Departure from Cairo and a Summary of Egypt

On Thursday morning, I wake up early and enjoy one last breakfast on the hotel rooftop overlooking the pyramids. After that, I order a taxi to the airport, but the driver’s Uber app crashes, and he asks to use my phone with Google Maps directions to navigate to the airport. In Africa’s largest metropolitan area (with 22 million residents as of 2023), morning traffic is heavy, so an app is essential to find a route that gets you to the airport in reasonable time. At the airport, I give the taxi driver all my remaining cash and board a Turkish Airlines flight that takes me back to Tallinn via Istanbul.

How to sum up Egypt?

The history and ruins are incredibly impressive—there are more of them than in many other countries I’ve visited combined. New discoveries and excavations are still ongoing. The pyramids are, of course, the most awe-inspiring of all, and they are best enjoyed from the rooftop of a nearby hotel restaurant. They are definitely not to be missed if you visit Egypt—it’s worth coming even on a day trip from a resort.

At the same time, the natural landscapes were beautiful as well—the deserts, the Nile River, and the lush greenery along its banks. When traveling, I’ve always valued nature the most. An evening walk in the desert and watching the sunset from the top of a sand dune were the most enjoyable moments of the entire trip for me. Staying overnight in a desert camp was also a highlight.

As for cities, Cairo was not particularly beautiful overall—an opinion shared by a local graphic designer who lived there. However, the riverside downtown area with its skyscrapers was impressive, especially at night. Aswan and Luxor were smaller and more charming. Living in a small village in Aswan and staying in an apartment on Elephantine Island was a very pleasant experience.

As a tourist, you frequently encounter locals trying to sell something, ask for tips, or simply beg. It can be truly exhausting. My recommendation is to ignore them completely—don’t respond at all. Even if you clearly say you’re not interested, it may encourage them to continue the conversation or even interpret it as a sign of interest. They will then start offering progressively lower prices because the initial price was never the real one. For us, this feels completely illogical, but if they repeatedly experience that a tourist who initially seems uninterested eventually buys something, that logic develops. A tourist who simply ignores them and says nothing appears to be a hopeless case. It’s common for the first quoted price to be 5–10 times higher than what locals pay, so bargaining is essential. At state-run tourist sites, the official price list often shows a tourist price that is ten times higher than the local one. As a result, Egypt is not a particularly cheap destination, though it is certainly more affordable than Europe.

Egyptians are actually friendly and kind-hearted once you get to know them. Even during a short conversation, you can learn a lot about a person’s private life, hardships, dreams, and views on the government. The local graphic designer mentioned that Egyptians are tolerant and have welcomed refugees from other African countries, of whom there are now quite many. It’s true that the government does not wish to accept all five million residents of the Gaza Strip, but considering Egypt’s own population of 100 million and its somewhat struggling economy, that would likely be an overwhelming task for the country.

Tourists are treated well because locals desperately need the money they bring into the economy. Egypt is also an excellent destination for a beginner backpacker, as it is relatively developed and fairly safe for a developing country—especially compared to Ethiopia, which was my first backpacking destination outside Europe. Of course, it’s still wise to read a travel guide beforehand or during the trip (I had a digital Lonely Planet on my tablet) and/or consult Wikitravel, familiarize yourself with common scams, stay alert while moving around, and remain cautious about what unfamiliar locals tell you.