Ever come back from a trip and just feel so incredibly pensive about everything you just experienced!?!
That’s me currently after returning from Egypt a week ago. I have so many thoughts swirling around in my head.
Since this particular country (from my experience) seems to unfortunately be misunderstood, I wanted to put together a few tips that may help you feel more at ease if you are planning a trip to Egypt!
Though I met some of the kindest souls I have EVER met during my travels in Egypt and thankfully had an incredible, eye-opening experience, I didn’t go in just “winging it” and I truly do not know if my experience would have been as great if I had. In my opinion and now experience, Egypt requires research & preparation if you want to go and experience this country to the fullest.
A few things that seem misunderstood:
SAFETY– I could go on and on about how this country truly wants to ensure tourism safety. They are literally LOOKING OUT for you while you are there. Many ‘warned’ me before going that there are armed guards everywhere and YES, that is TRUE but they are mostly there for YOU. To help ensure their sites stay as safe as possible so you are not weary about experiencing their country. As soon as my best friend and I entered anywhere, the tourism police would come up to us, asking where we are from, where we are headed, how we are getting there, etc. They would help us confirm we were getting in the right Uber. We felt so protected while we were there because of this. We knew they were looking out for us. They are not playing around when it comes to protecting those who are coming to tour their country.
GUIDES– I highly recommend having some sort of guide or driver for at least part of the trip. This helped us not only get acquainted with the country but also we learned SO MUCH about the country and all it’s history because of them. We would have been just aimlessly wandering around wondering about all these tombs and pyramids and culture and history. But when you have a local guiding you around, any question that pops in your head can be answered. This was the first country we’ve visited where we invested in guides and I am SO thankful we did. Again, we did our research & knew this was most likely the smartest option.
(Also became extremely close with those we met & they became our friends. It was hard to leave Egypt
BECAUSE of them.)
RESPECT– Before going, I was informed the only words I needed to know were “La Shukran” which means no thank you. A few days into my trip, I realized I had said “Shukran” (thank you) more than I had said “La (no) Shukran”. Again, this is just my experience that I am so thankful to have had – but I feel like I had this more positive experience because of the research I had done. I knew it was in my best interest to cover my shoulders and my knees. I learned more words than “no thank you” before going & continued to learn more while there. Before going to Egypt, I had read so many things that made it seem like they had a “greedy” culture. I read “never take anything for free from Egyptians” but in my experience, I have never received more GIFTS than I was given in this country. They are the most giving people I have ever met.
I could go on and on and on about my experience in Egypt! But I just thought these are some helpful pointers to anyone planning a trip currently!
