Baksheesh and tipping in Egypt: what cash you actually need

Cash rules more of your trip than you’d expect

Cairo and Giza run on the Egyptian pound, written EGP, LE or E£, never the US dollar or the euro. That’s true even though some tours booked online, including on GetYourGuide or Viator, display a price in dollars for the convenience of foreign bookers at checkout. The moment you’re off the platform and in the country, everything from a bottle of water to a bathroom attendant’s tip is settled in Egyptian pounds. If you read anywhere that the dollar works as a parallel currency for everyday spending, treat that as outdated or wrong.

This matters more here than in most destinations because of baksheesh, the local habit of small cash tips that touches a far wider range of moments than tipping does elsewhere. Understanding it before you land at Cairo International Airport (CAI) saves you fumbling for notes at the Giza Plateau or in Khan el-Khalili with nothing smaller than a large bill.

Baksheesh is not the tip you’re used to

In most countries, tipping is limited to restaurants, taxis and hotel staff, and it’s often optional. Baksheesh in Egypt is broader and more routine. It covers a bathroom attendant handing you tissue, a guard who unlocks a closed room for a look, someone who points you toward a better photo angle, a porter with your bag, a felucca crew member on the Nile at sunset. None of it is written down, and almost all of it is expected in cash, in small denominations, handed over on the spot rather than totalled at the end.

This is a cultural norm, not a scam layer bolted onto the tourist experience, though the two can blur if you’re not carrying the right notes. A driver who has spent the day taking you between Saqqara, Dahshur and Memphis, or a private Egyptologist guide at the Egyptian Museum, is a different category of tipping from the small baksheesh moments, and worth planning for separately, but this page focuses on the cash habit itself rather than setting numbers for either.

We won’t print a fixed baksheesh amount or a tipping percentage here. Amounts shift with the service, the season and general price levels, and a number printed once tends to go stale fast. When you book a guided visit through GetYourGuide or Viator, the listing or your confirmation email is a more current reference than anything fixed in a guide.

Where cards work, and where they don’t

Cards are genuinely useful in Cairo, just not everywhere. Hotels, shopping malls and most sit-down restaurants take Visa and Mastercard without friction, so lodging, bigger meals and retail purchases in malls rarely need cash in hand. That covers a meaningful share of a typical trip’s spending.

Outside those settings, cash is the default. Baksheesh is cash by definition. Street food, tea stalls, small shops in Islamic Cairo or the Coptic Cairo quarter, many taxis, and site attendants at smaller monuments generally don’t run card machines, or won’t for a small amount. If you’re spending a day around the Citadel of Saladin, Al-Azhar and the bazaar, plan on carrying enough small notes to get through the day without needing to break a large bill mid-visit.

Where you are	Cards	Cash needed
Hotels in Cairo or Giza	Widely accepted	Rarely, beyond incidentals
Shopping malls	Widely accepted	Rarely
Sit-down restaurants	Mostly accepted	Sometimes, smaller places
Street food, tea stalls	Rare	Yes
Baksheesh (attendants, porters, guards)	Never	Always
Taxis, informal transport	Rare	Yes
Khan el-Khalili bazaar stalls	Mixed, ask first	Yes, for haggling
Site entry add-ons (photo permits, extra rooms)	Rare	Yes

Bazaars run on haggling, baksheesh doesn’t

It’s worth keeping two very different cash habits apart, since they get mixed up easily by first-time visitors. In Khan el-Khalili and similar bazaars, prices for souvenirs, textiles and spices are frequently open to negotiation, and a starting price is often set high precisely because haggling is expected on both sides of the counter. That’s a completely different transaction from baksheesh: haggling is a negotiation over the price of a thing you’re buying, settled once and closed, and pushing back on the first number is normal practice rather than rude.

Baksheesh isn’t negotiable in the same way. It’s a small, fixed-feeling cash gesture for a service already rendered, not a price to argue down or up. Treating a baksheesh moment as a haggling opportunity, or a bazaar purchase as if it were baksheesh, tends to create confusion on both sides and can leave you either overpaying for a souvenir or underpaying for a service in a way that reads as rude rather than simply unfamiliar. Keeping a mental separation between “this is a purchase I can negotiate” and “this is a small cash thank-you” makes both kinds of interaction easier to navigate. In practice, that also means carrying two different mental budgets through the day: one for souvenirs and shopping, and a separate, steadier trickle of small notes set aside purely for baksheesh.

Getting Egyptian pounds, and keeping small notes on hand

ATMs at Cairo International Airport and across the city are the standard way to get EGP, alongside hotel front desks and exchange bureaus. Rates and fees vary by outlet and change over time, so this guide doesn’t quote one; check current terms wherever you withdraw or exchange.

One detail worth knowing at the ATM: many machines in Cairo offer to convert your withdrawal into your home currency for a fee, framed on screen as a convenience, something like “accept conversion?” with a yes highlighted. Declining that offer and choosing to be charged in Egyptian pounds instead is almost always the cheaper route, since the ATM’s own conversion rate is typically worse than what your own card issuer applies. It’s a small screen, easy to tap through without reading, and one of the few moments where slowing down for a few seconds at the machine saves real money over the course of a trip.

The detail that trips people up isn’t getting cash, it’s getting the right cash. Baksheesh runs on small notes, and vendors and attendants at a busy site often can’t or won’t make change for a large bill. Before a day out at Giza, the Grand Egyptian Museum or a Saqqara, Memphis and Dahshur circuit, break large notes at your hotel or a bank rather than at the gate. It’s a small habit that removes a surprising amount of friction from the day.

Egyptian pound notes circulate across a range of denominations, and the biggest practical difference between a smooth day and a frustrating one is often just whether you’re carrying enough of the smaller ones. Breaking a large note isn’t always instant, especially at a small kiosk or with a site attendant who has only just opened for the morning, so building a little buffer of small notes before you set out removes a recurring source of friction rather than a one-off inconvenience.

Keep a mix of denominations in a separate pocket from your main wallet, since you’ll be reaching for small notes repeatedly through a single outing, not once. Drivers on day trips, felucca crews on a Nile sunset cruise, and guides on a Cairo food tour are all moments where having exact or near-exact small change ready keeps things simple for everyone.

What the platforms won’t tell you

Booking through GetYourGuide or Viator handles the tour price, and increasingly some of those listings are shown in dollars or euros for browsing convenience. It does not tell you what to carry for the parts of the day that sit outside the booking: baksheesh at the site, a tip for the guide who exceeded the brief, a tea break, a bathroom stop. For an experience like a private guided visit to the Egyptian Museum, the ticket and guide fee are settled online, but small baksheesh moments around the visit, a cloakroom attendant, a helpful guard, are separate and cash-only.

The same applies to a Cairo food tour that stops at several small vendors: the tour itself is prepaid, but extra bites, a tip for the guide, or a small souvenir purchase at a stall along the way calls for EGP in hand. An evening out like a Cairo by night outing runs the same way: the booking covers the core experience, cash covers everything informal around it. If your trip runs longer, something like a multi-day Cairo tour package bundles more logistics, but still leaves baksheesh and incidental cash spending to you day by day.

None of this is a reason to avoid these bookings, it’s a reason to walk in with EGP already sorted rather than discovering the gap at the pyramids with only a card and a $50 note.

What actually surprises first-time visitors

The volume of baksheesh moments in a single day at a major site is the part that tends to catch newcomers off guard, more than the concept itself once it’s explained. At the Giza Plateau in particular, it’s common to be offered small unsolicited services: someone pointing out a photo spot, offering to take your picture, gesturing toward a shortcut, waving you toward a viewpoint. Each of these can come with an expectation of a small cash thank-you, whether or not you asked for the help in the first place. None of this is unique to Giza, but the concentration of visitors there makes it more noticeable than at quieter sites like Dahshur or the smaller Fayoum oasis towns.

The honest approach is to decide in advance how you want to handle unsolicited offers, since working it out on the spot, mid-visit, tends to feel more stressful than it needs to be. Some travellers politely decline anything they didn’t ask for and keep walking; others accept small help and pay a token amount for it. Neither approach is wrong, but arriving without having thought about it at all is what leads to the moments people describe afterward as pushy or uncomfortable. It isn’t a scam layer specific to tourists, it’s the same baksheesh habit described earlier in this guide, just concentrated at a handful of very busy stops.

A realistic cash routine for Cairo and Giza

Build a small daily habit rather than trying to plan every payment in advance. Withdraw EGP soon after arriving through Cairo International Airport, ask specifically for smaller notes where the ATM or counter allows it, and keep a portion set aside purely for baksheesh, separate from money for meals or shopping. Top up as needed through the trip rather than carrying a single large sum for the whole stay.

If your base is a hotel in downtown Cairo, Zamalek or Garden City, or a Giza hotel facing the plateau, the front desk is usually a reliable place to break notes before a day trip. On longer excursions, such as an Alexandria day trip or a run out to Ain Sokhna, stock up before you leave the city, since smaller towns and roadside stops may have fewer exchange options.

This isn’t a system that needs to be precise. It’s closer to keeping your pockets stocked the way you’d keep a phone charged: unglamorous, easy to forget, and the thing that actually smooths out a day built around several small cash moments rather than one big purchase.

Baksheesh and Egyptian pound FAQ

What currency should I actually carry in Cairo?

The Egyptian pound (EGP, shown as LE or E£). Some tour listings display prices in dollars or euros for foreign bookers, but the currency you spend day to day is EGP, drawn from an ATM or exchanged on arrival.

What is baksheesh, exactly?

Baksheesh is the everyday habit of small cash tips for a huge range of minor services in Egypt: a bag carried, a door held, a bathroom attendant, a photo allowed, a bit of local help. It’s closer to a running social norm than an occasional restaurant tip.

Is baksheesh the same as a normal tip?

No. A one-off tip in most countries is for waitstaff or drivers. Baksheesh in Egypt extends to far more situations and far more people, and it’s expected in small denominations, often, rather than one larger sum at the end of a meal.

Can I just use my card everywhere?

No. Cards are accepted in hotels, shopping malls and most restaurants, but baksheesh, small vendors, tea stalls, site attendants and many taxis run on cash only.

Where do I get Egyptian pounds?

ATMs at Cairo International Airport and around the city are the standard route; hotel front desks and exchange bureaus also handle notes, though rates and fees vary by outlet. This guide does not fix a rate, since it changes.

Should I carry US dollars or euros as backup?

Some excursions and larger purchases quote in foreign currency, but day-to-day spending, including baksheesh, is in EGP. Check your tour operator’s listing on GetYourGuide or Viator for how that specific booking is priced.

How much should I tip guides and drivers?

This guide doesn’t set fixed amounts, since expectations shift with group size, trip length and season. Your tour confirmation or the operator’s own guidance is the more current source than any number printed here.

Do I need small denomination notes specifically?

Yes. Baksheesh is paid in small notes, and change is not always available from vendors or attendants, so breaking large notes at a hotel or bank before heading out saves friction at the pyramids, at mosques and on day trips.

Are old or torn Egyptian pound notes a problem?

Sometimes. Small vendors and baksheesh recipients can be reluctant to accept notes that are heavily torn or very worn, since they may struggle to pass them on again. Newer, cleaner small notes move more smoothly through a day of cash transactions than a stack of damaged ones.