Cairo Flights

I took Gulf Air from Hong Kong to Cairo. 10 hours from Hong Kong to Abu Dhabi (stop over Bangkok). Sleep one nite in Abu Dhabi, then catch another flight to Cairo, another 3.5 hour.

Have not been flying with Gulf air for 9 years, suprisingly they have improved a lot in the service. They now provide different languages speaking crews on flight. And the BEST part was that they put me to BUSINESS CLASS!!! That make my 10 hours so much easier!!!

Current taxi fare from the Airport to downtown Cairo is 35 to 40 LE. (August 2004). I had to pick people up twice and so the total of the three Airport - Cairo trips I made was about 40 each time, one time got it for 35 as we jokingly started out at 10,000 LE's.

When you arrive at Cairo International Airport, you'll most likely have to take a tram to the actual terminal. This gives you an excellent opportunity to take a picture of your first steps in Egypt! So, have your camera ready when you get off the plane!

The fastest and most comfortable way to get to Egypt is by plane. I had no problems when I arrived to Cairo because everything was very well organized but I was very unpleasantly surprised on my way home at the Hurghada airport by the poor organization. I dont know whether this is a characteristic for this particular airport but one must be prepared for slow checking in, baggage carriers who will aggressively try to take you your last euro or two, clerks who dont know to use computers etc.

If you are staying in a four of five star hotel, one service that should be available is airport pick-up. It is much nicer than having to look for a taxi on arrival and will be included in your hotel bill. The driver will usually meet you before passport control and help you get the visa stamps and go through passport control.

For citizens of the European Union, and probably quite a few other countries in the world, you don't really need a visa to enter Egypt. However, you need to buy visa stamps when you arrive at the airport. It will cost you 15 US dollars and they will only accept that currency, not the Egyptain pound. The British Foreign Office web site claims they also accept British pounds but my own experience is that it is not necessarilly the case and anyway it is much easier if you have USD.

So, make sure you have some US cash with you. Taxis from the airport might even ask you to pay in US dollars to get you to the town.

To and from Cairo, oh I'd definitely recommend the aerial route, unless you find yourself a nice little cruise across the Med from Europe to Alexandria, and then a comfortable ground-transit down from there...but be verrrry careful when your BA flight is taxiing around the Cairo airport tarmac here before dropping you off back in London and you get that urge to take photos out the window...shhhhh! *they* don't like it when you do that...soooo, just dont tell *them* you're doing it...

Cairo had naturally excellent connections with the rest of Egypt.
There are domestic air flights with destinations that includes Hurghada, Sharm el Sheikh, Luxor, and Aswan
The best way is to take a taxi or a bus.