After 12+ years of welcoming visitors to Egypt, I’ve seen every packing mistake in the book. The traveler who brought a winter coat to Luxor in June. The couple who forgot sunscreen at the Pyramids in August. The solo traveler who packed five formal outfits for a budget Nile cruise. This packing list is the one I wish I could hand every visitor before they leave...Read More

I have been guiding international visitors through Egypt for 10 years. In that time, I have seen people arrive with detailed knowledge of hieroglyphics, Pharaonic history, and the architectural periods of every temple we visit. And I have seen them walk past an Egyptian street vendor, unable to say 'thank you' in Arabic, and miss a human connection that cost nothing. Egyptian Arabic is not a requirement for visiting Egypt. Every tourist infrastructure here functions in English. But the tourists who make an effort with even a handful of Arabic phrases — who greet their guide with 'Sabah el-kheir' in the morning, who thank a restaurant owner with 'Shukran gazilan', who respond to 'Ahlan wa sahlan' with the correct reply — those tourists have a categorically different experience. Egyptians are among the most hospitable people on earth. When a foreigner attempts their language, that hospitality becomes something else entirely. What follows are the phrases that actually matter — the ones I give my clients before every tour, the ones they message me about afterwards saying it was one of the best decisions they...Read More