Setting foot in a big city can be a daunting experience, but you needn't worry about Cairo. Being overcharged by a taxi driver and spending your first night in a second-rate hotel is the worst that can happen to newcomers. Hustlers might try to lure you into overpriced perfume shops, but elaborate swindles are rare and robbery with violence is unheard of.

 

Cairo International Airport has two main terminals, roughly 3km apart. Terminal 1 (known as the old airport) is used by Egyptian carriers, El Al and most Arab, African and Eastern European airlines. Western European and US airlines use Terminal 2 (aka the new airport). For airport information call 291-4255. You'll find 24-hour currency exchange as well as ATMs that accept Visa, Plus, Cirrus and MasterCard at both terminals.

If you're flying in from abroad, be sure to fill out the customs declaration on arrival. Emerging from customs, you'll be waylaid by taxi drivers who'll swear that they're the only way of getting into town . Usually, this isn't so, but you might prefer going by taxi anyway. Egyptians pay £E10-15, but as a newly arrived foreigner, you'd do well to bargain the fare down to £E25; many drivers start by quoting £E50. Another ploy of the taxi drivers is to swear blind the hotel you want to go to is closed, full or a terrible place. They then take you to another hotel where they pick up a hefty commission, which will be quietly added to the cost of your room.

On one side of Terminal 1's forecourt is the parking area for buses (25pt) and minibuses (50pt) into the centre. Bus #400 leaves roughly every half-hour by day, hourly late at night or early in the morning, terminating by Midan Tahrir in downtown Cairo, as does minibus #27 (which runs until midnight). There is another 24-hour service - bus #948 - to Midan Ataba, on the northern edge of downtown. Terminal 2 is linked to the centre by two 24-hour buses: #949 to Tahrir and #948 to Ataba. The airport terminals are connected by a free EgyptAir shuttle bus , running all through the night. Besides the above options, there's a limousine taxi service next to Terminal 1's Masr Travel stand; prices are fixed and posted, though higher than regular taxi rates.

Buses from Israel, Jordan and Sinai usually wind up at the Sinai Bus Terminal (aka Abbassiya Station), 4km from the centre. Taxis outside grossly overcharge newcomers and try to inveigle them into hotels: resist them - Cairenes would feel generous if they paid £E5 for a black-and-white cab, or £E1.50 per person for a full seven-seater "special" taxi into the centre from here. Alternatively, cross the street (Sharia Ramses) outside the station and from the bus stop 20m to your right you can catch minibuses or buses to Midan Ramses and Midan Tahrir; or turn left outside the station and walk 300m on past the flyover to the hospital, where you have an even wider choice of buses and minibuses to Ramses, Tahrir and Ataba. The tickets on nearly all of the buses and minibuses plying these routes cost 25-50pt.

The bus terminal known as Turgoman Garage , in Bulaq, is where you're most likely to end up if you're arriving from elsewhere in Egypt. As it's only recently opened, transport from Turgoman into downtown Cairo is somewhat disorganized; the simplest option is to take a taxi (£E1.50 to Midan Ramses, £E2-3 to central Cairo), unless you fancy walking the 600m to Midan Ramses and catching a bus from there. Buses or service taxis from the Canal Zone or the Red Sea Coast drop passengers at the Koulali Terminal off Midan Ramses or the Ahmed Helmi Terminal behind Ramses Station; buses from Hurghada may drop you on Ramses Square, right outside.

All trains into Cairo stop at Ramses Station . There are hotels nearby, but the neighbourhood is so grotty that most visitors prefer to head downtown by metro (Mubarak Station is beneath Midan Ramses), taxi (£E3-5), or a bus along Sharia Ramses. Alternatively, it's a twenty-minute walk down Sharia Ramses, taking a left at Sharia Emad el-Din or Sharia Orabi, into the main downtown area, where most of the budget hotels are located.