Tummy upsets
As elsewhere in Egypt, be careful with what you eat. Raw leafy vegetables, egg-based dressings like mayonnaise and minced meat are particularly risky. Avoid cold salads and puddings from buffets even in the 5* hotels just to be on the safe side.Opinions on tap water vary, but most visitors choose to stick to the bottled stuff. Large bottles of water can be purchased for 2 or 3 LE. Avoid ice in drinks, and only eat fruit with a skin you can wash or peel.
You may find that tummy medications you bring from home simply don't work.
All visitors would do well to buy from any pharmacy Egyptian brand drugs. The best and most common being Entocid and Antinal. Diarrhea and vomiting can almost always be stopped by taking 2 of these tablets with a glass of water in a few hours.
If symptoms persist, it is wise to consult a doctor as dehydration in Summer can come on quickly.
Smog can reach extreme levels, especially in late summer and fall before the rains. This, coupled with the summer heat, can make spending time outdoors in the summer quite unpleasant.
Mosquitos
Mosquitos are a part of life in Egypt so you will have to live with them. They are active from dusk till dawn, and then find a dark sheltered place to sleep during the heat of the day. They love humidity and wet environments where they breed. They also love leafy green gardens, and hedging. Sitting around lakes, pools, or in a garden at night can be suicide.
Only the female bites, and one female in a bedroom can cause much discomfort by morning, so it is always wise to kill any before sleeping. A fly swatter is best as they move due to air pressure, swatting with a newspaper will not work. Mosquito repellent sprays are of little value either.
Most hotels will have smoke sprays at dusk to quieten them down but they will revive and attack later.
The best defense is to kill any in hotel rooms. Wear long sleeves and long trousers when out at night.When out sit in a breeze or in front of a fan as they do not like moving air. The mosquito tablets and burners merely make them sleepy, they do not kill them. It's better to spend a few minutes going round the hotel room killing any you see than suffer days of itching and painful bites.
The Most Frequently Asked Travel Questions about Cairo
Where To Stay & Best Hotels in Cairo - updated Apr 2024
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Cairo Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.
