Cairo

The currency is the Egyptian pound (EGP), which has floated since March 2024: about 47–50 to the dollar and 55–58 to the euro in 2026. Street prices are still low: tea at an ahwa EGP 15–30, a ful or ta'meya sandwich EGP 10–25, a plate of koshary EGP 30–70, a meal at a local restaurant EGP 150–350, dinner in Zamalek EGP 400–900. What adds up is admission, charged at foreigner rates: about EGP 1,450 at the Grand Egyptian Museum, EGP 700 for the Giza plateau and EGP 550 at the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir (2026). A mid-range hotel runs EGP 1,500–4,000 a night. Cards work at hotels, malls and ride-hailing apps; cash is a must for taxis, markets and baksheesh. Keep EGP 10, 20 and 50 notes for that tip, which comes with almost every service, from parking the car to holding a door. In restaurants, 10% is already added to the bill as “service,” and people still leave another 5–10% on the table.

Cairo Airport (CAI), 22 km away, with three terminals

Cairo International Airport (CAI) sits about 22 km northeast of the center. Terminal 3 handles EgyptAir and Star Alliance; Terminal 2 takes much of the European traffic. There's no direct rail link to the terminal as of 2026. Metro line 3 ends at Adly Mansour, about 10 km south, from where the LRT to the New Capital and buses depart. In practice, access is by car: 40 to 90 minutes depending on the time of day, and the app already handles the meeting point inside the terminal. Arriving overland, Ramses (Misr) station receives trains from Alexandria and the south, above the Al-Shohadaa metro station.

The metro: three lines, 89 stations, 107 km

The metro is the most reliable way to cross the city: three lines, 89 stations, about 107 km. The fare switched to a distance-band structure in March 2026. It runs from early morning to midnight, with cars reserved for women. No line reaches the pyramids. Minibuses and public buses run above ground. The LRT has served the new towns since 2022, while the eastern monorail began operating in 2026; check the stations and schedule for the section you need before counting on this connection. Uber, Careem, and inDrive cost 60–150 EGP for a short ride; white taxis have meters that rarely get switched on, so agree on the price beforehand. On foot works in Downtown, Zamalek, and al-Muizz street: elsewhere the distances don't pay off, and a bicycle only makes sense in Maadi.

Scams, overcharging and traffic require attention in Cairo. Agree on the price and service before accepting tours, transportation or paid help, and refuse detours to shops you didn't choose. With rideshares, check the license plate and driver and share your route; the trip record helps you request support if something goes wrong. There are reports of harassment and sexual violence in Egypt, including in tourist settings. If someone persists or threatens you, head to a busy establishment and ask for help; take extra care when traveling alone at night as a woman. To cross avenues, favor pedestrian bridges or marked crossings and wait on the sidewalk for a safe opportunity. Following a local does not guarantee cars will stop. Avoid demonstrations and public political arguments. Put away your camera near police and military posts and follow photography signs. For trips beyond the capital, consult official advisories for your itinerary, especially in Sinai and border regions. Keep a digital copy of your passport and protect the original, as it may be requested at accommodations and currency exchanges.

Baksheesh isn't charity

Baksheesh is the gratuity that comes with almost every informal service: the man who points out the parking spot, the one who opens the restroom, the one who shows you the way. Carry 10 and 20 EGP notes and hand them over without embarrassment; turning down the service before you receive it avoids the request afterward.

Clothing covers shoulders and knees

Covering shoulders and knees applies to men and women in working-class neighborhoods and is mandatory in mosques, where women also cover their hair. Bring a scarf instead of using the ones lent at the door. Shoes come off at the entrance to any mosque.

Friday noon prayer closes the mosques

The Friday noon prayer closes working mosques for about two hours. Schedule the Citadel and the al-Muizz mosques for another time, or another day.

Right hand for eating, giving, and receiving

Bread, money, and documents pass with the right hand. Eating with your hands is normal with grills and ful; baladi bread doubles as cutlery.

Photographing Egyptians requires written permission

Official rules require written permission to photograph Egyptian citizens and prohibit photographing children. Also respect restrictions at police and military installations and other marked areas. At museums and archaeological sites, check the rules for cameras, flash and tripods before using your equipment.

At Khan el-Khalili, the opening price can be triple the final one

At Khan el-Khalili and at any stall, the opening price can be three times the final one; counter with half and walk away slowly. If you don't want to buy, say “la, shukran” with your hand on your chest and keep walking, because stopping to explain only drags out the conversation.

Museum ticket without a time slot

Showing up at the Grand Egyptian Museum without a timed reservation. Entry requires choosing a date and time in advance, even if you buy at the kiosk or at the counter on site, and the day's time slots may be sold out when you arrive.

The stranger who says it's closed

Changing your plan on the advice of a stranger who offers another entrance or insists you need a horse ride to visit the pyramids. Confirm the access point on your ticket or with official staff: the main entrance moved to Fayoum Road in 2025, and old directions may lead to deactivated gates. Buy only through official channels and skip the horse ride, which nobody requires for the visit.

Giza to Downtown: 12 km, 25 to 90 minutes

Underestimating the traffic: the 12 km from Giza to Downtown can take 25 minutes at 8am and 90 minutes at 6pm. Squeezing the pyramids and the Tahrir museum into the same day usually ends with one of them cut short, and it's always the second.

Only EGP 100 and 200 notes

Carrying only EGP 100 and 200 notes. Taxis, ful carts, and public bathrooms have no change, and a lack of small bills turns into a forced tip.

Street-stall ice

Drinking untreated water or accepting ice without knowing its source can cause intestinal infections. Choose bottled water with an intact seal and skip ice unless you can confirm it was made with safe water; a bottle usually costs 10–15 EGP.

السلام عليكم (as-salamu alaikum)

“Peace be upon you”: the standard greeting; the reply is “wa alaikum as-salam”

شكراً (shukran)

Thank you. “Thank you very much” is “shukran gazilan”

كام ده؟ (kam da?)

How much is this?

غالي أوي (ghali awi)

Too expensive: the opening line of any negotiation

لا، شكراً (la, shukran)

No, thank you: said with your hand on your chest, it ends the pitch without rudeness

الحساب لو سمحت (el-hessab law samaht)

The check, please

The river between the cliff and the desert

Cairo occupies both banks of the Nile about 30 km before the river splits into the Damietta and Rosetta branches. To the east, the historic core sits squeezed between the water and the limestone cliff of Muqattam (about 200 m), where the Citadel and the quarries that supplied the pyramids' casing stand; to the west, Giza climbs to the Libyan desert plateau, which is why the pyramids appear at the end of ordinary avenues.

Gezira, Roda, and neighborhoods by era

Two river islands organize the middle: Gezira, whose northern half is Zamalek, and Roda, home to the 861 Nilometer. The urban fabric reads like growth rings: the irregular medieval layout of Fatimid and Mamluk Cairo, the khedival grid of Downtown next to it, the tram suburbs of Heliopolis and Maadi from the early 20th century, and then the 1980s–90s Ring Road connecting the desert new towns; 6th of October, New Cairo, 15th of May, Sheikh Zayed, and the New Administrative Capital.

Desert climate and the khamsin

The climate is hot desert (BWh): about 25 mm of rain a year, concentrated in winter, and summer highs of 36–40 °C. Between March and May the khamsin blows, a desert wind that cuts visibility for days.

Umm Kulthum on the first Thursday

Music is the city's strongest institution. Umm Kulthum sang live on the first Thursday of every month, broadcast by radio across the Arab world from the 1930s to the 1970s, and the streets would empty out; her 1975 funeral drew a bigger crowd than that of any Egyptian head of state. Abdel Halim Hafez and Mohamed Abdel Wahab complete the canon, and Mohamed Mounir has kept the popular core alive since the 1970s. Since about 2007, the real sound of the streets is mahraganat, made on home computers in the Dar al-Salam and Salam City neighborhoods: banned by the musicians' union in 2020, it still plays at weddings, minibuses, and tuk-tuks.

Film and literature: Studio Misr, Chahine and Mahfouz

For much of the 20th century, the Arab world's cinema was made in Cairo. Studio Misr, opened in 1935, launched an industry that produced thousands of films and exported the Egyptian dialect as the lingua franca of entertainment; Youssef Chahine directed from 1950 to 2007 and Omar Sharif started here before Hollywood. In literature, Naguib Mahfouz mapped the Gamaliya neighborhood street by street and won the Nobel Prize in 1988; Café Riche, opened in 1908 Downtown, was a table for writers and conspirators for a century. The Cairo International Film Festival, founded in 1976, is the only festival in Africa and the Arab world recognized in the competitive category of FIAPF, the international federation of film producers; the region's oldest festival is Carthage, in Tunisia, from 1966.

Al-Azhar (972) and the Al Ahly-Zamalek derby

Public life revolves around religion and soccer. Al-Azhar, founded in 972, is the most widely cited authority on Sunni jurisprudence in the world, and the Coptic Orthodox Church, seated at St. Mark's Cathedral in Abbassia, accounts for about 10% of Egyptians. On the field, the Al Ahly (1907) versus Zamalek (1911) derby pits Africa's two most decorated clubs against each other at the Cairo International Stadium, built in 1960. At night the city lives in its “ahwas,” sidewalk cafés with backgammon, dominoes and shisha that stay open until 2 or 3am, and during Ramadan the schedule flips entirely, with streets full from sunset to dawn.

“Palace Walk”, by Naguib Mahfouz (1956)

The first volume of the Cairo Trilogy, set in Gamaliya between 1917 and 1919, up to the revolution against British rule. Mahfouz, the 1988 Nobel laureate, describes the district street by street, and the novel tells the domestic life of Cairo that the monuments don't show.

“Cairo Station” (Bab el-Hadid), by Youssef Chahine (1958)

In “Cairo Station” (Bab el-Hadid, 1958), shot inside Ramses station, Youssef Chahine directs and plays the lead role. The film portrays the working-class Cairo that passes through the station six years after the 1952 revolution and is one of the landmarks of realism in Egyptian cinema.

“The Yacoubian Building”, by Alaa Al Aswany (2002)

A real building in khedival Downtown serves as a cross-section of Cairene society in the 1990s, from the rooftop to the grand main floor. It was made into a film in 2006.