Travel advice Hurghada Egypt.

[Road2Ruin]

The family and I are off to Hurghada in Egypt in August (I Know phew.....).

Does anyone have experience of the visa policy in Egypt? From what I understand I will need one to go to Hurghada but can obtain it at the airport for around 15$! I believe only the Sinai peninsula is exempt from the visa.

We are staying at the Jungle Aqua park anyone been there and any tips?

Also what is the best currency to take? Other than Egyptian pounds of course

Cheers
Pete

[Ultuous]

Road2Ruin said:

From what I understand I will need one to go to Hurghada but can obtain it at the airport for around 15$!

Yep - flew into Hurghada a couple of months ago - I think I paid about half that!... Go straight to the visa booth in arrivals - don't buy from the people loitering around pestering you as you'll probably get ripped off (the airport is rife for that - toilet cleaners making out like a tip is expected (and being quite confrontational about it) despite it not being the case etc.)

We had a lovely time though - once you're out of the airport, it's a great place!

ETA: As far as currency goes, the hotels will take anything (some favour dollars, some favour Euros depending on their 'demographic')... Having said that, I got the impression from the places we stayed in that they set the exchange rates very unfavourably to cream funds off lazy tourists... We had a load of Egyptian Pounds anyway, so just stuck to using them!

Edited by Ultuous on Thursday 17th May 12:47

[Road2Ruin]

Ultuous said:

Yep - flew into Hurghada a couple of months ago - I think I paid about half that!... Go straight to the visa booth in arrivals - don't buy from the people loitering around pestering you as you'll probably get ripped off (the airport is rife for that - toilet cleaners making out like a tip is expected (and being quite confrontational about it) despite it not being the case etc.)

We had a lovely time though - once you're out of the airport, it's a great place!

ETA: As far as currency goes, the hotels will take anything (some favour dollars, some favour Euros depending on their 'demographic')... Having said that, I got the impression from the places we stayed in that they set the exchange rates very unfavourably to cream funds off lazy tourists... We had a load of Egyptian Pounds anyway, so just stuck to using them!

Edited by Ultuous on Thursday 17th May 12:47

Thanks for that. Out of ineterest did you pay dollars or egyptian pounds for your visa? And was there much of a queue?
Ta in advance.

[Ultuous]

I think we paid in sterling but it may have been EGP - just seem to remember expecting it to be around a tenner but got given a few coins in change!

There wasn't much of a queue (five minutes at most - possibly reduced by a lot of people buying from the aforementioned 'touts'). Having said that, the bottle neck was at actual passport control - took about 45 minutes to get to the front of the queue, and by the time we were out the baggage claim belt had been stopped and all the cases removed and scattered (and I mean SCATTERED, not neatly arranged) around the floor!

Are you sorted for transfers? (I only ask as my folks have been out a few times and know a chap out there with his own taxi firm that was very helpful, prompt and saved a lot of messing about/ paying hotels prices for taxis... he does trips to Cairo etc. too - PM me if you want and I'll try to get his info off them!)

[Road2Ruin]

Ultuous said:

I think we paid in sterling but it may have been EGP - just seem to remember expecting it to be around a tenner but got given a few coins in change!

There wasn't much of a queue (five minutes at most - possibly reduced by a lot of people buying from the aforementioned 'touts'). Having said that, the bottle neck was at actual passport control - took about 45 minutes to get to the front of the queue, and by the time we were out the baggage claim belt had been stopped and all the cases removed and scattered (and I mean SCATTERED, not neatly arranged) around the floor!

Are you sorted for transfers? (I only ask as my folks have been out a few times and know a chap out there with his own taxi firm that was very helpful, prompt and saved a lot of messing about/ paying hotels prices for taxis... he does trips to Cairo etc. too - PM me if you want and I'll try to get his info off them!)

Thanks for the info. Transfers are being done by the travel company, a bus I assume. I think it's only about 20mins but will feel like a lifetime. It's a shame places like Luxor are so long by bus otherwise I would take the kids to visit. Still a week by the pool sounds fun to me. Thanks again.