Buying tickets at the station It's fairly easy to buy tickets at the station when you get to Egypt, although as this is Egypt a degree of patience is called for! Cairo main station has several booking windows, one for each class and group of destinations, so check that you are joining the right queue. You can pay for train tickets in Egyptian pounds, except for the Cairo-Luxor-Aswan deluxe sleeper which must be paid in foreign currency US dollars, euros or pounds sterling at the separate El Watania sleeper office. Except during busy periods, it's normally easy to get 1st class tickets on the day of travel or the day before.
The deluxe overnight sleeper train from Cairo to Luxor and Aswan usually has places available if you book a day or two in advance, but at peak tourist times such as Easter it can get fully-booked by tour groups, so pre-booking is recommended. Cairo-Luxor-Aswan restrictions The solution is to either buy a ticket online as shown above or use the self-service machines as below, or if all else fails simply get on the train without a ticket and pay on board, see the section on tourist train travel restrictions which explains all this.
You can also buy tickets at Alexandria, if you happen to be there beforehand, as it's reported Alexandria ticket office will happily sell tickets for Cairo-Luxor-Aswan trains when Cairo ticket office won't. Self-service ticket machines These are or were the easiest way to buy tickets when you're at the station, quicker and easier than using the staffed ticket counters.
All main stations in Egypt have self-service ticket machines with a touch screen and English language facility. They will happily sell tickets for the Cairo-Luxor-Aswan daytime trains too, even though the staffed counter won't. In late , reports suggest many machines have fallen into disrepair, or reject overseas cards, but look for one that works, some still do and if so, will accept overseas cards.
If you use these machines, feedback would be appreciated! Give it a try and see how it goes What tickets can it book? If you want to buy tickets for the Cairo-Luxor-Aswan sleeper trains, see the next section. When does booking open? Booking opens 2 weeks before departure. If you try to book more than 2 weeks before you want to go, it simply says there's no availability, so just wait until booking opens.
Other date night ideas and fun stuff to do together will get broken down as well. If you haven't spent much time traveling in Africa or Egypt. Alexandria is the second-largest city in Egypt and a major economic centre. With a population Recent radiocarbon dating of seashell fragments and lead contamination show human activity at the location during the period of the Old.
What won't it book? It won't book sleeper trains, only daytime express trains. Or book tickets further ahead than about 2 weeks. It also seems to book trains from Aswan to Luxor, but not from Luxor to Aswan. Can foreign tourists use this system? It allows you to select United Kingdom and other overseas countries from a drop-down list when registering and when booking a ticket.
After selecting United Kingdom it will happily book a daytime seats train from Cairo to Luxor, with no sign of any problem with the tourist restrictions.
The small print says it only accepts Egyptian credit cards, but I can confirm it accepts my own UK Visa credit card, and it uses the Verified by Visa additional security system. So give it a go. If you want to buy more tickets than this, you'll have to book via a travel agency or at the station as below or perhaps create two separate accounts using a different name and credit card. Enter your passport number in the National ID box. When activated, log in again and click on Make reservation. Select stations, class, and a date within the next 2 weeks.
It will not book further ahead than this. You can leave offset and time blank. You simply print this out and can board the train with just this printout and the credit card used to make the booking, as long as the main named traveller is the owner of the credit card. If you've used someone else's card, then you'll need a photocopy of the front of the credit card, passport, and reservation details.
Feedback would be very welcome if you use this system, successfully or unsuccessfully. It took 2 or 3 days until I could log in successfully, but I managed to book tickets online from Cairo to Luxor and from Aswan back to Cairo. We caught train from Cairo to Luxor in first class leaving at 8am platform 8 with self-print online tickets costing We had no troubles with our print-at-home tickets, as soon as the conductors saw them they spoke in English.
Quite simple really. We saw a few other non-Egyptians on the trains, all of whom had had to get around the system by getting people to buy tickets for them, or getting split journey tickets, costing around an extra Egyptian Pounds. The deluxe sleeper from Cairo to Luxor, arrived at Luxor station on a bright sunny morning Photo courtesy of Neil Bastock.
More sleeper train photos Buy tickets online for the Cairo-Luxor-Aswan sleeper train at wataniasleepingtrains. The payment page is https secure. Feedback would be appreciated. Option 1 is to contact a travel agency such as www. You'll pay a fee for their services, of course. Option 2, which avoids a fee but sometimes takes more persistence, is to book direct with the operator El Watania by phone, fax or email. To book direct with Watania, e-mail your booking request to info wataniasleepingtrains.
They will email you a booking reference and you can pick up the tickets and pay for them in Egyptian pounds, US Dollars or euros at the Watania reservation office, 48 Giza Street, Orman Building, first floor apartment No. If you cannot pick up tickets at least 24 hours in advance at these times, then book through a travel agency as recommended above, paying a booking fee. If you want to book Egyptian train tickets in advance before you leave home and the Egyptian Railways online booking system doesn't work for you, or you want to book the deluxe sleeper from Cairo to Upper Egypt, you may be able to arrange tickets by e-mail through an Egyptian travel agency.
Again, feedback would be appreciated. Reputable agencies include www. Osoris has been highly recommended by quite a few seat61 correspondents. To buy tickets through them, e-mail them at egypt osoris. Feedback on agencies, good or bad, is always welcome. Although Osoris has been recommended by several travellers, one traveller has reported poor service. I have removed Egyptlegend www. Bear in mind that credit cards are not always accepted by small Egyptian travel agencies, a Western Union transfer is often necessary.
On the Cairo-Luxor-Aswan route, these agencies may or may not be prepared to sell you a ticket for the 'restricted' daytime trains, so if they won't, simply forget trying to book, just get on the train without a ticket and pay on board, see the section on tourist train travel restrictions for details. One report says that www. A top tip for train travel in Egypt is to learn Arabic numbers.
The indicator boards at main stations often use Arabic numerals to show train numbers, departure times and platform numbers, only main ones show western numbers. If you know Arabic numbers, you can read these, making it easy to find your train from the departure time, even if you can't read the destination.
Arabic numbers are written left-to-right, exactly like western numbers, even though Arabic words are written right-to-left. To print these Arabic numbers, right-click the image and click 'print picture'. Make sure the meter is switched on. Back to top. Fluke, or have Egyptian Railways really stopped the nonsense described below? Feedback appreciated! Details are difficult to confirm, in fact the UK Egyptian Tourist Office denies any knowledge of any restrictions, but this is definitely the situation in practice: What do the restrictions mean?
The only trains from Cairo to Luxor or Aswan for which Cairo ticket office will sell tickets to foreigners are the overnight deluxe sleeper trains, in either the sleeping-cars or seats cars.
There is absolutely no problem riding these trains once you have a ticket or even if you haven't - see option 4 below! The restriction is purely about being sold a ticket at the ticket office. There are no restrictions on other routes If you have more information please email me.
Now, there's no need to put up with this. Or simply to save money if you're on a budget. Or just to strike a blow for freedom and non-discrimination! And yes, it's as safe or safer than anything else in Egypt. I repeat, there is absolutely no problem riding these trains, the restriction is only about being sold a ticket at the ticket office.
Option 1, book online! The Egyptian Railways online booking system will now book daytime express trains and overnight seats trains between Cairo-Luxor and Aswan up to 2 weeks ahead, and happily allows overseas users to buy tickets without any apparent problem, see the online booking section above. Many western travellers have already reported success with this option.
If you have any problems booking online, try options 2 or Option 2, buy tickets in Alexandria. So if you happen to be visiting Alex before your journey to upper Egypt, buy tickets in Alexandria! It also seems that Aswan and Luxor ticket offices are fine, it's Cairo that's the problem. This may or may not work, these days probably more 'not' but you can ask. Two reports have said that travel agency www. Option 4, use the self-service ticket machines at stations.
Self-service ticket machines have been installed at all main stations, they have an English language facility and reportedly accept most overseas credit cards.