backpacking

Oh my gosh! that's all i can really say.

went to jordan for more than a week, and felt it was safe. I even stayed at a backpacker's hotel in downtown amman and never felt awkward. well, except for that occassional flirting in shops, and being grabbed by the shoulders at a public beach in aqaba because i happened to ask where the aqaba fort was and loud hooting from what seemed like a sportscar in aqaba. i wore long loose garment, covered head to toe!

but egypt seems a jungle out there without our male 'protectors'!!

thanks somuch!

from the long mail, i could make out you are still distressed. when did you go by the way?

i hope fellow travellers will take note.

Sananda - wait a while - you will hear other opinions from other female travellers. StopLookListen clearly had some very traumatic experiences - which I don't want to diminish at all - others I'm sure have more positive things to say about Egypt. As she says, best you hear both sides before making your decision.

For what it's worth I (as a male) had a wonderful time in Egypt and found the locals to be incredibly friendly, welcoming and hospitable - away from the tour bus hordes anyway. I appreciate this isn't all that relevant to your gender specific question, but there it is anyway.

Hi. I am also a woman in my twenties planning on travelling to Egypt alone. When are you going to be there? I'll be there from around the 16th sep for 2 weeks.
Maybe if you're there around that time we could organise something and travel together, a little safer??

Oh my gosh... Stoplooklisten has striken again with all her bulls--t.

Well, I'm a 30-year-old female and contrary to her, who has only visited Egypt as a very scared tourist escorted by a male friend, I am a single woman who has been living in Cairo for more than one year. I know many single women living here and travelling here and I've also met quite a number of female solo travellers.

Let it be said : Stoplooklisten has a serious mental problem, who spends her time writing lines and lines of inacurrate information on this forum. Let it be said : Egypt is one of the safest countries in the world for a female solo traveller, there are pratically no sexual abuses of Western women and most Egyptians are extremely respectful and eager to help you. Also as soon as you are far from the touristic zones, people won't annoy you as there are no touts and they'll assume you're an expatriate.

Of course this implies that you also respect their culture by wearing "decent" clothes and by not reacting in weird ways. If a man gropes you in a public bus and you don't react, of course he won't stop and other passengers won't help you : they think you enjoy it ! Now if you shout at him, I can tell you other passengers will be immediately on your side. Anyway, I've never been groped in any buses, the only real risk is in the male section of the subway but except if you're really dumb you'll travel in the female section... Then simply use your good sense like not letting any man touch your skin even lightly and if one annoys you, do what any female expatriate or Egyptian does : shout at him ! But frankly, a lot comes with the body language, I'm almost never groped as they can feel I'd react harshly. This is very subtle but if you're smart you'll notice it quickly : if a guy talking to you begins coming closer, simply take a step back and he'll immediately understand you're not interested.

If you've travelled in Jordan, you'll be perfectly fine in Egypt. It is true that Egyptian males are sexually more frustrated than their Jordanian counterperts as they get married much later (an Egyptian needs to own his own flat before getting married, which is extremely difficult nowadays due to joblessness and the housing crisis) but this only means you'll have some guys watching you weirdly in the street. Just tell them "Taïz eh?" (= "what do you want" in Egyptian dialect) and they'll even apologize.

And honestly, most of the things Stoplooklisten wrote are complete clichés. Yes, Egyptian men date Egyptian women. Yes, you can look a man in the eyes (watch the Egyptian women walking in Dowtown Cairo, they're not the kind of women who watch their feet). And yes, you'll enjoy your time immensely in Egypt. Just listen to people who really live there and really know that great country.

Egyptian men aren't as puritanical as Catw makes out.
Yes Egypt is safe but i am quite sure most western female tourists, no matter how well informed about Egypt come away with some type of grope/comment/stare!
For all that Sananda, Egypt and the Sinai, which is part of Egypt by the way, is SAFE.
Cheers.

I'd always wanted to go to Egypt but after my experience a few years back I won't be returning until I'm much older I'm sad to say.

Went with my mum, dad and sister when I was 19 almost 20 and everywhere we went my sister and I were hounded. What's even worse is that both of us looked quite a few years younger than our age, I'd say from some of the photos 16 tops. We never went anywhere the entire holiday without our parents because we just didn't feel safe and we still didn't get a moments peace when being shadowed by my very protective (and where needs be) aggressive mum and my rather large father who, compared to the majority of most of the Egyptians, looked like an A-listers security guard.

we did a nile cruise from luxor to aswan and stopped off at various places along the way and whilst there were some stares etc from the locals, our main trouble was the security guards around the tourist sites, guarding the jetties and even the airport. Considering these are the people who have the most contact with pale,Western girls ( I stuck out like a sore thumb because I never ever tan) they were definetly the worst leerers, and they've all got bloody great big guns! Leaving the country was the worst part, we were actually followed by a growing party of airport security and workers from the moment we checked in to when we were sat in the departure lounge where they all openly stared at us through the glass windows until we got on the plane.

In retrospect we could have covered up slightly more, the most flesh ever on show though was below the knee and bare arms, and we were covering up with shawls sarongs etc when we were in a public place. I t wasnt as if we were walking around in bikinis.
Personally, I don't think we did anything to warrant the sort of attention we received. We avoided eye contact with men but then if you looked up to see where you were going or to actually look at the things you'd travelled there to see, you grabbed everyones attention instantly.

Inside ancient temples etc, there was absolutely no problem as this is the tourist realm. Running the gauntlet of shopkeepers, guads etc to get into and out of them is where the real problem lies.

I can only speak for the main tourist spots and not for Cairo or any of the small towns because I didn't visit them but whilst nothing really bad happened to me, the constant harrassement and having to constantly monitor behaviour which in my own culture is everyday ie: looking people in the ,so that you don't create cultural misunderstanding and unwanted attention was exhausting and ruined the holiday for me.

catw - I don't think stoplook listen has a 'serious mental problem'.

The penny dropped when I read the following part of her response:

"A woman in Muslim culture is supposed to avoid eye contact or look at the ground when passing a man - making eye contact is considered a come-on aswell but I refused to avert my gaze as I'm not a Muslim woman"

SLL - by looking men straight in the face you were ADVERTISING YOUR AVAILABILITY. It doesn't matter that you're not a muslim. Customs differ in different countries. In Egypt - and Tunisia, and several but not all muslim countries - that's how the men recognise that a woman is a PROSTITUTE.
And if that happens - well, it doesn't matter how you're dressed, or how young or old you are.

The first time I went to Tunisia I looked at everyone and, although I had a great time dur to meeting and spending time with a family there, I did sense an 'undercurrent' which I couldn't put my finger on.
But the moment I stopped looking directly at men, everything changed dramatically.

Believe me, it really DOES make that much difference.

Boy, these types of questions really seem to bring out the ding-a-lings.

Egypt is an exceptionally safe country to travel in; you won't have any problems as a single woman traveling alone.

Do cover up: no shorts, tank tops or cleavage. You may still get looks, but men won't feel the right to disrespect you by hissing or "accidentally" bumping into you.