Martin's Activity Log

On Egypt

Ok, so I got an email this morning from someone asking me to reword that last sentence of yesterday's blog post and warn people about high criminality in Egypt ...

Well sure, I wasn't saying Egypt is the paradise - crime rates are still very high there and, since our monthly income is so much higher than theirs, we tourists are their prime targets. Of course, these guys try to squeeze as much money as possible out of us - you see that for instance when trying to walk across a Bazar, or at the Pyramids of Giza, they try to sell you all kinds of worthless junk for your precious EUR / USD and they're really obtrusive. Our tour guide told us to never to walk alone and never talk to anyone.

Now I received this link to a german speaking website (www.cibev.de) this morning, which warns about tourists - and especially women - losing all their belongings in real estate deals or marriages. Ok, so I passed along the message ...

However, I also saw the other side - how the country cares about us tourists. All the increased security measures and high police presence to make it safer for us.

Because of this, I'd still recommend Egypt for everyone who's simply looking for a relaxing vacation - and it should be perfectly safe as long as you follow some simple security precautions:

• Book a package holiday in a local travel agency - they'll pick you up at the airport, bring you to your hotel and look after you throughout your entire stay.
• Inside your hotel, you should be perfectly safe - there's security at the entrance, so no locals can get inside. Hotels in Hurghada are huge - they usually have 10+ different buildings with gardens, pools, etc. in between.
• Don't leave your hotel alone, stay together with other tourists or book some guided tours.
• If you want to do some sightseeing, there are plenty of guided tours where you're in a larger group of other tourists together with a tour guide and sometimes even a security guard.