The 209km journey from Alex is best accomplished by bus . There are twelve daily A/C West Delta services (7am & 3pm; £E17) throughout the year, augmented from June to September by more comfortable Superjet buses (7.15am & 8.15am; £E23) that likewise depart from Midan Sa'ad Zaghloul and take about three hours. Don't bother with the West Delta non-A/C buses from the Misr (new) station (every 1-2hr; 6.30am-1.30am in summer, till 5pm in winter; 4-5hr) unless you want to stop over at El-Alamein or Sidi Abd el-Rahman. Quicker but scarier are the service taxis that depart from outside Masr Station until around 6pm (£E10; 3hr 30min). Trains from Alex can take up to nine hours, and consist only of A/C 2nd class (£E10) or 3rd class (£E6.40) carriages.

 

Matrouh can be reached directly from Cairo in about six hours by identically scheduled A/C West Delta and Superjet buses, leaving at 6.15am, 7.15am (both £E35) and 7.45am (£E30) from the Abdel Mouneem Riyad Terminal near the Ramses Hilton. Book seats a day or two beforehand. Mornings are the best time to catch sporadic service taxis (£E20) from Ahmed Helmi and Koulali squares, near Ramses Station, which take about seven hours; an alternative is to ride to Alex and pick up another service taxi there. Over summer there are thrice-weekly trains (£E260) from Cairo to Matrouh, but at the price it's hard to imagine a reason for using them - or the EgyptAir flights (June-Oct Thurs, Fri & Sun; 1hr; £E344 one-way).

Tourists intent on travelling to Siwa Oasis without staying in Matrouh catch either one of the direct services from Alex, or an early morning bus from Cairo to Matrouh, and then the afternoon bus on to Siwa. The former limits your exposure to Matrouh to half an hour; the latter gives you enough time to stroll around and have lunch before returning to fight your way aboard the bus, some time between 3pm and 4pm.