AIJA has negotiated a pre-block of rooms at the Seminar venue hotel Sofitel Cairo:

• USD 230.00 per Single Room, per night on Bed & Breakfast Basis
• USD 250.00 per Double Room, per night on Bed & Breakfast Basis

Rooms to be booked and paid by participants directly by sending an email to the hotel (H5307-RE2@sofitel.com and cc’ing Aya.HECHAM@sofitel.com) making sure to add AIJA Seminar in the subject of the email so that the preferential rates can be applied.

There is a limited number of rooms with preferential rates, and these are only valid for reservations received until 3 months before the event so make sure you book your room at the earliest.

Any reservation request received after this cut-off date will be subject to availability and market price.

The event will take place in Sofitel Cairo Nile El Gezirah

• Address: 3 El Thawra Council St Zamalek, El Orman, Cairo, 11518, Egypt

A.    Securing your visa

Most of European and US passports are eligible for e-visa that can be secured through the following link: https://visa2egypt.gov.eg/eVisa/Home?VISTK=OARP-EYW7-1SSX-MZNT-09FM-W465-XNV2-AUQ4-W25S-57ZD-EQZ1-IY9P-Q3C7-I3I7-XMIO-JR7Y .

The processing time of the visa is 7 working days and applicants should submit their visa application seven (7) days at least before travelling to Egypt.

Another option, which is the easy option, is to obtain your visa upon arrival. Upon landing in Egypt, please visit any local bank at the airport and pay USD 25 in cash, to collect your tourist visa sticker. Then, you will need to present the sticker to the immigration officer, who will place it on your passport and stamp it. Please note that the payment must be made in cash and in USD only.

If you are not eligible for an e-visa or visa upon arrival, you must apply for the visa through the Egyptian consulate in the country where you are residing.

B.    Navigating Cairo

Cairo is a huge city and home to 25 million people. It is a very safe city to move around at any time around the clock, so long as you observe common-sense safety rules and respect the local culture. It is very safe to walk around at night too and locals welcome tourists a lot.

When visiting an active/practicing mosque, women are expected to wear modest clothes and cover their hair. Same rules apply to churches, save for the headscarf. Men are not allowed to wear shorts.

We will be staying in Zamalek a modern neighborhood at the heart of the city, located between downtown Cairo and Giza. Extra-revealing clothes could attract unnecessary staring. Please do not go above knee length or sleeveless. If you want to wear more comfortable clothes, you are advised to take transportation to your destination. In other posh neighborhoods, like Sheikh Zayed or New Cairo, you can wear whatever you want.

C.    Transportation

You can always walk in the neighborhood where you are staying. However, if you want to do bigger trips, please use an app like Uber, Careem or the similar. If you want a luxurious commute, you can take London Cab but need booking before your ride with minimum one (1) hour.

Local public taxis (white taxis) avoid using the fare and are usually old. If you want to take one, please tell the driver before you get in where you are going and agree on the fare. However, we always recommend taking private transportation.

Inside the city, there are several metro lines that go to different neighborhoods.

Cairo has two international airports: Cairo International Airport in the north and Sphinx International Airport in the south. To go from either airport to Zamalek, you can order your transportation to pick you up. Most international flights fly to Cairo International Airport and arrive at terminal 3. Your reserved pick-up transportation will probably pick you up at the B5 sign at the parking lot.

There are cabs and limousines available at the airport as well but would be more expensive than the arranged pickup transportation.

Cairo traffic can get very busy, especially at rush hours. Please factor extended commuting time.

D.    Food and Drinks

We will be staying at a very active neighborhood with local and international restaurants. If you want recommendations for restaurants and cafés that serve local food in Zamalek, here you go:

-            Abou El Sid Restaurant (lunch and dinner):  https://maps.app.goo.gl/odCnHe3EaRCfHGTn9

-            Garden Promenade Café at the Marriot Zamalek (lunch and dinner): https://share.google/wcriGbLTbd9O8eKyv

-            Taboon (lunch and dinner): https://maps.app.goo.gl/qDGNMzJVR8vEHKM69

-            Abdel Wahab (lunch and dinner): https://share.google/sGrtDOOjtH8iWoGTL

-            Zooba (breakfast): https://share.google/cJyxVZu3v7ZSt8kEa

-            Tabali (breakfast): https://share.google/cbZPOse7uoGxbYVdQ

-            Qedra (breakfast): 366C+7C2, Mohammed Mazhar, Zamalek, Cairo Governorate 4271032

-            Granita (Breakfast/lunch/dinner): Located in All Saints' Cathedral, Cairo

If you want to try the local Koshary (national dish), we strongly recommend visiting Koshary Abou Tarek in Downtown: https://share.google/sS6Mqs3lAn1MTiONz

For a more touristic yet delicious for koshary or lentil soup: Zooba in Zamalek

E.     Alcohol

Not all places serve alcohol, but we made sure that the lunch and dinner places we recommended above serve alcohol.

If you want to go to a local bar, Pub 28 in Zamalek is nice, but we recommend to call before walking in to check if they have space: https://maps.app.goo.gl/FQLaA7jeBR14mgFX7.

Also, Cairo is very famous for its vintage bars in Downtown Cairo, if you are feeling like you want to explore a new neighborhood (yes, the scenes of neighborhoods change), you can explore one of the below options:

Carol Bar: https://maps.app.goo.gl/Q31RG1XPiTA6atAy5

Estoril: https://share.google/g8lSZkS3nxgcIk1tS

Almeria Restaurant and Bar: https://share.google/bLLkAic83gY6kU2D2

Carlon Roof Garden: https://share.google/R6KR7fgHOMLZUgzGQ

Jade Pizza: https://maps.app.goo.gl/xxPwF9HLhDAQJMp7A

If you want to buy your own alcohol, you must visit a licensed store, like Drinkies https://share.google/t1ECTaUumiJukE13f . However, please note that like many other countries, it is not legal to drink on the streets in Egypt.

F.     See more on your own

We made sure that our schedule and optional tours cover the key attractions of the city. If you feel you want to see more of the city, you can explore the following:

-            Coptic Cairo: Before becoming this giant city, Cairo was a Roman settlement. In Coptic Cairo, you can visit the Hanging Church, Abou Serga Church and see baby Jesus’s cradle, Amr Ibn El Aas Mosque (the first mosque of Cairo), the Ben Ezra Synagogue and the Roman ruins of the old city.

-            Saladin Citadel and mosques complex: This is an ancient fortress from the Mamluk period and has the very first Ottoman Mosques of the city. The Mohamed Ali Mosque is very unique Baroque-style mosque.

-            Mosque and Madrasa of Sultan Hassan and Al Rifaie Mosque: These are two of the most beautiful mosques in Cairo. Many members of the last monarchy of Egypt, including King Farouk, the late king of Egypt, are buried at Al Rifaie Mosque. Also, the last Shah of Iran is buried there.

-            Saqqara pyramid: Do you want to see the very first stone building in human history and first pyramid of Egypt? The Saqqara pyramid complex hosts ruins of Memphis, the first capital of Egypt, other pyramids and tombs that you can visit from the inside. Please check their working hours are they open for limited time to preserve the colors from humidity. The Saqqara pyramid complex is approximately 50 km away from the city and it takes around an hour to go there.

-            National Museum of Egyptian Civilization: If you want to see more mummies, you can visit this new museum.

G.    Cash and Card Payments

The Egyptian Pound is the official currency of the country. While card payments are widely spread, not all services providers, such as taxis and local markets, have the card payment option. It is better to keep cash with you. Only touristic places may accept cash in foreign currency, and this largely depends on each store and is on an exceptional basis.

H.    Weather

October will be still summertime in Egypt. Daytime temperatures can be around 30 °C and at night as low as 18 °C. On a bright note, humidity starts decreasing during this month.

I.       Language

Arabic is language of the country, yet many people understand and speak English.  

J.     Tipping

Tipping is expected and highly appreciated. Even though bills include a service charge, it is appreciated to add a 10% tip as it will directly go to support staff.

The personal data that you communicate to us shall be processed by the International Association Of Young Lawyers (AIJA), with its registered office at Avenue de Tervueren 231, 1150 Brussels, Belgium (Tel: +32 2 347 33 34 - office@aija.com), in accordance with Act No. 78-17 of January 6, 1978 relating to data, files and freedoms and Regulation No. 2016/679 on data protection, as of its entry into force on May 25, 2018.

Your data will be managed by AIJA's General Services, Events and Accounts Section:

• For the purpose of administering your registration for the event and your on-site access to the event;
• In order to pay for the selected services - your bank details will be deleted after receipt of your payment;
• In order to communicate information messages from AIJA.

To the extent necessary for the execution of their respective tasks, our subcontractors in charge of our seminar organisation, our IT infrastructure, our management, the production and maintenance of our website and extranet, are likely to gain access to your data from time to time. Their servers are located in the European Union.

Data relating to your participation in the event shall be stored for a period of 10 years. We are obliged to archive billing data until the end of the period required for our tax and accounting obligations, i.e. for 7 full tax years.

We shall store your contact information to keep you informed until you ask us to stop. You have the right to access your data and have it corrected if necessary.