Are We There Yet? A Guide to Driving in Downtown Cairo

Steve Cooper tells us of his most recent experience of driving in Cairo…

Our brand new 5 star hotel (Fairmont Nile Plaza) situated in downtown Cairo was a haven of peace and offered the best levels of service I had encountered in Egypt.

We were going for dinner after an incredible day of sightseeing at the Pyramids, Sphinx and Egyptian Museum.

Our “45 minute” journey started at approximately 7:45 pm on a warm evening in Cairo. The traffic was as usual noisy and the daily queue of cars was now assembled for further than I could see.  To make our journey more interesting we were now in the middle of a rain storm that Cairo had not seen in 20 years.

The roads of Cairo are not designed to handle this kind of weather and quickly became gushing rivers that left many cars stranded.

Once outside Cairo we were now “only 20 minutes” away from our final destination, The minutes ticked by and we quickly realised we were lost. Frantic phone calls were made to our host and eventually, after 60 minutes of taking the wrong turn we arrived. The driving in Cairo is something that I have never seen before where indicators are not used and the car horn is as important as the brakes!!

Cairo is truly a wonderful holiday destination and perfect a few days before spending some time on the beach in Sharm El Sheikh.

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