MONEY
Currency
1 Egyptian pound = 100 piastres. Currency abbreviation: LE (£ E), EGP (ISO code). There are banknotes in denominations of 200, 100, 50, 20, 10, 5 and 1 E £ and 50, 25, 10 and 5 piastres; There are coins in denominations of 50, 25, 20, 10 and 5 piastres as well as £ 1, but they are hardly in circulation.
Credit cards
Note: Travelers who pay with their bank card abroad and want to withdraw money should find out about the possibilities of using their card from their bank before starting their journey.
MasterCard, American Express, Diners Club and Visa are accepted. Details from the issuer of the credit card in question. Only larger hotels or restaurants in Cairo and in the tourist resorts accept credit cards as a direct means of payment. With some credit cards (Visa / MasterCard) cash in the local currency can be withdrawn from ATMs of larger banks.
ATMs
ec / Maestro card / Sparcard
cards with the Cirrus or Maestro symbol are accepted throughout Europe and worldwide. Cards with the Cirrus or Maestro symbol are accepted at numerous ATMs in Egypt, but less often in shops. Further information from banks and credit institutes.
Attention: Travelers who pay abroad with their bank customer card and want to withdraw money should find out about the possibilities of using their card from their bank before starting their journey.
Bank opening times
Sun-Thu 8.30 a.m.-2.00 p.m. Branches in hotels and at the airport have longer or continuous opening times.
Foreign exchange regulations
Import and export of local currency limited to E £ 5,000.
Unrestricted import of foreign currencies, obligation to declare from an equivalent value of US $ 10,000. The export of foreign currencies is limited to an amount equivalent to € 7,500.
Currency Exchange
Foreign currencies can be exchanged in banks, official exchange offices and in most hotels. At banks there is usually a better rate than at exchange offices or at the hotel reception. All major international currencies are accepted.
LANGUAGE
Overview
According to zipcodesexplorer, the official language of Egypt is Arabic. French and English are widely spoken, especially in busy tourist areas. German or Russian is seldom understood. There are some English and French-language weekly newspapers, such as the Al-Ahram Weekly, which are only available in the big cities; most of the publications are in Arabic.
Arabic is spoken by around 320 million people as their mother tongue worldwide, and another 60 million people speak it as a second language. Because of its importance as a sacred language in the Islamic world of faith, Arabic has developed into a world language.
Along with Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish, Arabic is one of the 6 official languages of the United Nations. In addition to Egypt, it is also the official language in Algeria, Bahrain, Eritrea, Israel, Iraq, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates, although the local dialects are sometimes very different from one another. The Cairo dialect is widely understood due to the large Egyptian film production. Standard Arabic is rarely used as an oral means of communication, such as reading the news on television or at church services.
The written language for all dialects is written standard Arabic. It is written from right to left. In the Arabic alphabet there are only consonants and long vowels. Arabic is a current script, which means that the individual letters of a word are connected with one another.
ACCOMMODATION
Hotels
In the big cities there are inexpensive quality hotels, in winter it is advisable to book in advance. Smaller hotels are often very cheap. Most of the hotels belong to the Egyptian Hotel Association: 8 El Sad El Ali, Dokki, Giza, Cairo.
Categories: 1-5 stars. Scope: The hotels affiliated to the Egyptian Hotel Association.
Note: Hotel bills are calculated plus tax and 12% service charge.
Camping
There are only a few official campsites. B. in Alexandria, El Alamein, Cairo, Luxor, Assiut, Suez, Hurghada, Sharm El Sheikh, Nueba and at the St. Catherine’s Monastery. There are other options in Dahab, Ras Muhammed and Marsa Alam, but the sanitary facilities are not always sufficient here. Wild camping is not permitted. More information from the tourist office (see addresses).
Other accommodation options
The total of 15 youth hostels are located in large cities and popular holiday regions. For more information, contact the Tourist Office (see addresses) or the Egyptian Youth Hostels Association, 1 El-Ibrahamy Street, Garden City, Cairo. Tel: (02) 796 14 48. Internet: www.hihostels.com)