Hotel
Marriott Mena House
A historic five-star hotel at the foot of the Giza pyramids, built around a 19th-century khedivial hunting lodge and set in large gardens.
A 30-storey luxury hotel on the Nile Corniche in Garden City, with river-view rooms, a spa, a pool and ten restaurants and bars.
Good to know
The Four Seasons Hotel Cairo at Nile Plaza rises 30 storeys above the Corniche in Garden City, the leafy district of embassies and old villas just south of Tahrir Square. It is one of the most polished luxury hotels in the city, and its height gives many rooms sweeping views along the Nile towards Zamalek, Gezira and Cairo Tower. Service is in the attentive Four Seasons style, which is a real advantage in a city where arranging transport and tours can be tiring.
Rooms and suites are spacious and calm, with large windows, and Nile-view rooms are worth the extra cost. Some rooms on the lower levels open towards the pool terrace instead. The hotel has an award-winning spa, a swimming pool and a fitness centre, and its ten restaurants and bars cover a wide range, from Zitouni for refined Egyptian cooking to Bullona for Mediterranean dishes and 8 for Chinese dim sum. In-room dining is available around the clock.
The hotel suits couples, families and business travellers who want comfort and a central location, and it works well as a base for first-time visitors who prefer a high level of service. Families benefit from the spacious rooms and the pool. It is less suited to travellers on a tight budget, as rates are among the highest in Cairo, though they vary considerably with the season and with demand.
The concierge team can arrange guides, drivers and restaurant bookings, which saves time when planning days at the pyramids, the Grand Egyptian Museum, the Citadel or Khan el-Khalili, all of which the hotel describes as within easy reach. Allow plenty of time for journeys to Giza at busy times of day. The hotel can also arrange airport transfers on request, which is worth doing on a first visit.
Garden City is a quiet district by Cairo standards, and from the hotel you can walk along the Corniche towards Tahrir Square and the Egyptian Museum in around 15 to 20 minutes. Downtown's historic cafés and the bridges to Zamalek and Gezira are a short taxi ride away, and Saad Zaghloul metro station is within walking distance for longer trips across the city. Evening walks along the Corniche are popular with Cairene families, especially in the cooler months.
On the Corniche El Nil in Garden City, south of Tahrir Square.
Many do, and Nile-view rooms are worth requesting.
Yes, the hotel has a pool, a spa and a fitness centre.
Ten restaurants and bars, including Zitouni, Bullona and 8.
Yes, in roughly 15 to 20 minutes along the Corniche.
Yes, with spacious rooms and a pool.
Yes, the concierge can arrange guides, drivers and transfers.
Tour operator
A Cairo food tour company founded in 2016 by two Egyptian women, leading small-group walking tours through Downtown's street food and local eateries.
Bar
Cairo's best-known live music club, open since 2001 in Agouza, with local bands and DJs on stage, cocktails and a food menu most nights.
Café
The celebrated coffeehouse of Khan el-Khalili, serving mint tea, Turkish coffee and shisha in a mirrored alley since the late 18th century.
Thing to do
Cairo's great historic bazaar, a maze of lanes selling lanterns, spices, brass and jewellery around a khan founded in the 1380s.