How much USD cash to bring to Hurghada and can you withdraw Egyptian pounds from ATMs with a foreign/UnionPay card?

The hotel ATM isn't picky about bill condition — even an old-style dollar bill with handwriting on it was successfully exchanged for Egyptian pounds through the machine.

You can informally exchange dollars with the hotel's luggage porter — he usually carries a large amount of cash on hand for exchange.

A foreign card failed when tapped contactlessly at McDonald's in Senzo — it needs to be inserted into the terminal's chip reader instead. The same card worked fine at a pharmacy, at the Bestway supermarket in Sahl Hashish, and at Hurghada airport. Pounds can also be withdrawn with this card from an ATM. Recommendation: carry both the card and backup USD cash.

Hotels charge a cash deposit of about $20-30 USD for the all-inclusive wristband and towel card; the wristband is collected at checkout.

It's fine to bring $100 bills — shops sometimes struggle to break them, but hotel reception will exchange large bills for smaller ones without issue.

Keep a couple of $1 bills handy — useful for tipping luggage porters at the airport or hotel.

ATMs can sometimes malfunction when dispensing cash: some travelers get crisp new pound notes with no issue, while for others the bill appears and gets sucked back in without dispensing.

Withdrawing Egyptian pounds with a UnionPay card (Russian Agricultural Bank) from the ATM near hotel reception doesn't always work — some travelers succeed, others get declined.

Last year, withdrawing cash from a local ATM worked without any problems; it's still worth bringing extra USD cash as a backup.

Paying directly in USD used to be common in some places, but it doesn't always work anymore — better to check locally rather than rely on past experience.

When paying cash, there's a risk the money goes straight into staff's pocket instead of the register — it's better to make sure payment is processed officially through the till.