Money, cards and ATMs in Cairo

The currency is the Egyptian pound, not the dollar

Egypt’s currency is the Egyptian pound, written EGP, LE or E£. It is not the US dollar and not the euro, and that stays true even when a tour listing on a booking platform shows a price in dollars or euros for convenience. Some drivers, market stalls and unofficial money changers near tourist sites will also quote prices in foreign currency, usually at a rate that favours them, not you. Paying in pounds, or at least confirming the pound equivalent before handing over cash, avoids losing money to an informal exchange rate baked into the price.

This isn’t a technicality. Visitors who assume dollars are “as good as cash” in Cairo end up paying more for taxis, souvenirs and informal services than someone quoting and paying in pounds. If a price is only given in a foreign currency, ask what it is in EGP before agreeing.

Cash you’ll actually need each day

Cash remains essential in Cairo, even for travellers who prefer to pay by card everywhere else. It covers:

• Taxis, tuk-tuks and informal drivers, most of whom don’t take cards — ride apps are the exception, and a short guide to Uber and Careem in Cairo explains how in-app card payment sidesteps the cash question for point-to-point trips
• Small shops, street food stalls and market vendors
• Entry extras a guide mentions on site (a bathroom fee, a small local service) — how sightseeing tickets in Cairo actually work covers which of these are official fees and which are closer to baksheesh
• Baksheesh — see below, this is the category people underestimate most
• Any stall inside Khan el-Khalili bazaar, where haggling and cash go together

Carry small denominations. Large notes are hard to break in markets and with drivers, and a vendor who can’t make change will often round the price up rather than down. A short guide to how to haggle in Cairo is useful background before a first trip to the bazaar, since bargaining and cash-in-hand go hand in hand there.

How much to carry each day depends on the itinerary — a day built around things to do in Giza with a private driver needs a different cash float than a walking day around things to do in Islamic Cairo. What matters more than the total is having enough small notes for several transactions, not one big reserve you can’t break.

Baksheesh: the tipping culture you can’t skip

Baksheesh is the word for small cash given for a service, a favour, or simply for someone doing their job — a bathroom attendant, a site guard who points out an angle for a photo, a hotel porter, a driver at the end of the day — for anyone arranging their own car rather than joining a tour, hiring a private driver in Cairo sets out what’s normally built into the fare and what’s left for baksheesh on top. It’s woven into daily interactions in Egypt far more than tipping is in many other countries, and it isn’t reserved for restaurants.

Travellers who arrive without small notes, or who assume a service charge on a bill covers everything, tend to find the day more friction-filled than it needs to be: guards and staff who expect baksheesh and don’t receive it can turn unhelpful, and a driver who feels shortchanged at the end of a long day is a bad way to close it. A dedicated page on baksheesh and tipping in Egypt goes into who to tip, in what rough range, and how it plays out over a multi-day trip — worth reading before, not during, a first visit.

The practical takeaway for the wallet: keep a stock of small notes separate from the cash used for bigger purchases, so baksheesh doesn’t dip into money meant for a taxi home.

Where cards work well in Cairo

Cards are genuinely convenient in a specific set of places:

Setting	Card acceptance
International hotel chains, upscale independents	Reliable
Shopping malls (Cairo Festival City, Mall of Egypt and similar)	Reliable
Sit-down restaurants in central Cairo, Zamalek, Heliopolis	Mostly reliable
Online bookings (GetYourGuide, Viator, hotels)	Reliable
Tuk-tuks, informal taxis	Cash only
Market stalls, street food	Cash only or cash preferred
Small independent cafes, local eateries	Mixed, often cash only

The pattern is straightforward: anywhere with a fixed storefront and a formal till tends to take cards; anywhere transactional and informal — a driver, a stall, a street vendor — doesn’t. Between the two extremes sits a lot of Cairo’s daily life, which is why cash stays necessary even for travellers who’d rather not carry much of it.

Contactless and chip cards both work at most machines that accept cards at all; there’s little reason to carry a card that only does magnetic stripe.

ATMs: where to find them and how they behave

ATMs are widespread across Cairo and Giza — in malls, hotel lobbies, near the airport and scattered along main streets — but they vary in reliability. A few practical points:

• Bank-branded machines attached to a staffed branch, mall, or hotel are the safest bet: someone is nearby if a card is retained or a transaction fails.
• Standalone street ATMs exist everywhere and are usually fine, but check for loose card slots or anything that looks attached rather than built in before using one.
• Foreign card rejections happen occasionally. It’s worth carrying a second card as backup, and withdrawing a slightly larger amount when a machine does work rather than making several smaller withdrawals and risking fees on each.
• Withdrawal fees vary by bank, both the Egyptian bank running the ATM and the visitor’s home bank; there’s no single figure to quote here, so it’s worth checking with your own bank before travelling what it charges for a foreign withdrawal.

For arrivals landing at Cairo International Airport (CAI), there are ATMs inside the arrivals hall — useful for getting a first stock of pounds for the taxi or driver into Giza before reaching a hotel with more reliable machines nearby.

Currency exchange: airport, banks, hotels

Exchanging foreign currency for pounds is straightforward at the airport, in bank branches, and at hotel front desks, though rates differ between them. Airport counters are convenient for landing with a first stock of pounds but not always the sharpest rate; bank branches in the city generally do better. Street money changers outside official premises are best avoided — there’s no recourse if the count is short or the rate misquoted.

Whichever route is used, count the pounds received before walking away from the counter, and keep the exchange receipt if a large amount is changed, since some banks ask for it if pounds are converted back before departure.

Booking tours online vs paying cash on the ground

Most day tours and activities around Cairo and Giza are booked and paid online through GetYourGuide or Viator, in whatever currency the platform displays — the booking itself doesn’t require carrying pounds. What does require cash is what happens on the day: baksheesh for the driver and guide, a small entry extra the itinerary mentions, or a stop at a market the tour includes.

An evening felucca sail with dinner, for example, or a stop worked into a city tour, is paid for online in advance; what’s left for cash is the tip at the end. A Cairo evening tour is a good example — the booking is card-based, but it’s worth having small notes on hand for the driver and any staff along the way. The same goes for a guided food tour through Cairo’s street-food spots: vendors along the route are cash-only even when the tour itself is paid in advance.

For the price of any specific activity, the day’s rate shown on the tour’s own booking page is the only figure to trust — prices shift, and nothing here should be read as a fixed amount. That applies just as much to a tuk-tuk ride through the city’s older streets as to a longer outing like a hands-on Egyptian cooking class, where ingredients and market stops are usually included in the online price but a tip for the host is a separate, cash matter.

Multi-day plans that combine several stops — Giza, Islamic Cairo, Saqqara — are also normally paid online as a package; see Cairo on a budget for how the cash and card sides of a longer trip typically split.

Money mistakes worth avoiding

A handful of avoidable errors show up repeatedly with first-time visitors:

• Assuming a dollar price is a real price. If a driver or stall quotes only in dollars or euros, ask for the pound equivalent before paying.
• Carrying only large notes. A 200 EGP note is hard for a tuk-tuk driver or market stall to break; smaller notes move faster and avoid awkward rounding.
• Skipping baksheesh entirely. It isn’t optional politeness in most day-to-day interactions in Egypt; going without small notes for it tends to cause friction later in the day.
• Using an ATM that looks tampered with. A loose card slot or an attachment over the keypad is reason enough to walk to the next machine.
• Relying on cards for taxis and tuk-tuks. Almost none of them take cards; running out of cash mid-trip means finding an ATM before getting home.
• Not checking the tour’s own price page. Platform prices shift, and no figure given elsewhere should be treated as current — see the listing itself, whether that’s a lesser-known corners tour or anything else booked for the trip.

For a wider list of common traps beyond money — from unofficial guides to overpriced photo spots — see Cairo tourist scams to avoid. A related read for the trip overall is dollars, euros or Egyptian pounds, which goes into why quoting in foreign currency is so common around tourist sites specifically.

Money and cards in Cairo: FAQ

Should I bring dollars or euros to Cairo?

Bring a card and plan to withdraw Egyptian pounds locally rather than carrying a wallet of foreign notes. Egypt’s currency is the EGP; dollars or euros are only useful as a small emergency reserve, and some drivers or shops will quote in them at a poor rate.

Are Egyptian pounds needed even for GetYourGuide or Viator bookings?

The booking itself is usually paid by card online, whatever currency the listing displays. What you’ll need pounds for is the driver’s tip, entrance extras the guide mentions on the day, or a bathroom attendant at the site — check the day’s rate on the tour page rather than assume a fixed figure.

Do hotels and restaurants in Cairo accept cards?

Mid-range and upscale hotels, shopping malls and most sit-down restaurants take cards without trouble. Street food stalls, small cafes, tuk-tuks and market stalls in places like Khan el-Khalili are cash-only or cash-preferred.

Where’s the best place to withdraw cash in Cairo?

Bank-branded ATMs inside malls, hotel lobbies or near the airport tend to be the most reliable and the least likely to be tampered with. Standalone street ATMs exist everywhere but vary in uptime, and it’s worth having a backup card in case one machine rejects a foreign card.

How much cash should I carry each day in Cairo?

Enough for a taxi or two, a meal, small purchases and baksheesh for the day’s drivers, guides and staff — the exact figure depends on your itinerary, but carrying small denominations matters more than the total, since large notes are often hard to break.

Is baksheesh the same as a tip?

It overlaps with tipping but goes wider: baksheesh covers small cash given for a service, a favour, or simply for someone doing their job well, from a bathroom attendant to a site guard who points out a good photo angle. It’s routine in Egypt, not optional generosity.

What should I do if an ATM eats my card or looks suspicious?

Avoid machines with loose card slots, extra attachments, or no bank branding, and prefer ATMs attached to a staffed bank branch, mall or hotel where someone is on hand. If a card is retained, the branch it belongs to is the first call, not the standalone kiosk operator.