Egypt- Is it safe to travel??

Hello Tammy and welcome to the Forum!

Before I start, have a look at the Australian Government's travel advice for Egypt. I do believe that the Australian Government website does overstate dangers of places somewhat, they still rate Egypt relatively low in the danger stakes, which should reassure you about the safety of Egypt.

The biggest problem you will face in Egypt is the road conditions, and it is this that is most common danger to anyone travelling there as evidenced by some bad accidents there in recent times. You will find the hawkers trying to sell you items such as perfumes and felucca rides will cause you far more grief than anything else in the country.

I can say with a extremely large degree of certainty that you will not face any dangers from Iraq in Egypt. I was in Syria a couple of years ago, and there was no threat from Iraq despite it sharing a border, and Egypt is much further away. I spent four weeks in Egypt in 2002, and a few bloggers are there at the moment (see Egypt Travel Blogs, and none of them seem to be under any threat, well apart from a few tummy troubles caused by the "Pharaoh's Revenge" or "Mummy's Curse" 😉

My advice is to listen to people who have visited Egypt or who are currently travelling there, as these are your best advisors of a destination, far more than well meaning friends or family whose only exposure to a place is via the news. Reply to this

Yes, it is a very sad situation, but I wouldn't be changing any Egypt travel plans on the basis of this incident. There has been simmering tensions between the Coptic Christians and Muslims for some time in Egypt, but this tension at present is not resulting in foreigners being a target. Reply to this

The bombing was in Alexandrina, which is a few hours away from Cairo by road or train, so standard Egypt tours don't go there.

As I mentioned before I am quite wary of the warnings put out by the Australian government, I believe they overstate the dangers on a regular basis. As a comparison, have a read of the Egypt travel advisories by the New Zealand Government and the UK Government - these latter two are much more realistic in their appraisal. The NZ site has Egypt as "some risk" and UK reports that "1,346,724 British Nationals visited Egypt in 2009 (Source: Egyptian Ministry of Tourism). Most visits are trouble-free. 472 British nationals required consular assistance in Egypt in the period 01 April 2009 - 31 March 2010 for the following types of incident: 71 deaths; 235 hospitalisations; 35 and arrests, for a variety of offences and 27 rapes/sexual assaults." I would guess that the 71 deaths would be related to natural causes or vehicle accidents. If you add deaths, hospitalisation and rapes/sexual assaults the total of 333 represents 0.0248%!o(MISSING)f travellers - 1 case for every 4044 visitors.

There are two ways you reduce your chance of being the one case in every 4044. Firstly, dress modestly. There is no need to wear a head scarf in Egypt, it is a liberal society. You will see most young women in Cairo wearing modern clothes such as jeans and other fashionable items you are used to seeing in Australia. The only time you will need a head scarf is in a mosque. Most important is a rule that applies equally to men and women - and that is to cover as much as possible. Absolutely no shorts, short dresses, skimpy tops, anything that shows a lot of skin. As a male I always (and I do mean always) wore light long pants and long shirts, for a female you should ensure that your pants/skirts reach your ankles and tops/shirts to near your elbows (this does not apply to beach resorts of course).

Now I'm going to put on my parent's hat here (even though I am not a parent) but the big danger for young Australians travelling is alcohol. You are not in a familiar environment, so your drinking should be modest, being drunk in this environment is risky. This is especially important if you are with people you do not know very well as being "isolated" when drunk is a recipe for disaster. The Australian media always pops us stories of young Australians meeting a premature end after a night of heavy drinking (think of Britt Lapthorne and Scott McKay) and this is a far greater threat than any terrorism. In fact this rule applies anywhere in the world. I'll take my parent's hat off now ;-)

As for your time in Egypt, you need at the very least a week, but 1.5-2 weeks is even better. Cairo with the Egyptian Museum and nearby Pyramids at Giza and Saqqara will keep you occupied for a few days, and the area around Luxor demands almost week, with the Aswan region a couple more days. Egypt is one of the most amazing countries you will ever see, so it deserves your time. Reply to this

I'm not sure of distance from Iraq from Egypt, but Jordan is inbetween the two countries - looking on Google Maps, I think from the Egypt border to the Iraq border is about 400km, and then another 500km to Baghdad.

I was in Jordan within 200km of the Iraq border only a couple of months before the 2003 invasion led by President Bush and Co, and I found a bit of tension in the air there, but nothing in terms of personal danger.

Well, it appears that your approach to travel will minimise most issues. The best idea of the current situation is going to come from blogs of people there now and you'll see that the greatest hassles people usually have in Egypt is from pushy sellers, hawkers and eating the wrong food.

I've enjoyed reading the blogs of rrruss who is there as I write this, the following blogs give you an idea of what to expect in Egypt:
Cairo – Coptic churches and the night train to Aswan
Aswan – Temples, Tombs and Feluccas Reply to this

Egypt 25th January revolution


Barak Obama, “We should raise our Children to be like the Egyptian Youth”

The American President Barack Obama

The American President Barack Obama

Silvio Berlusconi, The prime minister of Italy said” Nothing new about Egypt, The Egyptian just created the history as usual”
Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi

Italy Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi

Jens Stoltenberg, Norway Prime Minister said “Today, We all are Egyptians”

Norway Prime Minister, Jens Stoltenberg

Norway Prime Minister, Jens Stoltenberg

Heinz Fischer, President of Austria said “The Egyptian people are the greatest in the world and deserves the Nobel prize for peace”

Austria President, Heinz Fischer

Austria President, Heinz Fischer

David Cameron, The British prime minister said” We should teach the Egyptian revolution in our schools”

The British Prime Minister, David Cameron

The British Prime Minister, David Cameron

CNN, One of the major TV News Channels “For the first time in history we witness people revolute and clean the streets afterwards”

CNN

CNN

The Egyptian spirit and pride now back to life after years of internal unrest and dissatisfaction of the situation in Egypt, the light is back to cover the new land of Egypt, A land of dignity and satisfaction. Egypt, A new era has begun

“
Full story

On the 25th January 2011 the whole of Egypt was taken by surprise; the young and the old, the rich and the poor, the civilian and the army and most of all President Hosni Mubarak. Nobody could have really believed that such protests would have gathered such strength. However, the demonstrations, which then became the revolution, was started by the Egyptian youth after several years of protesting on social networks like Facebook and Twitter. Throughout the previous years there were small demonstrations, but especially after the most recent fake parliament elections it was obvious that corruption had increased and the protest groups became larger , exploded on 25th January as revolution all over Egypt It was time to make change happen rather than hope for it.

So, the only way the voice of the youth could be heard was through social media – the form of media that could not be controlled by anyone – least of all Hosni Mubarak. Of course,

Egyptians everywhere were demanding more freedom, the removal of corruption and bribery from the core of all government departments, the change of the regime of the country which included Mubarak to step down and the removal of the Minister of Interior specifically because of the arrests and detaining of political people. We demanded that the Emergency Law be cancelled so that the police no longer have the power to just arrest anyone they choose for any reason they choose. This demand was met after a few days of protests. Once the protestors realised that their demands could really be met and their voices really were heard there was no stopping them and the protests became greater in number and in power. The youth asked for so much and got it. This year the heavens opened and they got more than they could ever have dreamed possible.

Little did people all over Egypt know that the things they were hoping for were about to come true. Little did the world know that hope and despair, frustration and anger, purpose and destiny were all boiling in the pot together and that on the 25th January the pot would boil over and spill out onto the streets for the whole world to see.

This has created a new face of Egypt. A face, which shows expression rather than hides it. A face that smiles from deep within at the changes and what this will mean for our children and our children’s children. A face with eyes that sparkle with hope and gladness. A face, which can look to see what changes are needed and can now speak for those changes to come into place with a voice which speaks on behalf of those who have no voice. The old face of Egypt showed powerlessness, poverty for many and despair that their country would never change so that they might enjoy the freedoms that many other countries enjoy. The changing face of Egypt was like a woman giving birth: painful, messy, long and tiring and sadly with much spilt blood. But the baby was born – the future Egypt has arrived. A new era has dawned.

So what has been achieved at the beginning of this new era?

After 15 days of continuous protests every where in Egypt On the 11th Feb 2011President Hosni Mubarak Resigned and Passed Power to the army, all requested were met, he has changed all the ministers in his Cabinet and the constitution has been changed so that anyone can choose to stand for election. Justice has also been served on the Minister of Interior and all the other corrupted ministers who are now facing court proceedings. There have also been many other political reforms, for example: Egyptian parliament will be re-elected in a free election with international control – without this protest Egypt would have stood under the dark clouds of control for maybe another 30 years and more. Changes made in Egypt through the original youth protests have also secured democracy for people across the whole of the Middle East: similar constitutional changes have happened in China, Jordan and Yemen. Syria and Bahrain have also started demonstrating to achieve what Egyptians all across the land have achieved in 2 weeks.

With this protest, Egypt will become, and already is, a so democratic society where the voices of the people determine what Egypt will be and will become again. The strength of the Ancient civilisation has risen again like a phoenix from the ashes. Egypt will take it’s right position in the world now – no longer will we be held back.

So, we invite you today not only to a land of Ancient Civilisation with Pharaohs, tombs and pyramids but also to a land of Egyptian youth, freedom and democracy where you can feel the heartbeat of the people which beats to a new sound – the sound of freedom.

The whole of Egypt welcomes you to visit us again and let our face see you. Let us smile on you with gladness. Let our eyes see you again. Let us show you the changes that we see which are not shown on the television. Let us show you the past, the present and the future of our country. Let us welcome you as we did before. Our face has changed and our heart remains the same.

<snip> Reply to this

Hello

Dear all

My name is Yehia from Egypt and i say to you its not safe to travel to Egypt at this time as we have bad situation and bad things happened in Egypt don't think to travel at Egypt at this time and you can read from news what happened there and you can back to Ministry of Foreign Affairs

i hope i have advice you

Thanks
Reply to this

I was in Egypt from Dec 3 to Dec 17 and did not feel threatened in the least. And I had to walk through Tahrir Square on a Friday evening when protests can get out of hand after Friday prayers. I was in Cairo during the first weekend of voting on the new
Constitution. Everything was fine and I had to walk through/near Tahrir several other times during my 3 or 4 days in Cairo. I tried not to make a habit of it though...

Like Shane mentioned, your biggest threat is from the road - crossing it (especially in Cairo) and riding on it in any form of transport. Easily the scariest moment (or 5 hours) of my current 8 month trip was in a minibus ride from Bahariya Oasis to Cairo. Driving standards are appalling.

Hope that helps. Reply to this

Egypt is one the major attraction for a certain section of the people. The most basic thing that i feel is how we can take care of everything which has an impact when you are passionate about it a lot can really be done with this all which i find fine enough. Reply to this