Tips and Tricks

The tips and tricks we tell here are based upon experiences. We welcome new tips and tricks as you discover them. Please write them down as a comment to this page.

Mobile Egypt: 010-84 456 83

To learn the arabic numbers: have a look at a busy traffic light or better yet, a parking lot, and look at the numberplates on the cars: most of them will have our readable numbes to the left of the arabic version.
Looking at the numberplates you can learn within some minutes all 10 arabic numbers, and test your knowledge on the fly by trying to read the arabic number before you peep onto the western version. I learned it in 15 minutes!

Tipping: the wages of arabic servants in hotels, restaurants, on boats etc. are very low. So tipping is expected. Dollars and Euro are accepted always as a tip. How much you will give as a tip is up to you, but here is a rule of thumb: 1 or 2 LE is the minimum, 5 LE or 1 dollar is enough. Don’t forget to tip your room maid each morning.

Tipping 2: Europeans visiting El Gouna often take the small coins to be used as tips, but arabic people cannot change coins at the bank. The smallest eurobill is 5 Euro, that is way too much for a tip. So why not order before leaving from home, a bunch of 1 dollar bills at your bank. With the good exchange rate for the moment it is even less worth as 1 euro for you.

Arriving at the Airport: If you have booked your Visa included in your travel package, you’ve got a voucher to be exchanged at the appropriate travel desk upon arrival at Hurghada airport. If you’ve booked a flight only, you’ve to get your visa. There are a lot of willing people in the hall to provide you with a visum, they want to charge you between 15 and 25 Euro for that. However, you can get also your visa from the bank in that same area. Do not pay more than 5 Euro, since the Visa itself is only 35 LE. The price is even mentioned on the stamp.

Changing Money: When changing money at the bank: always recount the bills in front of the clerk, before removing the money from the counter. Have a good look at the bills: there are bills of LE = Egyptian Pounds, and there are also bills of Piasters. You will be not the first tourist who gets some bills of 50 Piasters instead of 50 Pounds. At one side of the bill is the arabic number, at the other side the western number. The bills mention also Pounds and Piasters.

50 pounds

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20 pounds

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10 pounds

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1 pound

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50 piasters

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25 piasters

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To calculate the exchange rate, please use the menu at the right: under News Service you find 2 possibilities for Currency Converting.

Changing money 2: Change money only at the hotel banks or hotel desks if no bank around. In the Marina and in Downtown several banks are available. At the Mövenpick there is a Visa Teller. Changing money with locals is prohibited. Changing Euro coins into an Euro bill can be done, but you will notice locals will try to do it in a hided corner.

Terror Attacks: With each terror attack all of your friends and family members will try to convince you not to travel to Egypt. Attacks can nowadays happen anywhere in the world. My personal opinion: the best way to improve relations between different religions and cultures is to visit those countries as often as possible in a decent and cultivated way.