Where to stay in Cairo

See

Cairo is a vast metropolitan cityscape. It includes an array of modern skyscrapers, mosques, bazaars and ruins of associated ancient monuments outside the city. Cairo has an overwhelming array of attractions, listed under their individual districts along with transport and other practicalities.

• Grand Egyptian Museum
• Egyptian Museum
• National Museum of Egyptian Civilization
• Ibn Tulun
• Al-Azhar Park
• Khan El Khalily
• Abdeen Palace
• Pharaonic Village
• Dahshur Pyramids

Do

Have a coffee, mint tea or Cola at El Fishawy's coffee shop in Khan El-Khalili. Smoke a shisha water pipe (try the "double apple" flavor) and watch the world go by. Great cheap entertainment. Ride a felucca along the Nile River. A great way to relax and enjoy a night under the stars in Cairo. Feluccas are available across from the Four Seasons Hotel in Garden City. Pay after your ride, or you may get much less than you bargained for. Public boats with loud noisy music and a giggling crowd are also available for 1/2 hour, but are very uncomfortable. Cairo has a shortage of parks, but a few of them exist.

• The Culture Wheel
• The Garden Theater
• Cairo Opera House
• Egyptian Centre for Culture & Art
• The Townhouse Gallery of Contemporary Art
• Cairo Jazz Club
• Housaper theater

Eat

Cairo has an enormous number of restaurants, catering to most needs. Ironically though, one may want to avoid any restaurants listed in popular guidebooks. Egyptian restaurants have a habit of after being listed, cooking up a special English menu with vastly inflated prices. That said, cheap food can be found everywhere in street restaurants and snack stalls. The top notch restaurants are often, but not always, found in hotels and Nile boats. The borders between restaurants and cafes are not crystal-clear in the Egyptian capital. In many places it is perfectly acceptable to just have a drink or sheesha. Medium and high-range outlets might have a minimum charge.

Drink

Cairo has a wide range of drinking options from the very traditional to fashionable and modern. At the other end of the scale, almost any street in Cairo has a traditional coffee house, ´ahwa, a traditionally male institution of social life tracing many hundreds of years back in history. Besides that you'll find everything from fruit stalls to patisseriés and bakeries and modern cafés whipping up all varieties of modern European coffee.

Stay safe

Scams against tourists are almost a national sport, though they're usually obvious. A good rule of thumb is that if someone approaches you on the street, they're trying to scam you. Don't talk to them.