TRAVEL | TRAVEL ADVICE | EGYPT

Why We Hated Egypt and Will Likely Never Go Back

This is difficult for me to write, but I feel that others should be warned.

As full-time travelers for the past 5 years, people often ask us what our favorite country is. I always hate when people ask us this question because there is no easy answer. Each country has different reasons as to why we like it, and it’s impossible to choose a favorite.

However, if somebody was to ask us which country is our least favorite, we would both yell “Egypt” without hesitation.

We were a bit surprised by our experience in Egypt. Being such a huge tourist destination, we figured that it would be a great place to visit. We were not prepared for what we encountered, and I think because of that, we had a harder time there than we would have, had we known.

So despite the fact that this article has a negative spin, and I have vowed to not write negative content, I do feel that it is my duty as a traveler to warn others about what they may encounter in Egypt, so as to possibly save them the grief that we went through.

And I do realize that our opinion may be controversial.

I know that many have been to Egypt and have had a great experience. But, we have now spoken to enough travelers to know that the common experience there is not great. We have also watched YouTube videos from well-known travelers and vloggers that denounce Egypt. One popular one is here.

I don’t want this to come off like we are privileged travelers and expect things to be a certain way when we travel. We don’t want airs and graces, and we are more than happy to adapt to any culture that we find ourselves in. In fact, the biggest thing we want out of travel is to meet people and learn all about their culture.

I think it is because of this very aspect, that Egypt really rubbed us the wrong way. It wasn’t the country itself that was the problem, it was the very people that live in it.

Here is our experience.

In January of 2021 we flew from Istanbul, Tukey to Hurghada, Egypt. We got a visa for 30 days on arrival and were told that we could extend it for 2 more months easily once our 30 days were up. However, it turned out that 30 days was more than enough for us in this country. At the end of it all, we decided that it was better and easier to travel south into Sudan, a country that neither of us was sure was safe, rather than put up with one more second of the annoyances that we encountered in Egypt.

Ripping off tourists is their national sport.

We had only been in Hurghada a day when we were overcharged for both a taxi and a card for our cell phones. I know, I know, this doesn’t sound abnormal and we do realize that this is just part of the travel experience, but later that day we found ourselves at a small cafe and struck up a conversation with the Egyptian owner that was walking around with a mug that had Canada written on it.

We chatted with him and told him about our experience in the country already. It was then that he told us that he wasn’t surprised and that we really needed to watch ourselves there. He told us that vendors enjoy ripping tourists off so much that they will even gather at the end of the day to brag to each other about how much extra money they made in the process.

“Ripping off tourists is basically Egypt's national sport.” He told us in earnest.

We had just spent 9 months in Morocco and had to navigate getting ripped off repeatedly there as well, so we figured that we would be prepared for whatever Egypt could dish out. However, we underestimated the conniving and underhanded ways that Egyptians operate. And they were certainly much more aggressive than the Moroccans could ever be.

We decided to head south from Hurghada to Aswan, which was advice from our friend that we had met. He figured that we would have a more cultural experience in the south, than subjecting ourselves to Cairo and the north. We would later learn that the southern Egyptians don’t like their northern counterparts because they find them harsh and aggressive. It’s hard to imagine people being more aggressive than those we met in the south.

Needless to say, we were glad we headed south in the end.

We took a bus from Hurghada to Luxor, then a train to Aswan. At the Luxor train station, we had 4 hours to wait for the train. We looked around for a place to eat, but there was nothing in the train station. We didn’t want to go too far with all of our luggage, so we decided that one of us would sit on some comfortable-looking chairs while the other would go fetch food and bring it back.

However, as we sat down a man who appeared to be working at the station approached us and asked us if we needed anything. We asked him if there was a place to get food and he eagerly said that he could help us with that.

“You sit down here and we will go get it for you.” He told us.

How nice, we thought. Neither of us were in the mood for hassle and this seemed like an easy solution. We told him that we just wanted some falafel and pita, which usually run the equivalent $2-$3 each.

“Just something simple and easy.” I told him.

We realized that having them get it for us would likely come with a bit of an extra cost, but we were okay with that.

A few minutes later when he brought back the food, I could already see that he didn’t get what we had asked for. I opened a package up to reveal big solid meat chunks.

“This is not what we asked for,” I told Chris. He agreed.

But, here it was. Being Canadian, and not wanting to cause a problem, we ate it anyways and didn’t say anything. I will admit that it was delicious and we figured that it may be more like $5-$10 instead of what we had anticipated.

However, when the man brought us the bill and we realized that it equaled more than $50, we got upset.

Of course, we told him that the price was outrageous, to which he replied that he had purchased it from a steak house. We then went on to tell him that it was not what we had ordered and that we wanted just a small meal like falafel and pita.

“You didn’t listen to us when we told you what we wanted,” I told him, outraged.

Because we were on our way to painting a mural in Aswan, we had contact with our host and I immediately phoned him and told him what was happening. I gave the phone to the man and they spoke in Arabic (the Egyptian dialect) for some time. After a while, he handed the phone back over to us. He confirmed that the price for what we got was too much and to just give him the equivalent of $25. Of course, this was better than $50, but still far more than what we had wanted to spend.

We gave the man the equivalent of $25 and stormed off. The look on his face was certainly one of dismay. He had messed with the wrong people on that day, and we weren’t going to just bend over and take it.

We continued on down to Aswan and found our way to Elphantine Island where we were to paint murals for a hotel owner. We arrived late in the night and got absolutely harassed by a mob of people at the train station when we came out. It wasn’t the mob that was the problem, it was the way in which they were screaming at us an inch from our faces that was the problem. I’ve not encountered a culture that gets so up close and personal, screaming in your face, as the Egyptians do when they want something from you.

Of course, they were trying to charge us more for the taxi than what our host told us it should have been, but we finally succumbed and negotiated a price that we felt was fair. However, before that happened I had to scream at an Egyptian man at the top of my lungs to get the hell out of my face. I had a look of the devil in my eyes, and he finally backed off for a moment. I’m sure it helped that I had Chris standing beside me because I have been told by solo female travellers that they don’t listen to women generally.

We were thrilled when we arrived to Elphantine Island in the middle of the Nile River. It seemed like a million miles away from the chaos of Aswan, and we looked forward to spending a couple of weeks there. Elphantine Island is occupied by the Nubians, a very different culture of people than the Egyptians. The Nubians are quiet, kind and unassuming. Quite the opposite of those that lived along the shores of the river.

It wasn’t surprising to learn that the Nubians didn’t like the Egyptians.

They don’t understand the word no

We settled in on Elphantine Island quite nicely and loved wandering around the quiet and tranquil island. But, unfortunately, we still had to make our way over to Aswan to purchase food for cooking at the markets.

It didn’t seem to matter what time of day we went there, the second we got off of the little ferry boat, we would have a huge crowd of Egyptians chasing after us trying to sell us tours and boat cruises. Again, they would be right at our shoulders and yelling into our faces as we desperately tried to get away from them.

We would tell them no repeatedly, but they wouldn’t listen and would sometimes follow us down the block and even across the road as we tried to navigate the traffic to get away from them.

Now, I will say this. This was in 2021 during covid. So obviously people were desperate and being some of the few tourists that were around, we were easy targets. Also, we think that being a couple made us even more of a target as couples tend to spend more money on things like tours and romantic excursions.

The same thing would happen every time we went across, and after more than a week of being there, and recognizing the men that were repeatedly harassing us, we became even more annoyed. They even recognized us, but decided that they would chase us and hassle us all over again each time.

It was honestly exhausting and we dreaded having to go into Aswan for any reason.

Egypt has serious pollution problems

We were actually shocked when we arrived in Hurghada. We had heard things about it having beautiful beaches and imagined a clean place with fancy resorts and all that.

It turned out that the resorts were all securely set back from the main roads and normal people could not get to the beaches that they were attached to. I can imagine that the resorts were beautiful, but the minute you step outside that gate, you were met with chaos and confusion.

After coming from Istanbul, and even after spending 9 months in Morocco, we were shocked at the state of the place. The roads were horrendous and there were piles of rocks and bricks blocking many roadways and there was garbage strewn about absolutely everywhere.

In Aswan, they were just finishing construction on a beautiful tourist alley. It had a lovely rooftop over it as it wound through various tourist stalls selling all sorts of lovely souvenirs. One day we decided to check it out as we hadn’t been down it and had only spent our days in the local’s market buying vegetables. We braced ourselves against what would certainly be a lot of hassle and headed off.

We were actually happily enjoying ourselves and marveling at the beautiful job they were doing on the walkway when all of a sudden a stench filled the air. As we approached a crossroad we could see that in both directions, right and left, there were piles upon piles of garbage strewn about. There was so much garbage piled in the street that it was impossible for a car to drive down it.

Now, having traveled throughout Africa, and having been in dirty cities like Kathmandu, I realize that this isn’t uncommon in some places of the world. But I was a bit shocked that in a popular tourist place like Aswan, ESPECIALLY on this beautiful walk that they created specifically for tourists, they didn’t care how dirty and disgusting it was.

It was at this moment that we had the distinct feeling that the government just didn’t care about its image to foreigners.

Our time in Egypt was fraught with annoyance after annoyance. We felt like we never got a break from some sort of drama that was going on. Whether we were getting hassled, chased down the street, or ripped off, we were constantly on guard and didn’t feel like we had the ability to relax and enjoy ourselves.

After posting our experiences on social media, I was surprised at how many people would reply that they too didn’t like the way they were treated in Egypt. For a country that has so much to offer, it’s a shame that its very citizens seem to ruin people's experiences.

Over time, and after talking to other travelers who experienced something similar to what we did, we have come to largely the same conclusion. Egypt rests on its incredible collection of historical monuments and knows that no matter how visitors are treated, they will always want to come to see these sights. The government, and the people, do not have to put the effort in to impress the visitors because their history does that part. It seems that their only role is to make as much money as possible from the visitors that they can.

And they don’t care how they do it or how you are treated as a guest.

After just 2.5 weeks in Aswan, we started to navigate a plan to get out. As we had mentioned, many had told us that the northern Egyptians are even more aggressive than their southern counterparts. So we had no intention of further subjecting ourselves to even one more ounce of frustration.

We felt that our easiest option to get away from it all was to head south to Sudan by bus. We didn’t see the pyramids and didn’t see one major historical sight, we just wanted out.

It’s possible that Egypt could be a better experience had we had a huge budget and were staying in 5-star hotels. If we had a guide that took us around and negotiated the sights for us, maybe we would have felt better about our time there. But as budget travelers that were trying to figure it out as we go, as we always do, it was a nightmare experience.

We even ended up having a disagreement with our host where we were painting murals and ended up leaving that job early as well. The first and last time that has ever happened to us after painting murals in 8 different countries and numerous locations within them.

We were nervous but excited to move on to Sudan, and could see that it was a great decision when we were at the Sudanese Consulate where we were obtaining our visas. Already we could see how nice and chill the officers that worked there were, and when we told this to the few men that stood behind the counter, they laughed.

“Oh yes, we Sudanese are very different than these guys.” One told us while they all chuckled.

Great, we thought, and we couldn’t wait to meet them.

With equally frazzled nerves and nervous anticipation of what Sudan was to bring, we boarded the bus and left the country. We never looked back and couldn’t have been more relieved to leave.

After traveling to almost 60 countries, I haven’t been anywhere in the world that has affected me as Egypt did. We have no plans to go back, but if we do, it will likely be many years from now when the memories have faded far back into our minds.

I hope this article serves to inform you about the reasons that Egypt is difficult to travel in. At least if you go there armed with this knowledge, you will be less shocked at the behaviors and may be able to avoid some common rip-off scams that frequently happen to trusting and honest travelers.

Finally, I highlighted this video above, but I highly recommend watching it especially if you are a vlogger or photographer. Egypt doesn’t seem to like people taking pictures either.

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