The best Cairo Travel Guides: Reddit reviews

From 3.5 billion Reddit comments

Not sure if it's too late but I used the Lonely Planet Egypt guide and found it indispensable combined with recommendations from wikitravel. If you really want to get in depth (even for reading after the trip as well) then I wholeheartedly recommend getting Caroline Williams' Islamic Monuments in Cairo.

Keep in mind that south of Cairo (especially Luxor) most of the major sites are going to be ancient ones but Aswan has an awesome Fatimid cemetery and the Nubian museum which covers more recent history as well as ancient. West Aswan also has a cool medieval monastery that aside from the guards was completely empty when I visited. If you're planning to visit Alexandria or anywhere else in the Nile Delta let me know and I can recommend stuff there as well!

I'm an American currently sitting in a hotel room in Dahab - it's totally fine. North Sinai, around Arish/close to the Gaza Strip is the portion that is a bit dicey, but even that's pretty much under control. I flew from Cairo to Sharm El-Sheikh and then took an 45 minute taxi ride through the beautiful mountain desert. Dahab is a bit of a hippie beach town with lots of yoga and watersports (mainly windsurfing and scuba). It's a low enough crime town where the street vendors barely even cover up the souvenirs they sell overnight. Honestly, I feel about as safe in Dahab as I do in Cape Cod only more relaxed (and richer).

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Naguib Mahfouz is Egypt's most well known modern author. I love "Palace Walk" (I think he won his Nobel Prize for it) and his short stories. I also just started reading this book about Cairo, which is a super easy read and full of fun little tidbits about what a bonkers city Cairo is. Totally recommend it too. I don't recommend Cairo though. Terrible city. Fly in there with a long layover, go see the pyramids and get the fuck out of there.