After almost six whole months in Europe, it was time to take off. We left Athens and made our way for Cairo, Egypt. The flight was under two hours, but obviously things changed a lot once we landed. The first challenge was transportation.
Transportation from Cairo Airport - We decided to book a private car before we had landed. We went with the rental car company Sixt. They were supposed to be waiting for us, but unfortunately they were not and we had to stand around for about 45 minutes while someone from their car rental booth made calls. Normally this wouldn’t be a huge deal, but landing in a brand new place where we didn’t understand a single word let alone letter was a bit frustrating. You should be able to book a shuttle through their site, but unfortunately the payment step wasn’t working for us. We would recommend using this if the payment works, because there were a lot of buses with plenty of people taking them. Next up was lodging.
Lodging in Cairo on a budget - Lodging in Cairo can be a bit tricky because you have the 5 star hotels right on the Nile for mega bucks. Their budget hotels can be cheap, but from what we saw they were very questionable looking. We decided to book a place called Zamalek Suites on Booking.com. It ended up being kind of a cross between an AirBnb apartment and hotel. The place itself was satisfactory but a word of advice-make sure you REALLY know where your place is before booking. We knew the neighborhood (which is one of the best ones you can stay in while in Cairo (Zamalek)), BUT we just had an address without any other info on how to get there. The apartment was kind of squished inside of another building, so the address wasn’t available. We walked around the neighborhood for about 30 minutes and finally gave our person a call and they came and found us. Once again, usually this wouldn’t be a big deal but we were nervous about this new city, walking around the streets with our massive backpacks and we needed some food!
Food in Cairo - To be honest, we didn’t get too adventurous with our food choices. With that said, we had one meal provided from our tour so we were able to experience a true Egyptian meal while in Cairo. On our first night we went to a local burger place in our neighborhood that was very delicious and they were very kind and welcoming which helped ease our nerves after a long day. One day when we were walking, we got some homemade breads and pretzels at a street vendor. One night we went to a local restaurant offering up some good Asian street food. Another night we went to a local market and bought some groceries (we weren’t prepared for Egypt to have some things that we hadn’t seen since leaving the states, like Flaming Hot Cheetos and La Croix water).
Transportation in Cairo - Ubers. We always did Ubers because the taxis looked pretty sketchy and with Uber you are able to see where your car is located and there is no haggling with drivers over fares. Some blogs said that Uber drivers will sometimes ask for additional tips, but you shouldn’t do that because you can tip on the app. We usually take buses and subways while in a city, but Cairo’s subway system never seemed to be in the locations we were trying to get to and the buses are vans that drive with the side doors open and people are constantly hopping in and out while the van slows to a crawl in traffic. We had no idea how this system worked.
Safety - This is one of the main questions we had been asked and one of the main concerns from friends and family back home when we announced we had plans to go to Egypt. To start with, let me just say that at no time did we ever feel in danger. The one word that we keep using is chaotic. If you are someone that gets stressed out by the hustle and bustle of New York, or any big city for that matter, then this probably isn’t the place for you. Think of New York City without sidewalks OR crosswalks. Think of New York City without traffic lights. Think of New York City without traffic lanes, so the only way to signal to another driver that you are moving is by honking or bumping them with your car. That’s a lot of honking and people just walking aimlessly in the street, right? Well that’s Cairo. And then on top of all of that, they just simply don’t have as many Western tourists which means that not only will you stick out…you are a novelty. As a result you will be approached by countless people whether it’s for cab rides, tours, kids asking for money, men making comments about Caitlin’s long blonde hair and everything else in between.
Tipping - This is HUGE in Egypt as well. Everyone expects some type of tip for any service they provide. So there are a lot of men who will approach you, will be very kind and speak very good English and they will usually start out with pleasantries such as “Hi, where are you from?” If you answer then they already have you, and will start walking with you. Actually, even if you don’t answer they will start walking with you and talking at you. They will then proceed to try and make small talk by relating to you and usually ask where you are going. If you answer that question (ie “Cairo Museum”) then they will give you directions and expect a tip for those directions. Another experience was when we got on a boat to cross the Nile in Luxor and little boys were waiting by the entrance to the ramp that takes you down to the boats. They will grab your hand to take you down to the boat, and will hold on tight even when you try to break their grip. When you get to the boat, they want a tip for guiding you there. It’s constant and it’s hard because we are so used to asking and answering someone when they ask a simple question like, “How are you doing?” We also aren’t used to ignoring someone, so not only do you feel bad walking away but also feel like the person is going to be mad and maybe take their anger out on you in one way or another. That was never the case and we just had to keep reminding ourselves that they do this all the time so are ignored probably hundreds of times a day.
Day 1: The Pyramids - Obviously the big attraction are the pyramids of Giza. We opted to go on a tour that we found on TripAdvisor. We thought that going with a tour that picked us up from our apartment and drove us directly to the site and to two other sites alone would be worth it, and that’s not taking into consideration we would be learning facts directly from a guide. We were partly correct! Having transportation was HUGE. It would have been expensive and a big hassle trying to figure out how to navigate between the sites, especially if we went to the ancient city of Memphis like we did, since it’s a good distance outside of Cairo. The tour itself and our tour guide was just okay. She kind of rushed through her explanations and didn’t really let us wander around on our own once her explanations were finished, but instead focused on getting us back into the car and on to the next thing. Honestly, if you can find just transportation without a guide for a cheaper price, I would maybe recommend that because there are signs already and most of the facts you already know or can find with a quick google search (i.e. Whose tomb is it? When was it built? What is it built from? What’s the meaning of certain items?). The tombs are incredible and you just can’t comprehend the size and effort that went into them until you are up close.
Another place we went was the ancient city of Memphis, which serviced as the capital of ancient lower Egypt. Today it is mainly just ruins and an open air museum with different artifacts they have found over the years. There is another sphinx that still stands in the same place it was found and was one of the highlights, along with a massive statue of Ramses II. The other place we hit on our tour was the Saqqara pyramid which claims to be the oldest complete stone building complex known in history dating back to roughly 2500 BC. Unfortunately, we were a little early because later this year they are opening an almost 2 mile maze underneath that was constructed to confuse robbers (apparently it worked because bones of looters have been found). We were able to enter two tombs and looking back, both were pretty disappointing compared to what you get to see in Luxor!
Day 2: The Cairo Museum - Another unfortunate thing for us is that the brand new Cairo museum which is massive and is located next to the pyramids (we can confirm it’s enormous) doesn’t open until the end of the year. Instead, we went to the current Cairo museum which was in a more convenient location for us. The museum is a massive older building right in the middle of Cairo and you could spend a full day in there reading everything. We spent about four hours just wandering. We paid a bit extra to see the royal mummies and I would recommend you do the same because how many times are you going to see a royal mummy?! The other highlight was the King Tut exhibit which has just about everything except for his mummy. This is in his tomb in Luxor that was discovered in the 1920’s. It was funny because all we ever heard about was King Tut and both of our guides were pretty indifferent on Tut. They said he wasn’t even that great of a king but he gets all the notoriety because his tomb was found perfectly intact, unlike other tombs that had been raided. There’s absolutely no question you need to come here if you are in Cairo and hopefully the new one is open when you go!
Day 3: Touring the city of Cairo - On our last day we went out into Cairo. Our first stop was to the famous mosque of Mohammed Ali (not the boxer). The size of this mosque and its surrounding complex was staggering. For us the most noticeable thing about the mosques we have been are how clean they are. You must remove your shoes and it’s mainly a massive open area covered with carpet so there’s not a lot of “stuff” to make it seem cluttered. We left the mosque and tried getting to a park but it wasn’t easy and after we wandered into an area we weren’t comfortable with, we called an Uber and they took us directly to the Zuwayla Gate. The gate is one of the original protecting the old city of Cairo and marks the beginning of the Islamic Cairo district. The Islamic Cairo district is kind of a touristy market. The market is full of everything you can imagine and the merchants aren’t as pushy as you might think. Probably our favorite mosque we have seen and been to was in this area and called the Al-Azhar Mosque. It was beautiful and peaceful and we went here for about 15 minutes to escape the chaos outside.
