Everything before you go
The visa
Almost everyone needs one, and there are three ways to get it. The third is free, but it confines you to Sinai.
Online, before you fly
The unhurried route: you land with your visa already in hand.
- 30 dollars for a single entry, 65 for multiple entries.
- You may stay 30 days. The visa itself is valid for three months — the countdown starts when you arrive, not when you pay.
- A passport valid six months beyond your return, a scan of the photo page, a bank card. Allow a few days.
- One official site only: visa2egypt.gov.eg. The rest are agents reselling the same form for more.
On arrival, at the desk
The usual way, and the quickest if you have the notes ready.
- 30 dollars, single entry, 30 days. The desk sits BEFORE passport control — follow the crowd and you walk straight past it.
- Cash, in dollars, euros or pounds sterling — not Egyptian pounds. Bring the right note; change is not always given.
- Since August 2026 Cairo has been trialling a card-payable digital visa, slightly dearer. Carry cash anyway: a trial is not a service.
- Not every passport qualifies. If yours is excluded it means the embassy, and that takes weeks to arrange.
The free Sinai stamp
For a diving trip, and only if you stay on the tip of Sinai.
- Free, 15 days, issued on arrival: just say “Sinai only” at the counter.
- It covers Sharm el-Sheikh, Dahab, Nuweiba, Taba and St Catherine's Monastery. Nothing else.
- It will not take you to Cairo, to Luxor or to Hurghada — the mainland desert is on the far side of a checkpoint.
- If your trip leaves that strip of coast, even for a day, buy a proper visa. A stamp cannot be converted into one once you are there.
The figures above changed in spring 2026 and will change again. Check them on the ministry's site before you travel, and never pay for a visa on a site that is not a .gov.eg.