Travel in Egypt: dangerous hotspot or a great place to housesit? 12 things you need to know

Egypt is not on everyone’s tourist map, but it’s an experience not to be missed.
camel and rider at Giza
Lawrie Masterson

Lawrie Masterson

Lawrie Masterson is an award-winning journalist from Melbourne Australia. In August 2018 he and his partner Kirsty Carter sold everything they couldn't fit into two suitcases, told their families not to wait up and embarked on an open-ended tour of the world.

EGYPT is not on everyone’s tourist map. It hasn’t been since the revolution in 2011, when President Hosni Mubarak was ousted, followed by a 2013 coup d’état that deposed President Mohamed Morsi. 

The Sinai Peninsula, Western Desert and some border areas remain designated unsafe for western tourists but we recently spent 10 days in the capital, Cairo, and two days about 650km south in beautiful Luxor.

Ten days housesitting in Cairo is hardly long enough to qualify anyone to express an authoritative opinion on any country, but here are six personal likes and a six other things that maybe weren’t so good.

Travel in Egypt - the likes:

Sail boats on the Nile in Luxor, Egypt

Travel in Egypt - now the not so great:

The balance

In Egyptian mythology, to reach your afterlife you had to have a light heart, so the hearts of the dead were weighed using a feather as a counter balance. Light hearts could be achieved only by doing good things throughout a lifetime.

Cairo has a light heart.

More to explore

8 Responses

  1. Thank you, very informative (my uncle bred pigeons…… need I say any more). Love reading of your travels

  2. I agree with all of your good and bad points. We visited in between the two most recent uprisings and the lack of tourists at the main sites was staggering. We attended the wonderful Sound and Light Show at Giza one evening and I think there were less than 100 people there with seating for around 1500! So many of the locals who depend on tourism were feeling the pinch and our well educated Egyptologist guide told us he was down to working only a couple of days a month. He had two University degrees and was supporting a young family. At that time he was not allowed to take a second job without losing his accreditation and I often wonder how he is these days. He warned us to expect the second uprising in about ten days after our visit and also enquired about our opinion of Military rule.

    1. Hi Rosemary. I guess it’s great to be able to see such iconic sites without the crowds, but it’s such a shame that these incredibly well qualified people are working only periodically, and then for next to nothing. Hopefully there won’t be more unrest, but sadly it seems inevitable. Love to you and Wal.

  3. Thanks again for your detailed experience. I probably won’t get to travel overseas due to my health but I do love to hear of your adventures. Makes me feel like I’m actually on the journey. Stay safe.

  4. Well said.I’m glad we visited when we did. Definitely a place to be on everyone’s bucket lust

    1. When were you there? A few locals told us dissatisfaction is building to dangerous levels again — wages much too low; taxes and cost of living way too high. What an amazing place, though!!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Share contact