I saw an article this morning that said some travel agents suggest that you won't need local currency while in Egypt, as traveler's checks and credit cards are accepted at major banks.

But bartering is easier when quoting prices in Egyptian Pounds, and having plenty of one pound notes is useful for tipping.

Euros or dollars also work for tipping. Especially if the exchange rate is favorable for locals. In other words, people won't turn them down!

Thank you for this tip. That is helpful to know. I myself am not a great barterer so I think I might have some trouble in this area though.

you can do your major payments in Egypt with Credit cards, travel cheques or cash Dollars or Euros , but it is very usefull to keep small nots of local curency for tipping even if everybody will accpet tipping in Dollars or euros . but sometimes u will have to spend more tipping ppl with one euro insead of one Egyptian pound and that is seven times more. alot better to keep some small notes of Egyptian pounds.


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I agree when the difference is large it's always helpful to have a store of the local currency. If you're fine with tipping that much more then that's pretty nice of you but if you're traveling on a budget and can't afford it, local currency comes in handy.

you are totally right . if you check my money you will find that i have lots of small notes of 1 L.E as have to tip everyone , for car parking , gas stations , hotels bellmen, everyone in Egypt would expect tipping. even in supper markets. they have someone to load your stuff in the car for tipping. it is not bother me at all , as i beleive everyone has to find a way for living.


xxx

I don't mind tipping but one reason I don't usually convert very much at all to local currency is that I end up with coins, etc. once I've left the country. I have little plastic bags of currencies in my desk drawer which sometimes become worthless when a currency changes lol. In the case of Egypt, it does pay to have a bit of local currency, but now I tip it all away at the end so I have none left lol.

that is very right , to be very honist the only thing i hate in Uk is the coins. i end up everytime coming back to Egypt having about 30 Uk pounds in Coins. but latley i learned to use them at the airport before leaving. coins in Uk are really heavy , at least in Egypt they are not and u can rarely find it.

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Coins come in really handy while you're there for the metro's and local stores and such it's nice to have but once you leave it can be really annoying, especially since some places like the states its hard to have any large amount of money in coins but it's not too hard to have a large amount of money tied up in coinage if you go to say London.

To get rid of the coins at the end of your trip (and I always save a few just because I like to have them, no matter what they end up being worth) is to buy something in the airport terminal and use up the coins before you reach for the paper money. That way, less to carry, you get something else for a souvenir, and you've helped the local economy. Sounds like a win/win/win scenario!