Cairo

Thank you, this is genuinely useful and I have already sent it on to my wife. The point about the driver moving round to the exit gate had never once occurred to me, and it explains something that puzzled us at Karnak in February, when our man appeared at a gate that was not the one we had gone in by. I had assumed we had somehow confused him and spent the whole drive back apologising for it.

Do you tip in Egyptian pounds or do people prefer euros? I have been told both by different people and I did not want to ask a third time.

Local money, always. Change some at the airport so you have small notes, the 20s and the 50s are the ones you actually end up needing. I am away a month at a time so I keep an envelope in the day bag with the notes already split up, and then I am never counting cash out in front of somebody. Handing over euros puts the other person in the position of doing a rate in their head while you watch, which is not a kindness.