Anyone been to Egypt??

[Chitterchatter48]

Almost everyone I know who has been in the past had stomach upsets and were sick. My DH desperately wants to go here on hols next year to see the Pyramids, and I'm a fly and flop kind of person, so happy just reading my kindle and sipping a cocktail (uncultured me 😂)
But...obviously I don't want to be sick as I've been ill on holiday before with food poisoning and it was utterly awful! We would only be going for 1 week and I don't want to spend half of that in bed!

The few various people I knew who went to Egypt was over 10 years ago, so maybe things have drastically improved since then 💁‍♀️

Does anyone have experience of travelling to Egypt. I would appreciate any thoughts.

TIA

My 2 teens and I went in 2022. Self organised tour the length and breadth of the country. Ate in local places. Train buffets. Street hawkers. No illness at all over 3 weeks of travelling. We're very experienced Asia travellers though, so are well trained in what to avoid.

The landscape and history of the country is beautiful and unparalleled.

BUT it's a horrible horrible country to visit as the men were awful. Letchy. Vile. Swore at you if you didn't buy what they were selling. Tried to rip you off constantly. I was walking alone on a lonely island in the Nile and got followed by one man, to the extent I did a 180 mid path and he did the same. I yelled at him to go away and he finally got the hint.

You couldn't pay me to go back there.

DH had been before and he wasn't ill then either.

Avoid salads other than at the hotel. The water is clean but the germs that are in it are different to the germs in the UK.

Didn't get hassled other than in the souk and when walking from A to B. They want business. DH is tall and muscly, which probably helps. You get lots of requests for 'Baksheesh'.

We had a lovely family holiday split between Cairo and Luxor a few years ago. No one got sick (admittedly we mainly ate in the hotel as the kids were small and tired from the day trips) and we felt perfectly safe.

We did hire a driver and guide for some days - the rods were wild in Cairo and I wouldn't have liked to drive there. And having a guide means you don't get hassled by other guides.

We particularly enjoyed how accepting of young children people were, and we saw some amazing things!

Surely cooked food is better than raw food, like salads etc?
I only eat cooked food - definitely no white meat - avoid salads and NEVER have ice in my drinks.

Also - and I think this is absolutely crucial to my never (touch wood) being poorly on holiday - if the hotel restaurant is a buffet set-up, we ALWAYS have a sanitiser on the table to clean our hands after handling the buffet utensils and before the food on our plates goes anywhere near our mouths!
I imagine this is THE way that most people pick up bugs on holiday.

Yes, we all got sick and I wouldn’t go back

I've been three times and had a lovely time each time (and not got sick). We did go to 5* all inclusive very resorty areas though because to be honest I wasn't going for the culture, I was going to get some winter sun and blob by a pool for a week to decompress after Christmas.

I can't say I experienced any harassment or anything in those areas. We did go on a boat to go scuba diving and one of the instructors was very keen to have his picture with me (possibly because I am a glow-in-the-dark pale ginger) but other than that we were fine.

I went in 2010. No memory of the food but sadly one of my main memories is incessant sexual comments/approaches by men in the street (we were a group of 3 females and 1 male, never happened when he was with us but often he was in the hotel room skyping his girlfriend). Completely shameless e.g. "I want to f* you" in broad daylight on a busy street!
I suppose I should add we were wearing loose t shirts and baggy harem pants, ankles etc covered.

Multiple times we were attempted to be pressured into buying random goods like perfumes, art work (we were very young and naive).

Pyramids, sphinx etc - fine but not worth the other stuff. You'd never get me back in that country other than for a connecting flight.

Yes me and DH both had upset stomachs, diarrhoea.

My parents went about 15 years ago and my DM had horrendous & come on while she was in the middle of the museum in Cairo. They'd gone on a day trip from their hotel. She went all faint and was ill for a few days.

I wouldn't go back!

We went in 2021, stayed in a very nice 5 star AI. DH had awful diahorrea and the male staff in the resort were so downright bloody rude to me (never to DH!) I swore we'd never go back.

I went about 10 years ago, Nile corridor. Local hotels. 2 days on a felucca with food cooked on board. Not a hint of stomach upset for either me or my daughter (then 8 or 9).

Edit: I don’t recognise the place I visited from the horror stories up thread. No issues with harassment (we did dress fairly conservatively but I always do in less ‘western’ places). No illness. Had a fabulous time - so interesting and I find deserts beautiful.

Been to Sharm a couple of times (long way from the pyramids). It was nice in a sit by the sea/pool eat good food and drink kind of way. Hotels were good and the food was nice. That being said it could have been anywhere.

Went once. Didnt get a stomach upset in AI hotel but was sexually harassed - when covered from neck to toe and I'm old. Friend who went down the Nile to see pyramids came back complaining about how filthy everywhere was. Not tempted to go back.

@cardibach you were probably left alone because you with your daughter. You can cover up and still get hassle. Egyptian women get sexually harrased it's a big problem.

Sexual harassment in Egypt is a widespread problem that can range from verbal to physical and can lead to severe harm or even murder. According to a 2013 UN study, 99.3% of Egyptian women and girls have experienced some form of sexual harassment in their lifetime, and 82.6% of them don't feel safe walking in the street. A 2015 UN survey estimates that 7.8 million Egyptian women experience some form of gender-based violence each year.

How are the mosquitos around lagoons @KittenQuibbles ?

I only ask because we stayed at a lagoon resort (not Egypt) a few weeks ago, and I got eaten alive. 😕

I’m not suggesting it’s not - unfortunately it’s true in a lot of places. My point, for the OP, was that it isn’t necessarily like other posters have said if she wants to take her daughter. We loved it.

I went in the 80’s. It was so dirty. The pyramids were surrounded by rubbish and filth. Harassment wasn’t too bad then but I suspect it is much worse now. I was flight crew. We were allowed to eat near to nothing and were not allowed to go in the Nile. Back then 60% of tourists would become ill and I can’t believe it’s much better now.

It’s not my cup of tea. We stayed 5 star in Cairo and still got Ill. The Pyramids are right on the edge of the City too and with all the hawkers and everything it wasn’t worth the expense of the trip for me.

I spent 2 months backpacking in Egypt in 1992, so a long time ago now, and ate flat breads that were cooked & then kept on the ground before being bought, food from street vendors etc and was absolutely fine until literally about the last 4 days before flying home - ate out in Cairo & got the most awful stomach upset & felt really ill. Probably hit & miss (or, shit & miss!!!) I would've thought good hotels would be OK? I was in youth hostel & very cheap 'hotels'!! The architecture & pyramids are amazing, as is the Sinai but I wouldn't go back - not a great place to be a woman.

If it helps, I'm on a whatsapp group for year 13 Egyptian mummies 😁. They are very concerned about the minging Western hygiene & behaviour standards awaiting their princes & princesses at Uni.

• dorm toilets with no shatafa, no bidet, & no attendant - ida habibti! Much buying of squirty bottles & disposable bog covers🤮
• everyone must take an enormous box of medicines, as everything prescription is OTC & a cold could prove fatal🤧
• drink & drugs wtf! 😬
• Islamophobia & rioting 🥺
• pronouns - don't even get them started on the appalling risk of Darling Farida they/themming...😳

I mean, some of these, they have a point. But it's quite funny to compare against 'I went to see the pyramids & the world fell out of my bum 5 minutes later' posts 🤣.

Honestly, yes there are a lot of mosquitos.. I'm one of the lucky ones who never gets nibbled on but my friend was eaten alive too!. That's probably one of the only downfalls I'd say.

I was hassled in a hotel. Every time I went to reception for something. It was so annoying. I remember my Mum was ill and I needed to phone home (pre mobiles), so had to ask reception how to use the pay phone. It took about 15 minutes to get a straight answer, after all the innuendo and leering. By the end I just wanted to get home. You couldn’t pay me to go back to Egypt.

I live in Cyprus and I did the same trip with my brother,was fab!

Also stayed in Sharm-el-Sheikh for 10 days about 10 years ago,didn't have any upset stomachs but did make sure I kept hand sanitising,only drank bottled water etc. Not because I assumed Egypt is dirty,more about what I'm used to,different constitution etc.

I’ve travelled pretty much all over the world…and my least favourite place of them all was Egypt, for a multitude of reasons.

To answer your question, we stayed at a 4 star all inclusive place and the only one of the three of us who got ill was my youngest DD, and she was the only one of us who ate meat, which probably wasn’t a coincidence.

It's an absolute shithole, couldn't pay me to go back tbh