Alexandria: what to see and whether to move there

What the city runs on and who it suits

Alexandria is Egypt's second city, around six million people stretched in a thin band along the Mediterranean for more than twenty kilometres. It lives off its port, which handles a large share of the country's foreign trade, off petrochemicals and textiles in the industrial belt, off a very large university, and off domestic tourism: half of Cairo arrives every summer.

The atmosphere is fundamentally different from the capital. There is sea and wind, a real cafe habit, and traces of a cosmopolitan past when the city was simultaneously Greek, Italian, Armenian and Jewish. Not much of that fabric survives - old villas are being replaced by apartment blocks at speed.

Who moves here: academics working with the university and the library; diaspora Egyptians buying a second flat by the water; remote workers who want a big cheap city with a sea breeze instead of Cairo smog; and a small but visible group learning Arabic. Be clear that Alexandria is more conservative than the Red Sea resorts and in many ways more conservative than Cairo. It is not a bohemian Mediterranean town but a provincial megacity with a Muslim majority and its own norms of dress and behaviour.

Neighbourhoods: where newcomers land

The rule is simple: the further east and the closer to the water, the more expensive. Smouha is the modern district of wide streets, the sporting club, clinics and schools, and the most predictable choice for a newcomer. Roushdy, Stanley and Gleem give you sea views and decent services. Kafr Abdo is villas and expensive flats, the status address. San Stefano means towers over a mall: convenient, characterless. Sidi Gaber earns its price from the station and transport links.

Further east, Miami, Mandara and Montaza are cheaper and greener but a long ride from the centre. Downtown and Manshiya hold the historic art deco core: cheap, atmospheric, noisy, and housed in tired buildings.

Where not to base yourself: Agami and Bitash to the west, once a fashionable summer strip and now overbuilt and neglected; Moharram Bek and Karmouz, dense low-income quarters with nothing a foreign resident needs. One thing worth naming: residential building collapses happen in Egypt with grim regularity, so when renting or buying look at the age and structural condition of the block, not only the view.

Cost of living

After a run of devaluations the Egyptian pound sits near 51 to the dollar, with annual inflation around 15 percent. If you earn in hard currency the city is very cheap; on local salaries it is hard going. Budgeting a year ahead in pounds is pointless - think in dollars and expect the rent to be renegotiated at renewal.

Vegetables, bread, fish and local fruit are cheap; anything imported, from coffee to car parts, is expensive and getting more so. Lunch in a cafe runs 150-400 pounds. Alexandria's private clinics and hospitals rank among the country's best after Cairo, and consultations cost almost nothing by Western standards, but complex cases still get referred to Cairo or abroad. International cover is worth having.

Practicalities: transport, climate, connectivity, banking

The city is long and narrow, so everything funnels onto the Corniche axis. Microbuses, buses and taxis do the work, and ride-hailing apps are simpler and safer than haggling on the street. Alexandria also has a historic tram, one of the oldest anywhere; the lines have been through major reconstruction, so check what is actually running when you arrive. The train to Cairo takes about two and a half hours, and Borg El Arab airport is roughly an hour out.

The climate is Mediterranean: hot humid summers near 30 degrees with July and August crowds, mild wet winters with real storms and flooding on the Corniche. April to June and September to November are the good months. Flats have no heating and winter feels damp.

The language is Arabic. English works at the university, in hotels and in private clinics; elsewhere basic Arabic transforms daily life. Internet is fine rather than fast: fibre in newer districts, reliable mobile data, and messenger calls that mostly work with variable quality.

Banking is the friction point. Opening an account without residency is difficult; banks generally want a residence permit or a qualifying basis such as a property purchase. Much of the economy runs on cash and foreign exchange is regulated, so move larger sums formally through a bank with documented provenance.

Moving and legal status

Most visitors need a tourist visa for Egypt, granted on arrival or applied for online, usually valid for 30 days, with multiple-entry and longer-stay options for an extra fee. Rules and fees change, so verify before flying.

There is no dedicated nomad visa. The realistic long-stay routes are a temporary residence permit through local employment, study including Arabic courses, marriage to an Egyptian citizen, running a business, or property-linked residency. The property threshold starts at roughly 100,000 dollars of registered residential real estate in your name, with permit length scaling with the amount invested, typically a year at a time with renewals.

Egypt also runs a citizenship-by-investment programme whose options include a non-refundable contribution, a property purchase, a business investment or a bank deposit, starting around 250,000 dollars. The thresholds have been revised more than once, so confirm the current terms rather than relying on any summary. Compare the formats in our residence permits and nomad visa sections, and see taxes for what residency does to your tax position.

Is Alexandria worth living in

Yes, if you want a large Mediterranean city for a fraction of European money, with sea, history and a genuine urban life rather than a resort vacuum. For anyone learning Arabic or working on antiquity it is one of the better addresses anywhere. Hard-currency income converts into a very comfortable standard of living.

No, if you need infrastructure to work. The city is worn: water interruptions, ageing buildings, permanent traffic, litter on the shore, and air and water quality that are patchy at best. Beaches are crowded in summer and swimming is not always pleasant. International schools and English-language services are far thinner than in Cairo. Women should expect street harassment, an acknowledged problem across Egypt and no different here. Alcohol is limited and there is no nightlife in the Western sense.

One longer-horizon point: Alexandria sits on a low coastline, and sea-level rise, coastal erosion and flooding are discussed at national policy level. For renting that is somebody else's problem. For buying a front-line apartment on a thirty-year view, it belongs in the calculation.