Cairo is a city of over twenty million people with a road network built for a fraction of that, and the single most useful thing to understand is that journey times are unpredictable. A trip that takes twenty minutes at nine at night takes an hour and a half at five in the afternoon.
The Metro
The best thing in Cairo’s transport system: cheap, fast, air-conditioned on the newer stock, and it bypasses the traffic entirely.
Line 1 (blue) runs north–south through Downtown, with stations at Sadat (Tahrir), Nasser, Mar Girgis (Coptic Cairo) and El-Malek El-Saleh.
Line 2 (red) crosses it, serving Mohamed Naguib, Ataba, and Giza — from which the pyramids are a taxi.
Line 3 (green) runs east–west through Zamalek (Kit Kat), Opera on Gezira, and out towards the airport.
Line 4 is under construction.
Tickets are bought at the station window as a paper card or a rechargeable one. Fares are banded by number of stations and are very cheap.
The first two carriages are for women only and are enforced. Women may use any carriage; men in the women’s carriages will be told to move, firmly.
Rush hours are extremely crowded.
Uber and Careem
Both operate in Cairo and both work well. This is the single biggest improvement in the visitor experience here in the last decade: a fixed price, a map, no negotiation, and no argument about the meter.
Fares are low. Use them.
Taxis
White taxis have meters and are supposed to use them; older black-and-white ones do not exist any more in numbers. Negotiating a fare before getting in is normal if there is no meter, and the first price to a foreigner will be high.
Uber removes all of this and costs less.
The traffic
There is no polite way to put it: Cairo traffic is among the worst in the world. Lane markings are advisory, traffic lights are frequently ignored, and the horn is used as a general-purpose communication device rather than a warning.
Build in far more time than any map application suggests, particularly between four and eight in the evening.
Crossing the road
A genuine skill and a genuine hazard. Traffic does not stop for pedestrians and crossings are rare and often ignored.
The method Cairenes use: step out steadily and predictably, do not run, do not stop, and let the traffic flow around you. Drivers are watching and will adjust — what they cannot handle is someone who hesitates or reverses.
Cross alongside a local the first several times. This is not a joke; it is what everyone does.
Buses and microbuses
Extensive, extremely cheap, and effectively impenetrable to a visitor — routes are unnumbered or unmarked, destinations are called out, and everything is in Arabic. The microbuses are how most of Cairo moves and are best left to people who know the system.
Walking
Realistic within districts — Downtown, Zamalek, Islamic Cairo, Coptic Cairo — and not between them. Pavements are obstructed or absent, and distances are longer than they look.
Driving
Do not. Hire cars exist and the combination of traffic, informal rules and parking makes it a poor idea for a short visit. A driver for the day costs very little and is the standard solution for Saqqara and Dahshur.
Ride-hailing in practice
Get a local SIM or eSIM on arrival. Uber and Careem both need data, and being able to book a car from wherever you are standing is the difference between Cairo being easy and Cairo being a negotiation.
Drivers frequently telephone rather than message, and often do not speak English. Dropping a precise pin and waiting somewhere visible solves most of it. If a driver cannot find you, cancelling and rebooking is normal and costs nothing.
The metro in practice
Buy a rechargeable card at any station window rather than queuing for a paper ticket each time.
Stations are signed in Arabic and English and announcements are bilingual. The network map is simple enough to memorise.
Avoid 7.30 to 9.30 in the morning and 4 to 7 in the evening if you can — the crush is real.
Accessibility
Difficult, and it is better to know in advance. Pavements are broken or obstructed, kerbs are high, most metro stations have stairs only, and monument sites are on uneven ground with steps.
Al-Azhar Park, the newer museums (the GEM and the NMEC) and the modern hotels are the exceptions and are properly accessible. A private driver and a guide who knows the sites is the practical approach.