I would say that Cairo is safe , provided you take precautions and wise up on common scams. Like any large city, petty crime does happen, but this can easily be avoided by locking up valuables and not carrying around large amounts of cash. There are a few extra things for female travellers to think about β particularly solo female travellers β although the huge majority of Egyptian people are friendly and helpful. There is a small risk of terror attacks and violent crime β as is the case for many cities around the world, including those in Western Europe.
The main issue that tourists face in the Egyptian capital is scams. Here are some of the scams that we either experienced or were warned against while we were exploring Egypt. When we checked into our first hotel, we were initially taken to another guesthouse down the road. This was a completely different hotel.
The entire conversation was very frustrating; the guy working at the hotel was patronising more about that in the female travel in Cairo section! These are more elaborate tourist shops. Generally, any photos of or with them will incur a fee β and they may become annoyed if you take one and refuse to pay.
This also applies to any animals that people are holding! Mosques and churches are virtually always free throughout the whole of Egypt, including Cairo. Non-Muslims are welcome at most mosques in Cairo too! Taxi rates in Cairo can be elevated β generally when drivers see a tourist, they may bump up the price. We avoided using taxis by solely utilising Uber which was very cheap and pre-booking our airport transfers.
While Cairo has a metro system, driving is hectic. Sounds of horns fill the air night and day, and vehicles weave into seemingly impossibly small gaps as traffic intersperses around. We used Uber to get around, which was very easy and affordable β if your card is already set up on the Uber app, you can pay without cash too.
