Most visitors buy a visa on arrival for $25. The details that trip people up are elsewhere.
For most European, British, American and Canadian passports the tourist visa is bought on arrival at the airport for US$25, valid for thirty days, single entry. You buy it at a bank counter before immigration, not at the desk itself — people miss this and queue twice.
The e-visa is the alternative, applied for online in advance at the same price. It saves a queue and is worth it in high season, but print it: the immigration desk asks for paper more often than not.
Your passport must have at least six months' validity remaining and a blank page. Both are checked, and airlines refuse boarding on the first far more often than immigration does.
It does not cover Cairo, Luxor or anywhere on the mainland — take an excursion out of the zone on a permit and you have a problem at the checkpoint, not at the airport.
The exception worth knowing: arriving at Sharm el-Sheikh and staying within South Sinai, a free entry permit covers fifteen days instead of a visa. It does not cover Cairo, Luxor or anywhere on the mainland — take an excursion out of the zone on a permit and you have a problem at the checkpoint, not at the airport.
