Cairo Travel Forum

Hello fellow travellers. I will be in cairo in 7 days, and I am wondering if anyone has spent much time in the KanKali market. Would I be able to buy a light jacket there for a decent price, or should I bring my own? Same with things like shirts and other apperell. What is the main trading items in the market?

Khan Al Khalili has everything under the sun (literally) - as far as most clothing purchases I would recommend bringing your own jacket. You can buy t-shirts and other apparrel but the quality is often less than ideal but you can venture out of the Khan and to the west about half a mile to find anything clothing related. If you are there in July you shouldn't need a jacket as it will be sweltering during the day and very warm to hot in the evening as well.
The Khan and surrounding markets have districts that specialize in particular items - silver in one place, gold in another, tin work in another and so on. You can find blown glass, perfume and oils, basically anything and a lot of vendors selling. Be sure to look around and use some buying tactics to bring down prices: start very low as the rule of thumb is they will typically start at 3-4 times the price they are willing to accept. Walk away if you are not pleased with the price and it will likely drop - if not, you will have some practice and a guage of the price for the next store selling what you want.
We bought scarves, table cloths, jewelry, sandals, spices and various other items as we visited the Khan many times.
It is a very interesting place if you look deep - get off the main tourist path and look around and you will have a unique experience.

Yes, Dougherty is right. You will not need a jacket and if so the Khan is not the place to be.

For male clothing go to Talaat Harb street. Lots of shops and very cheap. Look there for shoes!!!! I bought there a peir of leather pumps for 7,50 Euro.

If you like to have a tailor made suit, jacket or trousers go to Qasr el Nil street. That is (kind of) parallel to Talaat Harb street. There are a lot of tailors there, you can choose your fabric and design and they will make it for you in 1 or 2 days.

Just don't wander of these streets: you will be lost!!! We lost our way so many times just taking a turn into an interesting looking street. You will never end up in the place you expected to be.......