Cairo Travel Answers

I don't think 7 hours will provide you with enough time to visit downtown Cairo. Leaving the airport and checking in again will cost you 4 hours. Depending on the time you will be there; during rush hour it will take at least an hour to get to the center of Cairo from the airport. Probably more than an hour. And you will need to buy a visa to get outside the airport. That will cost you 15 USD per person. The hassle and the cost to be in downtown Cairo for an hour would be to much for me! I love Cairo! The city deserves at least 3 days! The country deserves 3 weeks. And that will be 3 weeks every year during 10 years ;-). Egypt is great. And that is both in measures and experiences. So much to see and do and experience.... After 10 years of being there every year I still haven't seen it all!

No luggage storage, see cheapflights.com/airports/ca... - and a) if they did have it you would probably pay a fortune in tips and b) if your query means you have to collect hold luggage and check in again (rather than having luggage checked through to final destination, and being already in possession of boarding card for second flight) then I agree that you don't have time to go into Cairo and get back to the airport, where check-in takes AGES. I'm also not sure what "neighbouring city" you might have in mind, other than Cairo. If you didn't have to check in again, you might have time to visit the Cairo suburbs of Heliopolis (wikitravel.org/en/Cairo/Heli... or Nasr City (cairo360.com/article/city%20..., though I'm not sure you would want to. It may also depend on when in the day these 7 hours fall, and whether 40°C heat is OK by you.

You mention that the check in takes AGES. Does it at midnight? I have a return flight to the U.S. that leaves about 2 a.m. I was planing on being there about 11:30 pm. Enough time?

Everything takes ages in Egypt Jon...accept it and breathe deeply in through the nose and out through the mouth...calm...thoughts.. you will ses so much mucking about and time wasting and general laziness you will want to scream your head off and rip your hair out...dont bother you will only look like a loony...they really, genuinely cant see anything wrong with the unorganised way they do things...so try to go with the flow...

I had a stopover of two nights at Cairo airport (with only handluggage). As transit passenger I could easily book an one day excursion to the pyramids, Egypt museum and other sights in Cairo without hassle or waiting rows.

I've never checked in at that time at Cairo airport, and don't know how many other flights leave at that time. But earlier in the day, last year it took about 1 1/2 hrs in business class, just for the check-in line - and the queue for economy was twice as long. Maybe ask your airline for advice? However, even "my" local airport in Europe (Brussels) recommends checking in THREE hours before departure for flights to the U.S. i.e. 1 hr more than for other flights.

thanks for your response. We will have spent 3 days in Cairo already as a part of a 12 day excursion in Egypt. We will be flying into Cairo from Abu Simbal at 4:00 pm and our flight to the states does not leave until 3:00 am. That is a long time to sit at the airport. But it sounds like there are no lockers to store baggage. so i was wondering if we have any options for things to do close by.

You can book a local touragent to pick you up from the airport and take you to downtown Cairo for a meal and a visit to the Khan el Khalili or a felucca sail on the Nile, climb Cairo Tower for a night view. If you are there on a wednesday or saturday just do go for the derwish performance at Al Azhar street, close to the Khan so can be combined. The Derwish show is awesome! The taxi will be with you all the time and will take care of your luggage. From 4pm till 3 am I think this can be done. Contact my friend in Cairo. He can help you. m.bahaa2@usa.net Good luck, Dora.

My uncle had 7 hour transit on rote Ethiopia and he was visit old friend in Cairo. He told he because of long traffic could only spend 2 hours with his friend, then came back to airport. But as tourist I don’t think 7 hours enough if said 2 days maybe you could do few things. I can see VT members give good advice.