Sharm - money

[cheryl t]

Going to Sharm on Sunday and was wondering what currency is best to take. So we take pounds, dollars or egyptian pounds. Should we get the money changed into here or once we get there. Or would it be better to just take some change and then use plastic for everything else.
Ta

[Narked@50]

I normaly just get Egyptian pounds out of the cash line machine in sharm otherwise you'll end up doing conversions all the time. Sharm used to be more $ orientated years ago, but now I just find them inconvienient there. The only time I use hard currency is at the airport for visas.

James

[Big Blue]

Personally, I'd take sterling. There are so many bureau de change around with excellents rates of exchange, you'll not have a problem changing. Plus, if you do use the cash machines, you'll probably be charged by your bank back here.....

[The Dougie Paddler]

Having taken dollars in the past, I had some with me in November. Found them not to be as popular, most wanted euros, but were happy to take pounds. Check what you need for visas at the airport, take sterling, and use the cash machines if you need more cash.

[Scubamad]

We usually take what we can in Egyptian Pounds (I think it is £100) and then it doesn't really matter, use cashpoint, £ or $ travellers cheques. It is handy to have the Egyptian Pounds for the first day for tipping etc.

Have fun!!

[bubs]

One thing i found about sharm is that there is no best currency, we took egyptian pounds but there were occaisional places they were nt accepted- mostly hotels (we travelled around a bit) and some dive centres. .It seems to depend on who runs the place- obviously if its eygptians then they tend to accept their own currency, but i would say the euro was most popular, and never got rejected, US dollar is generally pretty acceptable.

Think about what you have already included in your holiday to what you need to take- if hotle and diving is already paid for then egy money should be fine.

[Richie]

ATM's are your best bet. They can be a tad erratic but you should find one that works.
Eqyptian pounds are the easiest but be prepared to get small change in chewing gum or whatever else is lying around the till. Even the locals don't seem to like the EGP1 or the 50Piastre notes.
Credit and debit cards are accepted in most places. Rates of exchange seem to be reasonable.
Egyptian pounds are needed for baksheesh (toilets, baggage carts, non hotel porters etc) so try to take some.
We were told that a visa, needed if you intend to go off Sinai or down to Ras mohammed, should be paid in USD or EUROs but I don't know how true this is.

Enjoy - we were there again over xmas and will be back around easter; insh bankmanager.

[calski]

Hi

We went out to Sharm in November and were told to take $s... however, the hotel we stayed in was pretty much Italians, French, and Germans... as a result, it was a "Euro" zone.... when we tipped the hotel porters with Dollars, they weren't all that chuffed!!!

Dollars were accepted elsewhere but not as much as we'd hoped and we ended up changing them into Egyptian Pounds as well as taking some cash out of the hole in the wall!

If I go again, I'll take Euros and probably just the £100 worth of Egyptian.

Hope that helps!

Calski

[DanE]

Use the ATMs, keep me in work

dan

[cheryl t]

Thanks for all your tips everyone. Will most likely take some Egyptian change out for tipping and then use a combo of Euro's and ATM

Richie - can I ask how warm/not so warm it was whilst you were out there. Was there anything decent to be seen