President Cairo
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22 Taha Hussein Str., Gezira Island, Zamalek District Cairo, Egypt, 2-735-0718
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Travel Blogs by Travelers Who Stayed at the President Cairo
Lufthansa Airlines - Frankfurt - Cairo On the second leg of my flight I am seated next to an elderly Iranian couple. As it turns out, they don't speak a word of English and ask for my help filling out their entry visas. I'm translating for them using English and intuition and large doses of sign and hand language with the flight attendant. Taxi ride to hotel: I arrive at the airport and look for someone carrying a sign with my name on it. Nothing. I keep looking. Still no one with a sign sayi...
Cairo, Egypt lisahaisha
I'm laying in my bed, exhausted from my twenty-two hour journey. I was really looking forward to a nice hotel room - and with a name like The President Hotel and a modest recommendation from my Google hotel search, I thought I was in good hands. When I pulled up in front of the architecturally beautiful hotel that looked like it was built in the 1930's - an old European building with a Middle Eastern flair - I got excited, since I was going to stay here for two nights before moving to the Cos...
Cairo, Egypt lisahaisha
Greetings from Cairo! We landed in the land of the pyramids just about three hours ago, and my new roommate, Tracy, and I seem to have settled in okay. Normally, I would wax philosophical on the way the rain on the windows of our plane froze as we ascended from Washington, condensing into streaks of snowflakes among the clouds, in comparison with the tiny zings of the sand as it sparked against our windows during the descent into Cairo, but quite frankly, I seem to be too tired for any of tha...
Cairo, Egypt panik_in_pink
Arabic placement test today. They gave us a test which is supposed to rate beginners with no experience up those who are at an advanced advanced level. Supposed to. I don't feel as though it gave me the chance to portray my skills at all. There were no numbers, no alphabet, almost none of the words I knew, and it was multiple choice. Anyone could have guessed the answers as well as I did. I mean, I know I'm a beginner, I'm not concerned with being placed in a class that's too below me. All th...
Cairo, Egypt panik_in_pink
Cairo is dirty. We went for a walk around downtown last night, and though it is dirty and bustling just like most big American cities, it is also dingy and crammed in another way entirely. It's foreign to me, though, of course, I am the foreigner here. Anwar took us across the streets. There are no rules in Cairo. The cars and the people alike fill the busy streets, making their way between each other as they need to. Though traveling in a large group, such as ours, helps one to feel more com...
Cairo, Egypt panik_in_pink
Eight weeks is too long. I'm glad to be here, but I miss the familiarity of home and comfort of family and loved ones. I realize I sincerely need to buckle down and live the experience, or I won't get anything out of it, but I feel so homesick. Well, not homesick for the moment, but always looking ahead and thinking about how much longer this is going to be. Also, I am not at all invested in learning Arabic. I want to see Egypt, and I feel like most of what we're going to get is the inside of...
Cairo, Egypt panik_in_pink
Stomach sicknesses abound and slight drama is starting to blossom. All generally well, but I sense a disturbance on the horizon. We are at the end of our week, Thursday. The day longest and strangest week of my life. It seems like two years ago that I was lugging all of my belongings through the underground of Washington D.C. And now I'm settled in to Cairo and possibly know more Arabic than I learned in two semesters at Chatham. Still reading In the Eye of the Sun. I'd like to finish at leas...
Cairo, Egypt panik_in_pink
Cairo is a world of extremes. We took our luxurious tour bus all over the city today, from Zamalek to Old Cairo, from Giza to Heliopolis. We saw the Nilometer, a strange conical building which, long ago, was the heart of Egypt and site of power in the country. Used to measure the annual flooding of the Nile, he who controlled the Nilometer, controlled Egypt. Old Cairo, the medieval center of the city is to the west and Memphis, the Old Kingdom capital of the ancient world, is to the west. Fro...
Cairo, Egypt panik_in_pink
Today I saw my first pyramid. Not The Pyramids,-or, the "Big Ones"-but the step pyramid of Saqqara. If you know anything about me and my not-so-secret love affair with ancient Egypt, you can imagine my excitement. Where the sand meets the palms, a crumbling triangular shape rolls up over the horizon like the bumbling old uncle of the Great Pyramids. This is Saqqara and Dojer's pyramid. It is the oldest known stone building in the world, which includes the world's oldest stone stairs, apparent...
Cairo, Egypt panik_in_pink
Historical Traveler Reviews of President Cairo
Satisfactory
I booked a single room and paid around £24 per night for B&B. The room I was allocted was in fact a spacious twin(see picture)to the rear of the hotel with en-suite bathroom (picture). My room overlooked the beautiful garden of an embassy - Fridge and TV worked fine, full strength hot water every time I used the shower/bath (morning and night!).
Dining room ok with nice view. Plentiful if rather dull breakfast.
Staff very nice, polite and helpful (though postcards left with the desk still not arrived after 8 weeks!)
I viewed a room in Tulip Hotel Midan Tahrir priced at £5.50STG and stayed in Alexandria for £5.50STG B&B so cheaper Hotels are available. Hotel President is not the Hilton but I still recommend it for its peace and quite which is pretty rare in Cairo.
Hated the hotel
After a argument with him he assured me it was great, but my worse fears were realised. It was dirty, run down, brown worn carpet in the hallways. The towels were paper thin, mould in the bathroom, the bath, great to have one, but it was all chipped. The televison and fridge were by one point, so we had to change the whole room around so we could have both on at the same time. The TV controller did not work, and nothing was done when we advised them of the problem.
Breakfast was the worse we had encountered on our trip, the only hot dish was a bean mixture, apart from that there was cornflakes, no fruit, and pastries, not even a toaster. In all I would never stay there again. (The only good thing was the location) much nicer than downtown Cairo, and only a walk across the bridge to town.
At least the bed was comfortable
The bed was very comfortable so at least we slept well. We did not spend much time in the hotel other than sleeping.
The bathroom was ok, though when you turn the shower faucet to hot, the water pressure was greatly reduced but it was still a bearable shower.
The television was limited to 3 or 4 stations. One station was an "English" movie station the rest were Arabic.
When we checked out, the bill showed a fee for breakfast which was apparently included though we were never told that it was. We didn't eat at the restaurant so I can't comment on the food.
We stayed at the hotel because of the location. We were visiting our son who was living a block from the hotel. Overall, I expected a little cleaner environment for the money but the stay was ok.
Like staying in a dirty trailer...
Clean it up!
We arrived at 1am on Tuesday 8th November, so our room had been booked from the 7th to the 11th November. The front-desk staff were polite enough, and were happy to fulfil my request for a room on a high floor. At this time, I didn't know the hotel itself was on top of an apartment building!
We were given room 406 right on the roof. Literally - there was nothing above our room except sky! We were asked if we'd like one big bed or two singles, so we asked for one big bed. When we got to the room however, there were two singles. The porter said he'd get it fixed right away. Within 5 minutes, housekeeping arrived and switched the beds around and made them into one big double. Unfortunately, the guy did this by turning the beds around so the long edges were against the headboard. This meant that there was a gap in the middle, right at the base of my spine. Very uncomfortable indeed! We switched the beds around ourselves, after the second night.
The room was clean, apart from one wall that looked liked someone had thrown coffee over it. It was so grubby it looked disgusting. The bathroom was in good shape though, with a washbasin, toilet, bidet and bath with shower over. The towels were very thin and almost threadbare and need replacing. Also, we only had one towel when we checked in - not good for a room with two guests!
The restaurant is on the 2nd floor and serves a basic continental breakfast of various types of breads and pastries. There's also the local fuul, which is a sort of brown bean stew. It's okay, but not my cup of tea. By the 3rd morning, I wanted something other than bread, so asked if they could make me some scrambled eggs. This wasn't a problem, and there was no additional charge.
The front desk staff were variable - some were very pleasant, others were downright rude. The Bell Captain was quite friendly, and very handy for supplying cheap taxis.
In all, it's a decent enough budget hotel, but the rooms definitely do need some sprucing-up and they're really not that spacious at all.
Perfectly fine hotel
No hesitation at all in recommending the President to anyone who needs somewhere inexpensive to stay while exploring Cairo.
Good for Budget Travellers
The hotel is in the middle of all the embassies and consulates and their are lots of police around protecting them so it is quite safe. Our room was small but it was what we expected it had air conditioning, fridge, and en suite all which worked but to an average standard.
On the tv were CNN and MBC 2 and 4, these were the only english speaking channels. The service in the hotel is gr8, however the restaurant is crap! and very expensive. There are many other restaurants right outside the door. We ate at Euro Deli every night (14 days) and the food there is not expensive £5 (50LE) for two people and fantastic.
The room was overlooked so we kept the curtains closed!
The food at breakfast is basic mainly croissants, pan du chocolat, and bread rolls and jam. They provide tea and nescafe and milk. This is other stuff but it wasnt that nice. You have to eat before 10.
On the night we arrived at 3am, they brought us breakfast in our room at 11 am which we didnt expect because of one of the reviews above.
Overall- We could have stayed in the four seasons or another posh hotel but our budget would only have stretched to 4 nights and here we managed to stay 14. A Good hotel for the price and recommended.
Fine - Nothing Great!
If you are thinking of staying in the hotel, dont be expecting greatness. Its a budget hotel and nothing more. That said, it is fine, relatively clean and has all the bits and bobs you need to have a good stay in this city.
The facts as I say them:
1. The Hotel is hit and miss as to what type room you got. When we were going to our first room, it still hadnt been cleaned so we were transfered to a second room on the top floor. The difference in the rooms was huge. The second room had an extremely large balcony, looking over the Nile, had full air con, king size bed and decent bathroom. The room also has a TV with CNN and a an English speaking Music channel.
2. The restaurant which is desribed in some websites as 'one of the best in all of Cairo', doesnt say too much for eating in the Egyptian capital. Its not that the food is horrible, its just that its extremely average and consists of standard 'western food' - cheeseburgers/pizzas/chicken etc.. Not exactly Egyptian culture I was expecting.
3. Breakfast was better in my eyes with simple continental buffet fare on offer - cereal /bread rolls etc.. All very simple but well done.
4. The most visually attractive part of the hotel is the lobby area and the staff are really helpful as was mentioned earlier.
5. The Cellar Bar has a decent atmosphere with above average prices. Worth a visit.
6. The hotel is approximately 15mins from Egyptian Museum / 45 mins from Pyramids and 45mins from Airport. Location wise the hotel is fine as you need to travel in a taxi in Cairo to get anywhere anyway.
To sum up, this hotel is nothing stunning, but then at the price I paid what would you expect. One other point though, for the price I paid here, I was able to stay in the Hilton in Luxor, but maybe thats just the capital city type 'extra'.
Not fancy but recommended
' renovated room ' which had just been repainted and was larger.we also had a large terrasse overlooking the city.
the breakfast buffet was O.K. if you don't mind drinking nescafe !
but the reason,we would definitely recommend that hotel is that the staff was very friendly and accomodating,they even allowed us to keep the room till 7 p.m. at no extra charge.
Was great place to stay
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