The Rough Guide to Egypt 6

This was an indispensable guide when I traveled to Cairo last year. The author gives quite an honest look at what to love about Egypt and what to really keep your distance from (I'm looking at you, scamming touts, in front of the Egyptian Museum!). This guide really prepares you for the trip and helps you experience more than what the typical tourist sees. I also used this guide when i took the train into Alexandria-- again very helpful, especially with cafe and restaurant recommendations.

I arrived in Egypt this week and have been using this guide to help me get aquainted with it. I don't have any other guides to compare it to, but I can say that the organization, writing, maps, extras, and overall quality of the book seem to be excellent. It has been very helpful so far. The most outstanding features to me so far is the sensible organization of the book, the readablity and humor of the writing, and the excellent maps. However, if you're wanting lots of pictures, you'll need to look elsewhere. It does have some nice pictures at the very beginning, about the first 30 pages, but that's it, you won't find another. After that it's all text, maps, extra's, and special features. There is a helpful Language section in the back that covers basics of Egyptian Arabic and it has been very helpful to me so far, but it is only the very basics of the language, as I suppose is to be expected from such a book. You'll need another source if you want to try and have any kind of descent communication with most people here, as far as I can tell. It's been my experience that the majority of people here in Egypt speak pretty poor English- quite a bit worse than I expected. But, the Language section will help you with the most basic situations. I really like the writing style. It rarely gets stiff and boring. It flows well and can be quite funny. It's not "just the facts." There's a little spice thrown in... fitting, for the country it's written about.

We had purchased both LP and Rough Guide for our Egypt trip this past April (2005). I was reluctant to get RG for two reasons: 1. I generally think LP's are better and am used to their user-friendly format. 2. RG's most recent edition was published in early 2003 and with all the recent uncertainty in the area, I was nervous to rely on information from 2-3 years ago. However, for this trip, the RG was far better! The main reason it was more useful than LP was that it contained much more detailed explanations of the sites/museums. This book contained maps to almost all the major sites/museums with corresponding letters to explanations of the hieroglyphics/objects within the sites/museums - Far more information than LP. Of course, it also had the usual practical information (hotels, restaurants, getting around, etc.) which we relied upon as well. If you want to choose just one book to take with you as an independent traveler, my advice is to take this one.

I bought this guide before I left for Egypt this past spring and let me tell you, I was amazed at how useful it proved to be. I spent 5 months in Cairo and I took it with me every time I went out! It has all the information you need to visit the most popular places, as well as some of the most innaccesible areas. I was able to figure out bus schedules for trips to Maadi, Giza, Mohandeseen & Saqqara, as well as entertainment information and cultural advice. I learned from it how much I should pay for a taxi and where to find belly-dancing outfits at Khan-el-Khalili. Also, I used it to go around Islamic Cairo and visit some of the most wonderful mosques, all on my own. Their maps and nformation are invaluable! They even cover trips to the oasis, Sinai and places only an Egyptologist would know of! (I was amazed). In addition, it has useful arabic phrases, guides to cities and ancient sities with descriptions and historical background. Really, get one before you leave! I used the Rough guide to Syria and it is just as good...

I spent about a month reading this guide and the Lonely Planet series while planning my trip to Egypt... Well, they were both OK, but the Rough by Dan Richardson is way more detailed and has more practical info on fees, schedules, hotels and workarounds if something goes wrong. Through the trip (Hurghada - Aswan - Luxor - Cairo - Suez - Hurghada) the LP was what I read in the evening before going to museums or tombs and RG was what I carried around in my pocket through the day. My estimate is that I saved not less than fifty times the cost of this book just because I knew most of the prices and situations in advance, before bargaining :)A must have for travel in Egypt