If You’re Planning to Visit Alexandria, Don’t Go – Here’s Why

Far be it for me to tell you what to do, but in my opinion I would highly recommend you stay away from Alexandria in Egypt.

It is possible of course, that many a person who has travelled to Alexandria in Egypt have had an amazing time. For me however, my experience there will forever leave me with a bad taste in my mouth.

This of course, is no judgement against Egypt as a country, as the people of Egypt; in particular those who live in Cairo, are warm, kind, friendly and great to be around. Alexandria however, is in an entirely different culture, and one I didn’t like at all, whilst travelling through there.

Okay okay, I am probably being very hard against all people who live in Alexandria, as the women and men who worked at the hotel I stayed in were absolutely amazing. But on the street, I felt un-nerved by the looks and intimidated by most.

Which was a strange feeling, considering I had just spent over three weeks in Egypt already, and had experienced the most magical time throughout my whole stay there. Even wandering through the streets of Cairo alone, I never felt threatened in anyway, by any of the locals.

It was an entirely different story in Alexandria. I didn’t trust the people, and I got the feeling they didn’t want me there. Didn’t matter what I was wearing, which was long pants, long sleeved top, barely any skin exposed. I wasn’t wearing a scarf, but you didn’t need to – as there is a dense orthodox residency in Alexandria, of which many women don’t wear anything to cover the head.

The un-safeness I felt went from bad to worse, when a man from the beach selling cold drinks starting walking towards me and the rest of our tour group, with a large machete.

Why he felt the need to hide a machete behind his back, whilst trying to coerce us into going over to him to purchase cold drinks is beyond me. But, we walked extra fast in the other direction to get away from him as quick as we could. And, not within  minutes of this occurrence, we then found ourselves being followed by a man, who had dry blood all down his front shirt and a rather large piece of jagged metal sticking out of his pocket.

As we weaved our way throughout the crowds, he quickened his pace to keep up with us. His face was angry and I was tired from feeling threatened.

I was also just recovering from food poisoning, so my patience was running thin. I stopped walking, turned aggressively to face him, threw my hands in the air and yelled out WHAT! That certainly got his attention, and many others passing by. I didn’t care, by this stage, I had just had enough. And my approach was enough to turn him away and leave us alone. I was lucky, it could have gone the other way. I certainly would not recommend anyone doing what I did.

I was happy we were only spending one night in Alexandria, I could not wait to leave this unwelcome place. Sad really, because of the history such a place holds. But I stand true to my words, which is that I would not recommend anyone travel there. There is little to no tourist locations to visit there, as much has been destroyed or lies under water. If you were thinking about going – I would seriously think twice.