HOW TO HAGGLE AND HOW NOT TO GET SCAMMED IN EGYPT

In general, Egyptians are quite friendly with the Spaniards. Whenever they heard us talking and came to sell us something, their monologue was always the same: "Ohh, Spain, Spain, Spain, Real Madrid, Barcelona?" So if you want to avoid all this, you'd better tell them you're from a country that doesn't give them any room to hook you (Albania, for example, hahaha).

Getting around and eating in Egypt is cheap, but avoiding scams is very difficult. This can sour you on part of your trip to Africa. I don't remember how many times we could have been fooled but I can mention a few.

Examples of scams in Egypt:

• The "taxi" from the airport who told us he would take us to another terminal for 2 euros for the whole group (we tried to leave it closed before getting in just in case) and then wouldn't let us out of the car until we gave him 2 euros each
• Ask us for bribes for parking the car in certain public places
• Private citizens asking for money or threaten us with something if we did not park where they wants us to park
• Take us to a bazaar without asking and try to sell us "fake" papyruses
• A man offered to help us turn the train seat in exchange for a tip on our way back from Alexandria. Better tell them no from the start, turning the seat on that train was not complicated
• A taxi driver wanted to charge us more because in the end we were carrying more luggage than he expected. We had to give it to him because he was too insistent, they'll make up any excuse to get more money out of you. Again, try to lock in the taxi fare beforehand by specifying to the driver even the size of your luggage (you never know)
• Inflate the price to cross by boat in Luxor (at certain points there is no other way to cross), etc.
• They charged us more money than our friend for a juice and when we complained they justified it by saying "we have local rates and tourist rates"
• Plus all the anecdotes that I may have forgotten

Hagglin tips:

• Whenever they offer you a price you haggle, it's their culture

• Think about what would be the most you would pay for that object or service and divide that price in half. Propose that amount as the starting price, they will raise it a little once or twice, don't give up

• If they get annoying and don't lower it say that you're not that interested because you're not buying iy for yourself, but to give away as a gift and leave. From then on they will most likely call you again to come back and buy it for a more reasonable offer

• Try to close the group rate for using a service before using it and avoid paying until the service has ended

• Compare prices and if you have any problems, in some areas there is "tourist police" to whom you can report such things

• If you are a tourist they inflate prices, but you can play their game: try to slip them your private health card as a youth card or student card and get a lower price on some tickets (if you are under 30 it can often work). Be nice first and foremost, but it doesn't hurt to play at being sneaky like them too

• If you know Arabic, bargain in Arabic, of course, so they will have more respect for you and you will probably get a better deal

Do you have any other tricks you can think of when it comes to haggling? Do you have any strategies to avoid scams? Please share them here. If you are planning your trip, I hope this post can help you. You can also check this other blog post in which I summarise my personal experience in Egypt or this one in which I comment on the Egyptian gastronomy.