What to Pack to Visit Egypt in the Summer

So I’ve been sharing about my Egypt adventures the last few weeks. To be honest, I wasn’t at my personal finance blogger best with reducing the cost or travel hacking this time (I usually manage the flights much better but I’ve found it a lot harder to travel hack efficiently for two people). The total cost for a week in Egypt was:

Hotels – $189.26 Flights – $805.10 Tours – $847.05 Entrance Fees & Tips – $215.69 Airport Transfers – $60.99 Food – $209.90 Ubers – $8 Souvenirs – $53.17 Tour Refund – $713 

Total: $1676.16

(And if you’re wondering why a tour refund, check out this review of Special Egypt’s 5 Day Tour we went on here.)

But there was one sort of significant hidden fee. What on earth to wear to Egypt in mid-August?

A quick delve into Egyptian culture indicated that women should generally stay covered, and it’s polite to make sure your knees and shoulders are always covered in public (other than at pools, of course). I also learned that the average temperatures in Egypt in August are usually between 93-104 Fahrenheit (fun fact, one day of our tour the temperature was 118 F, and I’m not sure the weather was ever below 100 while we were there, even at night).

This meant that not only was all of my British clothing not adequate, since it’s either shorts and tank tops to survive a random heat wave or autumn and winter clothing from mid-August till the beginning of June each year. I don’t consider myself a particularly risqué dresser, but there was honestly something wrong with almost everything I owned.

I will say my sister-in-law and I both commented that we saw plenty of people walking around in shorts and tank tops but we also both felt much better deciding to be properly covered. We had also been warned that getting a bit harassed as a Westerner can be part of traveling in Egypt and while we were harassed because people wanted us to buy stuff incessantly, neither of us ever felt harassed just because we were Western women.

So for that, I call the Egypt shopping trip a win.

Things brought that I owned before doing any shopping:

My everyday sneakers (though if I owned white sneakers, I might rethink this – they will probably be tinged with desert dirt forever after you return) A pair of comfy wedges My battered old Tieks Two pairs of loose pants that I bought for a steal in the Woolwich market two years ago. A black t-shirt A white tank top A hat with good coverage A can of face mist Two bathing suits Sunglasses

Before going, I was a bit panicked about packing black/dark colored clothes, but, in retrospect, it was so freaking hot that little difference did not matter.

I wound up spending $353.45 on clothes and necessities for the trip, which, of course, could be done cheaper, but I was thinking back to when I had to buy several things to go to Iceland. I spent a little more to make sure they were good quality and almost everything I bought has been in regularly rotation in my wardrobe since then or until it literally fell apart.

That $353.45 bought:

1 pair of sandals (the most expensive purchase for the trip at $58.35 and probably the main one I could’ve just skipped) 5 pairs of pants (though I only brought 2 of these with me – 4 linen and 1 lightweight hiking pant) 2 dresses 2 kimono-style cardigans 2 tops 1 skirt 1 tank top 1 button down t-shirt 1 package of tan lightweight bike shorts for under skirts and dresses 1 beige bra 1 scarf 1 water bottle holder bag 1 electric fan 1 package of 4 hand-held fans 1 package of wipes 1 bug spray 10 travel-sized tissues

I am usually fine with re-wearing some clothes on vacation, but I was really concerned about how hot it was going to be, and that we would sweat through our clothes. I was right. I rewrote my travel day out from London to Cairo on the final day of our journey back home in England on the train.

I also set aside the one dress and just wore that every day after showering. So I pretty much packed one outfit for every day and then two extra outfits for after showering back at the hotel. Of those two outfits, I ended up wearing the one dress over and over, and used the second dress as a pool cover-up on the last day.

I did most of my shopping at Amazon on Prime day earlier in the summer. I also found a button down white shirt at Lidl for £7 (middle of Lidl, you really never know what you’ll find), one pair of pants in the Lisbon airport earlier in the summer, and one outfit at New Look, which was more of a splurge purchase because it included a skirt that has been haunting my Instagram feed for months. I found my desert dune-surfing outfit slacks at Mountain Warehouse and top at Trespass – both were having excellent end of season sales. Also, George has £4 basic t-shirts that I have apparently been sleeping on, because they are great.

Overall, the only things I don’t think I’ll really wear much are 3 of the linen pants, which fit terribly, and I tried to return, but it turned into this incredible hassle with the company, even though it said free returns, where they just kept trying to get me to keep them and give me a fraction of the return price. We went back and forth for weeks, which was just ridiculous, till I caved in to keep the three pairs of pants for a 50% refund. But they’re all too big and the elastic doesn’t work well and if I put anything in the pockets, the pants fall off of me. So… awesome. Maybe for just wandering in the house. Despite that, I did bring one pair with me to Egypt. The other two stayed behind.

Of the two kimono-style cardigans I bought, I can see myself wearing both of them at times. One of them has been in fairly regular rotation and been a beach cover-up while in Croatia earlier this summer too.

I also am not usually the sort to wear bike short/chub rub options under dresses and skirts but I was so glad I bought a set of them to wear in Egypt. Well worth it.

My sister-in-law and brother also brought me a birthday gift while we were on vacation (my birthday was a few weeks earlier), which included a similar sun protecting shawl to what she had purchased for the trip was really nice. It matched several things I brought, so I immediately put it into the rotation with my hat and the scarf I had bought.

Fans

I feel like fans need their own little category here because I went down a bit of a rabbit hole trying to figure out how to not pass out in a pyramid.

Earlier in the summer, I purchased a clip-on fan that requires charging before use. I test drove it on my trip to Lisbon in June and I used it in Croatia with the BFF. It was… ok. I stayed in a hostel in Lisbon that was unreasonably hot, and I must say that lying on my bed there and positioning the fan to blow on me was really refreshing. However, just clipping the fan to my bag and expecting it to angle correctly and blow on me didn’t really work out in either place. I usually wound up holding it in my hand anyway to angle it at me. So I think if I were going to buy another powered fan in the future, I would get a regular, small handheld one because I think I sacrificed some fan power, as the highest setting was… ok, but not great.

The hands-down winner purchase for Egypt was this silly package of 4 hand-held fans that I purchased on a whim. I figured that manually powered things don’t run out of batteries, so in a worst-case scenario, these would work.

These are fantastic. I gave each of us one. We used them all the time. Best $10 I spent for the trip.

Water Bottle Holder

The second best purchase for the trip was a water bottle holder. For $14 I found a black one that also had two little pockets on the side and a little zippered section in front and that was what I used as my purse all week. It kept a water bottle fairly cold, I could also store my fan, some chapstick, a travel sized sunscreen, and a can of face mist, which was really refreshing sometimes. I kept my cash, cards and passport in the front pocket and a tissue packed crammed in one of the side pockets. I clipped a hand sanitizer and clipped on my fan and was ready to go.

FYI – there is not always toilet paper in the public toilets. Hence the packages of tissues and the package of wet wipes.

Additionally, my partner purchased one as well, and his was white, which quickly developed a really grimy, orange-ish color. Despite multiple washes at home, it has not faded, so you might want to consider a darker colored water bottle holder.

Overall, I feel good about my choices for what to wear. Even in Aswan, no one said anything to me, I just think I would’ve felt better in looser clothing. Loose and flowy was the way to go with comfortable walking shoes every day.

Have you ever been to Egypt? What packing tips do you have?

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