Cairo: Novotel Cairo Airport (February 2010)

As we expected, the Novotel Cairo was the worst hotel of the trip. I wish I had been surprised and proven wrong, but the rooms are terrible. The public spaces are fine, particularly the lobby and restaurants, and the pool is adequate (although a little old and dated), but the rooms and the dank musty smell emanating from them are unacceptable. Sadly, we were here for three nights due to our rigorous touring schedule. There is an Iberotel right next door, and the view that we had from our room into/onto that property made our stay at the Novotel even worse, because the Iberotel looked much nicer than where we were (we had prepaid, so we couldn’t leave without losing all our money). The bathroom was fine, although the toilet didn’t flush properly, despite several calls to the front desk and maintenance visits. The air-conditioning worked wonderfully, as did the flat screen TV, so that was something at least. Space was tight, and we had a room with a king-size bed, so I think it would be even more cramped in a room with two double beds. We also had a sofa/daybed type thing, but the furniture, carpet, and curtains definitely needed a refresh. There was a mini-bar (not included), which gave us plenty of space to store the drinks and snacks that we bought at the grocery store across the street (well, across the street from the property entrance). The Italian restaurant (La Primavera) was fine, as was the Le Jardin d’Heliopolis (a la carte). We missed breakfast on all of the days (at Le Jardin), so I can’t comment, but the buffet set-up looked fairly large. It is possible to get beers from the bar (Le Rendezvous) to take back to your room, but the quantity is limited. There is a supermarket quite nearby where you can buy drinks and snacks for your room, and the prices there are very affordable. There were a few ground-level rooms that had access to the swimming pool/outdoor terrace. I would recommend trying to get one of those if you must stay at this hotel (I’m not sure if they were suites or regular rooms). This is a popular hotel for weddings and local conferences; some big event was going on every night that we were there, and the partying continued well into the next morning. We didn’t hear any noise from our room, although we were on the fourth floor and on the opposite side of the building.