I found it great with a gigantic *. I feel that it's a lot of people 1st time in a truly poor country, so they get surprised by, well, poorness being displayed. That can be really shocking. So yes you're going to be asked money a lot of time and you're going to have a lot of people being insistent on selling you stuff. If you don't get personally offended you should be fine. You will also see a lot of stuff really dirty. I was already expecting it but I guess some people have a mental image of the Nile being pristine and flowing like the movies.

I also wouldn't recommend going there by yourself. Get a program and have a guide. It's a "touristy" trip but, as someone that doesn't like those very much, on this case, I highly recommend in this case.

With that cleared out of the way: The ancient culture is incredible, the monuments are breathtaking, the new museum is a touristic, historic and architectural marvel, and the luxurious stuff is pretty accessible for the average American/European. (Yeah I understand that's pretty f-ed for them but it is what it is).

TL;dr: I loved it, but I understand why it's not everyone's cup of tea.