“Not what I anticipated: My Arrival in Cairo, Egypt” 🇪🇬 – Video

My Arrival to Cairo, Egypt was not what I expected! After putting off my trip to Egypt for years due to negative online content about the country, I finally decided to visit for myself. In this video, I share my first impressions of the city and the visa on arrival process in Egypt. I also take you to the Novotel 6th of October where I stayed during my time in Cairo.

Upon arriving in Egypt, I was blown away by the beauty outside the plane window as we landed in Cairo. I decided to vlog my experience upon arrival to debunk the myths of difficulty entering the country often portrayed online. Despite the warnings I had received, the immigration process was actually very smooth and easy.

I stayed in the Novotel 6th of October, as recommended by a hotel representative, and found the area to be a perfect choice for my stay. I also had the opportunity to explore different areas of the city during my visit.

I also share my frustrations about not being able to get a SIM card in the airport due to the lack of service providers supporting eSIMs. This made it difficult for me to connect to the internet and contact my Uber driver, adding an unexpected challenge to my arrival.

Overall, my first impressions of Cairo were positive and I was pleasantly surprised by the experience. Egypt is a beautiful country and this visit was an eye-opening and enjoyable experience. Join me in this video as I share my journey to Cairo and debunk the negative stereotypes often portrayed online.

Watch the video by Travelwithchris

Salam alikum welcome to Cairo baby yeah a lot of  construction going on you can tell that there’s a   lot of developments um happening and I love these  Vans too these Vans are awesome look they’re so   small this here is the swimming pool relaxing  area there’s all kinds of beach chairs places  

To hang out what’s up everybody welcome back to a  brand new video now right now I actually just got   off of my flight from sprf for Germany to Cairo  it was about 4 hours and to be honest it felt a  

Bit brutal because I didn’t get much sleep last  night um because of the jet lag but I’m excited   to be here now um as we were arriving I was  blown away by the views outside of the window  

Of the plane I mean everything was brown deserts  I could see the NY river outside of my window it   was beautiful so I’m super excited to be here  now right now I’m actually filming the intro  

To my video because this here is my well my first  impressions of Egypt now a lot of people told me   when I got here to not Vlog in the airport to  not make the video but I want to go ahead and  

Show you guys if entering is as difficult as  people have made it out to be I mean there’s   a million videos on the internet um from you know  all kinds of other travel vloggers telling people  

Not to come here with cameras but let’s see if  anything has changed right now in 2024 now this   airboard is super beautiful they got all kinds  of different um lounges I’ve noticed they also   have a lot of art pieces around the walls it is  beautiful this is my first time here I’ve never  

Even stopped here on a layover of course you got  the Arabic already because that is the official   language here in Egypt Arabic and in English is  the second spoken language baggage claim exit   connecting flights toilets now I did have to fill  out an immigr ation card on the plane but it was  

All very basic information and I’m sure we’ll  have to put that in uh right now when we make   it to immigration now my hotel actually reached  out this morning to see if I had Transportation   or scheduled any transportation to get me to  the hotel I’m staying at the no hotel in the  

6th of October neighborhood so not in downtown  Cairo I will be going there later on this week   however I wanted to um check out different areas  of the city so I’m staying at the nov hotel right  

Now and I was actually told by uh the lady that  contacted me that we can actually reach there by   Uber so we’ll jump onto an Uber and hopefully I  can grab a SIM card here in the airport as well  

Because I got no service all right I’ll talk to  you guys after immigration now so this here is   the line for the bank entry Visa I mean it’s  still pretty long line and then this year is  

The line to actually enter through immigration  man what a what a long day we’re about to have   in here this actually reminds me of when I  arrived in Tunisia a few months ago and this  

Took hours hopefully it’s not a 3-hour um yeah  line okay so here is the EV Visa stamp this is a   little ticket you get and you actually have to  pay $30 it has to be in US dollars to receive

This made it through immigration it was extremely  easy I got stamped up and now I’m at the baggage   car so hopefully my bags show up and um it’s  not like when we were in Sri Lanka a few weeks  

Ago where my brother’s bag didn’t show up and  was stuck in grease so hopefully that makes it   I always get a little bit nervous when I got  long layovers and I had that 24-hour one but   yeah everything went um incredibly smooth  I didn’t get asked to open up my bags or  

Anything now I did get asked as soon as I walked  through security one of the immigration officers   was like what’s up man where you from the US Oh  California you didn’t bring no weed with you bro  

What about any um stuff for your nose and I was  like bro obviously I didn’t so um that was really   easy simple straightforward I mean happens pretty  much everywhere else in the world and now we’re in  

Cairo and I see my bag so that’s good news all  right let’s grab the bag we’ll grab a SIM card   there’s some SIM card stations here and then um  time to hop into an Uber and make our way to the  

Hotel here it is oh I didn’t pack anything in  here it’s pretty much empty okay well I think   I’m uh pretty screwed right now at the moment  so no telephone providers here Voda phone they  

Got Orange right behind me none of them do eims I  guess eims are not allowed in Egypt so if you’re   coming here with an iPhone 15 and you have an  eim you’re screwed you can’t use it unless you  

Have service from home so I don’t know what I’m  going to do this is exactly why I wanted to keep   my old iPhone but I guess I’m going to be stuck  without a phone the entire trip it is what it is  

All right well damn I don’t even know what what  a ride to the hotel would roughly cost this is   going to be hard all right I’m going to figure  something else something out right now I can’t  

Even connect to Wi-Fi you can’t connect to the  Wi-Fi in Cairo Airport without a SIM card because   it sends you a text message message so it sucks  man can’t believe that no eims in the country  

And it’s one of the most visited countries in the  world crazy so once you make it through customs   there’s actually rental car services ATMs um a  little statue that says welcome to Egypt which   is pretty damn cool and right now I’m just going  to grab some cash and there’s all kinds of people  

Trying to um sell taxis and uh Hotel transfer  so I’m just going to have to take one of those   because yeah I have no phone absolutely nothing  just pulled out some cash I’ll actually show you  

Guys what that looks like once we make it into the  car but um I just looked on my conversion app and   I believe $20 is around 600 um Egyptian pounds  so here the money is called the Egyptian pounds  

I think that’s fair that’s probably like the max  I should pay to get to my hotel so um let’s see   right now who comes up and offers me something but  look at this welcome welcome to Egypt baby you got  

A nice big Pharaoh right there as soon as you walk  on in how cool is that how much do um Nova 6th of   October 6th oober Egyptian pound Egyptian pound  650 egptian pound okay let’s go I’m following you  

All right that was easy you’ll take that one for  me thank you welcome to Egypt you take me to Hotel   you you D it’s busy today huh what very busy today  no no no no it looks busy the lines were so long  

In Immigration yeah true true oh it’s nice and  fresh out here it’s nice warm beautiful sunset   time now we’re walking on over to the car oh I’m  so happy to be here look at these desert sunsets  

Oh these are going to be so nice to see look  we got a little Starbucks right there oh yeah   this is nice I like it and it’s not hot because  it is winter time right now so it’s about 20° C  

Which is around 60° Fahrenheit or 65 beautiful  weather actually it might be a little bit closer   to 70 and you know what earlier I mentioned that  the Visa was $30 it was actually $25 and you got  

To have American Cash you got to have American  cash for pretty much everything I’m not sure why   that is but that’s just the way things work so  I actually had to ended up paying 700 for the  

Ride to the hotel which is about uh $21 or so not  terrible but okay thank you not not terrible but   definitely um don’t think that’s what it would  have cost me in the Uber but hey it is what it  

Is I got to get there and I probably got to buy  a little burner phone now because yeah I need a   SIM card while I’m here or else I’m going to  be pretty useless especially for the map you know thank you enjoy your day

Siram all right time to get these Egypt  Explorations I’m excited to see what things   look like outside the window can I roll the  window down sir no English no English it’s   okay very little Arab Shan all right well we got  here at perfect time because the Sun is setting  

However we’ll still be able to um see a little  bit of the city First Impressions here we go now   typically speaking I would definitely tell you  guys something different like you know always   look for something that has like you know taxi  markings or whatnot but I was pretty much left  

With no option right now and yeah I feel like  it was a a good call to just jump into a ride   now what is the time right now oh it’s 4:55  and the sun’s already setting that’s crazy  

I actually saw the little glow from the sunset  around um 4:00 so it’s been around for a while   I mean look you get a little better view of it  now you know what let me not point the camera  

Outside too much cuz there’s a little bit of or  quite a few like police and military checkpoints   and the last thing I want is to be stop so yeah I  didn’t get told anything at all of course all I’m  

Traveling with is a GoPro and a a cell phone but  um you can imagine that you go through a lot of   like security screenings where you have to stick  your duffel bag so you can imagine if you come  

Here with drones big cameras microphones you’re  going to call a lot of attention um but yeah   everything everything went by extremely smooth my  driver’s on the phone right now he doesn’t speak   any English but it’s all good we’re here we made  it to our destination not to be honest usually I  

Get a little bit nervous um showing up to a place  for my very first time by myself um it’s been that   way ever since I started traveling but right  now I feel extremely comfortable maybe because  

I spent so much time in Tunisia recently and also  in uh Morocco but yeah look welcome to Cairo baby   welcome to Cairo 2024 happy New Year this is where  we’re kicking off um the New Year I’m so excited  

For what this year has to has or what this year is  going to bring let me know what you guys have in   mind what are some of your goals for 2024 I know I  want to hit a million Subs let’s hope we can make  

That happen hey how are you Salam and of course  now we’re going to be exploring Egypt so I’m so us all right so far Egyptians are super  cool I like it all right let’s hope it’s   like this the whole time a lot of um  mix opinions on the country based off  

Of YouTube videos that I watch some  people say it’s a rough place to   travel others say it’s pretty smooth I  think I think it’s going to be a mix of both I’m excited first time Egypt all right we’re going through like this  uh checkpoint gate now I think there like a  

Toll road to pay for for the highway and then  uh we’ll be well on our way you know what I   had a perfect view outside of my window as we  were flying in um to Cairo I can see like the  

Infrastructure and see like how densely populated  the city is but I couldn’t see the pyramids I was   really looking for them and I couldn’t see  them however I did see the NY River views of  

The deserts but yeah no sign of the pyramids from  the plane I was sitting on the right hand side so   maybe if you’re flying into EG into Cairo sit on  the left hand side and quite possibly that might  

Be where you view that um that iconic view of the  pyramids from the window out of but yeah we made   it oh something about um visiting a new country  for the first time oh there’s a huge military  

Checkpoint right now something about visiting a  country for the very first time is just oh man so awesome we just made it onto the highway I  didn’t realize that when I arrived here I   thought we arriv in at the Sphinx International  Airport that’s the one that I had saw on the map  

When I downloaded it I didn’t realize we landed  in the Cairo Airport that was near the new Kyo   city so we actually got quite a drive probably  about 45 minutes based off of what I can see  

On the map but let me just tell you guys so far  looks impressive here I mean the infrastructure   is uh very nice the roads look amazing look you  got malls everywhere there’s one right there we   passed by another one called Sun City and then  look at all of the advertisements on the highway  

Super cool right and yeah there’s not much traffic  where we are right now but I can imagine that when   you get closer to the city centers that it gets  pretty bad but yeah a lot of construction going  

On you can tell that there’s a lot of developments  um happening it’s really cool to see I think after   this I got to go to Algeria now because I’m  going to be missing Algeria and Libya for the  

North Africa oh man what a place wow those signs  are huge I wonder what the petrol is here if it’s   uh by liter or by gallon but yeah you can see um  what I was talking about while we were Landing  

I mean look it’s just desert out here guys just  desert and I’ve been noticing based off of what   I’ve been seen so far I’ve been noticing that a  lot of people smoke cigarettes here as well every  

Car that I’ve been driving by everybody’s smoking  so um I guess cigarette culture is uh not frowned   upon here well in a lot of the Arabic countries  in general I mean cigarette smoke is pretty much   part of the culture I mean uh shisha cigarettes  coffee it’s how people socialize you know well  

Not everybody I’m gener generalizing now but uh a  lot a large majority of people do love a nice um   shisha and a coffee a cigarette and a coffee seems  to be very common not only here in North Africa  

But also in Eastern Europe and in um the balans  but yeah look a lot of construction going on all right I’ll log back in once we make it a  little bit closer into the City and there’s   um something something else to look at  besides just construction and and the  

Highway but the highway is already super  impressive to me oh this building right   here I don’t know what this one is Kinski  oh kinsky that’s the hotel um that one I   could actually see from the airplane when  we were Landing so kinsky I was wondering  

What the one with the blue roof was that’s  what it is Coca-Cola advertisements what is   this vodo phone they should adverti that they  don’t sell eims crazy all right see you guys Soon now it’s quite impressive I’m  noticing that there’s a lot of like   um car dealerships along the roads there’s  also plenty of shopping sensors I think I   mentioned that a while back but another  really interesting observation that’s I’m  

Noticing that there’s a lot of people walking  along the highways oh what is that College of Egypt oh wow that is beautiful oh thank you sir now I just looked on  the map it said that we’re going to be driving  

By uh where the pyramids are so hopefully we  get a nice view of those as well but yeah the   city super impressive but what I was saying is I  noticed that there’s a lot of people walking along  

The highways and I think that uh they’re waiting  for rides or maybe that’s how they jump on the   bus I’m not too sure I haven’t seen actually  anybody doing anything but I’ve seen so many   people walking along the sites but yeah very  impressive City so far you know let’s put the  

Window down a little bit more and I love these  Vans dude these Vans are awesome look they’re so small furniture stores yeah man this is cool   and the buildings have such a  cool unique architecture to see

Them okay so that drive took about an hour and  a half but it was quite enjoyable I actually   knocked out for large majority of it but we just  made it here to the Nova Hotel this year is the  

Lobby it’s super beautiful you still got some  poinsettas they got a Christmas tree which is   really interesting to see I’ve seen a lot of  Christmas decorations and being that this is   primarily a Muslim country well it’s pretty um  odd to see but look they got a little computer  

To work on this here is the bar man this is  awesome such a nice hotel all right well I’m   going to get checked in right now but that  gentleman’s actually helping um out another   family and it looks like over here in this area  there’s a restaurant buffet oh this is nice and  

It smells lovely in here too look at this huge  gingerbread house I’ve never seen a gingerbread   house this big before man they’re in more of the  Christmas spirit here in uh Egypt and they were   over in America as of recently all right let’s  get checked in all right so the bman actually  

Brought my stuff to the room I’m on the third  floor let’s see what the suite is looking like   now I actually just got done adding breakfast and  dinner to all of my uh stay dinners were only 700  

Which is not bad and about $20 for all you can  eat buffet and the breakfast is about2 200 so   a steel around $7 all right I am 329 oh no 329  that’s not right there’s not even a 329 3128 oh  

I’m this way but yeah this place is beautiful  hey and the smells so good I love hotels that   put um nice air fresheners around the hallways  and the lobby it’s a nice touch all right 3128  

Oh I’m all the way down the hallway all right  it’s about to be time for a little room tour I   know you guys love the room tours I’m going to  show you guys what 80 us can get you here in  

Cairo all right 3128 oh man I think I missed it  yeah I passed it all right now um as I mentioned   earlier when we were in the car a lot of people  I noticed a lot of people smoking cigarettes and  

Well um here at the bar they actually have a  bar downstairs and a big pool that I’ll show   you guys maybe tonight maybe tomorrow man I walk  the wrong way where is this place oh man it was   right here but yeah they actually have areas  where you can smoke downstairs 3128 3127 3125  

All right you know what let me figure this out  and I’ll catch back up with you 3129 yeah where’s   my room 3128 are you kidding me it was right  next to the sign all right there’s my luggage  

Oh phone’s ringing wow this is beautiful what a  room all right let’s see what they want hello hi Sanka thank you so much thank you Sanka thank you bye Sanka what  a legend so he sent me an amenity kit because  

I left my tooth fresh in the last Hotel but  this here is my Suite um let me show you guys   so I actually got upgraded to this um this here  is an $80 but I paid $80 on my reservation this  

Here is the bathroom we got the sink nice  toilets of course with the hygiene wrap on   it storage space I’m guessing this is a closet  yeah nice closet space little espresso machine   teac kettle fridge safe what’s in here extra  pillows laundry bag coffee cups wine I mean  

Wine water what am I thinking about what am I  thinking about this here is the lobby I got the   lobby the living room I got a couch table little  chair television phone this here is the bedroom   wow this is beautiful big comfy queen-sized  bed actually this is a king it’s a king we  

Got a television another one usually I only  get one uh TV in hotels but this time we got   two so I got to make use of that and oh there’s  someone knocking this is probably my amenity

Kids hello sir thank you so much you’re fine very  good thank you sh say in you order and call your   reception number zero okay thank you so much have  a nice day and happy New Year thank you Happy New  

Year to you thank you oh man I’m G to love you  je and the hospitality here is good so yeah I   got a shaving kit sent up Dental kits um I kind of  overlooked this but look at this fruit um display  

That they put out for me and then a nice mix of  nuts looks like we got some walnuts hazelnuts and   almonds all right back to the room but yeah this  is awesome I’m going to be here for four nights  

Who knows this might even stay a little bit longer  uh big mirror what is this a door to the bathroom   as well oh wow another shower in a tub well shower  and a tub cuz the first bathroom literally just  

Has the toilets another storage space another  safe no this place is mint let me know what   you guys think down below and as I mentioned  it’s in a real trendy area 6th of October so   you know what um I definitely made a good good  choice by staying here all right so yeah this  

Here is the view look look you got the swimming  pool down there this here is the reception lobby   area they got a um the bar restaurants with  the Terrace oh this is gorgeous good morning  

Guys and well last night I ended up not doing too  much I came back down for dinner and let me just   tell you guys the dinner here is incredible so  I actually have an alak Kart menu and a buffet  

I actually went alak cart last night and I got  some steak with potatoes that was incredible and   then I also had a taco salad and of course where  a beautiful strawberry uh tart dessert that was   incredible now right now I’m currently waiting  for my omelets I’m at the breakfast buffet they  

Actually have a crepe stand over here I’m trying  to do a little bit of healthier eating so I got   an omelette coming out seasonal fruit falafal  but they have a wide selection of um breakfast   all kinds of different options but yeah let me  actually show you guys around this little um  

Courtyard area until my omelette comes up but this  here is the swimming pool relaxing area there’s   all kinds of beach chairs places to hang out it  looks like there’s also I don’t know maybe some   more rooms over in this direction they got shisha  a barbecue over in that direction beautiful hotel  

My room is actually like actually up there with  the balcony how amazing is this place though right   a lot of bang for your buck and the temperature  is absolutely perfect I can’t imagine coming out   here in the summer I can imagine during the  summer it is BR but yeah the plan for today  

Is to head into ancient Cairo the old part of the  city that’s where I’m going to be kicking off the   series and then I’ll be making my way around the  city now last night I actually ended up booking  

A last minute Nile River Cruise because that’s  what a lot of people do here in Egypt and I’m   cutting my trip extremely close but I think I’m  going to manage to make that happen so I have  

A feeling that in the next few days we’re going  to be flying to a swan to make the River Cruise   happen look they also have like some little  hangout areas for the kids beautiful hotel I   love all of the green spaces but yeah please let  me know down in the comments any recommendations  

You might have for Egypt where else should I visit  I mean there’s so many places to see but only um   very short on time I will be back however so  drop me down recommendations who knows maybe  

I’ll come back a lot sooner than later maybe I’ll  change my flight I don’t know but um for now uh   let’s get back over there and see if the omelet  is ready but yeah that’s the outdoor Terrace  

Area so even in the rain it’s covered you can  still sit outside enjoy the beautiful weather   here the birds chirping all right let’s see if  the breakfast is here hey thank you so much sir   wow this looks amazing thank you I appreciate you  guys and cheese something no cheese no cheese no  

No I think I’m fine Sal something I’m okay thank  you sir thank you thank you man the staff here at   the Nova are amazing so um that was Muhammad he’s  my waiter right now but this here’s the Omelette  

Looks amazing let’s go on in there and try this  who knows I might have to get a crepe later too bum okay breakfast was great and  I was actually able to come upstairs   change my flight for only a $75 fee  on Qatar Airways and I was able to  

Find a website let me tell you guys it’s a website called Olaf fly h o l a f l y Olaf fly and that’s  where you can actually purchase an eim so if you   have a iPhone 15 like I do um or any other  phone that requires the eim and you can’t get  

One here in Egypt use that application it’s kind  of expensive it’s about €40 for 10 days compared   to the SIM card at the airport that’s 15 EUR for  the same amount of time but it’s unlimited data  

It’s eim you need it you know what I mean and  I actually just noticed that there’s a mosque I   don’t know if you guys can really tell behind the  tree but there’s a mosque this place is beautiful  

It’s going to be a nice place to relax but yeah  guys for now I think I’m going to end this video   I hope you guys enjoyed the journey um getting to  the hotel my first little um experience arriving  

To Egypt it wasn’t as stressful as everybody says  it was or it is I mean you got to be smart guys   you got to um plan accordingly Egypt is not one  of those countries where you can come to with  

Microphones tons of camera equipment drones and  not have permission there’s a lot of videos on   YouTube saying um that this is like the worst  country to enter that it’s one of the hardest   countries to enter but that simply is not true I  think you just have to do your due diligence and  

You know plan accordingly there’s a video going  viral on the internet about Egypt um by Sony from   the best ever Food review show and to be honest  I love the guys videos I love all of his videos  

I watch them all the time but his video that he  created here in Egypt with the thumbnail saying   it’s the worst country has like 10 million views  which means 150 million people probably seen that   thumbnail and several million that watch the video  or saw the thumbnail probably changed their whole  

Ideas of coming to Egypt simply because of that  video and I think it’s wrong so so um keep that   in mind I had no problems at all coming in um  everybody’s super kind welcoming and I’m looking  

Forward to spending the next two weeks here in  Egypt so um for now I’ll leave you guys a little   more view of the noael here in the 6th of October  area of Cairo and I’ll see you guys again soon for  

Another adventure now that I got the SIM card  I’m feeling good I’m feeling relaxed I’m about   to order an Uber after I brush my teeth and then  we’ll head off into ancient Cairo and kick the  

Series off right first I need some cash though  I need some cash and then um we’ll be well on   our way now the Uber to ancient Cairo from here  is only 200 Egyptian pounds so around $5 not bad  

At all anyways um that’s it for now I’ll see you  guys again soon for another one later guys you always was the one to take I remember

Video “My Arrival to Cairo, Egypt was NOT WHAT I EXPECTED! 🇪🇬” was uploaded on 01/14/2024. Watch all the latest Videos by Travelwithchris on Gretopia