Egypt

[666moe666]

Going to Sharm El Sheikh on the 20th August until the 30th August for my holiday with my good lady, and staying at Iberotel Il Mercato.

As I've never been to Egypt, or anywhere around Nothern Africa I was just looking for some tips from people, which include but are not limited to;

- Best places to exchange monies (have heard it was better taking GBP and changing it over there)?
- Best places to visit in/around Sharm?
- Trip to Cairo worth doing for a couple of days and by which means of transport?
- Any vital cultural knowledge which will lead to me not offending people with certain mannerisms?

So far I've only scouted around on trip advisor and I'm a bit worried I'm going to be spending 10 days sat around a pool being bored...

[666moe666]

This went well.

So out of over 120 people to view this no one has been to Sharm. Didn't realise it was so unpopular.

[TheAnimus]

More that the whole area is changing quite swiftly at the moment ever since the 'Arab Spring' which some dumb efwitts decided to celebrate, even write songs about wildly praising it.

https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/egypt

For example look at the proximity of the advise against travel... I wouldn't give anyone any advice for going there, as anything I knew is so out of date it doesn't matter.

[Spud1]

Im making a very similar trip 2 weeks later, although at a hotel just round the corner

Spend a good few hours digging through the trip advisor forums and wiki - there is a lot of good information on there. Here is a good starting point: http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Travel-...oard.Info.html

Some of the advice is out of date however, so take note of posting dates. Personally, I plan on spending most of the time in the resort/beach taking a well earned break with a few good books, however we will do a few of the boat & snorkling trips, and plan to see a few of the sights around Sharm itself. I'm going with Thomson, so will also have a look at some of the other trips they have on offer, as from past experience although they do charge a premium, they tend to run decent trips and to look after you if anything did happen to go wrong (however unlikely it is!).

In the past I would have suggested venturing out to Jordan, Israel, Pyramids, Cairo etc..but these days none of those are recommended trips for safety reasons. Sharm itself is safe, but the risk does shoot up when you leave its boundary. The official advice is to avoid travelling by road, and to take a plane or boat instead - but that gets expensive. A day trip to Cairo is around £150 each (with the flight), so up to you as to whether it's worth it or not

I am more worried about 5 hours on what is effectively now a budget airline than I am anything else, but safety in general is a concern and I wouldn't feel bad about spending most of the time in the resort this year - if you can take it!

[GuidoLS]

This went well.

So out of over 120 people to view this no one has been to Sharm. Didn't realise it was so unpopular.

I've not been to Egypt in well over 30 years. Also, as I'm American, my lot isn't particularly popular anywhere in that area presently, so I have no intentions of going any time soon. Felt the better part of valor was, if I had nothing reasonable to offer, I'd offer nothing. Since you insisted, here's my offering of nothing.

Have a safe trip, and have a good time.

[Domestic_Ginger]

AFAIK its a diving resort set up originally by the Israelis. If you want to find out what's nearby check out a lonely planet or roughguide. It point out some nice eateries too.

Changing monies; the best in the uk is to check a bank, get a printed quote, travel exchange, get a printed quote then the post office. Get them to match the exchange rate and use the one which does not charge commission. They make loads anyway. Euros may be popular, the strong exchange rate may make them stronger against Egyptian currency.

Wrt to Muslims; make sure your wife is covered appropriately; I'm not sure how egypt ian women are expected to dress, even moderate Muslims may take offence at some leg flesh. As everywhere tourist fleecers are rampant on tourist areas but generally people are decent. Be friendly and you'll be responded to in kind. If you dress smarter you'll get a better response. A shirt and trousers as opposed to surf shorts and T-shirt when out and about.

[jimborae]

Stayed at the Stella De Mare Beach Hotel last November which is just outside Na'ama Bay in Sharm. I really wouldn't advise going on any trips outside of Sharm at the moment, especially any that go into the Sinai, it's just not safe atm according to travel advice and the Egyptian guys in my office. Having said all that we absolutely loved our holiday there, you soon got used to all the extra security. The only downer was being hassled every 5 secs in Sharm town by people trying to get you into their bar or take a diving trip etc. It really got annoying after 10mins but times are hard in Sharm and the downturn in the Russian economy combined with the ongoing terror threat have hit Sharm's trade very hard.

Other advice would be do not drink the water unless it's bottled, ask for drinks without ice & even then expect to get a stomach bug so take appropriate medicine with you. The local stuff from the pharmacy is much more effective though but I cant remember the name of it now. You do get a better exchange rate out there but for us at the time it wasn't much better unless you went black market so we changed money before we left and didn't lose out too much. Finally if shopping haggle for everything and if buying brand name stuff, expect it to be fake.

[TheAnimus]

Changing monies; the best in the uk is to check a bank, get a printed quote, travel exchange, get a printed quote then the post office. Get them to match the exchange rate and use the one which does not charge commission. They make loads anyway. Euros may be popular, the strong exchange rate may make them stronger against Egyptian currency.

TBH just bring Euros and USD as 'emergency' money. Then use an ATM once you are there, telling your bank you are abroad of course. Normally this gets a much better rate than those exchanges offer.

[666moe666]

Thanks for the feedback guys.

My plan was to take over English monies and change it there. At the same time know the exchange rate to make sure I don't get ripped off, and compare that to what the best exchange rate I could get over here was to see if I did the right thing.

Still don't know if I'm going to do the trip to Cairo, but if I do it will definitely be by plane. Just wouldn't want anything to potentially happen to me or the other half and don't want to be looking over my shoulder for the whole two days I'm there.

Still reading through websites to see whats what.