Egypt Tour Tips and Tricks

Adventure Hat for Egypt

A hat with a brim and a chin cord keeps the sun off your face and lets you hang it on your neck when you need to take it off your head. Your best hat for Egypt is an a lightweight ultra-adventure hat that features UPF 50+ sun protection, vents, and a neck cape to protect the back of your neck.

Should I bring Hiking Shoes to Egypt?

No, you do not need hiking shoes. Actually, you don’t want them. They are bulky and not well suited for navigating narrow tunnels while hunched over. You won’t be hiking across any rough terrain on your Egypt tour.

Bring athletic shoes like cross-trainers or these running shoes. You’ll want something nimble for the treks down to the inner chambers of the pyramids.

Best Pants for Egypt

For pants, cargo shorts or cargo pants are best as they have extra pockets to carry things so your hands are free to hold handrails and take photos.
If that’s not your style, you can bring a fanny pack or a small backpack.

Bright Headlamp

When you’re deep in the pyramids or in the back corners of temples you’ll need some sort of supplemental lighting. Your cell phone flash is way too small and weak, and you’ll want to use it to take photos instead.

A key factor is brightness or lumen output. I brought a 400 lumen headlamp which was okay for the most part, but on my return trip I’m getting a rechargeable 1000 lumen headlamp for better visibility. You don’t need one with a red lens, that’s for camping. You want one that will light up a small room and let you peer into small dark shafts.

Best Selfie Stick And Tripod

I found this amazing selfie stick – It’s small, and smooth so it won’t catch on anything. It’s triggered by a wireless bluetooth fob, and best of all, functions as a tripod, too.

TIP: I lost the my bluetooth trigger during the trip. It’s a good idea to bring a spare trigger because it’s easy to lose and terribly inconvenient and expensive to replace in Egypt.

Best Portable Power Bank

Get a Portable Charger Power Bank so that you can recharge your phone and your headlamp between sites. Some days you won’t have an opportunity to charge, so bring your own power so you won’t miss out on photo ops.

TIP: Some tour buses have USB-A ports at each seat, so remember to bring a USB-A charging cable! As far as charging cables, bring a long (3 meter) for the hotel room and a short (.5 meter) one for use with the power bank and bus.

How To Backup Your Cell Phone Photos

During the Egypt tour you’ll often have slow and intermittent internet connection speeds. Even the hotel wi-fi is slow and often no better than a cell connection.

TIP: Don’t rely on the cloud to backup your photos and videos, as it will take too long to transfer everything over — think in terms of days!

To back up your photos, get an SD Card adapter for your cell phone. ( iPhones with the lightning port or phones with a USB-C port ). Next, get a couple of quality 256GB SD cards.

What Plug Adapter For Egypt

if you are in the United States, you’ll need a European Type C Plug Adapter (or the equivalent for your country if necessary). Egypt has the Europe Type C outlets.

Note: If you have a long layover in Qatar you might want to also get a European Type G Plug Adapter as they use the the same plugs as the United Kingdom.

Zinc Oxide Sunscreen

You are probably aware that most of Egypt is basically a desert. It’s going to be hot and sunny pretty much all day, every day.

Skip the typical sunscreens that uses chemicals that get absorbed into your skin. Rather look for a sunscreen with zinc oxide and be kind to yourself and the planet.

That one says it’s for the face, but I also used it for the rest of my exposed skin. You don’t need a heavy duty sunscreen that’s meant for laying out on the beach.

Pocket Video Camera

Photos alone don’t capture the moment compared to video. Some places are so big, and some tunnels so long, you really need to stitch photos together. If you’re the type who likes to shoot video, consider a dedicated pocket video camera.

It’s way easier to manage disk space versus blowing out your cell phone memory, and the quality is top notch. It’s also far easier to hold and with better stabilization you’ll have smoother videos. And unlike a digital SLR camera that takes videos, you won’t need a camera ticket for this.

Laser Measuring Tool

If you’re curious about the precision of the granite boxes or chambers yourself, you’ll want a laser measuring tool that includes bubble levels and four lines of historical data display for easy comparison.

For example, the photo shows measurements taken within the box inside the Lahun Pyramid.

How To Upgrade Your Hotel Room

For some accommodations: hotels, river cruise cabins, there is sometimes a room upgrade option listed in the Egypt tour details sheet provided by the tour operator. You can pay this fee to better guarantee a room upgrade.

The alternative is to wait until you check-in to the hotel. There you can talk to the front desk clerk about room upgrade options. While this is on an availability-only basis, you’ll typically get better pricing by paying directly to the hotel. And as happened in my case, sometimes they will upgrade your room for free.

How To Upgrade Your EgyptAir Flights

When you get to the airport for the first flight, the tour operator will give you your airline ticket with the record locator. Do not go through airport security like everyone else.

Instead, make your way to the EgyptAir ticketing office. Give them your ticket and ask to upgrade all your flights to first class, along with seat assignments. For me it was about $100 USD. Now make your way through security and meet up with everyone else at the gate.

Note: With EgyptAir, sometimes first class is a larger, spacious seat as you’d normally expect. Other times it’s the exact same coach class seats, just at the front of the plane – more like, premium economy.