Traveling to Egypt

I just did a one day long layover in Cairo last July. My wife and I were a bit anxious, because we watched a lot of videos that warned about harassment and scams, though almost all of those were YouTubers who were traveling without guides.

We contacted and hired a driver + guide ahead of arrival. Everything went SUPER smoothly, STRONGLY recommend doing this in advance. Airport pick up, communication, alignment on what we wanted to see (Coptic Cairo, Bazaar, one of the main mosques, Great Pyramids). Zero harassment.

Price felt reasonable... just under $300 for two of us combined, everything private, driver and separate guide (who says she has a doctorate degree in Egyptology. I believed her as I studied archaeology and she knew enough LOL... and apparently we ran into one of her professors while in Coptic Cairo, but who knows haha!). She also took AMAZING photos of us at the pyramids, like legit professional level :) and NOBODY came to harass us vs. what we saw on video. She did take us to two shops (a perfume one, and a papyrus one). I think she got some small commission, but it fitted within the timing of our itinerary, and though at first I was a little annoyed since it wasn't made clear up front, but ultimately 1) my wife actually really loved the shops we visited and the "cultural" things we were exposed to, and 2) there was ZERO pressure from our guide or the shops we visited to buy anything.

This is their Tripadvisor page. My guide's name was Dalia. https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g294201-d10794410-Reviews-Private_Tour_Guides-Cairo_Cairo_Governorate.html

I don’t have a specific recommendation other than to say do not arrange a guide while in Egypt. Arrange it thru a US company and or an American company based in Egypt. We tried to get a guide thru the Marriott property we stayed at in Cairo and it was kind of sketchy and lots of things were lost in translation. My husband was convinced I was going to get taken bc of the sketchiness going on. We were surprised as this was thru the Marriott as I said… I’m not sure how much time you have but if I were you, I’d arrange for a Tour that does Cairo and Luxor both. It might be pricy but worth it to be in a larger group versus paying a guy one off to take you around. In other countries, that’s definitely doable. I would not do that in Egypt

I went with a friend through Real Egypt and they were great. We did a dahabiya cruise and had a personal driver getting us everywhere we needed to go on land. We had a great time!

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Me and my husband went for our honeymoon in September and found a guide on tours by locals for Cairo. It was like $300 for a private guide which included entry on things and a private nice tourist van. Our guide Nala was very nice and accommodating and respected by the locals so we didn’t get hasseled like a lot of people have described.

I did a little research up front and saw everything in Cairo using Uber. For Luxor and Aswan my hotels arranged guides and drivers.

Hi , I'm Andrew, Founder of Cairo Hub Hostel. I have been in this field almost 10 years. I do my best for my guests to have the best experienced ever in Egypt.

*I provide all kinds of tours all around Egypt from north to south, so I can help with any request you might have and make your itineraries please if you have any questions regarding your trip feel free to contact me.

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We had a fabulous time in Egypt in part due to our guide. We hired a guide and driver through Mohamed Badawy as recommended by the blonde abroad blog and they were worth every Penny we paid for their services despite some small hang ups. The first was, similar to the poster above, we went to a papyrus shop and perfume shop that we found pretty touristy and not anything we were ultimately interested in. The guide emphasized multiple times there was no pressure to buy anything so it wasn’t really a big deal. If we had said no we’re not interested I am certain he would’ve respected that, so lesson learned on our part.

The second hang up is unlike the poster above, our guide was not an expert, haha. I had done a fair amount of homework on ancient Egypt before our trip, maybe too much homework, and he wasn’t really able to answer some of my questions. But he did listen and came back with answers the next day. So again, not a huge deal, but we probably would’ve enjoyed having a true expert.

Once he got to know us a bit after the first day, and what we were into, he took incredible care of us. We experienced absolutely NONE of the harassment we were warned about, and never felt unsafe. He brought us sweet tiny gifts that we still cherish, and helped us figure out how to get our absolute mountain of goods and souvenirs we brought home (highly recommend going to fair trade egypt on zamalek for shopping true artisan crafts). He brought us to fabulous spots including a bakery on our last day that we brought home boxes of cookies and bags of tea and dates from, and I’ve tried googling how to get them to ship to the us since. We felt super relaxed and comfortable with him and loved his enthusiasm for his city. We think of him and our trip to Egypt often and would absolutely go back in a heart beat (if only there weren’t so many other places to explore)!

Happy to share Mohamed’s email in pm! Have fun!