Only stayed for a night prior to flying back to UK. Functional, good resturants and rooms pleasant enough. Service good and both drinks and food reasonably priced. Location rather isolated in the new part of Cairo - good for airport but not so great for the sights. We would certainly stay again if the need arose, so the hotel comes recommended but for long periods of stay there is probably better.

Recently returned from Egypt on a package tour (from STI Travel) that included 4 nights at the Sonesta Cairo Hotel. The rooms (one at beginning of tour and another after returning from Nile cruise) were both well kept and very comfortable. The 24 hour restaurant I did use, The Greenhouse, had great food. The waiters were very accomodating. The hotel also has a 24 hour bank, useful in exchanging money before a day of sightseeing. The gift shop sells postcards but doesn't always have stamps. Better to get both while on visiting other sites in Cairo. The Sonesta is in a locatiion away from the center of the city which provides a quieter experience, but isn't necessarily convienent for exploring Cairo on one's own. There is a proposed future subway extension to the Cairo airport that should help people like myself who prefer the subway to street traffic. (The hotel is located between the airport and downtown Cairo.) There are taxis readily available from the hotel's entrance.

The Sonesta is a very safe building in that everything brought into the building is put through a scanner, even food purchased nearby. There is a western style convienence store connected to a gas station not too far from the hotel. For those looking for snacks and larger (than 12oz cans) of soft drinks, this is a good option. There is also an Alpha Market about a 20 minute walk from the hotel.

Overall this was a very good experience. I would definitely stay at the Sonesta on a future trip to Egypt.

If your room faces the pool, you will not be able to sleep before 01:55 A.M., when the singers and musicians thanks the audience (only 1 or 2 tables occupied...).

We just returned from Cairo and had stayed at the Sonesta for five nites. We had two rooms one for my wife and I and one for my son. Our experience began with the door knobs falling off both room doors as we attempted to enter our rooms. Our room smelled terrible, had dust everywhere and hair all over the floor in the bathroom. We explained this to the front desk and housekeeping and were moved to another room. We were all nonsmokers in smoking rooms. The room still smelled bad. My wife asked if we could move to a nonsmoking room. The front desk threw two room keys at her and told her to check and see if they were okay. Both rooms were by the elevator so she opted to stay where we were. That nite the air conditioning did not work. (it was over 90'F in Cairo). The next morning after my wife had showered the sink water kept turning brown and I mean dark brown about every 30 seconds for 30 seconds. At this point we contacted the tour operator. He got us a new room. This one had a noisy air conditioner and was on the side of the building facing the pool so the entertainment could be heard loud and clear until 2:00 a.m. The tour operator wouldn't move us so we were stuck. After hot and busy days in city this was not the kind of place one looked forward to coming back to. Also at breakfast when asked for some napkins (ours were missing) the waiter promptly brought some from the table of guests that had just left. A disgusting experience!!!!!!