Sofitel Le Sphinx Cairo

Sofitel Le Sphinx

If you want a good hotel downtown, near the Sphinx and Pyramids, take this hotel. You don’t even need to book any Pyramids/Sphinx tours. Its so so close to you. However, you are far from modern Cairo - the malls, modern streets for shopping, and Mohandesin, near Zamalek. Once you see the Sphinx, there isnt much to see again unless you travel to the "happening" part of town. Very very busy hotel due to location and may appear to compromise a little, the 5-star hotel standard. Hotel shops are equipped for almost everything you may need. Swimming pool is fantastic.Dont miss it! I stayed in one of the best rooms.Hotel staff made me feel welcome and did all to make me enjoy my stay.

Traveler's tip on local attractions

The Sphinx/Pyramids. You can see them from your hotel window.

Good value that has the essentials

This is an older hotel, so has the 70’s deco look and a bit frayed. However, it was clean and very convenient to the Giza pyramids and easy trip to Shaqqara pyramids. A bit of a ride to the city sights, but worth coming back to a quieter area. It was much quieter than most previous comments made it sound, especially if you get a garden room. The inner grounds landscaping and pool were very nicely maintained. If the pool chairs were all taken, they had a beautiful, soft grass area to lay upon. There was a convenience shop in the hotel for necessities. You will work for good service all over the city, so the hotel is no different, but you do get the service eventually. The food in the lobby cafe was excellent, from breakfast rolls to pizzas to hummus. The value is definitely worth the reasonable price and convenient location.

Traveler's tip on getting the most out of your stay

Pay the price for the camel ride around the back of pyramids and get away from the tourist busses - that’s what you are there for! The hotel taxis are convenient, but you pay for it. We hired a driver for three days and it was very reasonable, about $US 40-50 per day plus tips.

Pyramid view complete with a soundtrack of busy traffic.

The hotel was beautiful, the grounds kept up really well and the restaurants tasty. Our first room was a "Pyramid view" room, the view consisted of looking out of a small barred window and since it was right next to the street and Egyptians honk their car horn every 2 seconds, it was extremely loud. We asked for a room change. Our next room was still a "Pyramid view" room but this was set back a little further and had a nice deck to relax on. My parents room was a "garden view" and was extremely quiet, I would recommend that one. We requested a baby crib for our son and received a rickety, swaying crib that looked at if it would fall over any minute. Overall very happy with the location, the hotel and its services. Very friendly staff and everyone was really nice to our toddler.

good

nice hotel

An okay place to stay.

The hotel Property was very nice and the place itself is maintaned very well and very clean. The views of the pyramids were spectacular during sunset and at night when they ocassionally were lit up. However, there were a few things that i didn’t like as well. Our room had a weird musty smell that just killed me, also in order to conserve energy the Ac automatically shuts off when u leave your room, so when we would come back from a long hot day of being outside, the hotel room was just as bad if not worse. The room would be hot and smelly. I would often have to open the balcony door to let some air in and the smell out. The hotel is located a bit far from the main city, so the commute every day from giza to the city was long and expensive. Okay place to stay for a short trip if youre only going to see the pyramids as you can practically walk there, but if not then i suggest that staying in a hotel in the main city would be more convenient.

Traveler's tip

Negotiate everything in cairo and dont use transportation offered in the hotels as they are priced very high. also try to eat at restaurants outside the giza area where there are less tourists and you can have more variety at lower prices. buy bottled water from little shops selling drinks and snacks as they are available at cheap prices; also avoid drinking juices that are not canned or bottled, as my husband ended up getting a stomach flu from the lemonade he had at a restaurant.

three nights at the sofitel

aside from the fact that obtaining new batteries for the tv remote control too no less than three hours, and calls to room service often went unanswered, our stay wasnt all that bad. dont trust the hotel taxi people to reliably get you to the airport or hook you up with straight-laced camel rides. all of the connections we obtained through the hotel were SHADY! jewelry shops are beautiful but ridiculously overpriced. if you’re young and you like to get out and about, go to another hotel. there’s not really much to do. and the restaurants inside the hotel aren’t optimal for the times they’re open. but it’s a cheap hotel, so if you’re going by the ’you get what you pay for rule’, it wasn’t all that bad.

Traveler's tip on saving a few bucks

negotiate negotiate negotiate!!!!!! don’t ever take the first price they offer. not for the hotel, but for the shops and the businesses you visit. try to set the price at the beginning, and don’t get swindled into tipping too much!

Hotel is not a luxury.

Its advantage is that it’s near pyramids and sphinx. but i didn’t feel it is a clean one. i.e: beds’ sheets has a smell.