Digital Nomad Guide to Cairo
After all our years of travel - backpacking, van-life, housesitting and now being fully fledged digital nomads, we feel like confident travellers. We are savvy, street-wise and smart about our travel and work lifestyle.
However, nothing could prepare us for our arrival in Cairo. As digital nomads, your life is a constant balancing act. You may want to see all the sights once you arrive in a new place, but you have to prioritise your workload, meetings and deadlines.
This can feel a little like torture at times. We may be working 12 hour days with no time to see the fabulous museum that’s just down the road. We may not have enough time in a place to really dig deep into the culture and cuisine.
Yes, we may be living abroad, in fabulous cities or beach-front locations. Yes, we experience better weather than at home in the grey U.K.. And yes, we love our life. But being a digital nomad isn’t all glitz and glam. It’s a constant see-saw between work, travel and exploration.
Back to Cairo. November 2024 we arrived in this city full of hustle and bustle, intense heat and even more intense volume. We were excited - as soon as we arrived with our entire lives in our backpacks; clothing, work equipment and essentials, we were wide-eyed and eager to explore.
The hassle that faces you as a Westerner when you arrive in Cairo is no joke. As soon as we stepped outside the airport, until the time when we left the city, we faced an almost non-stop barrage of people shouting over to us asking if we needed help.
We also learned the hard way that things in Cairo run on Egyptian time. Our airport transfer never arrived - so we got in a taxi which looked relatively official. We booked a tour to see the pyramids - the guide was an hour late. We tried to find our apartment in downtown Cairo - the person meeting us was late and then kept us waiting an hour to check in.
All of this was a learning curve, of course. We realised there was no point being stressed out about these things and to just go with the flow. That is, until it came to trying to get our work done.
As digital nomads, our work is our priority. It has to be - it’s funding our travels and lifestyle after all. A few days after we arrived in Cairo, Monday rolled around. We logged on and found that neither of our VPN’s were working. Tom uses NordVPN and I use McAfee, two fairly big brands, with NordVPN being the recommended one to use whilst in Egypt (we’d done our research, or so we thought).
This was a huge problem for us both but Tom managed to get his to work eventually. On the other hand, I didn’t. This issue caused chaos for me. I was locked out of almost every work document I needed to access. Not only that, but it also impacted colleagues of mine as my attempts to log in to things locked them out, too! It meant that the week we spent in Cairo was one of my least productive weeks as a digital nomad.
Internet speeds in Cairo are also a problem. Make sure your apartment or hotel has good stable wifi. Ours wasn’t too bad, but was definitely better in the coworking space which is why we went there each working day.
Are you a digital nomad visiting Cairo? Here are our top tips.
TOP TIPS FOR DIGITAL NOMADS VISITING CAIRO:
VPN: Before you travel to Egypt, research the VPN you use and whether it will still work when you arrive. There are many recommended VPN’s you can use in Egypt, but it’s not guaranteed that any will work for you. Be mindful of this and if you can’t get your VPN to work, only work on things that don’t require one!
Pre-warn your colleagues: Give your colleagues the heads-up in advance that when you’re in Cairo, things may be a little up and down for you work-wise. It’s always best to give advance notice of these things!
Move important meetings: It would be a good idea to move any important calls or meetings to a time when you’re not in Cairo, if that’s possible. That way the poor internet speeds won’t cause you as many problems.
Coworking: Our top advice would be to research a coworking space in advance which isn’t too far from where you’re staying.
Our recommendation would be the fabulous co-work space Consoleya in Downtown Cairo. There were different membership packages and prices but the minimum to work in the Coworking Café, which provided wi-fi and a relatively quiet space to work, was 250 EGP per person per day (around £4).
Consoleya also had a more expensive option for 500 EGP per person per day (around £8), you could go up to level 3 and work in the cowork office suite - with the same wi-fi access, but also with water, coffee and tea available for free, ergonomic chairs and more of an office atmosphere. Both spaces are great value for money.
So, all in all folks, being a digital nomad in Cairo ain’t easy! Do your research, pre-plan which cowork space you will use, and pre-warn colleagues that you may have VPN and wi-fi issues. Would we go there again as digital nomads? Probably not. As tourists, without the worry of internet, VPN’s or workload, yes please!