Travelling Egypt Solo As A Woman

Travelling Egypt solo as a woman. The trip of my life. But also if my daughters told me in the future that they would like to do this solo I would say to them as a Mother "I know your Mother has done it but you're not allowed, don't do like I have done."

The truths. The tips. The wish I'd done differently lessons. Here they are if you considering doing Egypt solo as a woman.

I had heard from multiple people that no one who went to Egypt came back internally unchanged and unaffected by the energy of the country. After two weeks spent travelling Egypt solo I can tell you hand on heart that this has been my experience.

The solo nature felt extremely important to me. There was an empowerment and a solo'ness that I needed from this experience that I knew I couldn't get if I was in a group accompanied by another.

This was something I needed to do for me.

And this trip gifted me something I hadn't expected or asked for.

It allowed me to shake off an entire year's worth of heaviness and change. I'd worked through so much but this trip to Egypt truly cleared and reset the soul, swept the tables of my psyche, and like jigsaw pieces of the puzzle I left Egypt with my power and peace clicked back into place in a greater way than it had ever done before.

It has been next level. Ultimate tbh. My language, my voice, my perspective. Back to who I was but on steroids. More on point than I've felt in years.

Egypt and its presence truly shifted me in a way that I expected because I'd been told to expect it, but also in a deeper way than I expected.

I've written previously about the spiritual awakening I've been on since leaving my marriage in 2016. Unexpected. Life and self altering. UNASKED FOR. But still it has happened. Many people have been through a mid-life awakening but that term doesn't quite cut it for me and my own experience. It's been wilder, more synchronious, more happened for me not what I asked for than anything you could have set in motion for yourself. (You can read about it here.)

And for anyone who has experienced such a process and who has navigated it over so many years (mine started in 2016), then you will understand the weight of so much change, over so many years, to carve you into someone you are meant to be, something you are meant to be for others and the world even sometimes. It doesn't happen with ease. It happens with a lot of challenge, sometimes heartbreak and deep, deep levels of growth.

I reached a first time ever point within me in mid August where the build up internally had reached such a point where nothing that normally worked was helping me to shift it entirely. I was energetically heavy. I'd lost sight of myself and my power. I was now not able to enjoy the life I'd finally created and stepped into in August that I'd been stepping into since January gradually.

That's what took me to Egypt if I'm going to be transparent. Me. And it ran deep.

Anyway. Back onto Egypt which is why you clicked here in the first place!

I arrived into Cairo after several weeks holidaying with others in my life privately.

I was nervous, questioning myself and my decision to do a country like this solo but knowing it was right. I was met at the airport by my hotel arranged taxi. A spunky Egyptian 20 something year old man. "Are you here on your own? Do you need company?" who played me trendy Egyptian Arabian tunes in his hotted up car with a big eagle on the back of it. He was polite, but open and not afraid to let me know about it.

I guess that sums up my experience with men in Egypt in its entirety. Nothing was necessarily impolite or felt dangerous (except for one experience that I'll share later). But it was constant. Leering at times. Everywhere. Relentless. And it deserves a solid mention if you plan to travel Egypt solo as a woman. It is a huge factor to navigate. Things could go wrong easily and very quickly particularly as you leave Cairo and Giza and make your way through and into the desert where many of the temples sit in isolation away from the large population areas.

I spent 3 nights in Giza exploring the pyramids, Cairo and the new Grand Egyptian Museum - which was the perfect amount of time. I used private guides everywhere I went that I had booked through Get Guide. I highly recommend this or group tours if you prefer.

After Giza I flew my way down to Aswan at the bottom of Egypt. After the busy'ness and grandeur of Cairo the majestic nature of the Nile River truly took me by surprise.

This is the wonderful thing about Egypt and places like this. I arrived with little thought about what I might like the best or desired to see the most and so what ends up moving you happens so unexpectedly.

Sitting on my balcony and looking at the Nile River at Kato Dool Wellness Resort in a Nubian Village outside of Aswan was truly one of the most moving and emotional experiences of my life. I'd never experienced a moment before where I felt if I've had a past life I think it might have been here. In Aswan for the first time I did.

The resort, the river. It was healing, restorative, shifting for me. I reflect back on my stay there and I feel truly grateful that it happened and that I had the experience that I did there. The Nubian people in my resort and in the village with their tuk tuk's were beautiful. I didn't find Aswan as enjoyable. Everyone there was trying to make an extra dollar out of me, they were relentless. That aspect of Aswan was tiring as a solo woman. Everytime I left the resort, stepped off one of the Tuk Tuk's I felt my guard go up and the street wise version of me in exaggeration came on. It had too.

I visited Abu Simbel. An awe inspiring site because of it's dramatic size but a 10 hour day trip away through the desert with a private car speeding at 160km/h in complete darkness (we left my resort at 4.30am). Your private driver drives you to the site where your private guide than meets you at the car to escort you into the temple so you are not accosted, targeted by those trying to sell you something aggressively and then when your tour is done you visit a cafe together, have coffee, chat and take a break in the shade before they escort you back to your driver and the car. This happened at every site I visited for me.

Truthfully everywhere that I went in Egypt I had a chaperone. And I would have been nervous to not have one. The shawls I brought with me to put on and wear in the temples out of respect became something I wore everyday to cover myself. Whether it was my height (I'm 5'11), my blond hair or my body shape I was not able like other women around me to walk around in singlet tops or anything western that showed too much skin. Not in Giza, not in Aswan, definetly not in the desert. The only place I felt less like I had to do that was in Luxor which was slightly more modern in their culture and approach towards tourists.

My biggest mistake travelling solo as a woman was perhaps my most frightening and worrying. If someone is watching me from above a bell would have sounded for them and they'd have gone from not being needed to you're on, watch over this girl moment.

I couldn't get a flight from Aswan back up to Luxor. So I booked a private driver through the channels I'd used before. They organised two stops for me at two different temples that were on the way, both with a private guide to chaperone me as the other guides had done before. It was a drive through the desert and some very poor areas.

It was meant to be a 6 hour day with a 5am pick up from my resort in Aswan to my hotel in Luxor.

But the driver took a liking to me. And that changed everything. And instead I ended up with an 8 hour, very uncomfortable, very tense day for me. With a driver who played Celine Dion songs, spoke about his love, feelings and desire for me for the whole 8 hour trip. Relentlessly. And the closer we neared to Luxor where he was going to 'lose me forever' the more he upped his suggestive and relentless behaviour of trying to seg way into us spending time together in Luxor.

It was horrible. Concerning. Worrying and could have gone very badly in a very isolated part of Egypt.

And for this reason alone my belief is that if you travel solo as a woman in Egypt don't do it at all or do so where you fly and never take a car on your own. Because if something's going to go very wrong it will go very wrong.

Myself mid 8 hour drive being blasted by Celine Dion and a driver who wouldn't leave me alone.

It's crap to share this as a reality as a woman. That you can be as independent and self-assured as hell but the truth of the matter is that you are a walking vulnerability and target in countries like this.

The relief I felt to get to my hotel in Luxor was palpable as was the relief to be in Luxor where it was more modern and while the male aspect was still there, it was less in your face.

I experienced one of the most unexpected emotional shifts in my life at Karnak Temple in Luxor. I say this with no spiritual stupidity or woo-ness because I wasn't expecting it. My beautiful guide was recording me as I was walking around some pillars and she recorded me as the energetics of the moment whacked me in the chest.

The beauty, the design, the architecture all of it landed on me in a synchronious moment and inside of me something truly went click.

My peace and power restored. I felt it.

Click. Internal shift. No going back.

Sites Visited:

• Pyramids of Giza

• Great Egyptian Museum

• Cairo Citadel

• Aswan

• Phillae Temple

• Abu Simbel

• Numibian Village

• Edfu

• Kom Ombu

• Karnak Temple

• Luxor Temple

• Valley Of The Kings

• Felluca ride on the Nile River in Luxor

• Hatshepsut Temple

The one place I didn't visit that I wish I had was The Temple Of Hathor in Dendera.

Tips:

• Fly don't drive between remote places

• Dress conservatively

• Stay in beautiful hotels. They are well worth the money you will spend as a solo woman travelling. The Egyptian hospitality and food is beautiful and the staff will take care of you. Your hotel will be a respite from having to be a little more cautious, guarded and careful of yourself as you move around Egypt.

• Always make sure you have a guide who is able to take an excellent photo of you. Otherwise secure yourself an Asian influencers boyfriend when he's taking a break between photographing her partner - his photos will blow you away because he's well trained!

My last morning in Egypt. Sunrise over the Nile River and Valley Of The Kings in Luxor.

I view my holiday to Egypt as a very important part of my ascension and growth. Not because of the empowerment of doing it solo but due to the energetic shifts that happened within me because of the sites I visited.

It has been the reminder to have the courage to do things different, unique and true to you.

No one needs to understand.

No one needs to agree.

This was an intuitive heed and call to shake off a year that needed to be shook off internally. And it worked.

It is a 9 year (next year is a 1 year and the beginning of a brand new cycle). It is also a snake year. Energetically this is the year where the last bits of an old skin are being shed akin to the process that a snake goes through.

Patterning. Behaviours. Thoughts and beliefs. Whatever it may be for you that needs to get left behind in a 9 year so we don't carry them, hanging off us like ugly threads of old skin into a new cycle.

This is a rough and less than polished analogy but it speaks.

I've shed mine.

You came here for the Egypt story but I hope you leave with something else instead.

What needs to be shed from within me?

Shook out?

And what are you going to do about it?

You are the creator of your life.

Never the victim.

What you're not changing you're choosing.

You can control no one else, only yourself and who you choose to be.

*To step into the energy of a woman thriving and living her best life post-separation please explore my AfterGlow coaching program. Inside you will find yourself taught and lead by me over a 12 month period while being surrounded by a community of women learning how to step into this energy AND hold it, no matter what life throws at them. You can explore it here.

Babe...Choose The Best Version Of You.

Let Everything Not That Go.