Cairo vs Dubai
Which would you pick?
The short answer
Cairo is the cheaper trip, by roughly 46% a day — $50–100 against $90–190 mid-range per person. Both are at their best in Nov–Mar, so one trip can take in both.
Side by side
Mid-range, per person, in US dollars. Both guides were costed the same way — see how we work these out.
| 🇪🇬 Cairo | 🇦🇪 Dubai | |
|---|---|---|
| Daily budgetmid-range, per person | $50–100cheaper | $90–190 |
| Cheap meallocal staple | $1–3cheaper | $2.50–6 |
| Mid-range hotelper night | $45–100cheaper | $75–160 |
| Transit ridesingle trip | $0.20–0.40cheaper | $0.80–2 |
| Avg. monthly salarylocal, for context | ≈ $165 | ≈ $4,200 |
When to go
Filled months are the ones each guide recommends; hollow ones it warns off.
What you'd actually do
A few of each guide's picks, one per category before seconds — the full lists are on the guides themselves.
🇪🇬 Cairo
Twenty-odd million people, the last standing Wonder of the ancient world at the end of a city bus route, and a brand-new museum built to hold Tutankhamun. Loud, hot and exhausting, and nowhere else is quite like it.
- The Giza pyramids and the Sphinx$$Pharaonic Cairo
- Khan el-Khalili and El Fishawy$Islamic & Coptic Cairo
- Abou Tarek$Restaurants
- Tannoura at Wekalet El Ghouri$Evenings
- Grand Egyptian Museum$$Pharaonic Cairo
🇦🇪 Dubai
A city that was mostly desert within living memory and now has the world's tallest building in it. Easier and cheaper than its reputation suggests — if you know which Dubai you're spending in.
- Burj Khalifa — At the Top$$$Landmarks & views
- Gold Souk & Spice Souk$Old Dubai
- Ravi Restaurant$Restaurants
- Dubai Marina Walk$$Nightlife
- Dubai Fountain$Landmarks & views
Practicalities
| Cairo | Dubai | |
|---|---|---|
| Language | Arabic (Egyptian dialect). English is common at hotels, sites and anywhere that sells to tourists, thinner with taxi drivers and at street stalls. | Arabic is official; English is the everyday working language and is spoken almost everywhere a visitor goes |
| Currency | Egyptian pound (EGP, written LE or E£ locally). US$1 ≈ EGP 52. The pound was floated in March 2024 and roughly halved against the dollar, so any guide or forum post older than that has prices that are badly wrong. | UAE dirham (AED). Pegged to the US dollar at about 3.67 AED = $1, and it has held there for decades |
| Time zone | EET (UTC+2), moving to UTC+3 for summer daylight saving from late April to late October | GST (UTC+4). No daylight saving |
| Power | Type C/F plugs, 220V | 220–240V, Type G — the UK three-pin plug |
| Tap water | Treated and chlorinated, and fine for brushing teeth, but visitors drink bottled — it's cheap and everywhere | Desalinated and safe to drink, though most residents drink filtered or bottled out of habit and taste |
| Emergency | 122 police · 123 ambulance · 180 fire · 126 tourist police · 112 connects to all of them | 999 police · 998 ambulance · 997 fire |