Where to buy a local SIM card in Egypt and how is mobile coverage at hotels?

Hotel Wi-Fi is weak and only works at reception. Better to buy a local SIM card right away — about 1000 steps from the hotel there are three official mobile phone shops.

Wi-Fi works at reception and at the nearby café La Terrasse. It also reached a room close to reception, but the speed was very slow — calls were impossible, so it had to be turned off in favor of another connection method.

The hotel offers a small portable router for rent, but it costs from $60 and must be pre-ordered. An alternative is to buy a router in town, insert an Egyptian SIM card into it, and share the internet to a phone or laptop.

Hotel Wi-Fi works well on the property, with only occasional brief dropouts that are fixed by reconnecting. Outside the hotel grounds and at neighboring hotels, the signal disappears entirely.

Hotel Wi-Fi is only available at the reception desk, so coverage is very limited. For reliable connectivity, it's better to buy a local SIM card at the phone shop just across the road from the hotel.

If the hotel Wi-Fi goes down and you don't have a local SIM, you'll be left without any connection. It's advisable to pick up an Egyptian SIM card in advance at the nearby phone shop across the street.