Tipping in Egypt: 2026 Guide for Travelers

Carry Small Notes — Lots of Them

The single most useful thing you can do is keep a separate pocket or envelope of your smallest pound notes. Change is often scarce, and it is awkward to hand over a large bill and ask for change from a tip. Break big notes at supermarkets, pharmacies, and hotel front desks whenever you can.

Many tourism workers will accept US dollars, but coins are useless to them because they can’t be exchanged. If you tip in dollars, use $1 and $5 bills only. Egyptian pounds are always preferred for small, everyday tips.

Restaurants and Cafés

Restaurant bills in Egypt commonly include a service charge (often 12%) plus VAT. That service charge typically doesn’t go directly to your server, so the custom is to leave an additional 5–10% in cash on the table. At casual local spots and koshary shops, rounding up or leaving a few small notes is enough. At ahwas (traditional coffeehouses), leave a little change for the waiter who brings your tea or shisha.

Guides, Drivers, and Nile Cruises

Licensed Egyptologist guides are the backbone of most trips, and they are tipped at the end of each tour or at the end of your trip. For a group tour, around $5–10 per person per day for the guide and $2–5 per person per day for the driver are common figures. Private guides usually get more. See our tour guide tipping guide for how per-day tipping works.

Nile cruises usually collect a pooled tip for the crew at the end of the voyage, and many publish a suggested amount per passenger per day — often in the range of $5–10. Your guide is usually tipped separately. Ask at check-in so you can bring the right cash. On a felucca sail in Aswan or Luxor, a few dollars per person to the captain is customary on top of the agreed price.

Everyday Baksheesh

• Restroom attendants at sites, cafés, and rest stops: a small note when they hand you toilet paper or a towel.
• Hotel porters: roughly $0.50–1 per bag; housekeeping roughly $1–2 per night.
• Camel and horse handlers at Giza: agree the full price first, then a small tip only if you are happy.
• Temple and tomb guards who offer to show you a hidden corner or let you take a photo expect baksheesh. If you don’t want to pay, politely decline before following them.
• Taxis: agree on the fare before getting in, or use Uber or Careem in Cairo and Alexandria, then round up.

Avoiding Pressure and Overpaying

In busy tourist areas, unsolicited help — carrying a bag a few steps, pointing out a view, “guarding” your shoes at a mosque — often comes with an expectation of payment. A firm, friendly “la, shukran” (no, thank you) before you accept help is the easiest way to avoid it. When you do tip, hand the money over discreetly and don’t worry about matching the most aggressive requests.

If you are staying at an all-inclusive resort on the Red Sea, see our all-inclusive resort tipping guide — small daily tips for bar and housekeeping staff are common there too.