High risk to Britons in Egypt

lewroll

pulliptears wrote: »

Two other tips Dave, take pound coins. For some reason the staff love them for tips.

Sorry to disagree but the staff do not love £1 coins as tips - they are unable to change coins at the banks or exchange shops and have to save them until they have £5 or £10 worth and then badger other tourists to change them into English banknotes for them - they just love tips!!!

pulliptears

lewroll wrote: »

Sorry to disagree but the staff do not love £1 coins as tips - they are unable to change coins at the banks or exchange shops and have to save them until they have £5 or £10 worth and then badger other tourists to change them into English banknotes for them - they just love tips!!!

And to disagree again, the staff at The Oriental Resort, a resort which I have been to twice already, DO love pound coins as tips.

The waiters told us this the first time we went AND the second time. They use them as savings and change them over when they have amassed a few. Many of the waiters told us they kept jars to save them in as they couldn't spend them as readily so they were a great savings plan for them.

So unless you have been to The Oriental in Nabq and are speaking from experience there then I have to disagree.

PompeyPete

Tips are often dished by tourists out with no regard to the value of it to the recipient.
Most waiters, etc get more in tips than an Egyptian brain surgeon earns.
Most will happily accept pound or euro coins, but US$ aren't flavour of the month.
There's lots of good reading and advice in the 'Top Questions' section of the Trip Advisor Sharm discussion forum.

Sarah715

Something related to this happened to my family and I back in 2005, we were all booked to go to Egypt (with Thomas Cook i think) and Sharm El Sheikh got bombed by terrorists a week or 2 before we were due to go. Although it took a lot of persuasion we were able to get the tickets swapped (I'm not sure if we were refunded any money back or had to pay extra, but I don't think it made too much difference from what I remember) and we ended up going to a Greek Island so still got a holiday.

So hopefully you should be able to get something sorted if you don't feel comfortable going to Egypt, whether that be money back or swap to go elsewhere. Given the circumstances the travel company should be willing to negotiate something with you, hope this helps!!

vegasvisitor

PompeyPete wrote: »

Do you mean Thailand? Bangkok is great for 2 or 3 nights to start and finish with, but in between you need to move on.

No, I do mean Bangkok. Would be 7 or 8 nights there, but we'd take a couple of day trips to beaches. I know it's supposed to be a bit manic but we're looking at staying at the Riverside, and enjoying some pool time too. It's a long journey to get there, so we don't really want to take more flights. Still thinking it through.

lewroll

pulliptears wrote: »

They use them as savings and change them over when they have amassed a few.

You obviously haven't been one of the people who have been asked to change these 'savings' for them because you would then be aware that it is impossible for them to change pound coins in any bank or exchange shop in Sharm and consequently they have to ask other accommodating English tourists to change these coins into banknotes in order that they then can exchange them for Egyptian Pounds. I have personally come back many times from Sharm loaded down with pound coins which I have changed for the staff. Luckily because airlines tend to be short of change (especially on the return leg) I have been able to offload them:)

pulliptears

lewroll wrote: »

You obviously haven't been one of the people who have been asked to change these 'savings' for them because you would then be aware that it is impossible for them to change pound coins in any bank or exchange shop in Sharm and consequently they have to ask other accommodating English tourists to change these coins into banknotes in order that they then can exchange them for Egyptian Pounds. I have personally come back many times from Sharm loaded down with pound coins which I have changed for the staff. Luckily because airlines tend to be short of change (especially on the return leg) I have been able to offload them:)

Which still doesn't alter the fact that the staff at the hotel I'm referring to are happy to receive pound coins as tips.

jhe

i agree they are quite happy to receive pound coins and i happily exchanged their coins for notes.i exchanged for taxi drivers/waiters/barstaff at least i had plenty of coins to give them back.
i am sure they would rather have egyptian pounds but i could not find enough low denomination notes, they quite happily accepted pound coins.

vegasvisitor

The price of the holiday I had been looking at has dropped a bit more today. Started at £635, then £626 (then another £30 per booking discount), and now £580 but the £30 discount has ended.

So maybe prices are dropping a little, in case anyone is interested.

We too tipped with £1 coins in Egypt, and we also happily changed some for the staff. We did tip the guy who cleaned the room with Euro notes though. He seemed pretty happy with it. I guess as long as they can change them with people it's no big issue. And better than not tipping at all. It's very hard to get small Egyptian notes, and the notes are also quite unhygienic. I know I wouldn't want to be handling them all the time!!

Tojo_Ralph

PompeyPete wrote: »

Tips are often dished by tourists out with no regard to the value of it to the recipient.
Most waiters, etc get more in tips than an Egyptian brain surgeon earns.

I have a number of Cairenes colleagues who dislike the tourist trade for that very reason, as they feel it has an overall negative effect. Why become a bona fide mechanical engineer earning perhaps $1,500 a month in your late 20s when you can skip university, get straight out their and earn potentially more? ... But I digress.