Editorial standards: how we source and review travel information

Which sources we use

For entry rules, currency, telecoms, monuments and medicines we go first to the Egyptian authority responsible: the e-Visa portal, the Central Bank of Egypt, the National Telecom Regulatory Authority, the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities and the Egyptian Drug Authority. For security we link to government travel advisories. For health we use the US Centers for Disease Control and the health pages of those advisories.

Where the only place to check a schedule or a service area is the operator’s own website, such as the sleeper-train booking site that Egyptian National Railways links to, we link to it and label it as an operator site. A link is there so you can check a fact where it originates. It is not an endorsement.

What “last checked” means

Every Travel Guide page shows the date on which we last opened its sources and compared them with the page’s time-sensitive facts: fees, emergency numbers, registration rules, named operators, legal restrictions and the like. The date is entered by hand by whoever did the check.

Editing the wording of a page does not move its date. Nor does a site rebuild. If a page has not been re-checked, it keeps its older date, and you should weigh it accordingly.

Safety information stays live

We do not describe a country as safe or unsafe. Conditions differ by region and change over time, and the right answer depends on who is travelling. We link to several governments’ current advice, summarise what they flag with attribution and a date, and tell you when to read them again. On the page, official advice and our own guidance are labelled separately so that you can tell them apart.

Health information is not medical advice

We use public-health sources to show you which questions to raise. A clinician who knows your health, your medicines and your itinerary should answer them.

Recommendations are labelled as ours

Suggested trip lengths, pacing, what to ask a supplier and how to handle tipping are our editorial judgement. They are not laws, official requirements or guarantees, and the pages say so where they appear.

When we cannot confirm something

If we cannot confirm an operational detail with an official or operator source, we take the detail out and tell you how to check it yourself, for example by pointing you to the operator’s current timetable. We would rather a page say less than state a price, a schedule or a rule we could not stand behind. That is why the money guide has no sample prices and the transport guide names no train classes.

Corrections

If something here is wrong or out of date, please tell us through the contact form and say which page and which line, so that we can check it against the source.

When each guide was last checked

These dates come from the same records the pages themselves display.