≈50 EGP = $1. Pull 3,000–5,000 EGP per ATM run (airport, hotels). Keep 10s, 20s, 50s loose in a pocket for tips. Carry $120+ in small clean USD bills for the boat crew and guides. The $30 visa can go on a credit card.

Tips

Getting around

Uber and Careem in Cairo and Luxor. In Aswan the boat arranges cars. Agree every street-taxi price before getting in. Egypt is 7 hours ahead of the East Coast (Norfolk, Orlando) and 1 hour ahead of Cape Town, through Oct 29 when its clocks fall back.

Cairo

Aswan

Luxor

Dahab

Bahariya

Tap-to-call may not work from this page. Copy the number into the phone app.

Ticks are saved on this phone only.

Airalo is an app that sells prepaid data plans for other countries as an eSIM, so you don't swap SIM cards or pay roaming. Works on any eSIM-capable, unlocked phone (iPhone XS or newer, Pixel 3+, Galaxy S20+).

• Download the Airalo app, make an account, search Egypt.
• Buy the plan. Brad: Egypt 15-day unlimited, $49. Duane: Egypt 10-day, $35.
• Tap Install and follow the steps while still on home wifi. It adds a second line. Label it "Egypt". Leave it off for now.
• When the plane lands: Settings → Cellular → turn the Egypt line on, set it as the data line, turn on Data Roaming for that line only. Turn data roaming off on the home line but keep the line on so texts and codes still arrive.
• Data only, no Egyptian number. iMessage and FaceTime between the two of you work as normal over data. WhatsApp for hotels, guides and the boat; WhatsApp calls need the VPN.

Backup: a Vodafone SIM at CAI arrivals, ≈$12, passport needed.

• Booked: the Nile Serenity, through Memphis Tours (Nayera Hassan, +20 1129 398398, nayera.hassan.eg@memphistours.com; ref hOL5U8). Wed 14 → Sat 17, Aswan → Luxor, 3 nights full board, $1,275 each, $2,550 for two.
• The ship: 40 suites, run of the house — the suite is assigned at check-in, and every one has twin beds, a private bathroom and a balcony. Pool and bar on the sundeck, jacuzzi, gym, buffet restaurant, nightly shows.
• The route: Wed — hotel pickup, Philae and the Unfinished Obelisk, board ≈12:30, moored in Aswan. Thu — Kom Ombo, overnight Edfu. Fri — Edfu, the Esna lock, Karnak and Luxor Temple, moored in Luxor. Sat — off after breakfast, the Valley of the Kings, Hatshepsut and the Colossi, then dropped at the Hilton Luxor.
• Included: meals on board, entrance fees to the listed sites, an English-speaking Egyptologist (shared group), meet-and-assist and transfers. Not included: drinks and bottled water (we said no to the $30-a-night all-inclusive — buy 1.5 L bottles in Aswan for 10–15 EGP), tips, the Seti I and Ramesses VI tomb extras, Abu Simbel.
• Abu Simbel is ours: a driver meets NP 81 on Tuesday if it lands on time. If it's late, he goes Wednesday at 4am and we board after (Memphis confirmed). Philae then moves to Tuesday afternoon on our own, or Memphis's private visit early Thursday at $30 each.
• Paid: deposit $638 (25%). Balance $1,912 by Memphis's payment link, not cash. Inside 14 days it's 100% non-refundable.
• Still to come: the voucher in writing (ship, one twin cabin, Aswan pickup, Hilton drop-off) and the hotel's name (Aswan Plaza Hotel) to Nayera for Wednesday's pickup.
• Tipping: the crew box at reception on the last night and the guide, ≈$5 each a day for each. Wifi: patchy on the river.

Book now (fixed dates, peak season): the boat (done — the Nile Serenity), both domestic flights, GEM timed tickets, Khufu's, the Cairo guide and car. For the boat and the guide ask for deposit now, balance in cash on arrival. It's standard with reputable Egyptian agencies and it's our leverage.

Book there, pay cash (cheaper, same product): the balloon (≈$80–90 at the hotel desk vs $120+ online), feluccas and motorboats, the Nubian village boat, a guide at Karnak, every tomb and temple ticket, the souk.

• Never pay in full by bank wire to someone from Instagram. Card deposit with a company that has an address and a TripAdvisor history; balance in cash.
• Viator, GetYourGuide and Trip.com add 15–25% over emailing the Egyptian agency directly. Same boat, same guide.
• There is no "government tourist office" in Cairo. Anyone steering you to one is steering you to a shop.
• Hotel desks mark tours up 50–100%. Fine for a $90 balloon; not for a $1,000 boat.
• Agree the price of everything (ride, boat, photo, carriage) before it starts. Then it's a fair deal, not a scam.
• Cards work at hotels, GEM, the big sites and on the boat. Cash for everything else.

• Sick. Pharmacies are good and cheap; El Ezaby and Seif are 24h in Cairo and Luxor and hand out antibiotics and rehydration salts over the counter. Hotel doctors come to the room (≈$50). Serious: As-Salam International Hospital in Cairo, Luxor International Hospital in Luxor. Ask the hotel, not Uber. Travel-insurance number saved in your phone before you fly.
• Flight cancelled. EgyptAir rebooks at its own counter faster than by phone; domestic routes have several flights a day, so a cancellation costs hours, not days. International: call the airline from the hotel first.
• Card eaten, ATM empty. This is why the USD is split between two pockets and two people. Hotels and the boat take cards; the other guy covers you until an ATM works.
• Passport lost. Tourist police (126) for the report, then your embassy in Cairo for an emergency passport (same day for the US). A photo of the passport page on your phone turns a two-day problem into two hours.
• Phone dead, no data. The Vodafone counter at arrivals and in every mall. The hotel desk will print the plan for you.
• One of us is wiped out. The boat is the recovery day: everything on it is optional and every meal comes to you.
• No boat will overnight in Aswan on Tuesday. board Wednesday instead, Old Cataract Tuesday night, Hilton Luxor Saturday only. Same trip, one fewer Luxor night, one more Aswan night.
• We fall out. Unlikely. But Luxor has two good spots for a mint tea, Al-Sahaby's rooftop and the Hilton's riverside terrace. Go sit in the other one for an hour.

Everything a first-timer is told not to miss, and where it sits in the plan.

• Giza at opening, before the buses — Mon 12, 8am.
• Tutankhamun's mask and the whole collection — GEM, Mon 12.
• Inside a pyramid with nobody else — the Red Pyramid, Dahshur, Sun 11.
• Koshary at Abou Tarek, ta'ameya at Felfela, mint tea at El-Fishawi — Sat 10 / Sun 11.
• The whirling dervishes — Wikala al-Ghuri, Mon 12, 8pm, free.
• A felucca at sunset on the Nile — Mon 12, from the hotel wall.
• Three nights on the Nile — the Nile Serenity, Wed 14–Sat 17, a balcony over the river.
• Abu Simbel at sunrise — Wed 14.
• High tea where Agatha Christie wrote — Old Cataract, Tue 13.
• Dinner in a Nubian house — Tue 13.
• A temple at night — Luxor Temple, Fri 16.
• A balloon over the Valley of the Kings — Sat 17.
• Nefertari's tomb — Sat 17; the best painting in Egypt, ten minutes, worth every dollar.
• Karnak's Hypostyle Hall at opening — Sun 18.
• Brad: the Blue Hole, a night on Mount Sinai, a night in the White Desert — Oct 20, 21, 23.

Skipped on purpose: Karnak's sound-and-light show, the paid interior of the Great Pyramid, Tut's own tomb (the man is in GEM), the resort strips of Sharm and Hurghada.

• Visa. e-Visa at visa2egypt.gov.eg ($30 since March 2026, allow a week). Pay $30 by credit card at the arrivals bank counter before immigration. Keep $30 in exact clean USD cash as backup.
• Baksheesh. Tipping is constant and expected. Small notes always in a pocket, not the wallet.
• Touts. Relentless at Giza and the Khan, gentle in Aswan and Luxor. Friendly, firm, keep moving. No "free" camel photo, papyrus "gift" or "my cousin's shop is on the way".
• Haggling. Open at a third of the ask. Smile. Walk away once.
• Dress. Shoulders and knees covered for mosques and churches; temples don't care, the sun does. Light long sleeves beat SPF.
• Water. Bottled only, teeth included. Ice at hotels and on the boat is fine.
• Heat. Aswan and Abu Simbel hit 95°F by 11am in October. Everything big is before 10 for a reason. Electrolytes in the bag.
• Photos. Most sites allow phones free; some charge for cameras. None inside Nefertari's or Seti's.
• Alcohol. Hotels and the boat, yes; restaurants, sometimes; the street, no.