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

I’m an emetophobe and am really careful but got very sick whilst over there. The scary thing was that I felt ok but had the worst upset stomach ever which then continued every 15 mins for hours and then vomiting. Gross but in the toilets on trips and things you could tell that other people had been ill too. My fiend didn’t get sick though.

My first ever package tour/all inclusive was to Egypt last year with my daughter. We had a great time but we knew it wasn't going to be especially cultural and basically looked at it as a relaxing break in the sun. The food was nice, although we both got a bit bored after a week, no one got sick, staff were mostly respectful apart from the cocktail waiter who asked if we were sisters 😩😂 and we had a lovely relaxing holiday.

Depends what you are looking for. I usually travel independently, lots of European city breaks, museums, galleries, nice restaurants etc, but we had a really nice time in Egypt. Gorgeous hotel room, nice weather, yes, you are expected to tip the bar, restaurant and housekeeping staff, but it worked out at about £5 per day for all our tips (and we were extremely generous)

I've been - no stomach problems. Drink bottled water, brush your teeth with bottled water, only eat stuff that's well-cooked. No salads. Go hungry rather than eat anywhere that looks dodgy.

Something to bear in mind is that Cairo doesn't have a lot of places where it's pleasant, or even possible, to sit around reading with a cocktail - everywhere public is so dusty and filthy and noisy with no shade - and the pestering never stops. No parks or anything green / quiet / pretty. Cafes functional and wipe-clean sort of places, not really places you want to linger. You need a decent hotel where they've got an irrigated garden and sun loungers and shade and the pestering people kept out. Also, I never once saw anything that looked like a bar outside of hotels. Drink all you like in hotels / resorts (and you'll see people who are clearly Muslims doing the same), but it's not something you see outside of them.

You shouldn't go through life without seeing the pyramids and the treasure of Tutankhamun. But the country can be hard work. I enjoyed it, but it wasn't the most relaxing holiday - just constantly shaking off the people who are trying to sell you things and all that, plus the constant food-and-drink vigilance and the language barrier and the heat and dust and grime and noise. Do it, but only if you can afford a decent hotel / resort where you can retreat and relax.

Yes, was very careful, only bottled water, etc, but got very sick indeed. Horrendous D&V, couldn't leave the hotel for a few days.

I did a group trip and neither of us got badly sick (maybe a slight dodgy stomach but nothing memorable) although a lot of people in the group did at some point. The sights are amazing but there is a lot of hassle. It’s a shame that almost everyone you come into contact with wants something from you unlike less touristy countries in the region where people can be very friendly. If your DH really wants to see the pyramids you could consider a layover on the way to somewhere else for the main holiday. We had a layover coming back from Zanzibar and visited the pyramids again by taxi (allow lots of time for traffic if you do this) which I enjoyed better than the group tour.

I've been on a nile cruise in 2019 from luxor to aswan, and then a week in a 5* hotel in luxor.
We had no food poisoning at all, I don't believe anyone on our 80ish people cruise did either.
Most of them spent the 2nd week in our hotel as well with no issues.

We'd become quite friendly with one of the guides on the tour boat and he was off during our week in luxor and he took us to some really backstreet authentic places to eat, even to his home. We never had any food or drink issues.

We decided to pay extra to go to Abu Simbal and didn't have the extra money to go to the pyramids as well. We always thought we'd visit Cyprus and do it that way. 15 years later we are still planning lol.

Let me know next time you'd like to sit around with a book & a drink in Cairo.

I could point you to a lovely, green, quiet & pretty garden boutique bar/cafe within 5 minutes of wherever you're standing. Probably with a fantastic art gallery next door!

Tbf, these places obviously aren't getting shared with usual holiday tours, & I think it's a shame that no one is marketing 'Cairo - the lovely bits'.

There would definitely be a market for the more discriminating visitor. Those of us who live here tend to look after visiting friends, who have a very different experience from the one you'd have on a whistle stop 'Egypt' package including a one day visit to Cairo.

Oh, it wasn't a package - travelled alone, booked my hotel myself, and was in Cairo five days I think. Walked all over the city - often for hours, getting more and more knackered and filthy and fending off the harassers and the blisters and the heat exhaustion getting worse and worse, just longing for somewhere to sit down - desperate to hand over my money if I could just find a place that didn't look like an invitation to dysentery and had a functioning toilet with running water, soap and loo roll all at the same time. But rarely had much luck. Cafes that don't poison you, well yes, usually, eventually. But greenery / comfort / peace / a place where the harassers wouldn't just come up to your table and pester you there - not really. If you know where these hidden places are, I strongly encourage you to perform a great public service and put it all in a blog or something. Because the place basically feels like bloody hard work.

Was I wrong about there being no bars? Or is it just a bit under the table / behind a hidden door? Do you need to be in the know to find them?

I have and was very ill for four of the 10 days we were there. Phaoroes curse !

I think the issue is the sewage in the sea!

Yep. Honeymoon. Five star hotel. Spent half the time in bed, listening to each other having diarrhoea.

Very romantic.

The pyramids are stunning.

The beggars and peddlers are distressing.

I don’t think I’d go again.

Been twice, 3 & 5 years ago, loved it. We went to El Gouna. Had diarrhea once when we went to beach barbecue. My only problem was mosquitos the first time, second time took vitamin b, no issues.

Yes, in 2017. It was amazing. I’d wanted to go all my life, and it did not disappoint - better, to be honest. No crowds at all for the major sights.

We went for Luxor, the valley of the King’s, the national museum and Giza however. I can’t advise on Sharm El Sheikh!

Don’t have ice in your drink, don’t drink the tap water and don’t eat salad and you should be fine. Clean your teeth with bottled water.

Heh, I did that walking all over the city bit at least twice in my first year living here. I had the blisters to prove it. So I sympathise! But Cairo is HUGE. It's possible to do an aimless walk into an area that's all about car tyres or water filters & get too confused to find your way out.

It's not a 'randomly walk about anywhere within the city limits expecting nice cafes' type city - there's miles upon miles of Caireans living in industrial zones with zero tourist interaction & no interest in you.

You'll find nice hangouts (where the locals & expats go, more than tourists) in Maadi, Zamalek or anywhere along the Corniche.

Hotels always have bars, & there's also the fine tradition of the Stella Bars & rooftop bars, which usually have gorgeous fin-de-siecle architecture to enjoy too.

I'm sorry you had a crap time - this is a beautiful, vibrant, & admittedly frustrating city. I've just passed up a night at the opera to see a friend sing, because it won't start before midnight & it's a school night...

We've been to Egypt many times and none of us has ever had an upset stomach. My daughter also lived in Cairo for a year. The first time we went, we were advised to always use antibacterial hand gel religiously every time we touched any money, because it is a huge source of germs. We've also avoided ice, salads, ice cream etc, only brush our teeth with bottled water, and we always check that the seal on bottles is intact. We've eaten in lots of small local restaurants on each trip, as well as some hotel food, and we've had some superb meals. I think Egyptian food is incredibly under rated.

We've stayed mostly in Luxor, but booked flights for a day trip to Cairo to visit the pyramids, the Egyptian museum, and Sakara. We also went to Aswan by train and then flew on to Abu simbel. I think Egypt is possibly my favourite country of any I've been to. You do get hassled, but if you have the right attitude, it's really not a problem, and I've always felt very very safe in Luxor. My daughter said the same when she was living in Cairo.

It does seem a shame to go all the way to Egypt and not see some of the wonderful sites at Luxor as well.

The best restaurants we found in Cairo were in Zamalek. There was a Lebanese place on one of the boat restaurants, which was excellent. My ex is Lebanese, and even he was impressed. It's not that difficult to find good places. Naguib Mahfouz Cafe in the famous Khan el Khalili is also worth a visit.

I went 30 years ago when I was 16 with my parents. We had a great time but it was scary as we had to have an armed escort through the desert due to
Some tourists being killed previously and my sister got really bad food
Poisoning. There were beggars all over the place and men offering my dad 10 camels for me!!!!!😂

A wonderful cultural
Place but I don't think I will go back

Oh, I wouldn't say I had a crap time overall - nice hotel, some nice meals / afternoons lazing about with drinks and books in other hotels, the Pyramids and the National Museum were great. The on to Luxor and enjoyed Karnak and the Valley of the Kings and all that. (And meals and drinks etc at the Winter Palace - wish I could afford to stay there). The train to Luxor was good. Had just underestimated how hard it is to find your way about alone when you don't speak Arabic (sometimes gave up on finding the places the guidebook recommended as just couldn't make any sense of the names and the maps) and how relentless the pestering is and so on. It was good overall but it wasn't what I'd call relaxing.

Seriously, why don't you create a website telling people how to find the good "hidden" stuff? Sounds very useful.

We went about 13 years ago.
We stayed in Sharm and took a day trip to Cairo and a day trip to Jordan through TUI.

We had a lovely holiday but didn’t really leave the hotel other than the excursions through the travel company.
I didn’t get ill nor did I get harassed. My husband got diahorrea while we were in Cairo. To be fair, he has IBS so that may or may not be down to Egypt lol.

Cairo was filthy but to be fair, they had just come out of the revolution a few months earlier. Im glad we went to see the pyramids though.

Jordan on the other hand was amazing. It was a long day but worth it. Petra was stunning.

@PrincessHoneysuckle the official advice is to not travel to egypt at all - can I ask where you went in egypt, and whether you had any doubts about whether you should go/have had any problems?

We came back from 3 weeks in Hurghada a fortnight ago. DH had no stomach issues at all (he never does!), I was a bit dodgy for a few days but quickly sorted with OTC tablets from a local pharmacy. It's mainly being too hot, then too cold (air con) rather than the food/drink.

It's a very long drive from Sharm or Hurghada to see the pyramids or Luxor. If I was doing pyramids I'd get an internal flight (both airports do them quite cheaply) rather than the drive (5 hours). However, having 'been there done that' I wouldn't do the pyramids at all as they are actually a bit of a disappointment (IMHO). I'd go to Luxor and do all the Valley of the Kings stuff instead.

@holidayinegypt thats not the official advice for tourist areas like Sharm and Hurghada - what you read says "against all travel to parts of Egypt" - which is the parts right up close to Israel. The majority of Egypt is fine.