Guide to Trains in Egypt

Egypt is a huge country with many different options to travel around it! However, it can be hard to get good information about traveling independently through Egypt as many people who go there take tours. Along with flights and buses, there are many trains in Egypt that you can take to different parts of the country, too.

Trains can be a great option in Egypt! They are usually much cheaper than flights. They also give you more room to walk around than a bus (and trains in Egypt have bathrooms)! Read on to see some helpful info before booking a train in Egypt!

Quick Tips

• If you’re buying tickets online, do so at least 2 days ahead of time!
• The trains are always late! Our train from Aswan to Cairo was over 2.5 hours late! Keep this in mind if you want to avoid arriving at an awkward time.
• Avoid making travel plans directly after your trains scheduled arrival time for the same reason as above!
• The air conditioning on the trains is COLD! Be prepared!
• You can take you own food and drinks on the train! There are also many places to buy snacks right outside the train station, as well as on the platform next to the train!
• Don’t be surprised if a police officer escorts you through the train station when you arrive. This happened to us (and all the other foreigners) in Cairo. They took us from the train to the entrance then left us alone.
• There are many x-ray machines at places like train stations in Egypt.

Can Foreigners Use Normal Trains

First, I want to address this as it’s something that we saw quite often when we were trying to figure out trains in Egypt! YES – foreigners can use normal trains in Egypt! The expensive Wattania sleeper train is NOT the only train option! Apparently there used to be a rule that foreigners couldn’t take the normal Egyptian trains…however, as of 2019, that is no longer true. Even though it’s no longer true, we’ve heard that foreigners can have difficulty buying normal train tickets in person from Cairo to Luxor/Aswan. It seems to only be that route though. If you do have difficulty buying tickets from Cairo to the south, you can bypass the problem by buying your tickets online ahead of time or trying to purchase tickets once you’re actually seated on the train.

Wattania Sleeper Train vs Normal Train

Another thing that we want to address early is that we 100% think it is better to take the normal train than the sleeper train! The Wattania sleeper train is extremely expensive – especially for Egypt! As of March 2022, a single cabin is $126 USD and a bed in a double cabin is $84 USD (foreigner prices on the Wattania website are all in USD).

The entire month that we traveled Egypt, we didn’t pay more than around $30/night for our hotels and airbnbs. We thought it was outrageous to even consider paying $168 USD for both of us to take the sleeper train from Aswan to Cairo! We were on a backpacking budget and that expensive overnight train was not included! Especially when you consider that you can occasionally find flights between Aswan and Cairo for as cheap as $60 USD and it takes less than an hour and a half.

As you will see below, the normal train is only a fraction of that price! If you have extra money to spend, it might be worth it. However, if you want the cheapest way from Cairo to Luxor the normal train is the way to go. Sleeper train tickets can be booked on the Wattania website here.

Types of Trains in Egypt

Expensive Sleeper Train

We already talked about the Wattania sleeper train. If you want to book it you can do so on their website here. Tickets are $126 USD for a single cabin and $84 USD for a bed in a double cabin.

Express Trains

The express trains all have assigned seats, air conditioning, and a food cart that goes down the aisle a couple times. You should also have a plug by your seat. You can see all the express trains on the Egyptian National Railway website. These express trains are then further broken down into VIP special express trains (listed on the website as ‘special service OD’ trains) and the older express trains (‘Speed AC Spanish’ trains).

Both the VIP special service OD trains and the older Speed AC Spanish trains are considered express trains. I’m not sure of any major differences between them other than the VIP OD trains are newer and have nicer seats. They’re also more expensive. Although neither of these trains are very expensive. Tickets on these two trains from Cairo to Luxor range from 109 EGP to 255 EGP. That’s about $5.88 USD to $13.76 USD. Either way they’re MUCH cheaper than the sleeper trains!

I would also advise you to be prepared for the air conditioning! We took one of the Spanish trains from Aswan to Cairo and we were FREEZING!

Ordinary Trains

I don’t know much about the ordinary trains except that they’re not listed on the Egyptian National Railway website, most of them don’t have air conditioning, they’re much slower than the express trains, and there are no assigned seats. I’m only mentioning them here because we saw a lot of info saying to jump on a train and pay on the train. So you should be aware that these ordinary trains exist!

Train Schedule in Egypt

If you’re going to take the train in Egypt, first you need to see the train times. You can check the Egyptian train times in English on their website here. You can search trains about a month ahead of time. Just enter the starting station, ending station, the date (March 24, 2022 must be entered like 24/03/2022), and set the passenger profile to ‘ordinary’.

You can then see the type of train, the price, the departure time, and the estimated arrival time. Remember that most trains will be late! Once you know which train you want, you can proceed to book tickets for that train.

How to Buy Train Tickets in Egypt

Buy Train Tickets Online

Unfortunately you can’t reserve the tickets too far ahead of time. At the time I’m writing this, you can see the train schedules up to 4 weeks in advance. However, you can only book tickets between 2 days-2 weeks ahead of time. If it’s less than 2 days, you’re too late to book online. More than 2 weeks and you’re too early.

If you’re within the 2 day-2 week period, you can go back to the train website and signup for an account. You’ll have to enter your passport number, but it’s relatively easy to make an account. Once you make an account (or login to an existing account), agree to the terms and conditions, then you can search for the train you want. There is also a limit to how many tickets you can purchase at one time (usually 4). Select the train you want and you can pay with a credit card directly on the website!

Buy Tickets at the Train Station

If you have less than 2 days, your credit card isn’t working online, or don’t want to buy tickets online, you can also buy tickets directly in the train station. If you know what train you want, it might be better to buy tickets a couple days ahead of time just to make sure you get the train that you want and it doesn’t sell out. However, we bought tickets the day of and it worked out fine! Although we were traveling Egypt when there weren’t as many tourists due to covid….so maybe try to do it ahead of time just to be safe!

Some train stations have self serve ticket machines which you can use. However, you can also buy them at the counter. We bought ours at the counter. To make the language barrier easier, we wrote down the date and time of the train we wanted, along with the destination and train number. It was super simple to buy the tickets and we were good to go from there!

Buy Tickets on the Train

We read many posts advising people to do this. Honestly I don’t think it’s the best idea. If you get on an air conditioned train, all the seats are reserved. Therefore you might be sitting in someone else’s seat and when they get on the train later, you’ll have to move. You’ll also need to have cash if you plan on doing this…and the conductor might not have change for big bills (I’m speaking from experience here)!

We also found that they really don’t like you to do this anymore. When we arrived at the train station planning on buying tickets on the train, there was a man at security (lots of x-ray machines at train stations are normal in Egypt!) who asked for our tickets before letting us on the platform. As we didn’t have tickets he escorted us to the ticket counter to purchase tickets. We were only allowed to purchase them on the train because the machine at the ticket counter was broken!

Ask at Your Hotel

If all else fails and you can’t buy tickets and are too paranoid to try to get on the train without them, you can ask at your hotel or try to use a travel agent. Most of the hotel employees we encountered in Egypt were super helpful! I’m sure you could ask one of them to assist you, although they might want a small fee/tip in exchange.

What to Take on the Train

• Blanket – If possible, bring a blanket! Our train was SO COLD!!! We actually both got out our backpacking travel towels to try to use as blankets (on top of the hoodie and leggings I was already wearing) because it was that cold!
• Sleeping Mask – Our sleeping masks were life savers as the train was not dark the entire night! I’d definitely recommend using one if you have it.
• Tissues – There was a toilet on the train, however it did not always have toilet paper.. Keep some tissues in case!
• Face Wipes – These were great to clean our faces before sleeping, as well as to clean off the tray at our seats!
• Sanitizer – I always carry sanitizer when traveling. Especially when public bathrooms are involved!
• Phone Charger – Make sure your phone charger is handy! Luckily we were able to use the plug at our seat to make sure all our electronics were charged during the long journey.
• Portable Charger – Always take a portable charger in case you don’t have the right plug or the train charger isn’t working!

More Tours in Egypt

Don’t forget to check out some of the many tours available in Egypt during your vacation!

Watch Our YouTube Video about the Trains in Egypt!

You might also like our guide to Go Bus in Egypt! They were also so convenient to travel around!