North Sinai and border regions.
• Check the regional risks page before you book anything off the standard tourist route. Travel insurance is void in an area your government advises against.
• The standard tourist circuit is not affected: Cairo, Giza, Luxor, Aswan, Abu Simbel, Hurghada, Sharm El-Sheikh and Dahab.
• Terrorist attacks have targeted security forces, religious sites, public gatherings and places foreigners visit. Tourist sites have visible armed security, which is reassuring rather than alarming.

The hassle, and how to handle it

Egypt has more persistent commercial attention than almost anywhere. It is not danger, and it is exhausting if you do not have a strategy.

• The camel or horse at the pyramids. A ride offered as free or cheap for a photograph, and then a large sum demanded to get down, or to be brought back.
• The "temple is closed" line, delivered by a stranger outside a site that is open, who has a better idea.
• The unrequested guide who attaches himself, talks for ten minutes and then bills you.
• The papyrus, perfume and alabaster "factory" your driver detours to, on commission.
• The gift pressed into your hand, then payment demanded. Do not accept anything.
• The shoe shine, the photo taken on your own camera, the door opened for you. All small, all a few pounds, all fine if you have small notes.
• A firm, smiling "la, shukran" and continuing to walk is the answer to nearly all of it. Do not stop, do not engage, do not explain.

The things that actually hurt people

• Roads. Poor conditions, limited enforcement, fast coaches. Do not travel outside main cities at night. Serious crashes involving tourists happen regularly.
• Red Sea diving. The FCDO records multiple fatalities on diving operations, with safety standards varying considerably and some operators lacking adequate insurance. Check the operator's certification, its safety record and its insurance, not its price. Ask to see the boat's safety equipment.
• Watersports. Book through reputable vendors who can give assurance about safety standards.
• Shark attacks in the Red Sea are rare and have happened. Follow local beach guidance and do not swim where fish are being fed or waste discarded.
• Heat. In Upper Egypt in summer it is genuinely dangerous. Dawn starts, midday indoors.

Women travellers

• Verbal harassment is common and physical harassment happens, including in crowds.
• Dress modestly outside resorts, covering shoulders and knees. It reduces attention noticeably.
• The FCDO advises female travellers not to allow hotel staff into the room when alone.
• Women-only metro carriages in Cairo are marked and worth using.
• A confident, loud, public response to harassment usually works, because bystanders intervene.

The numbers

• 126, the tourist police, is the one to save. They are a dedicated force at the major sites and in the resort towns, they speak English, and they are far more use to a visitor than the general police line.
• Operators on 122 and 123 may not speak English. Have someone from your hotel call if you can.
• Ambulance response is slow outside the cities and resorts. In many situations a taxi to a private hospital is faster.
• 911 and 112 do not work here.

Practicalities

• Report theft to the tourist police and get the written report. No insurer pays without it and you will not get one after you fly home.
• Photograph your passport, visa and insurance policy and keep copies separate from the originals.
• If you lose your passport, go to the police, then your embassy in Cairo. Most consulates are in Cairo, with a few in Alexandria and Hurghada, which matters if you are on the Red Sea.
• Save your insurer's 24-hour line offline with the international dialling code.
• Keep US dollars in cash somewhere separate as a fallback.

Diving emergencies

• Recompression chambers are at Sharm El-Sheikh, Dahab and Hurghada.
• Check your insurance covers diving to the depth you will actually dive, and covers chamber treatment and evacuation. Standard travel policies frequently do not.
• Ask your operator where the nearest chamber is and how they would get you there before you dive with them. A good operator has an immediate answer.
• DAN membership is worth it if you are doing a diving trip.

Heat and other emergencies

• Heatstroke is the commonest serious visitor emergency in summer, especially at Luxor and Aswan. Symptoms are confusion, headache, nausea and stopping sweating. Get into shade and cool the person immediately.
• Sandstorms, the khamsin, occur mainly in spring and can close roads and airports for a day.
• Flash floods in the Sinai and desert wadis follow rare heavy rain and are dangerous. Do not camp in a wadi if rain is forecast.
• If there is unrest, stay away from demonstrations entirely. Foreigners photographing protests have been detained.