positive experience in Egypt

I would like to share my positive experience in Egypt.

I traveled in May with my wife, and we went to Cairo, Luxor, Aswan, and Abu Simbel, for 8 nights.

After reading all the posts from tourists that were scammed and harassed by the locals, we were super alert and terrified.

We did not experience anything like that, and we do not know why.

First of all, the Airways did not ask for a Visa. We did not arrive at the international terminal. We arrived from Qatar with Qatar Airways. Only local people were at this terminal and the customs police quickly checked the passports without asking for a visa and let us go without any issue. Again, not sure why we were not at the international terminal, and this made a huge difference I guess.

To visit the sites, we booked in advance a driver so we did not need to negotiate any price - and we used our credit card travel portal and got very cheap deals. We only booked a guide when we went to see the pyramids because everyone said that the harassment there was crazy if one did not have a guide. We did not get any harassment when we were walking by ourselves and we did not see anyone else harassed. We were at the Giza pyramids in the afternoon. The only time someone tried to scam us was our guide. He was very nice all the time, saying we had plenty of time, but after we did not buy rugs in the morning, or ride a camel in the afternoon he changed his mood and said we had to leave. We only spent 1 hour and a half inside Giza and we were very disappointed. I would not recommend any guide, just drivers.

Some tips: learn how to say "No, thank you" in Arabic - it is so powerful. A big bottle of water costs 6 EGP, 10 EGP is a fair price. Chips are between 5 to 10 EGP. I had a haircut for 100 EGP. I am sure I overpaid but it was a fair price for me. When they propose a price, drop the price by 75%. If they say 4, you say 1. If the price is ridiculously low, they will walk away, if the price is fine, they will try to increase the price, just be firm with your choice. Usually, I got what I wanted 70% less of what they said.

Submitted June 13, 2023 at 12:39AM by Wonderful-Friend3097 https://ift.tt/dQVbnhH