Destination: Egypt
LONELY PLANET'S OFFICIAL GUIDEBOOK INFORMATION
Money & Costs
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By international standards Egypt is still fairly cheap. It is possible to get by on E£52 (US$9) a day or maybe less if you are willing to stick to the cheapest hotels (you can get a bed for as little as E£10), eat the staple snacks of fuul and ta’amiyya, use the cheapest local transport and limit yourself to one historical site per day. At the other end of the scale, Cairo has plenty of accommodation where you can pay upwards of E£580 a night for a room, and some of the better restaurants will set you back E£174 (US$30) per person or more.
Taking a middle route, if you stay in a modest hotel with a fan and private bathroom, eat in low-key restaurants frequented by locals (allowing for the occasional splurge), and aim to see a couple of sites each day, you’ll be looking at between E£116 (US$20) and E£174 (US$30) a day.
Getting around the country is cheap: the 10-hour train ride between Cairo and Luxor can cost as little as E£35 in 2nd class.
The major expense is going to be the entry fees to tourist sites. Foreigners are seen as dollars on legs, so places where they flock tend to be pricey. A complete visit to the Giza Pyramids costs E£300 in admission charges (E£155 for students), and if you want to see the mummies at the Egyptian Museum, the adult combined fee is E£140.
A service charge of between 10% and 15% is applied in most upmarket restaurants and hotels, to which VAT and municipal taxes are also added. In other words, the price you are quoted at a hotel or read on a menu could be almost 25% higher when it comes to paying the bill.
HOW MUCH?
Meal in a cheap restaurant: E£10 to E£15
Meal in a good restaurant: E£40 to E£100
Glass of tea E£2:
Short taxi hop: E£4
Average museum admission: E£30
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