Golden Tulip Flamenco, Cairo > Reviews > Comfortable Cairo

Author's product rating:   

Value for Money	Excellent
Quality of Rooms	Excellent
Standard of Service	Good
Quality of Facilities	Average

Advantages:	good location, clean and comfortable
Disadvantages:	none

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

The Dutch Golden Tulip hotel chain has two hotels in Egypt. One in Cairo and the other is a resort hotel on the Red Sea. On a recent visit to Cairo, I stayed at the Cairo hotel. It is a four star hotel and rooms start at about EUR65 a night.

The hotel is located in Zamalek, an island on the Nile in a fairly quiet area (by Egyptian standards) with lots of shaded avenues and 19th century buildings, including many homes of foreign dignitaries. Zamalek is a great location to be in as there are several western chain fast food restaurants nearby (Pizza Hut, McDonalds, etc.) and a supermarket just around the corner. The hotel also has its own bakery with very good pastries and breads. It is an area that is popular with a lot of foreigners, particularly Europeans. There is also an internet café just across the street.

While there is no metro station nearby, taxis can quickly and easily take you anywhere. Zamalek is less than 5 minutes from the downtown area, where the Egyptian museum is located, 10 minutes away from Islamic Cairo (the Azhar, Khan Al-Khalili market) and about 20 minutes from the Pyramids. The hotel can also arrange tours and cars for you.

Checking in was very easy and staff were very helpful even at 3am! They spoke fairly good English which helped. My flight out of Egypt was at 10pm but was able to leave my luaggage in the hotel after I had checked out which was very useful.

The hotel rooms are quite big and spacious and are very comfortable and clean. This hotel is probably more aimed at business travellers than tourists but is good for both. For business travellers, there are internet, fax and conference facilities. The cleanliness was the main thing that I liked about this place. The hotel also overlooks the Nile and you can get great views of this beautiful river depending on which side of the hotel you are on. There are single rooms, double rooms and suites.

There is also a bar and a restaurant. The breakfast is very good. There is a good buffet choice of hot and cold foods, freshly made omelettes, cereals, fruit, pastries, breads and jams. The staff are friendly enough. The hotel also has its own shop and post office.

I would definitely recommend this place if you are visiting Cairo, even if it is more expensive than a standard tourist hotel.