Our family of 5 stayed at the Hilton WTC Residences for 4 nights in January 2008. We were in a HUGE apartment comprising 2 bedroom, plus study (which is really a 3rd bedroom), 2 bathrooms, 3 toilets, enormous lounge/dining area with large balcony overlooking the city, a separate kitchen and laundry. We were on the 13th floor.

We chose this hotel for the space, and particularly so we could use the kitchen. Knowing how fussy our teenagers are with what they eat, especially in a city like Cairo, we wanted to make some of our own meals. The big negative about this hotel is that the kitchen, whilst very big, lacked any cooking utensils, cutlery, crockery etc. There was no microwave. There is a big stove , fridge and dishwasher - but very few dishes to wash!

Fortunately room service is reasonably priced (by western standards) so we ordered some meals which were very good. The breakfast is a small buffet and was also good. We had to plead to have freshly squeezed orange juice as the juice they provide was sickly sweet.

The apartment was clean but not glistening. It's a little shabby in places and the kitchen needs a big revamp. However it was extremely goood value, and certainly the biggest place we have stayed in. There were 2 TVs - in the lounge & main bedroom. A third TV in the other bedroom would have been better.

The area around the hotel wasn't anything special. We felt we were away from the action. However it didn't bother us as we had organised our own tour guide to pick us up each of the 3 full days & take us around the crazy, vibrant, poor, exciting, historic and unforgettable city. We were too exhausted at the end of each day to do any walking in the neighbourhood. The Hilton WTC Residence was a good place to return to each evening to rest and unwind.

Arriving at Cairo airport we do wish the guide book or the flight attendants had told us you are supposed to queue at the currency exchange and buy your Visa stamps. If you have already queued in passport control you have to then leave the queue and start again.

You will either need Egyptian Pounds or American Dollars.

After passport control where they stick the visa stamps in your passport you go and collect your luggage. Beware of any locals trying to be chatty. Somehow "sales people" for tour companies are allowed to mingle with you.

We were heading for the taxi rank outside when a well dressed man in perfect English asked us if we wanted a taxi, we asked him how much it would be to go to Hilton WTC and he said €8. As it was 2am we thought this was O.K and then he asked us to follow him and we were heading away from the taxi's (this worried us and he said he was going to give us a receipt) what he really meant was we would be asked to book a tour.... we said NO (in no unceatain terms) and then 2 men took us in a taxi around some back streets and again we were concerned... we could have been very easily compromised.

We made it to the hotel safe and sound and got checked in to our surprise we were put into a suite with 2 double bedrooms, a study with another bed, a large living room, 2 full bathrooms with bath, a 3rd toilet, a 4th toilet, a shower room and a kitchen with dishwasher. The staff even had their own entrance door.
A fabulous balcony overlooked Cairo, we were on the 26th floor.

Air conditioning noisy but working, lovely linen and spotlessly clean.

Restaurant - emtpy most nights and empty for breakfast too but food lovely apart from the Chicken covered in green spit (local dish best to be avoided).
Staff very helpful. Gave us picnic bags because they did not think we ate enough breakfast...

Pool on roof also empty and freezing (not heated).

Food at Conrad next door lovely but service hopeless... they have a heated pool, could see people swimming at night..

Always haggle for taxi's.
Ladies wear long skirts and baggy tops otherwise you will get alot of unwanted attention.

The Nile Maxim - offers a great night cruise up the Nile with a 3 course meal and great entertainment (music, a spinnig man and a belly dancer). You head for the Nile Hilton and the Nile Maxim booking office is at the end of the drive, on the Nile.

The Twin Towers shopping mall is near by and great if you looking for nice clothes, new specticles (take your prescription as they don't to testing without a hospital visit, designer sunglasses or good food (Casper and Gambini's mint tea or Indian Chai tea and food fabulous).

We organised our own trip to the pyrmaids 150 Egypt pounds for a taxi return. 100 EP to get in. (dont fall for needing a camel or horse - you can walk in) but a horse and buggy did save us the walk but we paid well over the odds...250 EP
The whole lot with the horse buggy still came to less than half what the hotel were trying to charge.

Trip to the Egypian museum was done by Taxi too 15 EP each way and 100 entry fee. Hotel was charging $65 each (yep dollars!!) taxi takes 5 minutes.

Taxi's have difficulty trying to find this Hilton as there are 2 others, so best to ask for the Contrad and walk around the corner.
It is known as Hilton 3 (as it is the 3rd).

Hope this is useful
Regards
Carol

Our family of 5 stayed here for 4 nights and we found this property to be the best choice in all of Cairo for families or those who want more than just a hotel room at a hotel room price.

The lobby is very attractive, modern and clean. The Royal Suite we booked consisted of 2 bedrooms, a huge living room/dining room, a full kitchen, an office that also has a bed (3rd bedroom), 3 bathrooms (2 with bathtub and shower), and a massive balcony overlooking the city.

The rooms were slightly dated, but not to the point where it was in need of repair. The beds were comfortable, the lighting was more than adequate, there were 2 TV's with remotes, and our rate included breakfast. If you book a Royal Suite, it appears there only 4 units per floor, so you are guaranteed a Nile View from a number of windows or from the balcony.

We requested a high floor in advance, so traffic noise from the busy streets below was not a problem. The breakfast was a fairly extensive buffet that was mostly pretty good with choices to please virtually all palates. The bonus breakfast feature was cooked to order omelettes or eggs at no addiutional charge. Fresh squeezed juice and tea or coffee was included as well.

When we arrived at Cairo Airport we discovered that many taxi driversare not familiar with this particular hotel, and that part of the confusion lies with the fact that most visitors opt for the 2 OTHER Hiltons. The best way to help taxi drivers find our hotel was to tell them we were going to the Conrad (right next door) which has a prominently marked tower. One other note- though the hotel address is on the main Nile- hugging avenue of El Courniche Nile, the hotel entrance is actually BEHIND that street on the next street.

We found the location of the Hotel to be excellent, especially in light of the fact that most Cairo attractions are scattered all over Cairo, and a taxi ride is virtually required to go anywhere in Cairo.
We recommend going outside the hotel to hail your own Taxi as the negotiated cost of the ride will easily be HALF of what the hotel will quote or more.

Another interesting fact was that this property actually has 2 hotel/apartment towers- one of which that is completely closed off and empty. When we inquired as to why, no one seemed to know the answer.

Our tower seemed to be fairly well occupied, but we surmised it was mostly by long term residents, not short-term hotel guest such as ourselves. The staff was pretty friendly (but somewhat in that phony smile kind of way) and moderately helpful with our requests. The staff in the restaurant was excellent and very accomodating, even going so far as to prepare a goody bag on our day of departure. Nice touch.

We did have one disconcerting incident during our stay when we discovered our Hotel room ajar after returning from breakfast, and then ajar again while we were in the room a few minutes later. We did go out into the hall and found 2 hotel employees waiting there and asking us if we wanted our room cleaned. Assuming they opened the door, why did they not close it earlier, and why did they not knock before entering the 2nd time?

Additionally disturbing, the hotel employees are supposed to enter ONLY thru a secondary sevice entrance which we kept locked from the inside, specifically so no one could enter. Despite this incident, we would recommend a stay in this apartment hotel pretty strongly.

I travelled to cairo with my wife and three kids aged 4,10 & 3.

This hotel isn't really like a hotel at all more of a residence with some hotel facilities. It is a large apartment with a good size lounge and dining area a decent kitchen with a dishwasher, three toilets two showers one bath and a good size terrace.Two decent size bedrooms two tvs and lots of storage space.

Aircon works well but is a little noisy.

There is a twenty by ten metre pool which overlooks the nile. This sounds small but i never saw anybody else use it.

There are 32 floors and i asked to go as high as possible and got the city view on twenty eight it gives spectacular views over the city.

The WTC itself is pretty empty i guess business hasnt been good the cinema and mall have closed,if we wanted anything we went to the Conrad next door.

I felt very safe in cairo my wife and daughter went out a couple of times on their own and had no problems.

We did all the normal tourist things, my kids liked the food and the fresh juices, especially pear.

We ate a fair amount of street food,felafel and the stuffed breads and shoawarma kebabs and never had any stomach problems.

Restaurants are good and cheap and i would recommend going round midan orabi and across to zamalek.If you want fast food there are plenty of mcdonalds KFCs and pizza huts as well. If you crave some booze there is a delivery place called drinkies in zamalek that will bring you beer and wine for a nominal fee

It is easy to get cabs and fun haggling.

My three year old is vivacious and blond and i now know what it is like to be with a film star, in khan el khalili and round the pyramids she was regularly stroked and petted and people wanted to have there photograhp taken with her and i didnt expect that.

All in all it was a great holiday ther is easily enough to do in cairo for a week and i and my family really enjoyed it.

The food in the hotel was ok