Contact Lenses or Glasses in Egypt?
 

Getting my contact prescription renewed next week for my trip in October. A friend suggested that I might want to forgo contacts in favor of glasses with either clip-on sunglasses or transitions lenses. Sounds silly...but has anyone had a bad experience with wearing your contacts? I'm thinking I may just go with the daily wear type and avoid the problem...

I don't know where you're going in Egypt. I've only been in Cairo, and found the air dusty/dirty, which affected the contact lenses. If you use lenses, have plenty of eyedrops on hand (and wear sunglasses to block some of the dust).

For glasses/sunglasses, be careful cleaning them so that you don't rub dust particles on the lens, scratching them to death...

Make sure you bring both - or at least the glasses. My dtr got some sort of minor eye infection because of combination of contacts and sand and ended up in glasses the rest of the trip.

If you use water for contact, make sure you use bottled water for that as well.

And many travelers carry Purell-type hand cleanser in Egypt - since hand washing facilities in bathrooms are not always that great - I imagine residue from that would not be the best thing for your eyes and contacts.

I wore the photo-sensitive darkening glasses most of the time, but found I also needed a brimmed hat for the sun - reflecting off the sand can be an eye killer - and they didn't lighten up fast enough when we went inside places.

PS - don't forget the sunblock

We'll be doing the grand tour, Cairo, Aswan, Nile Cruise,Hurghada and Alexandria. Had heard the air was pretty dirty in Cairo, and figured the dust would be a factor most other places.

Not used to strictly wearing glasses, and like you Gail was concerned about how quickly the transitions lenses lightened up. Thanks for the heads up about your daughter's eye infection, I will need to be extra careful, that's for sure!

I think I'm going to talk to my eye doctor about the situation, and maybe go with daily wear lenses and bring glasses as a backup.

Bring your contact lenses and intend to wear them like you normally do, but, like heymo said, bring a pair of glasses as backup. Aside from the tremendous amount of pollution in the air (at times, you wake up to fog/smog blanketing everything in the morning), there is the issue of smoke. People smoke everywhere, as there are not restrictions like the States.

Also, be sure to bring sunglasses. If you or your traveling companions are female, you'll feel more comfortable walking around with dark glasses to shield your eyes and allow you to look around more freely. Of course, they do come in handy in the desert and scorching sun as well ;-)

Sun glasses are a must for me even on a cloudy day...I am bringing several pairs! Since it will be Ramadan when we are there smoking will only be an issue at night, I believe. But also a good point. Should be an interesting time to be there!
I had heard some of the nicer restaurants have set up "no smoking" sections, but bascially they are right next to smoking tables!

I wouldn't waste the hassle of contact lenses. Take your glasses & you won't have to worry about removing them in the middle of the Khan when you've gotten dust and grit in them.