How to pay for things here without losing money to the mechanics of paying for things here. Six rules, and the first one is worth more than the rest put together.
If a card machine or ATM offers you the choice of your own currency, decline it. The machine’s rate is always worse than your bank’s, and the "no fees" message on the screen refers to a fee that is already inside the rate.
Small change is genuinely scarce, and "no change" is often a negotiating position rather than a fact. Breaking large notes at a hotel or supermarket early solves most of a fortnight’s friction.
Cards work in hotels, the larger restaurants and dive centres. Taxis, markets, small cafés, tips and most of the interesting parts of a day are cash.
The rate at arrivals is the worst you will see. Take enough for the transfer and the first day, then use an ATM or a bank in town.
Where a visa is bought on arrival it is paid in cash foreign currency, and torn or heavily marked notes are refused. This is the one place where carrying physical foreign currency is still necessary.
For a taxi, an excursion, a boat, a haircut — the number is agreed before the service, not at the end of it. This is not distrust; it is simply how the transaction is structured here, and skipping it is what produces the arguments.
The costs that are in nobody’s budget until they happen. Most travel sites leave these out because they earn a commission on the thing the cost is hidden inside.
The gap between "all inclusive" and "premium all inclusive" is almost entirely drinks. Local spirits and draught are in; anything imported, most cocktails, bottled water outside the restaurant and the beach bar after a certain hour frequently are not.
What to do: Ask for the drinks list that is included, in writing, before booking. A hotel that will not send one is telling you something.
A Luxor day is sold as a price. Entry to the individual tombs, the guide, lunch drinks and the expected tips at each stop are frequently on top, and the total can approach the headline price again.
What to do: Ask what is NOT included, in that phrasing. It gets a much more useful answer than asking what is included.
Card machines and ATMs here routinely offer to bill you in euros or pounds instead of Egyptian pounds. That is dynamic currency conversion, the exchange rate is set by the machine, and it is always worse than your bank’s.
What to do: Always choose to be charged in Egyptian pounds. Always. There is no case where the other option is better.
Egyptian ATMs charge their own fee per withdrawal on top of whatever your bank charges, and withdrawal limits are low enough that a fortnight can mean several withdrawals.
What to do: Fewer, larger withdrawals. Check your own bank’s foreign-transaction fee before you fly, because the difference between cards is substantial.
A pre-booked private transfer for a thirty-minute journey costs several times what the same journey costs in a taxi or a ride app, and is sold as though the alternative did not exist.
What to do: For Hurghada and El Gouna, a ride app works and the roads are easy. Book the transfer for Marsa Alam and the far south, where it genuinely helps.
Tipping is woven through daily life here far more than in Europe, and a fortnight of it is a real line in the budget rather than loose change.
What to do: Budget for it deliberately rather than being surprised by it, and carry small notes — see the tipping page.
Diving in the protected areas carries daily park fees, and boats carry port fees. Reputable centres list them; some quote a dive price and add them at the end of the week.
What to do: Ask for the total for the week including fees and kit, not the per-dive price.
Charter and low-cost carriers to HRG and RMF price hold luggage and dive kit separately, and dive gear is heavy enough to matter.
What to do: Price the flight with the bag you are actually taking before comparing airlines.