Airplane, Cairo

Singapore Airlines is the way to go... the service, generous supply of inflight movies and games kept me entertained while the itinerary of our flight path from Perth to Singapore, Singapore to Dubai, Dubai to Cairo, let me know how much longer I had until touch down and my 14.5 hour journey would be complete!

Leaving from Cairo airport can be confusing. Most international departures go from Terminal 2, except Egypt Air which goes from Terminal 1. While Terminal 1 is reasonably modern its not very well organised and expect it to be a hassle to get through security checks and find your checkin counter. This is definitely an airport to give yourself plenty of time for checkin

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!!!

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.

At Cairo Airport, once you have been through immigration and then customs. Go out into the main hall, and turn right to get to the taxi stands.
We paid a fixed price of LE42 (USD 7) which was cheaper than the price quoted in the Lonely Planet (it said USD 12).
The man at the taxi stand will quote you the fixed price (depending on what district you want to go to), you pay him, then get a receipt with the address and price on it.
Then you get taken down to the car park where the taxis are.
The driver will probably ask you for baksheesh once he safely delivers you to your desired destination.

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.

Most sane people would fly into Cairo. I drove from Alexandria. That's a very long and hot drive. There was miles of desert and then there would be a cigarette stand with 50 people crowded around and then nothing for about 50 more miles.
I would recommend having a guide. Most countries I like to explore by myself, but Cairo is, well, different.