Marriott in Cairo
 

Planning on being in Cairo Dec, '05...wondering about quality of Marriott, Zamalek, in Cairo? Also, anyone have recommendation on private tour guides while in Cairo? Planning on a week in and around the city...any 'must do's', things off the beaten path?

I've stayed in three Cairo hotels -- Nile & Ramses Hilton and Marriott in Zamalek -- plus Mena House in Giza & Sheraton Heliopolis. I thought the Marriott was the winner in the all around category. Zamalek is an upscale residential area with shops & embassies & trees on the Nile. It was fun to walk around there. Hotel room was fine, staff was very nice, food was fine. Lobby, stores & restaurant area is lovely. There's a terraced restaurant that I went to every day to relax & eat strawberry deserts & drink shai (tea) or Bailey's. It's very popular with Cairenes and much better looking than the web site suggests.

I am going to Egypt in early October and will be staying at the Marriott that you mention for afew days before flying off for Luxor for the Nile cruise.

I will have a private tour guide for the days that I am inCairo and at the end of my tour I am staying an extra day..
so my tour guide can take us(4) for a side trip to Alexandria.

I will be able to tell you more first hand information about the Marriott and a private tour guide after I get back..
...
since you are not leaving until December, I will be back after October 19th.

Percy

Percy,
What agency did you book through?

I've stayed at the Marriott 8 or 10 times; it's a nice hotel. Not as lavish as many but the building, grounds and staff make for a really pleasant stay. Rooms in the Gezira tower overlooking 28 July street can be noisy other than that I have no complaints. Anybody who knows me will tell you how unusual that is.

Any of the hotels on the Corniche in Cairo will be wonderful. I stayed at the Grand Hyatt and was treated like royalty.

Gotta second the Grand Hyatt. Lovely rooms, and right on the Nile.

To Percy,
Am very intereested to hear your thoughts on the Marriott. Also want to hear about your private tour guide. We would like to have a private guide, particularly for our week in the Cairo area. Also plan to nile cruise and want to see Abu Simbel. If you did that I would love to hear who you used as well.

Anyone else think that Mo_alx is a travel agent hawking the agency's services? Mo did have a nice segue from the Mariott Zamalek to Kadmar Travel Agent.

marybren

I booked with Insight Tours for 14 days.

From Cairo( after touring a few days) we fly to Luxor and then cruise the Nile to Aswan and then cruise back again to Luxor before flying back to Cairo and touring again for a few days.

vmcg

When are you going to Egypt.?

We ( 4 of us) are flying into Cairo a full day before we have to start the tour...so this Tour Guide Lady is going to take us to all the neat places in Cairo ...also she will have someone pick us up at the Airport and we will get our visa at the airprot.

Then after the Tour we are staying an extra day and she is going to take us for a full day trip and touring ( by train) to Alexandria.

I am so happy I was able to get a hold of her.
She is in her mid forties, is from the USA , has lived in Cairo for the past 10 years and just does small group( 4 ) tours.
I am looking forward to meeting her in October.

We have been burning up the e-mails and she has given me all the valuable advice I need.

About the Marriott,It was built as a private Place at one time.

A friend of mine who got back from Egypt in early May,said the Marriott is a "cut above the rest."
So I am sure it will be just fine...after all we are touring all day, so how much luxury do you need just to sleep!!!

Do not worry I will tell you who this wonderful tour guide lady is when I get back ..for SURE!!! and I will give you here name and e -mail address and her home mailing address.

Percy

Marriott was great and a fabulous breakfast. We used ICAN Travel and highly recommend them.

Thanks Philbill for gave some very insightful information.

I made notes from some of your comments

Thank You
Percy

Percy,
Our tour guide was excellent and the service from ICAN wonderful. We looked at 30 (at least) tour operators in Egypt as we believe in sending our dollars to the country we want to visit and decided on ICAN. We had only one minor issue and that was resolved.
An example of the agency's helpfulness was that when we arived in Cairo around 11pm and my luggage was missing, our guide who met us knew just where to go and filed the papers and 24 hours later it was delivered to our hotel. It would have taken us hours to negotiate the system at the airport as lost lugage was not even in the main terminal building! Our guide (private for the two of us) was always at the hotel early and waiting for us.
I believe that as we were so specific and they absolutely went with our requests we had an incredible 10 days.
Phil

Thanks Phil

I am ready to go now , but I know it is way too hot. It is 110 F in Luxor now and it is going to be 111 F for the next three days Wow !!!

Thank you for all your helpful information, you gave an excellent account fo your trip and experiences.

Percy