Marriott Cairo Hotel And Omar Khayyam Casino

Other people have said enough. I would just like to add two comments
1 - do not send your mail through this hotel.
They have a "mail box" in the lobby, they claim that someone from the post office comes every day.
When I have been in Egypt before, I've sent my mail through the official post office and it arrived within 5 days (Europe). This time I sent out twenty letters/postcards - non have reached their destination over 2 weeks later... thanks Marriott.

2- When we asked the doorman to send us a CITY cab (they now have white metered cabs throughout Cairo, called "white city cabs") to go to the Egyptian Museum (3 kilo.), we were basically bullied into getting into a limousine - which of course cost us over three times as much. The museum, which is across the Nile, can be reached on foot, but one has to cross through some pretty heavy traffic. The hotel is not near a metro station.

This hotel is superb in all respects. The rooms, the service and amenities are of the highest quality. The dining is an experience with 10 or 12 different places to eat at on the property. Can not believe that this is not a "5 Star" rated hotel.

Unique Quality: Fantastic amenities on the property.

There are two Marriott group hotels in Cairo; the JW a bit out of town and the Marriott in the centre of town overlooking the Nile.
This is a busy hotel and it has a number of restaurants, shops and casino within it is an oasis, albeit a busy one, from the non-stop activity of the city.
The swimming pool area is too small for the hotel so you have to get there early on busy days if you want to soak up the sun.
The food in the restaurants is “OK” at best; the JW Steak House served me a tasty and tender sirloin, but my wife’s rack of lamb was too fatty, the osso bucco in the Italian had a nice sauce, but the veal was on the tough side and so on.
The staff in the hotel were very helpful and the Executive Lounge is quite large and comfortable. The evening snacks were very nice and the breakfast included eggs to order. They serve alcohol in the lounge but it is not free.

Unique Quality: There is a 24 hr casino on site.

This is another view of the Marriott. Sure, the rooms are comfortable, as you would expect when paying top dollar, but as for the rest our impression were negative. We spent a total of 5 nights there and frankly were not impressed –especially with staff refusing to help when we were stuck in a lift!

This happened when we were hurrying to finish packing before checking out and room staff knocked on the door. Maybe they were just looking for a tip (we did leave one in the room) or maybe I was a little abrupt as we were in a rush.
Anyway, when we got into the lift with our bags the same staff were filling a trolley with towels right next to the lift. The doors closed –then the lights went off and we were left in total darkness for almost 10 minutes!
We had a ‘plane to catch so you can imagine our panic…frantic banging on the door & shouting brought no response.
Eventually the lights came on, the lift door opened …and there were the guys, still busy on their trolley right next to the lift. They didn’t look up. Did they switch off the power as a sort of sick joke? The manager to whom I later complained said it couldn’t be done, but they must have heard our loud shouting & banging – and totally ignored our plight!
The duty manager said there would be an enquiry but hasn’t even had the courtesy to respond to my follow-up email. I think this sums up Marriott’s attitude to guests.

Other points to be aware of are that check in-out can be Very Slow. It took us 40 minutes to check in, almost half an hour to check out. The staff seemed to take forever but maybe it’s just their slow computer system. Allow plenty of time if you are catching a flight etc.

Make sure you have plenty of water because a small (300ml?) bottle of Evian water from the room’s mini bar costs 24 Egyptian pounds PLUS 10% service PLUS 12% tax.! A rip-off even by 5 star hotel standards!

Should we visit Cairo in future, we won’t stay at the Marriott.

Fantastic 4.5* hotel !!

We arrived in Cairo almost midnight and flagged a local taxi down to "Marriott Cairo". First question I got asked by the friendly taxi driver was " which Marriott ? there are 2 of them." So, first point of advice, figure out which Marriott you are staying in. The one I stayed was the Marriott Cairo on the Zamalek Island which is the little island on the River Nile, ideally located in the city center close to the nearby Egytian Museum and Ramses Station. The taxi ride took 30 mins door to door from Cairo International Airport and cost 70 Egyptian pount (LE) (i.e. about 7 sterling pounds or 14 USD), which is quite standard. On arrival, we were greeted by a grand entrance (used to be an palace converted into hotel and refurbished) and buzzling activity at the lobby. I was surprised that the security is pretty tight and every time you enter they will pass your bags under the x-ray machine like they do in the airports (this is same pretty much all across the hotels in cairo). The check in lobby was a little smokey some parts, but there are 2 foreign exchange bureaus and a string of shops on this level. It took a good 10 mins to complete the check in procedures. We had a twin room and each bed was a queen size. very clean and comfy and comes with a Kettle + coffee. The toilet is fantastic and not disappointing. In the morning, we took a morning swim in the pool which is about 20m in length - the "indoor" and the "outdoor" pool is basically connected and comes with a Jacuzzi. Breakfast is buffet style and have a made to order omlettes, pancakes and steaks etc. in addition to the usual american style breakfast. Most impressive thing is to Garden cafe and the outdoor egyptian restaurant, enclosed inside the hotel surrounded by palm trees and next to the pool. It was particularly romantic and they do delicious egyptian food at night (slightly pricier - about 70-100LE per head depending what you eat). Marriott is on the banks of the Nile, so in some of the rooms you get a lovely nile view too.

Unique Quality: To give you some idea of distance to tourist attractions, in Cairo always take a taxi !! Its only 5mins on taxi from Marriott to Egyptian museum (just across the bridge to the east of Zamalek). 10 mins on taxi to Ramses station (east of Zamalek) and to Giza Pyramids a 20 mins taxi (southwest of Zamalek). A 5min journey should cost no more than 10-15LE, so feel free to bargain and walk away if disagree. If you choose to, the museum is walkable. Hotel itselt has local tours available for booking if wanted, otherwise just hop on a local taxi !

Will stay there again !

ROOMS:
The hotel has two “wings” or towers each accommodating 600 rooms. I feel that even though these rooms are newly refurbished and are now classified as Superior rooms, they fall short of the spacious layout of similar hotels in the 5* category. The bathroom has a shower/bath and is very small. Single vanity basins are a disappointment.
The soft furnishings are pleasant with “typical” furnishings; desk with high speed internet access (high speed is relative in Cairo), television with various channels, air-conditioning and plush duvets with crisp white linen.

Unique Quality: LOCATION
To be honest my first impression was that this hotel would be very old style Egyptian and very noisy. The first proved to be correct, but the latter proved to be very surprising.

The hotel is located on the edge of the Nile river on the East bank of Zamalek Island. There is a very busy thoroughfare directly in front of the hotel, but due to a combination of building layout together with the huge amount of trees, this is kept to a minimum. (sitting in the garden you can barely hear the street noise!)
The noise in the rooms is also kept to a minimum due to the triple glazing on the windows. (I saw a room facing onto the busy bridge road and couldn’t hear anything!)

In terms of ease of access, this hotel does rate very highly. It is very easy to access all the main routes to the tourist sights. The only disadvantage is that the access is via very congested roads and can be rather frustrating during busy periods (most of the day in Cairo city centre)

PUBLIC AREAS
* Restaurants
Hotel public areas are very impressive in their offerings. The hotel boasts centre-court or main building which still houses authentic and original artifacts dating back to the early 1850’s. There are an impressive 16 restaurants ranging from an Irish Pub to a Steakhouse to an Italian Trattoria to a bakery and obviously a local Egyptian “tent”. Each are beautifully appointed and the menus are comprehensive and authentic. The fact that they are frequented by the local Caireans can only bode well…

* Conference facilities
Their substantial conference venues are also located here and offer a full range of capacities. It does not have state of the art AV and this would have to be hired-in. The interiors are all authentic but can be very garish (think Palace Royal Chamber gold and Pilanesberg carpets!) Certainly not a blank canvas….

* Gardens & Pool
The garden areas are immaculately manicured. They are peaceful and
green and form a welcome colourful refuge from the dull Cairo landscape.

The first impression of this place is how big it is....then it's how crowded it is at all times, even though we were checked in prompty, no one was there to show us the way to our room or did the front desk clerk tell us how to get there. After looking around a pushy bell man insisted in taking our bags, and show us the way to our room. The hotel lobby is just full of people, it seemed that we were in an airport terminal, instead of a 5 star hotel. The hotel is presently being renoviated, and the difference is huge !!!!! the new rooms have just that new beds, new covers, new tv's, new bathrooms...... Everything seemed fine until we found flea's on our bed the second night, we called downstairs and we promptly moved to another room, now in the new room the A/C didn't work, so again ask to be switched, now our 3 rd room, the bathroom looked and smelled like it hadn't been cleaned in a week, finally after another room changed we got an OK room in the old tower which was not renoviated. We were practially taken from one side of the hotel to another. After 3 hours of be bounced around we decided we would leave and go to another hotel, then we realized in all the room changes we were missing 2 pieces of ladies clothing...what a mess....Is this the way a 5 star International Hotel is runned.....at $225 US dollars a night plus 25% tax....no way !!!!!! We left and checked our selves into the Four Seasons at Nile Plaza (please read my other hotel tip)

Unique Quality: Would not recommend this place to anyone.......trying to save some $$$$ we ended up paying with our time and comfort. Every hotel has a 25% tax on the total hotel bill....LOOK out for that !!!!!

Absolutely beautiful! Service impeccable, truly worthy of ther Marriott standards of high expectations.

The palace has been a historical palatial site since the 1800's and, it sits on the edge of the Nile and amongst vast, beautiful gardens.
The sheer size of this complex is enough to leave you agape with delight!
This is before you've even sampled their service.

Unique Quality: Anything you wish for, it seems, can all be found within the walls of your castle for the duratino of your stay. From absolutely gorgeous pool, which is surrounded by a multi teered seating/sunning arrangement so that all people wishing to soak up the rays have uninterrupted views of the lagoon like setting of the pool, to the fabulous array of restaurants that surround the gardens.

The food is delicious and the ambiance of the restaurants ever changing! There is even a sushi bar and a french bakery which specializes in some of the best chocolate and fresh fruit tarts that we had on our entire trip to Africa!
More "Americanized" bistros are situated by the pool, as well as a huge shisha bar at the far end.

The rooms are scrumptuous and we were given both a standard room as well as a suite so that we could sample the difference between the two.
The standard room was very large, with wonderful bathroom, plasma TV and comfortable linen sheets and fluffy pillows.
Best of all was the view which overlooked the gardens and restaurants.

The Suite was truly spectacular and palacial! 3 separate rooms including: Living Room/Dining room and kitchen area complete with a dumb waiter and microw wave.
Separate HUGE bathroom, in it's own seaparte portion of the apartment. Double glass paned french doors which allowed you into a massive room complete with large walk in, seamless glass shower and a soaking roman tub.
Huge separate master bedroom, separate from the rest of the apartment and complete with a balcony view overlooking all of the Nile and Cairo in the distance. The balcony had a 360 degree view of all of Cairo, truly magical!

A very central hotel, that is a former palace.

Have you ever wanter how the old travelers feel when they visit Cairo? This is your chance to know about. Is enough if you see the entrance. The clasic Arab arcitect cats the eyes, and you are going to enjoy this privilege.
The free brecfast is beyon imagination. The back aley for a cofee is timeles, and the service is just 5 star.
We stay as pay 100euro per night, by the agent deal. The next days that we expant our acomodation, we pay only 120euro.

If you stay in a room with view to the river, take a photo to remember for ever.

Directions: The best start point to go around in Cairo !!!

This building, built in 1869 for Empress Eugenie of France for when she was to attend the opening of the Suez Canal. It has scrumptious outside and inside accommodations that made you feel special. They had great shops and were very attentive to all who stayed. It is a large, multi-national hotel (Marriott) that caters to business people as well as the travel-in-the-know crowd.

Unique Quality: Great shops, outstanding outside restaurants and pubs and just a beautiful structure. Another thing to know is this is the area of Cairo - actually on an island on the Nile - is the artistic center of Cairo. It also houses the only garden terrace in Cairo and many local residents eat and drink and are seen at this hotel.

Directions: Central Cairo - Zamalek