before my husband and i went on a trip to Egypt last month he urged me to search for information regarding topless sunbathing in Egypt since for the last few years i have been sunbathing topless and in thongs in every holiday resort we've been to and i have even thrown away all of my old tops!

so i have searched this forum and found a handful of threads that address that issue, but unfortunately i came up with conflicting results, many people said it was no problem at all and others said it's a big no no.

this information was so important since i was not intending to put on a top again on the beach, which meant that if this no no was found to be true we would have had to change our destination.

but since it didn't seem like a clear cut no no at that time, we decided to visit Egypt anyway and test the water, i didn't take any tops with me but i thought I'll buy a two piece bikini from there if i found i had to.

we arrived to Cairo at the beginning of our two weeks holiday, we stayed at Mina house Oberoi which is a fantastic hotel overlooking the pyramids in giza and within a walking distance from this magnificent place. the style of the hotel belongs to colonial Britain (you get a certain 30s feel which was so fascinating) but everything is modern and beautiful and the staff were very nice and polite. most of the time we were visiting places in cairo (pyramids, museums, other pyramids, other museums, amazing places.. we dined in a village built on the example of a traditional Egyptian village and ate the traditional food of egyptians with plenty of wonderful salads and tapas, and there was wonderful egyptian bread freshly baked by real lady farmers in stone ovens.. there wasn't really much time to lay by the hotel's beautiful pool, except for one after noon where i decided to lay in the beautiful sun, there were many tourists around the pool and a few egyptian families as well, i had only an hour and i quickly took off my dress to start my session, it was obvious that i attracted the attention of a few people around me, mostly the foreigners.. no one from the hotel staff or the guests seemed to mind but something was telling me that this was not the right place for me, there was a nice egyptian group of young people who were sitting right next to me and i had the chance to chat with one of the young ladies, she was wearing a bikini and was very beautiful with a very nicely tanned olive skin, i decided to ask her about the dress code, i figured that since she was wearing a bikini she wouldn't be judgmental.. she laughed and said that all the hotels and beaches in the red sea have topless women and people got used to that, but it's not very much so inside cairo or other non coastal cities, i asked her if i should cover up she told me to forget about it and enjoy myself.

after three days we took the plane to sharm, we stayed at the sofitel which is also a very beautiful hotel built on a hill and the rooms have fantastic view, around the pool there were three topless ladies and on the beach there were many more, it was not a problem at all to sunbathe or even swim topless.. the dancing and water aerobics instructor of the hotel, although wore a large sporting top, was wearing a thong bottom, later on she was sunbathing topless on the beach.

we then moved to grand rotana hotel which was massive and luxurious and had a very good spa, the hotel is really massive and there are endless number and places for sunbeds, around the pool there were no topless ladies at all, we went to the beach and the same thing was found, no topless ladies, i started to worry and was about to go to the hotel shop to buy a bikini untl my husband suggested that i give it a try without the top, so we sat on the beach and i took off my dress and hotel staff were passing around me and no one seemed to be bothered, we were approached by one of them wearing a badge, at first i thought he was going to comment on my topless sunbathing but it turned out that he was telling us about their sporting and parasailing program, every now and then a waiter asks if we needed anything, they were all so polite and made us feel really comfortable (although some of them seemed a bit embarrassed when they talked to me), the two ladies sitting beside us had their tops on when we came, but after about 15 minutes they both took off their tops, and after a while another couple came and sat at a distance from us and the lady took off her top too, after some time another lady who was sitting with her partner took off her top too, the next day we sat by the pool and the same thing happened, there was absolutely no problem sunbathing topless and another lady who was with her son began sunabathing topless as well.

next we took the ferry to hurghada, the ferry is not fantastic but the sea trip was, we arrived to hurghada and traveled to elgouna which is 20 KM away, i can not describe elgouna well enough, it's such a wonderful place comprising some 15 different hotels ranging between 5 and three stars and with plenty of lovely places to go to either walking or by regular bus or taxi service, we stayed in club med on all inclusive.. there were so many ladies sunbathing topless and even swimming in the pool and there was one side of the beach where no even one lady there was wearing her top, we loved the place and the food but we felt we missed eating in the many wonderful restaurants in the kafr elgouna, downtown, and abu tig marina areas, fantastic atmosphere, we then moved to sheraton miramar, absolutely amazing.. we were on half board but we decidedly missed our dinner every night to dine outside, the food in these lovely places was not so expensive so we managed to do that, in the sheraton i did not use the pool but there was no problem at all swimming topless in the numerous lagoons that the hotel was built on and again the staff was very helpful and polite and totally minded their own business, occasionally asking whether you'd like a drink or to participate in various sports activities, i had the most amazing massage on the beach and the massage is inside a three walled tent while you're watching the beautiful lagoon, husband had one too.

so away from the moral dilemma of whether you should be going it in a muslim country or not and all the talk of respecting the local culture etc. if you're looking for solid facts in terms of whether it is practically tolerated and practiced then yes it is, i have tried it myself in 4 different hotels for full three weeks and i haven't been frown upon even once, all in all i have found the notion that topless sunbathing in egypt is frowned upon a complete myth.

the bottom line is: don't do it in cairo or other non coastal cities, there is no problem at all in the red sea areas like sharm, taba, nuweiba, hurghada, safaga and marsa alam.

even if you're the only one around, don't be discouraged, it's probably that other women have read here or somewhere else that it's not allowed so they refrained from doing it, the moment you take your top off they will regain their confidence.

we had such wonderful time in egypt, it's a great country with incredibly wonderful weather, when i think i was going to cancel this trip and head to another cold and windy place because i read here that toplessness is a "big no no" i feel so glad i didn't heed that silly advice.

trust me, if you like to sunbathe topless or wear thongs, you'll have the time of your life in egypt, if you only manage to get rid of the stupid myth surrounding topless sunbathing.

and ladies... have fun