12 Days in Egypt: Starlight at the Pyramids, then Dahab

I wanted to do an international trip this year, just not Thailand or Vietnam again. Almaty in Kazakhstan and Egypt were on the list, and the flights to Almaty were a bit costly.

Then I saw the Starlight Festival coming up. The first edition, two nights in front of the pyramids at Giza, 9 and 10 October 2026, with so many good artists on it. I'm a house and techno DJ myself, so I couldn't say no to this.

The rest of the trip got built around that weekend. Cairo for the festival, a night bus down to Sinai, one day in Sharm, then Dahab. Twelve days, solo, from Bengaluru, and working through most of it.

At a glance

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The route

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Getting there

Gulf Air, through Bahrain. Out at 05:45 on 7 October and into Cairo at 15:35, back on the 18th at 16:55. ₹49,761 when I booked, plus ₹10,048 when I moved the outbound to the early flight a week later. The flights were amazing. Good food, good seats.

I did the visa through Atlys. There was a lot of talk about needing an agent's letter of invitation for the Egypt e-visa, and in the end nobody asked for it at all.

Immigration at Cairo was smooth. Nobody asked me anything, and it was empty when I landed. I got a WE SIM at the counter (EGP 1,267 with data), pulled cash from the CIB ATM in arrivals, and took a cab into the city.

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Cairo

I stayed at The Australian Hostel in Downtown for the whole Cairo part, festival nights included. I'd booked a single room, but they had overbooked, so the first two nights were in a dorm and the room came after.

The location was good. Quite central, with a lot of restaurants, cafes and places around. But I didn't like the staff much, and it wasn't a social place at all. No activities, nothing happening in the common areas. As a hostel it was dead, and next time I'd find somewhere else.

I didn't have any plans for the first night. On the Hostelworld chat a few people were meeting up to roam around the market and maybe get dinner, Rohan and two girls, one from Mexico and one from Germany. I took an Uber bike to Khan el-Khalili and joined them, which took a while, because finding anyone in there is hard.

From the market we took a cab downtown to Cairo Cellar, a boogie bar, for beers and food, then Gemini, which has a deck, and one more bar after that.

Khan el-Khalili at night.

The next day I went to the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir, EGP 550. The mummies of Yuya and Thuya were crazy. This is the old museum downtown, not the new Grand Egyptian Museum out by the pyramids. I only ever saw the outside of that one, because it's where you check in for the festival.

Lunch after was koshary. Rice, lentils, pasta, chickpeas, tomato sauce, crispy onions, EGP 75. Really good and really heavy, and I kept eating it for the rest of the week.

Yuya at the Egyptian Museum, and koshary.

That evening Rohan and I went to the rooftop bar at the Carlton, very costly but cozy, and another bar after. My share for the night came to EGP 900 to 1,100.

Cairo felt a lot like India. Very similar infra, a lot of people, crowded.

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Starlight

A weekend pass, ₹28,800. EXIT and P+US ran it. It was totally worth it, and I'd do it again.

Getting in is a process. You go to the Grand Egyptian Museum, check in, take a bus, queue, go through security, and then you're at the festival. That took 60 to 90 minutes, and up to two hours at the rush.

Night one started at the hostel, with a quick lunch, beers and drinks in my room, and out to Giza at 7. I was there by 7:30 and inside by 9:40.

And then it was fucking crazy amazing.

I tried molly for the first time there, and it hit right in the middle of Indira Paganotto's ARTCORE set on the No Sleep stage. I was a few feet from her, and it never felt crushed or exhausting, just a really good experience. Most of the night I stuck with one of the guys from the group. Stayed till about 3, then we went to Le Pacha for the afters. We didn't go in, just hung around outside the hotel with smokes and drinks, talking, and I was back at the hostel around 10 in the morning.

Night two I picked up Red Bull, cigarettes and water on the way, about EGP 350. I wasn't feeling my best. The pills going around were being resold at stupid prices so I didn't get anything, and drank off what was left on my wristband instead.

Michael Bibi and Charlotte de Witte, crazy sets, wow, and no sleep. I stayed around the main stage almost the whole time.

The crowd management was epic. Maybe being from India makes it a different experience, but even with that many people, especially on day two, it never felt crowded. The main stage was very big, and the other stages were small but never cramped. It was only during Charlotte's set that I looked around and thought, okay, this is a very big crowd.

After, we thought about Le Pacha again. They were charging quite high prices for what would have been a couple of hours, and there were no drinks, you had to bring everything yourself. So we went to the hotel next to it, where one of the girls in the group was staying, sat with the pyramid views and smoked for a bit, and I was back Downtown around 8.

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After the festival

The next couple of days in Cairo were recovery. I woke up at 2pm the first day.

Most of it was cafes. Daily Dose downtown was where I worked from, and where the festival group was booking their bus and stay in Sharm. The hot Spanish latte was good, the iced caramel one wasn't, and the wifi was fine until it suddenly died. Caribou was the other one. Turtle mocha, very chocolatey, and a very good carrot cake.

We had lunch at an Arabic place, salad and grilled chicken with rice, and good. Some shopping for party stuff and wigs, and back to the Carlton for beers. Then they took the bus to Sharm, and I went back to the hostel and slept.

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Sharm, for a day

From what I'd looked into, I liked Dahab better than Sharm. But I wanted to see Farsha Cafe, and the group was already there, so I thought I'd do one day with them on the way.

GoBus overnight on the 12th, ₹1,900 on a friend's card, into Sharm at 9:30 the next morning. There were two or three checkpoints on the way into South Sinai where they check everyone's passport, so keep yours on you. The bus wasn't crowded, which made each one quicker. The group's bus the night before had come in four hours late.

Uber doesn't work in Sharm. Everyone uses inDrive.

The day was a beach (EGP 200 to get in, and another 200 for a towel), a smoke shop, the Rizz lounge, Farsha, and Hard Rock Cafe to finish. We picked up some hash, EGP 500 for my share. Somewhere in there one of us lost a purse and there was a lot of drama.

Farsha, down the cliff to the sea.

Around midnight I took an inDrive to Dahab, EGP 1,200.

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Dahab

Dahab is really nice. The water is so clear you can see straight through it, everything is chilled out, and I felt a lot safer and better there than in Cairo.

Dahab from Lighthouse Reef.

I stayed at Eldorado Lodge and Restaurant, right on the beach. Booked four nights, then added one more at the end so I could go to the airport straight from here.

I was a little worried about the room, and it turned out really nice. The staff were very friendly and helpful. The best part was the beachfront. Since I was staying there I could use it anytime, and I'd lie on the beach shack for hours, especially around midnight, and almost slept there a few times.

The first day I woke up around 11 and stayed by the water. Cappuccino and a shrimp pasta that was meh at Eldorado's restaurant (EGP 775, on the card at checkout), then the beach next to the beach club. Dinner was at a Palestinian place, good heavy food, about EGP 350 for my share, then a walk through the market.

The next two days were slow. The group had planned to come over for a tour, and it got shifted to Saturday, so it was brunch on the front (smoked salmon eggs benedict and a Turkish coffee), a short sunset trek near town, which was free, a restobar, dinner at a nice local family place (chicken, EGP 200), and a lot of the beach at Eldorado.

Saturday was the tour. The group came over from Sharm for it. Two of them had booked it and I just joined them, USD 32 all inclusive except snorkelling gear. I had to walk a fair bit to meet them, and for the last stretch a carpenter gave me a lift on his bike and dropped me right where they were.

The ATV was fun. I skipped the camel ride and bought a scarf instead, EGP 100. Then snorkelling with rented gear at a spot just before the Blue Hole, off the shore by a restaurant, for about 45 minutes. Lunch was included, and I got a mango shake on top for EGP 200. Then the Colored Canyon, which was stunning, but very short. I was expecting much more.

The Colored Canyon, with the moon already up.

My shoes didn't survive the day.

Back in town they checked into Rafiki, and half an hour later we went to Nirvana, an Indian restaurant. Biryani, chicken tikka masala, dal, breads, about EGP 400 a head, and good. Some souvenir shopping (little pyramids and fridge magnets), and then the beach at Eldorado. They left after a while, and I stayed until 1:30.

I didn't make it to the Blue Hole itself. I wanted to do Mount Sinai at sunrise too, but it goes with St Catherine's Monastery, and the days it was open didn't line up with mine.

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Working from there

This was a workation, and the wifi in cafes and at the stays was a lifesaver. Daily Dose and Caribou in Cairo, and Eldorado in Dahab.

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Getting home

The bus from Dahab back to Cairo is 10 to 12 hours, maybe more with the security and checkpoints, and I had to travel the whole next day anyway. So I flew out of Sharm in the morning instead. EgyptAir MS25, 08:45 to Cairo, EGP 6,343. That left seven hours in Cairo before the flight home.

Up at 4:40 for an inDrive to Sharm airport. The first driver turned out to still be in Sharm and ditched me. The second accepted 1,300, then asked for 1,500 for an "airport charge", and further down the road tried for another 500 "for the police". I gave him 1,500 and that was it.

Sleepy flight to Cairo. Leaving was slower than arriving, with some lines this time, and passport control got confused over some Arabic paperwork for a while before waving me through. The Emerald lounge at Cairo airport was free with my card, and nice. Food on all the flights was included. Then Bahrain, and home.

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What it cost

About ₹2.09 lakh all in. We pooled cash and paid for each other all the time, so instead of working out my share of every bill, this counts the money that actually left my accounts: bookings, card spends, ATM cash and the cash I borrowed and paid back. Pounds and dollars are converted at roughly ₹1.84 and ₹96.

The card spends include whatever I put on the card for the group, like Hard Rock, and the cash covers my part of everything we paid together. The USD 500 I carried came home unused, and so did about EGP 500, which I'm keeping.

Without the flights and the festival pass, the twelve days on the ground were about ₹1.2 lakh. Some prices for scale: koshary EGP 55 to 75, a cafe coffee EGP 130 to 180, a beer in Dahab EGP 70, the Dahab tour USD 32, dinner at Nirvana about EGP 400 a head.

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Egypt tips

Visa. E-visa before flying, through Atlys for me. The letter of invitation everyone talks about never came up, and immigration on arrival didn't ask me anything.

SIM. Get a WE SIM at the counter in Cairo arrivals. They register it to your passport there. It's a physical SIM only, so I had to take my Jio SIM out to put it in.

Money.

• I put nearly everything on an IDFC FIRST Mayura card, no forex markup. Most places took cards, even the Rizz lounge and Eldorado.
• For cash, use bank ATMs. Both CIB pulls worked. One NBE ATM took my money and gave me nothing, and it came back to the card the next day.
• Pick EGP when a terminal asks which currency.

Apps.

• Uber in Cairo.
• inDrive in Sharm and Dahab, where Uber doesn't work. My airport driver tried to raise the price twice on the way.
• Hostelworld chat, which is how I found people on the first night.

Getting around Sinai.

• Keep your passport on you on every road trip. There are checkpoints on the way in.
• Cairo to Sharm was an overnight GoBus. For the way back I flew Sharm to Cairo instead of another long bus.

Food. Koshary, the cheapest good meal in Cairo.

Scams and haggling.

• There are a lot of scammers around, and the first price you hear is usually a very high tourist price. Negotiate almost everything.
• Someone quoted me a high price for what was a two minute cab ride.
• On the last morning my inDrive from Dahab to Sharm airport accepted EGP 1,300, then asked for 1,500 for an "airport charge", then tried for another 500 "for the police" on the way.
• Lots of photo scams. Someone says hey, photo, and then it's EGP 50 or 100 per photo.
• People ask for tips for no real help. Giving directions, or just putting my bag up at the bus or the airport, which I could have done myself.

Starlight.

• Check-in is at the Grand Egyptian Museum, then a bus, queues and security. Give it 60 to 90 minutes, up to two hours at the rush.
• Payments inside run off your wristband. You top it up and tap to pay. I put EGP 4,000 on mine the first night.
• I stayed Downtown and went out to Giza only for the festival nights. The hostel's location was good for that.

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Would I go back

There were a lot of cats everywhere in Egypt. Loved it.

Starlight is coming back in 2027 and I'll probably be there. See you there then.