As every Egyptian will be happy to tell you without being asked, Egypt is currently going through a bit of a crisis and the Egyptian Pound, LE, has been allowed to float, the follow on as a result of the Egyptian Govt using the import 'escrow' to pay for other things rather than the imports it was supposed to be used for.....
While prices have risen in the last few months because of the fall in the value of the LE it also means that visitors are now getting more LE for their USD/GBP/Euro.
The end result of this is that many prices for tourists have fallen because for instance the rate of exchange for LE to GBP has risen by almost 50%.
This makes Egypt an even cheaper place to go than it was before!
Many tourists are still taking wads of cash with them and it really is not necessary because there are ATMs available almost everywhere, so by all means take some cash with you, indeed you will have to because your hotel if you have not already paid for it in advance will need to be paid using foreign currency, it's the law.
Many hotels will now take a card of course, but for small amounts cash is still preferred! They will take USD, GBP, or Euros (as a last resort), but do keep an eye on the exchange rate bearing in mind that the Euro is now worth more than a USD.
And note that some places do not actually have access to an exchange facility so they will want LE!
If you have to round the bill up by a couple of dollars/pounds/euros because you only have larger foreign bills then don't be frightened to do so as the hotel owner probably will not have small bills or even coins to give you change, and in true Egyptian style you probably will not get any change anyway!
To be honest, as a Westerner, I feel their pain with the way prices are going at the moment, especially for energy and gasoline which in Egypt is now around 12 LE a litre, up from 6LE four years ago. (I will do the sums for you 12 LE is almost exactly 33 pence in UK money).
It is becoming increasingly difficult to change cash these days as none of the banks will now do it and there are fewer official licensed money shops that will give you the top rate, beware of people that will change money for you including your hotel as they are going to make a profit out of it. There are also illegal money dealers who will meet you in dark alleys and them give you only 20 or 25LE to the USD when it should be about 30!
So the first thing to do is get some local currency at the airport from one of the many ATMs available, there is a huge 'bank' of them in the baggage reclaim area.
Get yourself a card that allows you to make cash withdrawals without charge. For people in the UK this means something like the Halifax Clarity card, which makes no charge for using it to buy goods abroad or take cash from an ATM, and also gives you top whack exchange rates through the Mastercard system. Some people, of course, have a similar card that works through the Visa system. either way the exchange rates are good.
Avoid the use of ordinary ATM cards because they will charge you a commission and give you a crap exchange rate, unless you have one that does otherwise.
Use the ATMs that give you the choice of it exchanging the money for you or allowing you to let your home bank do it because they give you a rotten exchange rate and sometimes charge you commission for changing it as well.
Avoid Euronet ATMs at all costs because they either change the money up for you at a really bad exchange rate or if you choose to let your bank do it then they charge you 100LE for the pleasure of using their machine. 100LE/EGP at 36 LE to a GBP doesn't sound like much but it is 3 quid or two beers!
There are also 'cyberbanks', like Revolut, that give excellent exchange rate but you do have to pay for a physical card.
Don't forget that carrying a card is also more secure than carrying cash wherever you go, innocent and inexperienced tourists are a target for thieves. I personally have not carried a lot of cash on me for years because there is now no need! But for added security I do have two cards I can use leaving one in a safe place in my room just in case.
If you are looking for an ATM head to the nearest mobile phone shop as they normally have one if not two ATMs outside.
Back to the traffic... I am staying in Giza instead of central Cairo because I am 'hoping' to go to the GEM, I don't think I will stay in Giza again unless it is somewhere central becuase I am out on the Alex Desert Road and it just a tad too far to walk into Giza, but very convenient to walk to the GEM which isn't open. I did try walking but because of the road works I had to take a big detour, and taxis have to do the same, indeed throughout Cairo detours of 3/4 kilometres just to take a U turn and come back again, are not unusual.
In Giza near the Pyramids they are building a new Metro line which has closed Al Haram down to Giza Square.... No wonder that taxis try to avoid some areas!
And lastly on this post the sensitive subject of tipping....
Did you know that you are not obliged to tip anybody??
Personally, having lived in Australia, I don't tip anybody. Other nationalities seem to tip everybody for no particular reason! (You know who you are!)
My idea of a tip is to give a taxi driver a £5 note for a £4.90 fare and tell him to keep the change, because I have enough loose change already.
And I positively loathe the system, widely used in the USA and Canada, where you are paying by card and they have already added on a tip that you have to cancel off the card reader before you tap or insert your card to pay.
Why are you giving them a tip for doing their job?
In Trip Advisor recently I was reading a travel report from somebody visiting Egypt where the writer said keep a good stock of one dollar bills/coins to use as tips. (They also said they felt like a walking ATM machine but that is not surprising either)
Why? There is no earthly reason to tip somebody in Egypt, and indeed a one dollar coin or bill is no earthly use to them because they cannot change it! Similarly with a Pound or Euro coin. And even if the tip is bigger then they might not have any way of getting it changed so it will end up in the hands of an illegal currency dealer who will give them a crap rate for it.
If I feel that somebody has gone over and above the call of duty then maybe I will tip, like lugging a heavy suitcase for me, but they will get nothing for watching me lift it myself.
And the same goes for waiters and bartenders.
Even if you do tip there is a limit. Why give a toilet attendant 5 USD when all they normally get is 1LE, it used to be a lot less but all the small coins seem to have disappeared these days?
If you feel that somebody has done a particularly good job for some reason, then yes, like I did by buying my barman a drink at the end of my recent stay. He got a beer which cost 50 LE.
And wherever did the idea come from that you had to give the chambermaid something everyday just to do her job, but fine if she has gone over the top and give her something at the end of your stay if you wish, much like in days of old when you were staying at an English country house when you tipped the butler, but those days have gone, and so has the tip!
If you do have a stock of foreign coinage give it to the children who ask for baksheesh, they will be delighted they have got something even though it is worthless to them, although it would be cheaper to give them 1 LE coins!
And beware of people asking you for baksheesh too, don't give them anything because some of them actually have businesses. I came across one on the East Bank in Luxor who was asking for baksheesh and the Egyptian sitting next to me shooed him away and then informed me that he owned a tuk tuk but was too idle to go out and drive it!
English people will feel quite at home with the new Egyptian 10LE note..Although this one is not looking good since it went through the wash on a hot wash.
