I gave Egypt a second chance, and it will also be my last. Good riddance.
The negative experience starts the moment you land. At the airport, you’re greeted with outdated, bureaucratic procedures that feel like they’ve been frozen in time. You still have to fill out paper arrival cards, with no pens available anywhere, and stand in endless line to pay $30 fee for a visa. It’s almost comical—except you’ve just spent hours traveling.
Then comes customs. Instead of feeling welcomed, I was left with the impression that employees were looking for any excuse to squeeze 400 EGP out of me and other tourists. Whether intentional or not, it creates an atmosphere of distrust from the very beginning.
Departure is somehow even worse. You get searched over and over again, four separate security checks before reaching the gate. By the end, it’s simply exhausting. To top it off, the passport officer expected me to open my passport to the page with the latest entry stamp, as if I should be doing their job for them. It perfectly summarizes the complete lack of professionalism.
Our stay on the North Coast (Al Sahel Al Shamali) wasn’t any better. Everything revolves around QR codes. Forget it, lose it, or your phone dies? Congratulations, you can end up locked outside for an hour under the blazing sun.
At times it genuinely feels like you need a QR code just to breathe.
The food was equally disappointing. Meals frequently arrived cold, drinks were often forgotten, and there were repeated attempts to short-change customers by not returning the correct change unless you paid close attention.
Even putting the service aside, the food itself was below average and nowhere near the standard you’d expect from a destination marketed as a premium summer resort.
The beaches may be beautiful, but they are overshadowed by outdated systems, unnecessary bureaucracy, poor customer service, and a constant feeling that convenience and hospitality are afterthoughts.
I’m finally back to civilization, and with a clear mind I can confidently say: NEVER AGAIN.
Edit: r/egypt banned me for saying the ugly truth, sore losers.