What Cairo costs
Cairo is cheap for everything except tickets — Giza, the Grand Museum, the Citadel and Saqqara over three days cost as much as three hostel nights with all the food, and it is the one line that does not shrink.
- Lean
- about €45 a day per person
- Comfortable
- about €100 a day per person
- Biggest line
- Tickets: the Giza plateau €12
In Cairo the price of one Grand Museum ticket feeds you for three days, and that is the whole arithmetic: room, food and Ubers are small change in euros, while sites are the one serious line for foreigners and are paid by card. The gap between a lean and a comfortable trip here is not the hotel but how many tombs you enter.
The figures below are for two people out of season, in euros so nobody chases exchange rates. The pound moves and tickets rise, so everything is a range; hotels in December and around Easter go up.
Where the pounds go: tickets
Tickets. The Giza plateau €12, the inside of the Great Pyramid another €25, the Grand Museum €24.30, Saqqara €10, the Citadel €9.20, the Al-Muizz buildings €3.70 — all per person and almost all by card. Over three days of sightseeing that is about sixty euros a head without going inside Khufu, about eighty-five with it — as much as three hostel nights with all the food. A student card halves every one of those prices.
The tickets you genuinely pay for
- Giza, the plateau — €12 for foreigners; the Great Pyramid inside another €25, skipped by most.
- The Grand Egyptian Museum — €24.30; a timed ticket from the official site, a machine or the counter; students 13–25 and children 6–12 half.
- Saqqara — €10 for the plateau; the inside of Djoser's pyramid, the nobles' tombs and the Serapeum are each a separate supplement, and the all-in ticket costs more than double.
- The Citadel — €9.20 with the Muhammad Ali mosque and the museums inside; open eight to five.
- The old Egyptian Museum on Tahrir — €9.20, nine to five, still with what was not moved to Giza.
Where you save without losing anything
On the room and the food, because the quality gap is small: a hostel downtown or a guesthouse in Zamalek from the bottom of the table has what the hotel at the top has, except the pool. Koshari and ful instead of restaurants; the metro instead of an Uber when a line runs the right way; one driver by the day for Saqqara and Dahshur instead of three Ubers. You do not economise on Saqqara or the Grand Museum — that is what you came for.
WWhere to stayWhich district for which plan — Zamalek, downtown, Giza or Maadi:Where to stay in Cairo →
The same comparison for 143 places: hostel, hotel, getting into town and a day pass. Travel costs →
Before you go
Short answers to what people ask most before setting out.
What does a day in Cairo cost?
About €45 a head with a hostel, the metro and street food, about €100 with a Zamalek hotel, Ubers and restaurants. Tickets are the same for both profiles and come to €20–30 a day — the line that does not shrink.
Is Egypt still cheap?
Food, transport and rooms are — koshari is €0.40–1.30, the metro €0.20–0.30. Tickets are not: the four main sites over three days eat as much as three hostel nights with food, and they are paid by card.
Do you need cash?
A little, but definitely. Major sites and the museum take cards only; the street, taxis, baksheesh and markets want small pounds. Change a little at the airport, more at a bank in town.
Ready for Cairo?
Where to next
What to eat in Cairo
→Ful and ta'ameya for breakfast, koshari for lunch, kebab and kofta at night — Cairo's food is cheap…
Alexandria · 180 km
→A city that was the capital of the world, of which twenty kilometres of Corniche remain, one fort where the lighthouse stood, and a library built again
How well does Cairo suit you?
→Six questions: a score for this place and others like it.
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