Things to do in Alexandria during the weekends

Hi,

What do you usually do on your weekends in Alexandria?

Are there any places to visit, any activities, any events or festivals regularly organized you would like to recommend?

What are your top tips for the weekend in Alexandria?

Thank you in advance for sharing your experience, ;)

Christine

Hi depends on the type of person
but there are quite many entertainment places around ,
and alots of site to see .

Usually i am in the Court or Police station  :D
I am an attorney at law

but being in front of the sea is my most like activity

BR

OK, I see 2 people replied recently to a post over 2 years old.  And then your answers were "there's lots to do" and "look at the sea." 

I think this is a general problem of this site.  There are many expats in Alexandria (I would guess at least 500?)  and we're poorly linked together and all of us eager to find interesting events, parties, cultural seminars, etc. 

Can anyone - local or expat - propose websites or links to upcoming events in Alexandria?  I know we've all looked on Facebook, and it's a mish-mash of advertisements for specific businesses or meet-ups.  What about upcoming events?

Alexandria is a city of 6 million people!  Vibrant, active, energetic, chaotic, fascinating.  So what is REALLY happening in the city where expats can join in?

I'd be grateful for real, useful, and timely information ... as would many other expats.
Thanks.

Hello Peter

I am really happy to have such conversation with you and others
There are too many places here as everywhere else in the world, but it is depends on your own interests.
Such sport, diving, cycling.. Etc.

Sometimes I go to Alexandria library, some local or international restaurants.
the question is what do you like to do?

best wishes

Hi Hany,

I appreciate your willingness to be helpful.  I thought I was clear in my earlier posting, so I'll try to be clear and very specific now:

Can you provide to me & the expat community any useful website links or links to local newspapers on UPCOMING EVENTS in Alexandria? 

Topics could include:
- Dance, musical, theater performances, classical variety - either Egyptian artists or visiting foreign artists
- art exhibitions or art gallery openings
- live music performance, contemporary music variety, where the place might be a coffee house or restaurant or bar or nightclub
- sporting events, such as MMA, wrestling, tennis, bodybuilding, weightlifting, etc on either collegiate or professional level; this might include local, national, or international competitions held in Alexandria
- readings or lectures, done by either authors or professors on various cultural or societal topics in their field of expertise;  these might take place inside a university, or at a coffee house or bookstore. 

The links you provide could be in English or Arabic.  (Many of us can translate with the help of on-line translators.)   

As an example, I lived in Moscow, Russia for many years, and we had a superb daily English-language newspaper ("The Moscow Times") which would publish on Fridays a "Happenings" (think: events) section, with cinema, musical and theatrical performances, live music, sporting events, etc. for the coming week.  There were 50,000 expats in Moscow then. 

In Alexandria, I know there are not 50,000 expats.  However, it would be great to have one or several resources - online - which show upcoming events such as those I describe.  It is simply not possible or practical to look at every possible Facebook page or website of all Alexandria performance house, library, cafe, restaurant, or stadium to find this information. 

I hope this is clear to you.  Again, thanks for your interest.
Kindly,
Peter

Peter I feel your pain. A couple of suggestions where you may find expats;
The Pint bar in the Mercure Romance - but it only gets busy in the evening.
Hooligans bar on the top of the Delta Hotel. More Egyptian but young and wealthy ones.
Hilton Hotel bar in Green Plaza. There are gas field workers usually there.

I don't know of any clubs since the Portuguese Expat club closed around 2013. Let me know if you find anything.
I was in Moscow 1997 to 2001. Could we have met by any chance?
Davy

well if you are a foody then alexandria is your heaven maybe some picnic in Montaza with BBQ or maybe you can just hang out in any of the pubs DAVY Recommended but the best of em is PINT

OK, Davy,
I'll keep your recommendations in mind when I'm looking for a place that serves alcohol.  That's not really to the point of my earlier post. 

I was in Moscow during the time you mentioned, and for years before and after.  The Starlite Diner on Mayakovskaya and Radisson Slavyanskaya were my regular haunts - as they were for hundreds of others.  Perhaps I met you there.

I am afraid your Starlite burnt down a couple of months ago but the one at Oktyabrskaya is still the same. I still miss the fabulous Sunday brunches at all the hotels.

I am at present living in Qatar and have done so for the last 10 years, so I speak some arabic.  I am considering retiring to Alex and wonder too about the existence of the ex pat community.  Is it safe for ex-pats is one question I am having problems of getting an answer.

John, perfectly safe but as dull as anything. If you want a social life you would be better in the Cairo locations of Maadi or Zamalek.

why don't you guys make like a group on Facebook or whatever & start organizing events yourselves , like going to a beach or a bar or amusement parks or zoos , maybe make competitions , there's so much you can do if y'all are connected somehow

Awesome idea thank u my dear

I fully agree with Davy >>> It's very safe in Alex.  Perhaps more so than Cairo.  The local people here look, but don't annoy me with constant "Hello! Where you from, Mister!" or worse: invites into their "shops."  The foreign women here agree that they are bothered much less by men on the street in Alex. 

Fortunately, I'm hooked up with a local language school, and in addition to the steady stream of foreign language students coming through, I'm finally meeting interesting and genuinely friendly locals.  Life is becoming much less dull.  It's taken some work.  Information on events, concerts, parties, etc. doesn't flow as freely here as in Cairo.  As with anything, if you want a good result, you'll have to put some work into it.

As final input to this post, if you're interested in Alexandria events, I found this link which is pretty useful.  I think that "heyevent" scrubs Facebook pages, and then finds events and organizes them according to date.  It's better than anything else I've found.  Sometimes the link is a little quirky, so you might need to be patient.  Also, events tend to be added sort of late - so just because there is little shown a few weeks from now doesn't mean there won't be more added closer to today's date.  Is that clear?

OK, I'll put the address in a way that I hope makes it past the expat site filters and such:

heyevent dot com   ... and then   forward slash   ... and then   alexandria-egypt-1?page=1

all together without spaces.  Good luck, and I really hope you find this useful.

Thank you for the link, Peter. Unfortunately there are not much events there. I am also looking for things to do in Alex and it's hard to find something :( Sadly, it seems the biggest entertainment here is to spend time in cafe or restaurant.

Yes, I agree with you.  The "Hey Events" link had many more events - like dance or conferences at the Biblioteca, or like musical concerts - in Fall 2017.  I still check it - now and then - to see if it's gotten any better.  Sorry, I now depend very much on "word from friends" to find out what's happening here.  Good luck!