Cairo International Airport (CAI)

Three terminals and the free train that joins them

Three passenger terminals and a seasonal hall share the field, and the number on your boarding pass follows the airline rather than the destination — the same city can be served from two different buildings by two different carriers. Terminal 3 is EgyptAir's own home and where most long-haul travellers land; Terminal 2 stands beside it, sharing the mall and the walkway between them; Terminal 1, the oldest of the three, sits on its own side of the airport.

A free automatic train links the terminals with the mall and the car parks, and it is the sane way to move between buildings with luggage. Plan for that move rather than assuming there is none: a connection sold as a single ticket can still mean a different building, a second security check and a walk with a bag you thought you had said goodbye to.

The bank window before the passport queue

Travellers who apply online land with permission already granted and join the passport line straight away. Anyone buying on arrival does something that surprises people who have not read ahead — the visa is sold at a bank counter in the arrivals hall, before immigration, and paid in cash in a major foreign currency rather than by card. Walk past it into the queue and the officer sends you back across the hall.

What you carry away from that window has been shifting from a sticker in the passport toward a digital record, so follow the signage in the hall rather than an older account of how it works. Which nationalities may buy at the counter, and which must apply before boarding, belongs to the entry rules for Egypt.

Into the city: the road is the journey

No rail line reaches the terminals. The metro network stops short of the airport, and the nearest station is joined to it by a dedicated bus rather than by track — a route for light luggage and patience, not for a first arrival with a suitcase. Everything else is road, and road here swings between clear and standstill depending on the hour you land.

Ride-hailing apps are the default and the reason fare arguments have largely left the curb: the fare is fixed in the app before the car moves, and each terminal has its own marked pickup point. Official airport taxis and the prepaid desks in arrivals are the alternative, and most hotels will put a driver inside arrivals if you ask when you book. It is also where getting around Egypt begins, since most onward journeys start with a flight from here.

Connecting onward: the domestic wave

This is where an intercontinental arrival turns into a short hop south: the board fills in waves toward Luxor, Aswan, Hurghada and Sharm El Sheikh, and a flight south is how most travellers reach the boat for a Nile cruise. Find out whether your bags are tagged through or have to be collected and checked in again — the answer follows whether the flights sit on one ticket, not how tight the timing looks.

Layovers, night arrivals and the early flight

Hotels cluster along the airport road in the surrounding districts and run their own shuttles, the usual answer to a pre-dawn departure or a connection that has fallen apart; there is also accommodation on the airport side for anyone who would rather not leave the perimeter. Lounges sell entry at the door, and bag storage is better arranged with a hotel than assumed at the terminal.

Whether a layover is worth leaving on depends on the road rather than the clock. The Giza plateau is genuinely reachable on a long stop and genuinely not on a short one, because the drive crosses the whole city and the traffic decides. On a short stop, stay inside — the mall between the terminals keeps long hours, and a paid lounge is a quieter place to fail to sleep than a gate.

Practical: cash, connectivity and the way out

Carry cash in a major currency for the arrival itself, then stop carrying it: bank machines are spread through the halls, and it is worth declining the offer to bill you in your home currency. Keep small notes to hand, because a porter will appear at your elbow with a trolley and expects one; the rest sits in the guide to money in Egypt.

An eSIM that switches on as you land saves hunting for a counter while a driver waits. Departures build late in the evening, when the long-haul bank and its security queues arrive together and check-in closes earlier than travellers expect. Assistance for reduced mobility is arranged through the airline in advance and met at marked points, and the arrivals duty-free shops are open to you only for a limited window after landing.