A tour guide to visit Egypt: do you need one? 8 reasons why we say YES

We typically plan, book and execute all of our travels on our own. We rarely use a tour guide for anything. But when we visited Egypt in 2023, we booked our trip with a tour company, and we used a tour guide throughout our trip. We think you should, too. Here are our top 8 reasons for recommending why you need a tour guide to visit Egypt.

1. A tour guide will educate you about Egypt’s history

A trip to Egypt will take you to see some of the most historically rich monuments in the world. You probably learned about the pharaohs’ tombs, the Pyramids of Giza, and the Valley of the Kings in school. Even so, you can benefit so much from having a tour guide to visit Egypt to explain these sites in person.

I studied Egyptian history in high school and read up on it before our trip. Regardless, our tour guides were invaluable in describing what we were seeing and how it was constructed. I knew that the Kom Ombo temple contains several references to Cleopatra. But I wouldn’t have known which wall inside the temple bears the coronation scene depicting Cleopatra and her cartouche without having a guide point it out to me. Nor would I have recognized the structure that is said to be Cleopatra’s bath.

Uber and taxis are indeed readily available in Egypt. You can certainly access any site you want to see on your own. But I enjoyed being with our guides, who not only coordinated our transportation but also brought the sites to life for us.

2. They will shield you from touts

The touts in Egypt are next-level persistent. You will constantly be offered tours, guide services, and items for sale, from numerous vendors who won’t easily take no for an answer. If you travel with a local, they will act as a buffer between you and the touts. You’ll be less hassled to use a guide if you already have one, of course, but they will also be a deterrent for lots of unwanted solicitation. Touts are less likely to fall into step and persist with their sales pleas if you have a guide present.

3. A tour guide to visit Egypt will help you avoid scams and barter prices

Any tour guide you travel with in Egypt will want to provide good service. It will keep them employed and put them in a good position for a nice amount of baksheesh (tip)at the end of your trip. Part of keeping you happy means shielding you from potential scams, financial losses, and administrative hassles. Your guide will help to keep you safe from common scams. They will recommend shops that sell quality goods, advise you about reasonable prices for goods and services and let you know how much to expect to negotiate.

When we visited the temple of Edfu, we used the customary horses and buggies to transport us from the dock to the temple. Our guide arranged the transportation for us. He let us know that a tip to the carriage driver was customary. And he advised us to lower our tip when we took out bills that he thought were too much. We appreciated the insight.

4. They will make your trip more efficient

A tour guide to visit Egypt will take care of many administrative details for your trip. At the historical sites, they will know the opening and closing times, plan an appropriate length of stay, and purchase entry tickets for you. They will also help usher you around to the key locations within those sites.

When we visited the Egyptian Museum, our guide took us to the Tutankhamun room right away, before it got too crowded. Then we backtracked through the museum to see the other exhibits we’d missed. At the Pyramids of Giza, he gave us a brief overview of the pyramids’ history, then led us to the entrance into the Great Pyramid, again, to beat the crowds. After we’d explored inside the pyramid, he continued the history lesson. We could see how much the line to enter the pyramid grew over that time, and appreciated that he recommended we go inside right away.

5. A tour guide to visit Egypt will engage you in daily life

A local tour guide in Egypt can tell you about a lot more than just the historical sites. They can speak knowledgeably about the current socio-economic environment in the country. Our guides gave us a lot of information about how Egypt’s schools, hospitals, and religious services work. They provided commentary about the traffic, the construction of the new Grand Egyptian Museum, the relocation of Egypt’s administrative headquarters to a new capital city, and the current inflation crisis. I find these details about daily life in a foreign location just as interesting as the historical sites, and appreciated hearing from our guides’ first-hand experiences.

6. They will watch out for your safety

A good tour guide will help to keep you safe on your trip. While the main tourist sites are all quite safe to visit, a guide can provide extra information about areas you may want to explore independently. They will recommend places worth seeing and also which areas to avoid. A tour guide in Egypt will suggest restaurants where the local food and drink are not likely to make you sick. They will help you to negotiate any police checkpoints or security guards you might encounter – and there are a lot of these in Egypt!

This is especially critical if you are traveling solo as a woman. Many solo female travelers have reported being stared at, propositioned, or harassed in Egypt. Being accompanied by a guide will help cut down on this type of unwanted behaviour.

7. A tour guide will tailor your trip to what you want

Every visitor has a different set of priorities for their trip. Do you want to dedicate more time to photography? Would you prefer to hear more details about the history of a particular location? Are you shopping for a special souvenir? You need a tour guide in Egypt to help make sure your needs are met. If photography is important to you, they can suggest good photo locations and ensure that your visits to local sites are timed to coincide with the best lighting and the lowest crowds. They can recommend stores that specialize in specific goods and services. And they can answer any questions you have about what you are seeing. They are there to serve you – make sure that you let them know how to give you the best experience possible.

8. They will take photos for you

Your tour guide will offer to take photos for you. This is a great way to get shots with your whole party in the picture. As a bonus, your guide probably knows the best locations and angles for these shot, since they have likely taken them dozens of times before. Leverage that experience!

Tips for using a tour guide to visit Egypt

• Guides can’t enter some sites with you. For example, they can accompany you on the Giza plateau and into the Valley of the Kings – but they cannot go inside the pyramids or the tombs with you. They will give you your history lesson outside the structures, and then let you go on ahead.
• Guides may be described as “Egyptologists”, but few of them bear the academic credentials that you might think of when you hear the term. Most of them are licensed guides with a a qualifying certificate in tourism. Regardless, they are extremely knowledgeable about the historical sites.

In conclusion…

Although we are avid independent travelers, we used a tour guide to visit Egypt and thought they added a ton of value to our trip. That’s why we recommend that other visits use tour guides in Egypt, too. What do you think – have you visited Egypt? Was it with or without a tour guide, and what was your experience like? Let us know in the comments below.

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