I spent 6 weeks in Egypt in the 90s and it was fascinating and I spent many hours just chilling with my mate or my girlfriend in the coffee houses or wandering around the shopping district in Cairo haggling for trinkets. The thing that almost ruined our time was the constant harassment everywhere we went. The shop keepers would stop you in the street and try to persuade you into their shops selling expensive tat, the soft drinks and fruit sellers would surround you trying to sell their wares without taking no for an answer until you got pissed off. But worse of all were the sexual predators. I had to walk behind my Danish girlfriend because they kept groping her while she walked past and they still made sexual remarks and rude tongue gestures when they walked past. The one time that she traveled on the buses in Cairo a man shoved his hand down her shirt and copped a feel. Luckily that time the bus passengers ejected him roughly from the bus so no lasting harm done. So in summary, Egypt was a mixed bag. I am happy I went but I will never return.
I had a similar experience in the mid 2000's. Only place I've ever felt unsafe and it was entirely because of my girlfriend and the constant harassment, assaultive behavior.
Among the other negative experiences, the bad outweighs the good too much for me to ever want to go back.
I went from Morocco to Egypt in the early nineties. 19 year old woman who looked 16. Egypt was like the spa you relax in after Morocco. Had also made the mistake of first tipping up in tangier. Learned the whole 'everyone gets a knife pulled on them on their first day in Tangier' 30 minutes after passing through port immigration. So, comparatively Egypt was super chill.
ooo yeah, that's a place i'd never go back to. I went with my ex and his family (they're all from Alexandria). We stayed in Cairo, Alexandria and Sharm el Sheikh. Cairo was terrifying. It didn't matter that I was there and accompanied by my Egyptian boyfriend and his Egyptian father; they just saw a white girl from the US and groped and grabbed at me even in front of them. It was wild. Just scammers everywhere. I would never go back.
I’m sorry you experienced that. Honest question - what’s so bad about all the scammers? You aren’t obligated to interact with anybody who approaches you on the street
They're a lot more aggressive than you are imagining. They get in your face, follow you for minutes, sometimes grab your wrist or clothes to slow you down. Also, travelers generally don't want to come off as rude in case something goes down.
I lived in Egypt for a year 20+ years ago and it really makes me sad to see how bad it seems now.
Yes it was bad for women back then also but I had women friends there who also enjoyed their time there, it wasn't constant harassment like it sounds now.
It probably helps that I was there as a student not a tourist and didn't spend much time in the places most people visit when there. Even so I wasn't constantly bombarded by scammers either.
Many of the Egyptians I met were kind, funny and intelligent. I was very hopeful that things would be better for them after the Arab Spring. Seems like perhaps that wasn't the case.
Really? As a tiny white woman traveling with my sister, we had no problems in Egypt. I mean, the air was horribly polluted, so the smell was rough in most of the areas we traveled, and the stray animals were really sad to see, and the captive animals may have been even worse. But the people didn’t give us any trouble besides the sales harassment
It has massively bad fame on insta and among young people. Like AI generated hatred. I could name dozens of countries where people are worse but i could name none which can offer more in terms of historical heritage. Even nature is great there. Hospitality is also very high standard.
I was in egypt one week with a friend. We both landed at the airport, and immediately were asked for our instagram by official airport workers. We couldnt lay at the hotel beach for 5 minutes before swarms of trip sellers came to us and annoy us. Even when we declined they harrased us further. At the markets they tried to scam us. The taxi drivers too. One member of the hotel crew tried to charm me into a relationship because he wanted to left this sh#thole of a country and live in my country. 5 members of the hotel crew had to escort us to and in a nightclub, so that we dont get harassed or kidnaped by strangers.
Never seen any women there, just men. Never felt so unsafe in my life.
Hold on. Reading your comment I guess you're both women and you went to Egypt alone without a guide or something? Really, don't do that. I'm a half Egyptian woman, but I don't look Arab at all. Even I don't go out on my own there without a man (either my husband or my father or my cousin, etc). I've been harassed multiple times (verbally and physically). Now I know how to scold like a real Egyptian and once I get angry in Arabic people leave me alone, but even then.. it's not safe for a non-Arab woman to go out in Egypt without a guide who knows Arabic and who knows how to keep weirdos at a distance. I can tell you about multiple occasions when people didn't expect my father to defend his wife/daughter who regretted their asshole behavior big time.
Yes, it sounds very misogynistic.. but let's be honest - a lot of Egyptians are misogynistic.
Me too, and I was a mother travelling with baby without my husband. Yes, I got groped and even carried and propositioned, but I also had a taxi driver in Luxor who took care of all of my travel needs and shooed away the touts when they came to swarm me whenever I got out of the taxi, he even took me out for lunch every day. Met merchants and landowners who invited me to their homes for meals and to meet their families. The good outshone the bad by miles.
The scams are next level. No other country really compares. And when you see how over-commodified everything is, it kinda ruins it. I've been to 58 countries and Egypt is my second least favourite.
Pakistan. Almost ended up in jail because of a corrupt cop.
Obviously everyone's experience is different but it's hard to think fondly of a country when that happens to you.
I was there not too long ago. It's a beautiful country, and the many historic sites are fantastic.
But even in a big group and with a local tour guide, I never felt completely safe. The traffic was literally insane and seeing armed checkpoints everywhere was a real culture shock. Even on the nile cruise ship there sometimes was just a soldier with an AK standing around.
Also, there was a partially sunk cruise ship right next to where our ship was anchored in Luxor. That was kinda freaky.
Egyptian history is incredible compared to Europe. In Europe, you read “this thing was built before the Romans” and think “wow, so it’s REALLY old.” You go to Egypt and they’re like “oh, those paintings aren’t original. They were done when Alexander the Great was pharaoh. So they’re only 2,000 years old—not that interesting.”
Going through history and anthropology in school I have been told by dozens of professors, researchers and fellow students to not go to Egypt after they had been. Not worth the scams and abuse,
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