Dreams Unlimited

In this post, i will talk about all you need to know when traveling to Egypt ranging from foreign exchange, safety concerns, travel within Egypt, shopping and some basic hacks. So let's get started. 1. Foreign Exchange (Forex): USD, Euros and the Sterling Pound should work everywhere but if you come from a nation that does not have these currencies or you simply do not wish to carry cash; you can withdraw from the ATM's as needed. We chose this option as Egyptian pound (EGP) is not easily available at currency exchanges in India and we felt withdrawing would be a safer and inexpensive option. You need to have an International Debit Card. I have a VISA card and my card worked only at Alex Bank. Thankfully, Alex Bank had ATM's at all the cities we visited. At one time, you can withdraw a max of 3000 Egyptian pounds which should last you 2 days. You have the option of multiple withdrawals as well. In Egypt, there is still a very strong prevalence of cash transactions. O

Food is a very important factor while planning our travels - we need to know whether we can rely on food available at our destination or do we need to carry the food we like. Since the cuisine and taste varies by region; I will detail the food I sampled and observed in each place of my stay after a generic overview of commonalities across Egypt. Before you read any further, please know that I am an out and out foodie - the kind that can climb mountains if there is good food at the top. So expect this to be a long post! Egypt has a huge hangout culture; you will come across a lot of places where all they serve is tea, coffee and hookah; some places just tea and coffee. And they are hugely popular across age groups and socio-economic groups. Take for instance below place in Alexandria. Tea / Hookah Parlor in Alexandria We walked in here after an overnight bus journey from Hurghada hoping to get some breakfast and FYI- Most folks do not understand English in Alexandria; we had t

Hello! Just to give you a background: my husband and I toured Egypt from December 16, 2018 to January 1, 2019. I am going to share with you the itinerary I prepared for us as well as the ideal itinerary I would have preferred in retrospect. Just to let you know, both of us are history and architecture buffs; so every opportunity to see a different structure or something which was of great historical / geographical significance was given a higher priority. We visited almost every museum we came across and were not the least bit disappointed. We visited the Suez Canal purely because of its geographical significance; else after seeing the Nile, the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea there was no good reason to see another water body which we could not even photograph. Also, we did a lot of research  for months in terms of history, food, culture in ancient Egypt etc. So, this is what we did:-   Day 1 - Cairo: We landed in Cairo on 16th December, Sunday, early morning. After a nice bre