My Unpopular Opinion: I Didn’t Really Enjoy Egypt… But I Might Have Got It Wrong

I have a bit of an unpopular travel opinion that I don’t say out loud very often: I didn’t really enjoy Egypt.

I went just over 10 years ago now and stayed in Sharm El Sheikh. At the time, I remember thinking it was “fine” overall. Not terrible, not life-changing, just… okay. But if I’m being completely honest, I also left feeling a bit underwhelmed. I had built it up in my head before going, like I think a lot of people do with Egypt, and it just didn’t quite match the expectation I had created.

I remember coming home and telling people it was “nice enough” but that I didn’t really understand the hype. I even went as far as calling it a bit overrated, which in hindsight feels quite harsh, but that was genuinely how I felt at the time.

Fast forward to now, over a decade later, and I’ve recently found myself completely rethinking that entire experience.

I’ve been watching Jamie Genevieve’s vlogs from her recent trip to Egypt, and something about them really stuck with me. The way she captured the country felt so different to what I remember. The culture, the atmosphere, the history, the energy—it all looked so alive and rich in a way I don’t think I fully experienced when I went.

And honestly, it’s made me question everything I thought I knew about Egypt.

It got me wondering… did I just go to the wrong place? Was Sharm El Sheikh not really representative of Egypt as a whole? Or was I simply too young, too inexperienced, or maybe just not in the right mindset to appreciate it properly at the time?

Because when I think back, I realise I probably experienced Egypt in quite a limited way. Sharm El Sheikh, from what I understand now, is very much a resort-style destination. It’s beautiful in its own right, but it’s also quite curated for tourism. And I think back then, I didn’t really step outside of that bubble enough to see what else was there.

There were also a few experiences I had while I was there that, at the time, didn’t feel particularly comfortable. Nothing extreme, but enough small things that added up and shaped my overall impression. Things like feeling overwhelmed in certain situations, or not fully knowing how to navigate the cultural differences as a young traveller. And I think those moments stuck with me more than anything else.

That’s the thing about travel that I’ve come to understand more as I’ve gotten older: sometimes a few negative or uncomfortable experiences can quietly outweigh all the positive ones, especially when you don’t have the perspective yet to balance them properly.

And so I left Egypt with this very fixed idea in my head that it just wasn’t for me.

But watching recent content and seeing how others are experiencing it now has really challenged that.

There seems to be so much more to Egypt than what I saw. The history alone is something I barely scratched the surface of. The ancient sites, the culture, the cities, the landscapes—it’s all incredibly layered and complex. And I think I only saw a very small, very polished version of it.

In a way, I almost feel like I didn’t do it justice.

It also makes me reflect on how much travel changes depending on your age and experience. When I first went, I was much younger, less confident, and probably more influenced by expectation than curiosity. Now, I travel very differently. I’m more open, more patient, and a lot more aware that not every destination reveals itself immediately.

Sometimes you need to know how to travel somewhere, not just visit it.

And Egypt feels like one of those places where that really matters.

I also think timing plays a huge role. The way you experience a country can depend so much on who you’re with, what you choose to do, how far you’re willing to step outside your comfort zone, and even just the mood you’re in while you’re there. Looking back, I think I stayed quite within my comfort zone without even realising it.

Because I’m starting to think it might not be that I didn’t enjoy Egypt… but that I didn’t really experience it.

And that’s a pretty important difference.

If anything, I now feel quite curious about it. I find myself wondering what it would be like to go back as I am now, rather than who I was then. To explore beyond the typical resort areas, to actually engage with the history and culture more deeply, and to approach it with a completely open mind rather than pre-formed expectations.

I think there’s a real chance I could have a completely different experience second time around.

Maybe Egypt wasn’t overrated after all. Maybe I just wasn’t ready for it. Or maybe I just saw a very small corner of something much bigger and assumed that was the whole picture.

Either way, it’s definitely moved from my “probably not for me” list to my “I think I owe this place another chance” list.

And I don’t say that lightly.