is the exchange rate the same or does it vary depending if you are in a touristy area, or in the airport etc?
Thanks,
Jules

It's the same - and generally about 10% better than you get in the UK.

we are going all inc but will eat out ocassionally i guess or go for drinks...can anyone suggest how much we might need to take with us?? ( I know diving will cost additionally so will research that seperately !! ) so basically just other things..
chilly

Difficult question ... how much will you eat and drink

As a guide meals can be anything from around £5 - £40 per person depending on whether you eat pizza or lobster and beer can be around £5 a large(ish) bottle, cup of tea about £1.75 but on top of that there is always a 10% service charge and 15% tax plus a tip if that's your thing. If you search around you can find things a bit cheaper but those are the standard tourist type prices.

We found plenty of 'fish + veg & rice' type meals for around 80 - 100LE (£7.50 - £11.50) but by the time you added drinks, a pud and the taxes it bumped it up a bit.

We usually just take a couple of hundred in cash for the 5 of us chilly. Any more you need can be withdrawn by ATM. We take it in sterling and change it up there as you get a better exchange rate . The porters wont mind a £1 coin or 2 for tips until you have changed up .

Diving seems to be priced mostly in euros so not good for the exchange rate but if you pay on a card they will convert it to Egyptian using a poor exchange rate and then the bank will convert it back again . I usually try and ascertain as near as possible how much the diving is going to cost in advance and take euros in cash with me or some like Emperor give you a discount if you pay ahead .

lyn

As a guide meals can be anything from around £5 - £40 per person depending on whether you eat pizza or lobster and beer can be around £5 a large(ish) bottle, cup of tea about £1.75 but on top of that there is always a 10% service charge and 15% tax plus a tip if that's your thing. If you search around you can find things a bit cheaper but those are the standard tourist type prices.

soo expensive!!! i guess after living in India and paying next to nothing for food and drink (60ml gin /tonic= £1 & under £1 large beer (pint) in tourist restaurant) it would seem that way...sounds like UK prices to me?? although i am a bit out of touch with them too to be honest!!
thanks for tips Grandad and Lyn best i start saving!!
Chilly

What is the truth?

We are off to Egypt in 5 weeks time, our very first time and staying in the resort of Mersa Matruh. We plan to take some cash over and have the rest, should we need it on a card. We phoned around today and the best rate was with Thomson that works out roughly £150 sterling - 1200 LE.

When i said that i am a member of holiday truths and that a lot of reports state the exchange rate is better in Egypt i was told that was not true at all. Also i cannot seem to get LE in smaller notes. Everywhere i phoned including Post office, natwest, nationwide, HSBC, thomas cook, first choice, thomson co-op travel, all said 50/100 LE notes only.

Help!

Hi Mainy, I have been to Egypt 13 times and the exchange rate has been consistently higher in Egypt than the UK. I feel that the people you spoke to were acting out of self interest. My friend was advised by FX clerk to change money in the UK as she would probably be mugged if she changed it out there. How ridiculous! Although taxi drivers have a (deserved) reputation for trying to fleece tourists I would be more wary of theft by other tourists than Egyptians.

Regarding small notes, it is difficult to find them here at the moment - I cashed in some 'Thomas Cook holiday pounds' for currency yesterday and the smallest note available was 200 EP which cost a staggering £27. Money can be changed on arrival at the airport in Egypt and small notes obtained. Bellboys are accustomed to being tipped in pound or euro coins - not ideal for them but better than nothing.

Have a fabulous holiday - I'm going in 6 weeks and can't wait to get away from this drab, dank weather!

Regards, Caro

Mainy, Forgot to add if you are planning to use a debit or credit card abroad ensure you let your bank know in advance that you are travelling or the card may be blocked. This happened to me - thank goodness I had alternative cards otherwise I would have been stuck. On arriving home there were calls and letters from the fraud squad!

Hi Mainly,just got back on 4th april the rate is much higher in Egypt than over here we took £250gb with us to start us off,i have just changed it back today,we got small currency from our local shop the smallest we go was 10egp,this is where we got our's from Visit:chequecentre.co.uk,don't take travellers cheque as not many places changed them only one place in Naama bay changed them for my nephew even though Thomson's said he would'nt have any problem i also spoke to other people and they had, had a right go at there Thomas cook rep over the same thing.

Going to Luxor for a cruise and stay in Luxor. I have been looking at all the comments about money and what to take and getting a little bit confused. Generally going on holiday I usually take a few notes to keep me going for a few days and then the rest in travellers cheques. However am I right in reading that it is not best to take travellers cheques, and better to take visa or debit cards. Help and advise please. Thank you.


lainey

I would not take travellers cheque my nephew had great deal of trouble finding places to change them when we were in sham in march easter holl's.we took £250 eg pound to start us off the rate is a lot higher, over in sham anyway.We also spoke to other people and they had trouble chang ing cheques.

I will take your advice and take NO travellers cheques. Just cash. Many thanks. Lainey

Apparently the exchange rate in Egypt can be up to 10% higher than here in the UK. You can change dosh at the airport on arrival.

We are going in June and will be taking UK money.

You get a better exchange rate by cashing sterling out there .
Most, if not all hotels will either have facilities there or an exchange shop close by.

We have been many times now and I just take what we need in sterling and dont even bother bringing a small amount of Egyptian as I know I can change it up easily once there. I make sure we have some £1 coins for tips when we get there . They prefer tips in their own currency but will happily accept sterling too at least until you have got some currency .

We just cash in £50 at a time . Assuming you are A/I you wont need a lot of cash anyway , other than for trips, maybe watersports etc , tips or an od trip into Naama Bay.

lyn

Hi Claire,

Been to Egypt 5 times and I would strongly advice against paying tips in sterling! Reasn being that they can't change coins in the banks, and will ask guests to exchange them for notes. First year we were there we ended up coming back with about £40+ £1 coins LOl!

As said above definately take your Sterling over to Egypt with you and change when over there as your will get avout 10% more for your money than over here.

We tend to pay tips in USD which is widly accepted. We normally get from Tesco as we find they normally have a better exchange rate than elsewhere. If we run out of USD for tips we pay in EGP.

Regards,
Pat

Hi everyone!

I've been reading through a lot of these posts and seen one that mentioned dollars.

Me and my boyfriend are going to sharm next week and have got around $100 (US dollars) for tipping (the travel agent messed up the quantity...long story)

So i was just wondering, as we are AI, will we be ok to tip in dollar bills? We arn't looking to go diving or eat out anywhere else etc so hopefully won't need to spend money outside our hotel, but could we pay in dollars if we found a souvenir or something we liked? I'm guessing not.

Would it be wise to go swap some of our dollars for egyptian pounds now, or can you exchange dollars over in the egyptian airport?

(Sorry if this has been answered before, i really did try and find it!)

xxxx

Hi Amelia

Yes you could tip the staff in Dollars, however, that then means that the person you tipped will then have to try and exchange the $ bills in to Egyptian pounds, a better solution would be to exchange your $ at the airport when you arrive in Egypt, you will get a better rate when exchanging in Egypt as compared to exchanging here in the UK.

If you are intending on buying anything at the duty free shop at the airport in Egypt everything is priced in $ so you can easily spend the dollars there.

(thanks for the super fast reply btw!)

Ahhhhh, we were advised to tip in dollars as they are smaller to carry but are worth more than a bunch of egyptian dollars (easier for the waiters to carry around i guess) and obviously a handful of notes is better than a pocket of pound coins!

So it's better to tip in egyptian dollars? or could we do a mixture of both?

I guess the whole point of tipping, and tipping well, is that we get treated well throughout the week so don't want to annoy them buy giving them currency they can't spend!

xxx