Cairo & the Pyramids Very cheap
Koshari is the national dish and costs almost nothing — Abou Tarek is the famous one. Ful and taameya for breakfast. Skip anything raw and unwashed, and drink bottled water only.
Budget travel in Egypt
What a visitor's money does in Egypt: every guide rated from very cheap to very expensive, cheapest first, then the things that cost travellers money without buying anything — the ATM, the taxi, the SIM.
Good value average across 4 guides · 5 is very cheap
Money
Egyptian Pound (EGP) · 1 EUR = 59.7 EGP · 1 USD = 52.0 EGP (highly variable)
The pound has devalued repeatedly, so exchange in small amounts as you go. Bank branches and hotel desks give the official rate; the airport gives the worst. Bring clean, unmarked dollar or euro notes, because torn ones are refused.
ATMs
Avoid: machines at the pyramids and in Khan el-Khalili, airport arrivals machines
Use: CIB, Banque Misr, QNB, Bank of Alexandria
Use machines inside bank branches. Ask for small notes — baksheesh is constant and nobody has change for a 200.
Getting around
A short ride in Cairo & the Pyramids: EGP 60–150 across town — very cheap
From the airport: Cairo airport to Zamalek EGP 250–400
Far cheaper than a white taxi, whose meter is a suggestion, and removes the argument at the end.
City by city, cheapest first
Luxor Very cheap
Koshari and taameya as everywhere in Egypt, plus grilled pigeon, which is a local speciality and better than it sounds. Eat away from the corniche for a third of the price.
Sharm el-Sheikh Good value
Resort buffets are what most visitors eat and they are fine and forgettable. The better meal is in the Old Market: grilled fish by weight, koshary, and fresh mango juice for the price of a bottle of water in the hotel. Egyptian breakfast — ful, taameya, eggs — is the one to seek out.
Hurghada Good value
Resort buffets are what most people eat and are not the point. In Sekalla the fish restaurants let you pick from ice and pay by weight, and a plate of grilled bolti with tahina and baladi bread costs a fraction of the hotel price.
The cost rating is this site's own, for a visitor, from the guides' authors and the corrections readers send in. The general rules — the conversion prompt, shoulder season, the airport taxi — are in budget travel tips.
The guides in Egypt
Cairo & the PyramidsEgyptThe last standing wonder of the ancient world, on the edge of a megacity
LuxorEgyptThe greatest open-air museum in the world, on both banks of the Nile
Sharm el-SheikhEgyptThe Red Sea, which is the best diving in the northern hemisphere, with a resort attached
HurghadaEgyptA reef the length of a coastline, and three hundred and sixty days of sun over it