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We recently took a trip with Exoticca to Egypt. Our trip to Egypt was the second leg of a trip to North Africa, the first stop being Morocco. If you read our Morocco post, this one is going to be very similar. One of the things that we spent a lot of time on was how to pack for North Africa? Particularly, what should our packing list for Egypt be? Before we left we read a lot of articles about how conservative the country was and how you should really cover up any time you are outside of the hotel or in beach areas.  Don’t believe the hype.

The Egyptians were very laid back.  There is a mix of people from the Muslim and Christian faiths. There are a lot of Europeans here that dress pretty “scantily” and nobody cared.  Most of the Egyptian men wore jeans, a tshirt or polo shirt. I saw a mix of close toed shoes and sandals, especially in Cairo. Some men wore traditional robes, but mainly at tourist sites.  Shorts and t-shirts are fine in most places. I still liked to be covered though and opted for the long sleeve light weight. A couple of the guys in our group started with short shirts then went to the long sleeve for sun protection.

The other thing we read is that it can be very hot.  That part is spot on.  We were here in early August which is summer.  Temperatures were over 100 most days and got up to 112, averaging around 110.  That’s like cook stuff on the sidewalk hot.  Ok, not sure I can scientifically back that up, but you know what I mean.  It was so hot my cameras were regularly shutting down. Fortunately I brought backups. You do want to pack for sun protection and I felt we had that covered.

What We Packed*:

John:

  • 5 pairs of travel pants.  Very light material all had cargo pockets.  When we were going into crowded areas I made sure to wear the paints with zipper pockets to protect my valuables.
  • 2 pair cargo shorts
  • 3 light weight long sleeve shirts (fishing shirts).  I used all of these.  Worn with a light cotton t-shirt or super light weight moisture wicking undershirt underneath.  I actually found it helpful on days when we were in the sun. Clutch on really hot days where we were in and out of cars/buses and did not want to keep reapplying sun block.  Definitely appreciated the protection in the dessert and on the Nile.
  • 4 light weight button down Short Sleeve shirts.  Very comfortable.  Worn with a light cotton t-shirt or undershirt underneath. 
  • 6 t-shirts cotton, 4 undershirts polyester blend, 2 cotton undershirt tank tops
  • Footwear – 1 pair Teva sandals, 1 pair tennis shoes for working out, 1 pair Sperry boat shoes, 1 pair hiking boots.
  • 1 pair of board shorts/bathing suit. The hotels and river boat had pools, definitely used them. Plus we did an excursion where we swam in the Nile and by we I mean I swam. Carrie stayed back looking for crocodiles, wondering if our life insurance policy would pay out on death by crocodile.
  • Head Gear – 1 baseball cap, 1 fishing/bucket hat with UV protection.  Bought a lightweight headscarf.  Used them all in different scenarios.

What I would change

  • Leave the hiking boots home.  Never wore them.  Thought since we were going to be doing so much walking and going to the dessert they made sense.  Wore my Tevas almost the entire time as most Egyptian men here wear sandals or flip flops. 
  • I’d sub a couple of pairs of pants for another pair or two of shorts. Probably go 50/50.  While the pants were great for really hot days in the sun and definitely for climbing inside the great pyramid, I would have liked a couple more pairs of shorts.  I’d heard men dress more conservatively and in every city we went to it was probably 60/40 pants to shorts ratio among adult men.
  • Shirts are tricky.  The button down shirts I wore made me feel like I fit in well, however, they also tend to be nicer and put a target on my back that said “charge this guy more”.  People did have a hard time, for the most part, identifying me immediately as an American, which in some countries can be a plus depending on political environments.  I think a simple tshirt would have equally identified me as a foreigner, but may not have said he has a lot of money.  Which I don’t.  Travel agents don’t make a lot and spend it all on our travel habit.

Carrie:

  • 2 jogger pants, 2 lightweight travel pants, 2 shorts, 3 thin cotton pants, 1 dress, 1 long skirt
  • 10-12 shirts, short sleeves and long sleeves, 2 sweaters/jacket
  • 2 sandals, 1 sketchers, 1 converse, 1 hiking boots
  • 1 bathing suit,
  • Head Gear – baseball hat, larger coverage hat, scarf or wrap

What I would change:

  • I would have taken a few more shorts and shirts. We went through clothes quickly by sweating so much.
  • Leave the hiking shoes. Too heavy.

Here are a few other things we found useful:

  • Lifestraw Water Bottles.  You are going to drink like a camel here.  We were able to fill our water bottles right out of the hotel/boat tap without fear of getting sick.  Lifestraw filters bacteria, you may want to get one that also filters viruses. 
  • Electric outlet adapter.  None of the plugs here would fit standard US plugs. 
  • Travel Power Strip – I carry a small power strip with me that has USB plugs.  Really helps for charging multiple people’s devices at night.
  • Immodium or some kind of stomach medicine.  We brought half a bottle with us.  We picked up a bug in Morocco that followed us through Egypt so, unfortunately we used half a bottle and could have used more.  Contact our team for more helpful suggestions to prevent this from happening to you.
  • TP or Sanitary Wipes – Not always available in bathrooms. In multiple instances you had to pay for TP if it was available. You will definitely thank me later for this tip.
  • Sunblock – kind of a no brainer
  • Good sun glasses
  • Tip Money – Bring lots of ones, and smaller bills. When we were transition phase (airport to hotel, hotel to sites, bellboys, drivers, etc) we were passed from one guide to another frequently. Sometimes as often as every 15-30 minutes. Each person seemed like they expected a tip. Once we were on the ship we had the same guide and while visiting sites in Cairo we had the same guide so that was easy. We tipped the main guides about $10/day/person. They were worth every penny. Tipping varied for the other people, but it was nice to at least have something small to avoid awkward tipping pauses.
  • Portable charger. There were days we were gone all day to the point we didn’t get to sleep much. Having a portable charger allowed us to keep our electronics charged.

Overall, I think we did ok packing.  Almost all of my shirts are pretty non-descript, lacking any kind of logos that could potentially offend anyone.  The added benefit is there is one less thing for people in the markets to use to try and start a conversation to corner you into buying something.  And there are a lot of aggressive vendors in some huge markets. 

We sincerely hope you find this article useful. If you would like help planning your trip, feel free to reach out to our team of experts. We don’t charge for our planning services and our vendors match their online pricing for us so there is no downside. Visit us at https://polaristravelexperts.com/ for more information.

*We packed for a 16 day trip as we were doing both Morocco and Egypt and had 4 travel days.  You probably won’t need this much on a shorter trip.  Undershirt/tshirts were key to reusing my nicer outer shirts.