Currency advice Egypt

[Flumpaphone]

Hi

We are going to Egypt in October, Red Sea but might do a trip to Luxor. We are all inc so won't need a lot of cash spending money but want to take some.

What would you recommend currency wise ? I know we have to buy Egyptian Pounds there but I have also heard that the Dollar is king. Do Sterling and the Euro do well as well?

Has anyone been and can give advice?

Also any general tips for Hurghada would be great.

Thanks very much

We went to Sharm in March and drew Egyptian pounds out of the hotel cash point. We used them for tips as we too were all inclusive.

Get Egyptian pounds out when you get there. Dollars and euros are only accepted at high end tourist places with appalling exchange rates.

As you're off in October, you've got time to apply for a Starling current account, that has no fees on cash withdrawals abroad. Always withdraw in EGP bank rate rather than accept the GDP exchange rate to get your Egyptian pounds.

The hotel trips are significantly overpriced. There are loads of highly regarded independent companies...use Trip Advisor for recommendations and contact a few before you go to get some quotes and maybe book your luxor trip with them. It's an easy country to organise tours and trips yourself on public transport...the bus from Luxor to Hurgarda last week cost £8pp and took 4.5 hours. I booked it 2 days before travelling. I don't know if you're thinking of overnighting in Luxor but I can't see how you can visit all the major sights there and travel to/from Hurgarda the same day.

Can't tell you what's good in Hurgarda as we just flopped in our AI, having just toured around the rest of the country and were sightseeing'd out!

Happy to help more if I can.

Yes, if you use pounds or dollars, they really rip you off in the exchange rate. Hurgarda airport is like the wild west in this regard.

When I was there, the card machines in the shops 'conveniently' didn't work but they'd happily take a 5 note of GBP, US$ or euro for your £1 or less bottle of water and give you a token 1 euro/GBP/dollar as change. If you tried to challenge it, they moved on to ripping off serving the next customer.

My only experience was a day in a hotel in Hurgarda while waiting for a flight after a week on a dive boat, but the hotel took cards for food and drink, but also had a cash machine that dispensed Egyptian pounds and possibly other currencies.