Egyptian £'s / US $ or GB £'s ?? SSH next week

LittlePrincessAnge

Hi all :wave:

I was wondering if any of you have been to Egypt recently & if so which currency you took / found to be the best.
My OH & I are off to SSH next week & I keep reading all different contradictions, some say take US dollars, other say tip with GB £ coins, were going AI so in theory shouldnt be spending a great deal.
Would you say that £400 for the 2 of us is too much/about right/ not enough? We've booked & paid for all our quad biking, camel riding & scuba diving already so the only other thing we will spend on is maybe 1/2 trips into Naama bay for a night out/meal/change of scenery.
Were both mid 30's so wont be hitting the expensive night clubs, just a few "romantic" bars (were trying for a baby - so who knows!! hahaha)

Also would you recommend changing GB£'s / US$ in SSH or the UK for the best rates?
If anyone has any other recommendations of things to see/do places to eat/drink or other general information - all recommendations are very greatfully received as this is our 1st trip to SSH.

Many thanks in advance for any replies.
xxx

jhe

doubt you will spend £400. depends were in sharm you are staying, all we spent was a few taxis into naama bay and old sharm. gifts to bring home. we took some egyptian money only a couple of hundred pounds. we tipped in english pounds(couldnt get any small egyptian currency), we were regular asked by hotel staff to change english coins into notes.
its the cheapest holiday spendwise we have had hope you enjoy.

bcl999

I find changing £ in Egypt usually gets best rate. Avoid tipping in £ - ask for lots of small notes when you exchange. (I'm assuming the reason jhe couldn't get small notes if he/she exchanged in UK) Besides using them for tipping, bargaining is a way of life and if they see how much you have, their price will be higher or they'll claim they don't have change.

I'm not particularly religious but I found the trip to St Catherine's Monastery inspiring. When you think it has been a place of pilgrimage since the 5th century or something and take in where it is, you can imagine how difficult it must have been for pilgrims to travel there. It's at Mt Sinai which is the claimed site of the Burning Bush. The monastery is shut Fridays so it would be a bit of an anti-climax to go that day. You can pay for an organised trip but I did it independently on the scheduled bus service and was inexpensive. Reason I know about Fridays is that's when I went! Fortunately, I was able to tag on to a party of pilgrims - they open up specially for them.

The Coloured Canyon is also a popular trip but I haven't done it.

davetrousers

Ensure your travel insurance covers you quad biking!

LittlePrincessAnge

davetrousers wrote: »

Ensure your travel insurance covers you quad biking!

Thanks Dave, Just been checking our policy were with Virgin & went for the premium cover & it appears were covered but may just telephone to double check. :beer:

LittlePrincessAnge

Brilliant thanks bcl999 for the advice on the trips, I'd been looking at St Catherines Monastery, so its great to hear that its worth a visit, just not on a friday great advice about changing abroad too, as it does seem that getting small denomations of EGP £'s is difficult.

jhe thank you for your response too, when talking to OH I kept wondering what we were really going to spend money on, our hotel had 6 restaurants so if the food is poor in 1 then we have plenty of others to choose from, hence my confusion over needing to take a lot of money. Its also good to know that Egypt is a cheap holiday as weve purposely booked outside the euro zone this year to avoid it being an expensive holiday.

Really looking forward to it now, thank you all for your time & great responses.
xxx

Matt2389

Hey, just saying what others have said really, returned a few weeks ago! Changed up a bit of money before hand just to tip people when first get there etc, but change the rest when we're there- we found it to be a better exchange rate plus as others have mentioned it's a good idea to get smaller denominations. What hotel are you staying at?
I'd really recommend going to Soho square one night, nice restaurants, shops, cafes etc. Very clean and quite busy, but absolutely no hassle from egyptians, none whatsoever which, after going to the old market in Sharm-lots of hassle, is great! ha! Look up Soho square online!
Quad bikes etc are fun!
Have a great time, the weather will be hott ha!

LittlePrincessAnge

Hi Matt,
Thanks so much for your response & tip about Soho sqaure, just had a quick sneaky peak & it looks quite nice for a night away from the complex, were staying in the 5* Grand Hotel, theres plenty of restuarants/bars/pools etc on site to keep us occupied but were not 1's for sitting for too long & much prefer to be out & about really. Whereabouts is Soho square is it in SSH? Naama bay? Sharks bay?

Also we have friends that are going to be there whilst were there & we are thinking of all getting together on the Saturday, they are in Sharks bay were in SSH so were thinking of meeting up in Naama bay as both our hotels run shuttle buses, does anyone have any suggestions of an easy to find landmark in Naama bay for us all to meet up at?

Many thanks again
xxx

jhe

i was there 2 year ago, everyone then seemed to know about the camel bar in naama bay.

Matt2389

Soho Square is in sharks bay!

bcl999

Just noticed you are actually going next week. As the month of Ramadan goes on, the service generally gets worse - they are fasting all day and then up most of the night partying. That's fine for the ones not working as they can sleep during the day which in turn makes the fasting easier for them. However, it takes its toll on those who have to work during the day and it being in the middle of summer doesn't help (they are not even supposed to swallow their own saliva during the fasting hours, never mind actually drink). Next week is the 3rd week, so you may have to make allowances.