Start with the structure of the thing. Tourism feeds a meaningful slice of Egypt's economy and employs enormous numbers of people, and the state protects it accordingly: tourist police at every major site, screening at hotel doors, security on the intercity routes visitors use. Whatever else one makes of that apparatus, its effect on a traveller's day is that the places you go are some of the most watched-over ground in the country.

Violent crime against tourists is rare — rarer than in many cities travellers arrive from. What is not rare is friction: relentless sales pressure at the big sites, invented 'closures' steering you to a cousin's shop, taxi fare surprises, tip requests from every direction. Almost none of it is dangerous; all of it is tiring. We wrote about the money side in our tipping guide, and an experienced guide absorbs most of the rest — half of what people buy when they hire one is simply friction removal.

The risks that actually fill the incident reports

Traffic, first and honestly. Egyptian roads and Egyptian driving are the most dangerous thing most visitors encounter, which is why the standard tourist itinerary — drivers, flights, boats — is not just comfort but risk management. Cross city streets with the patience of a local, and if you are ever offered the wheel, decline it.

Then the sun and the water: heatstroke on exposed sites and an unfiltered-water stomach are the two ailments that actually interrupt trips. Bottled water, morning sightseeing and honest sun cover prevent almost all of it.

For women travelling alone the picture deserves its own honest page, and we have written one — solo travel in Egypt — rather than a paragraph of reassurance here. The short version: it is done every day, it is workable, and dress, transport choices and a firm public manner do real work.

How to hold the question

Two habits serve better than any list of warnings. First, read your own government's current travel advice before you book and again before you fly — regional guidance changes, and that source has no incentive to sell you anything. Second, buy structure where it counts: reputable operators, licensed guides, arranged transfers. The organised version of Egypt is not the sanitised version — it is the same country with the friction pre-paid.

Asked at a dinner table rather than on a sales page: we would send our own parents, and we would book their drivers ourselves.