Welcome to Cairo!! The bustling capital city of Egypt is likely to be your first stop on your journey through this incredible country. Cairo is a city of vibrant energy, rich history, and a fascinating cultural heritage that spans millennia. As you embark on your adventure in Cairo, we recommend immersing yourself in the local culture and embracing the unique atmosphere of the city with an open mind and a sense of adventure. 

Here, you can find recommendations of places to visit, food, overnight and, as it is probably your first stop, some practical information to make your trip to Egypt as enjoyable as possible. From getting around to staying safe, we've got you covered with tips and advice to help you navigate this incredible country. Enjoy!

Places to visit

Cairo is a bustling and historic city with much to explore. There are many places to see, including the world-renowned Giza Pyramids, the Sphinx, and the Egyptian Museum. The museum is home to an impressive collection of artifacts from ancient Egypt, including the treasures of King Tutankhamun.

Egyptian museum

Entry fee 200LE, Student 100LE/extra ticket for cameras for around 300LE

The Egyptian Museum (aka Museum of Egyptian Antiquities) has the most extensive collection of ancient Egyptian antiquities in the world (around 136,000 items on display). In the main entrance to the museum you are in a T shaped corridor. If you go to the right, you can see the Rosetta Stone. Moreover, in this first corridor there are many sarcophagus displayed, including the one of a dwarf, considered to be entertainment for the royals in ancient Egyptian times.

People having tombs and pyramids were pharaohs and people related to the pharaoh such as viziers, people with military positions and for instance, the dwarfs entertaining the royalty.

Here we learned that representation of human bodies with animal faces represent the soul, whereas animal bodies (e.g. lion) with human face represent the character of the person.

The museum has well-preserved mummies of people related to the pharaoh and the different sarcophagus were they were inside. Sarcophagus were made of wood and stone. In ancient Egypt, silver was more expensive than gold and wood was more expensive that stone.

The museum is best known for containing all the treasures of the intact found tomb of Tutankamon found by Howard Carter and his team in 1922.  You can see the seven coffins inside of which the mummy of Tutankamon was preserved – they are huge. His belongings are also inside the museum and some of the things you can see are his sandals, a kind of throne and his (very impressive) mask made of gold. His sandals had drawings of two men coming from other populations/enemy settlements, to show that they were under his feet. Tutankamon was the last king of 18th dynasty.

The last part of the museum has mainly statues from pharaohs related to the pyramids in Giza and tombs in the Valley of the kings. Something that caught my attention was the room dedicated to Akhenaten (Amenhotep IV). Akhenaten is the father of Tutankamon. He is better known for abandoning Egypt’s traditional polytheistic religion and introducing Atenism, worship centered to Aten (monotheism). This culture shifts from traditional ancient Egyptian religion and was not accepted. Therefore, after he died, Akhenaten’s monuments were destroyed and hidden and even his carvings on the wall were rewritten and he was excluded from the list of rulers (we will see him again in the Museum of Luxor).

Cairo Tower

The Cairo Tower is a free-standing tower with a revolving restaurant at the top. It provides a bird's eye view of Cairo to the restaurant patrons. It stands in the Zamalek district on Gezira Island in the Nile River, in the city centre. At 187 metres, it is 44 metres higher than the Great Pyramid of Giza, which stands some 15 kilometres to the southwest. We decided not to go as the day we were supposed to go was extremely foggy (mix of pollution and sand) and we would not see anything from the top. 

Khan el-Khalili

Khan el-Khalili is an ancient bazaar/marketplace near Al-Hussein Mosque. The market is pretty, colourful, noisy and full of life. It dates back to 1385, when Amir Jarkas el-Khalili built a large caravanserai, or khan. (A caravanserai is a hotel for traders, and usually the focal point for any surrounding area). Many medieval elements remain today, including the ornate Mamluk-style gateways. It was a perfect place for us to discover the local lifestyle. We roamed through the streets of the market with a local guide, Ahmed, who was super nice and showed us around very well. It’s quite nice to go around with a local, as he can point out to the nice places to drink something or if you want to buy stuff, he can give you advice. Also, it was quite nice to talk with him about daily life.

Coptic Cairo

Copptic Christianity is a minority in Egypt and especially in Cairo. When you go towards the South of the country you will notice you will encounter more often with Coptic Christian shops / people (we noticed this in Luxor mainly). Why? History: Christianity was the main religion after the ancient Egypt empire and until around 600AC. At this time, the capital city of the country was in the South of the country.

Anyhow, Coptic Christians in Cairo are very localised in an area in Cairo (a few blocks long) which is called Coptic Cairo. We spent our last day in Cairo before leaving for Aswan in Coptic Cairo and it was a contrast to what we had seen until now. Cairo is a messy, loud, restless city but when you enter Coptic Cairo, all of this fades away. You walk through a quiet street until you find the magnificent, well-looked-after buildings: the Coptic museum, Greek church of St. George, Hanging Church, and many other Coptic churches and historical sites. We went shortly to admire St. George's beauty and after this, headed to the Coptic museum. Here, we could see artifacts belonging to Coptic history in Egypt and learn about their history in more detail.

After this, we visited the hanging church. The hanging church is one of Cairo’s most famous Coptic Orthodox churches, first built in the 3rd or 4th century AD. Its curiosity is that it’s being supported by some pillars elevated above the floor and thus, its name of hanging church. When you go inside the church, in the last room on the right you can see the elevation beneath you through the crystal floor.

Food

In addition to its historical sites, Cairo is also known for its delicious cuisine. Some popular dishes include koshary, a mixture of rice, lentils, and pasta topped with tomato sauce and crispy fried onions, and ful medames, a traditional breakfast dish made of fava beans, herbs, and spices. Here are some places to eat we recommend: 

• Abou Tarek: best Koshari in town! The owner of this restaurant is on the world record Guiness for doing the biggest dish of Koshari ever done. Koshari= lentils, fried onion, tomato sauce, spicy sauce. Delicious!!

• Felfela: we wanted to go here but due to the coronavirus they only offered takeaway and we didn’t feel like eating on the streets. However, this place was recommended to us by a local due to the nice food and atmosphere.

• Gad: this is a chain of restaurants which also have takeaway option. It’s quite low-key and has this local atmosphere. We had Hawahshi there (a kind of baked pizza dough filled with veggies and meat) and we loved it.

• Windsor hotel rooftop: someone we know who lived for a long time in Cairo recommended us Windsor hotel rooftop for a drink, however, they were reconstructing it when we went and we could not try it

In general: the streets have plenty of coffee shops with sitting areas outside full of locals. We recommend sitting in one and just having tea and talking (the local way). We did this in a random coffee shop near Windsor and it was cool. We just sat in the plastic chairs outside it, on this non-busy street watching locals talk and living their lives

Overnight:

• Novotel El Borg: starting our vacation and taking into account the cheap prices due to Covid19, we treated ourselves during the first two nights staying at a 5-star hotel in Cairo. When we arrived, we got an upgrade to a Junior Suite which was a very nice room. The main room was a bedroom with a sofa and TV and a view of the Nile. This hotel was super nice, has a central location and its breakfast is complete.