Hotel Review: Intercontinental City Stars Cairo, Egypt -May 16th, 2008
Traveling Overseas
How-to and Where-to Travel Around the World
The Intercontinental City Stars Cairo is a hotel situated in the Cairo City Stars complex, which consists of two hotels, an office tower, and the City Centre shopping center. With almost 800 rooms and suites, five restaurants, casino, health club, business center, wireless network and ballroom with the capacity to seat over 2,000 people, it is the largest and most advanced Intercontinental hotel in the world. Located in Heliopolis, it is not as convenient to downtown as the Intercontinental Semiramis, but is still within easy reach of all the major attractions as long as one plans for the horrific Cairo traffic.
I arrived in Cairo in the early afternoon and made the brief journey from Cairo International Airport to the Intercontinental. For security reasons, all cars must stop before winding their way up to the lobby area, but it is typically only a brief stop just to allow a dog to sniff the trunk and around the vehicle.
The lobby area is quite large, and the staff is friendly. Check in only took a few minutes, and my luggage beat me to the room. I found the room to be spacious enough, and quite well appointed. The television system had all the major news outlets, and the Internet access was fast and consistent. My room had a very small balcony (large enough for two people to stand side by side), but it was fine for absorbing chaotic Cairo from above and allowing the cool December air to enter the room (the air pollution is tolerable in the winter).
Staying on the Executive Floors provides the added convenience of a business concierge and a lounge with computers. The lounge also serves breakfast, including a traditional Egyptian breakfast of foul mudammes and eggs with all the accoutrements. In the afternoon, guests can enjoy complimentary beverages and sandwiches along with an assortment of other snacks. Because of this, I never went anywhere else in the hotel for breakfast or tea, but there were several other options available both in the hotel and in the shopping center.
The Intercontinental City Stars has plenty of dining options in five restaurants running the gamut from formal to smart casual which offer Italian, Japanese, Lebanese and various international cuisines. Additionally, several cafes and restaurants are located in the City Centre shopping complex including my favorite, Abou El Sid. I’d heard about it before and had every intention of visiting it at least once at the original location in Zamalek, so finding out that one was no more than a few hundred yards away was like a gift sent from above.
Abou El Sid is a restaurant that specializes in traditional Egyptian cuisine and it’s as close to authentic as you’re going to get outside of an Egyptian home. It is a large space on the sixth floor of the shopping center and you’re probably going to have to ask at least two people where it is. I went there twice specifically for the Molokia (there are about as many ways to spell this dish as there are to prepare it), but also enjoyed the lentil soup, bessara, spicy oriental sausages and taameya (falafel). All were excellent, but the molokia with rabbit (or chicken) and rice was just unbelievable. And that’s coming from someone who has had a lot of molokia from a lot of different cooks from the time he was a young boy. You can visit Abou El Sid online at http://www.abouelsid.com/
While the Intercontinental City Stars is not quite what I’d call a destination for the adventurous, it is worth a stay if you’ve been out roughing it and would like somewhere clean and relatively quiet (for Cairo) to relax, or if you’re the business traveler who would like the convenience of the latest technology at your fingertips. The service was good, the staff friendly, and the location is second best only to the hotels downtown on the Nile (Intercontinental Semiramis, Nile Hilton, etc.). Enjoy!
Intercontinental City Stars Cairo
Omar ibn El Khattab St
Cairo 11737 Egypt
http://www.ichotelsgroup.com/intercontinental/en/gb/locations/overview/crohc
Omar Hassan, son of an Egyptian father and British mother, was born and mostly raised in the Washington, D.C. area. He has spent time traveling in Western Europe, Egypt, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, but has lived full time in Richmond, VA since 1995.
