rywith22

Heading to Egypt in June and was wondering about driving on our own? Have driven quite extensively in Egypt and throughout France without any issue. I’ve seen lots of posts about getting drivers for tours and whatnot so I wanted to see the advice on renting a car and having a go? I know Cairo has awful traffic but other than that, is there anything else to worry about or avoid??

MmePerdu

I'm curious, if you've "driven quite extensively in Egypt" I'd think you'd have a better idea than most of us who haven't. There are places, certainly, such as in France in the countryside where it makes sense to rent a car & drive one's self. In Egypt, though, I found it far easier & also cheap to hire taxis to go anywhere I wanted to go. I find having a car is often a pain - parking, buying gas, concern about belongings left in the car even out of sight (in any country), finding my way, driving instead of enjoying the surroundings. So, though I'm not really answering your question, I question the reasoning of having a car in Egypt.

rywith22

Thanks for your reply, I had a typo in my original post, I haven't been to Egypt as of yet but have driven extensively in Turkey and France...That was why I was questioning Egypt but I think you answered the question with the price of the cars and taxis, so thank you.

Heimdall

My daughter and son-in-law drove extensively in Egypt as part of a London to Cape Town overland trip, and didn’t report any problems. Their Land Rover was shipped from Greece to Alexandria in Egypt. That part of the trip involved travelling down the Sinai Peninsula to Sharm-al-Sheikh and back again, then along the Nile to Abu Simbel where it was loaded on a small ferry to Wadi Halfa in Sudan.

I’m sure you don’t have such an extensive itinerary in mind, but if you have a sense of adventure and do thorough planning it is possible. Not being that adventurous myself, I would take taxis, and maybe a Nile cruise to Luxor.

ellen75005

rywith22, we were in Egypt about 14 months ago (came home just before the world closed down). We spent two weeks there and traveled essentially the length of the country. We hired a receptive tour operator to meet us at airports and drive us from city to city, so we didn't drive ourselves.

First, there's NO way I'd attempt to drive in Cairo. We've traveled fairly extensively (including driving ourselves in Turkey), and we've never seen traffic like we experienced in Cairo. And that includes India which has pretty incredibly bad traffic. We drove (were driven) from Luxor to Aswan which I think would be possible, but the road conditions weren't good. The opposite was true from Aswan to Abu Simbel. It's a straight 180 mile drive with essentially no traffic and good pavement. So in our experience it depends on where you are in the country. I can't comment on insurance or other details of car rental, but if it were me, I'd hire someone to do the driving!

Happy travels; it's an amazing country.