Le Riad Hotel Cairo

extremely loud and disruptive music at night

Set within the historic walled city of Cairo, Le Riad is a unique and surprisingly good boutique hotel.

Please don’t miss the important negative notes towards the bottom of this review.

When people speak of the madness of Cairo, they are mainly referring to the truly crazy traffic. By comparison, the largely pedestrianised narrow streets of the souk are pleasant and easy-going.

Le Riad is set on one of the main streets in the old town, an attractive traditional building, whose modest entrance serves as an effective disguise.

The sixteen rooms are set over four floors, each a multi-roomed suite. The decor is reasonably stylish, with lots of authentic pieces and nice touches.

The staff, fronted by the wonderful Mzee Farouk, are lovely.

On the first floor there is a nice bar, but the main event is the impressive rooftop restaurant, which serves good food all the way from 6am to midnight.

Around sunset, the atmosphere is incredible, when the pigeon-keepers fly their birds and the minarets compete with each other in the Call to Prayer.

We usually think of spending three nights in the Cairo area, providing a full day for the older pyramids of Saqqara/Dahshur and a second full day for the better known pyramids of Giza. Depending on traffic, it’s a 30-60 minute drive from the hotel to both locations.

Staying here at Le Riad, it is also easy to fit in a few hours exploring the old city. The souk is arguably not as impressive as cities like Marrakesh, Fez and Istanbul, but there is still plenty of local colour.

For a more intrepid traveller, this place is near perfect, except for one major downside. As the evening draws on, various rooftop bars around the hotel start to crank up their volume. It’s local music for local people, but it’s shockingly loud and can continue relentlessly into the early hours. We have actually managed to get a decent amount of sleep here, but only with the judicious use of serious earplugs. There is a possibility that rooms 2, 6 and 10 (on the north side) might be a little quieter. The hotel owners hope to remedy this situation in the near future, the Minister for Tourism is apparently on the case, but things move slowly in Egypt, so we are not holding our breath.

However, given the incredible shortage of good accommodation options in the Cairo area, this imperfect solution may be the best alternative.

If you think you can handle the noise, then you will be rewarded with a delightful hotel and a wonderfully intense cultural experience. But do it at the end of your trip, you can recover your sleep when you get home.

The traffic in Cairo is famously crazy, partly in terms of jams, but mainly in the crazy way that the locals drive. You will need to endure this during your stay, it is an integral part of the experience, for better or for worse.

We usually recommend three nights at the front end of a trip in Giza, which gives you a full day for each of the two pyramid areas of Giza and Saqqara. If you subsequently head south to Luxor on the overnight train, then you can cut this to two nights in Cairo.

If you specifically want to explore the Old City, then we usually include a night at the end of a trip, when guests have had some time to toughen up and after which you will have a long flight to catch up on the terrible night’s sleep you will most likely have experienced.

Seasonality

The best time to visit Cairo is widely considered to be the winter months of Nov-Mar, but we sometimes favour other times of year, when temperatures may be higher, but visitor numbers are often much lower.

Cairo experiences a conventional northern hemisphere climate, with a hot dry summer centred on May-Sep and a warm dry winter Nov-Mar.

May-Sep : Summer

During the May-Sep summer the daytime temperatures typically reach 41C, with night-time temperatures holding up around 23C. Although these temperatures may seem concerning, the relative humidity drops considerably, meaning that comfort temperatures are not so bad, at least during the day. This season can also be advantaged by light summer breezes out on the river. However, given the warm nights, we do recommend that you stay somewhere with air-conditioning.

Despite being ‘out of season’, visitor numbers do increase during the European vacation season, centred on Jul/Aug, so best to head for May, June or late September if you can.

Some hotel prices can also be considerably lower during some of these months.

Oct : Autumn

The month of October represents a transition between summer and winter conditions and, in many ways, offers the best of both worlds, with visitor traffic also being relatively low.

Nov-Mar : Winter

During the Nov-Mar winter the daytime temperatures typically reach 25C, with nighttime temperatures plunging to 8C. Relatively humidities rise considerably, meaning that the middle of the day can be surprisingly uncomfortable, given the relatively low absolute temperatures.

These warm (rather than hot) conditions have led to winter being the most popular time to visit, meaning that visitor numbers reach their peak, especially around Dec-Jan. We therefore recommend November to mid-December and mid-January to March (excluding a week either side of Easter), although even then you probably need to deploy traffic avoidance measures when visiting the key sites.

Some hotel prices can also be considerably higher during some of these months.

Apr : Spring

The month of April represents a transition between winter and summer conditions and, in many ways, offers the best of both worlds, with visitor traffic also being relatively low (except for a week either side of Easter.

Getting there

Set about 20 km east of the city centre, Cairo Airport is one of the busiest in the world.

It has good international flight connections with Europe, Asia and Africa. Connections to the Americas are rather more spartan, with only Egyptair offering regular non-stop flights to North America (notably New York and Washington). Most people either take these services, or fly via London or Frankfurt.

From the airport, the city centre can be reached in 20-40 minutes, depending on traffic. Giza and Saqqara are usually more like 40-60 minutes.

We only recommend private-guided transfers. The local taxi drivers can be a bit challenging to deal with.

for just the one glorious night at the end of a trip