Cairo

Zamalek is a leafy island in the middle of the Nile and it is the softest landing in Cairo — tree-lined streets, embassies, small galleries, and the only part of the city where walking is genuinely pleasant. Short-term apartments here run 1,400 to 2,600 EGP a night, above the city median, and what you are paying for is quiet. 26th of July Street has the bookshops and the bakeries; the western side towards the Gezira Club is where the good small restaurants hide. From here you are 15 minutes by car to Downtown and about 40 to the pyramids, which in Cairo means anything other than rush hour.

Wust el-Balad is the 19th-century European city Khedive Ismail built, and it is beautiful in a peeling, unbothered way — belle epoque facades, cast-iron balconies, and staircases that look like film sets. It is at its best after 8 pm, when the offices empty and the cafes fill. Cafe Riche on Talaat Harb has been serving since 1908; the ahwas on the side streets off Sherif Street are cheaper and better for people-watching. Nothing here is far from anything else, and it is safe to walk late, but the pavements are an obstacle course, so watch your feet more than your bag.

Maadi is 25 minutes south of Downtown on Metro Line 1 and it feels like a different city — wide streets, jacaranda trees, villas, and a large remote-worker population. It is where you stay if you want calm, decent coffee, reliable internet and a supermarket that stocks everything. The trade-off is distance: you will spend an hour a day getting to the historic sights and back. Monthly furnished apartments run 15,000 to 30,000 EGP. Road 9 is the spine — cafes, the fruit market, and the small restaurants that stay open well past midnight.

Al-Muizz is a kilometre of medieval Cairo — mosques, madrasas and merchant houses from the 10th century onward, pedestrianised and lit at night. Start at Bab al-Futuh in the north and walk south. The northern half is where Cairenes actually shop for copper, spices and lamps; the southern half feeds into Khan el-Khalili and tourist pricing. The street itself is free to walk; individual monuments like the Qalawun complex are 60 to 100 EGP each. Go late afternoon, finish with mint tea at El Fishawy, and buy nothing in the first shop you walk into.

Thirty hectares of garden built on top of what was, for five hundred years, the city's rubbish dump. Entry is around 50 EGP and it buys you lawns, water channels and a terrace looking straight across the medieval skyline to the Citadel, with the minarets of Sultan Hassan in between. Go an hour before sunset. It is where Cairene families come to breathe, so it is busiest on Friday afternoons and completely calm on a weekday morning. The restaurant on the upper terrace is overpriced and worth it purely for the view, and a gate on the western side drops you straight into Darb al-Ahmar.

The GEM sits two kilometres from the Giza pyramids and it is enormous — the grand staircase alone holds 87 monumental pieces, and the Tutankhamun galleries show the full burial assemblage together for the first time. Budget four hours minimum, six if you read the labels. Foreign adult tickets sit in the 1,200 to 1,700 EGP range depending on what is included, and booking online skips the queue. Go at opening or after 2 pm, and only pair it with the pyramids on the same day if you are ready for a very long one. There is a decent cafe inside, which matters because leaving and returning is not practical.

Get off at Mar Girgis on Metro Line 1 and you step straight into a walled compound holding the Hanging Church, the Church of St Sergius with the crypt where the Holy Family is said to have sheltered, the Ben Ezra Synagogue and the Coptic Museum. It is compact — an hour and a half covers it — and most of it is free, with the museum around 200 EGP. It is also one of the few genuinely quiet corners of central Cairo. Cover shoulders and knees, keep your voice down, and note that photography inside the churches is restricted. Amr ibn al-As Mosque, the first in Africa, is five minutes north.

These two mosques face each other across a narrow lane at the foot of the Citadel, and they are six hundred years apart. Sultan Hassan, finished in 1363, is the one that will stop you — a cavernous stone courtyard with four vaulted halls and acoustics that carry a whisper across the whole space. Al-Rifa'i opposite is twentieth-century royal, and holds the tombs of King Farouk and the last Shah of Iran. One ticket of around 200 EGP covers both. Late morning light through the courtyard is the reason to come early. Shoes off, shoulders and knees covered, and women should carry a scarf.

Rice, lentils, macaroni, chickpeas, fried onions, tomato sauce, and a garlic-vinegar hit called dakka. A bowl costs 35 to 70 EGP and it will hold you for six hours. Abou Tarek on Champollion Street in Downtown is the famous one, four floors of it, and it is genuinely good; the small neighbourhood places are just as good at half the price. Ask for shatta if you want heat, and add the vinegar yourself, a little at a time. It is vegan by default, which makes it the single most useful thing to know if you do not eat meat while you are in Egypt.

Fuul is slow-cooked fava beans; taameya is the Egyptian falafel made from those same beans and fried green in the middle. Together they are what the city runs on. A sandwich costs 10 to 20 EGP from a street cart, and a full plate with bread, tahina and pickles is 40 to 70 in a sit-down place. The carts are busiest between 7 and 10 in the morning, which is also when everything is freshest. Ask for it bel zeit and let them add the cumin. Zooba in Zamalek does a cleaned-up version at three times the price if you want a gentler introduction first.

An ahwa is a street coffeehouse and the rules are simple: take a table, order something, stay as long as you like. Turkish coffee is 15 to 30 EGP — ask for it ala reha with no sugar, mazbout for medium, or ziyada for sweet. Shai is tea. A shisha is 40 to 80. El Fishawy in Khan el-Khalili has been open more or less continuously since 1797 and is worth the tourist markup once; after that, find one on a side street where the tables spill onto the pavement and the backgammon is loud. Nobody will ever rush you, and nobody expects you to tip more than a few pounds.

Cairo eats late and the kitchens know it. The grill houses in Downtown and Sayeda Zeinab run until 3 or 4 in the morning, and a mixed grill with bread, salads and tahina lands around 250 to 450 EGP a head. Hawawshi — spiced minced meat baked inside bread — is the late-night classic at 40 to 80. For a sweet ending, om ali is a hot bread-and-milk pudding, and any decent patisserie will still be selling basbousa at 2 am. Friday and Saturday nights are the busiest. If a place is empty at midnight in Cairo, that is information, not an opportunity.

Uber and Careem both work well and remove the entire haggling problem — a cross-town ride is typically 80 to 250 EGP, and drivers will phone you, so have a working local number. The metro is the fastest thing in the city at 8 to 15 EGP a ride, runs roughly 5:30 am to midnight, and has women-only carriages in the middle of each train. White street taxis are metered in theory and negotiated in practice, so agree a price first. Traffic peaks 8 to 10 am and 3 to 8 pm, and Friday morning is the one window when the city is genuinely empty.

The Giza plateau opens at 7 am and that first hour is the whole game — cool, empty, and the light on the eastern faces. General entry is around 700 EGP for foreign adults, with separate tickets to go inside the Great Pyramid and to see the Solar Boat. Everything else on the plateau is optional and negotiable: camels, horses, buggies, photographers. Agree a price and a route in writing on your phone before you get on any animal, and never accept a free anything. The Sphinx entrance is through the valley temple at the eastern end, and the classic nine-pyramid panorama is from the desert road at the south-west corner.

Cairo traffic does not stop for pedestrians and there are very few usable crossings. The technique that works is to move steadily and predictably into the road, one lane at a time, making eye contact and never stepping backwards — drivers steer around what they can predict. Crossing alongside a local a few times is the fastest way to learn. Pavements are broken and often occupied, so a lot of walking happens in the road itself; wear something visible at night. On the corniche and the big boulevards use the footbridges, because they exist for a reason and they are always faster than they look.

None of these are dangerous and all of them are tedious. The papyrus or perfume shop a friendly stranger walks you to, because he takes a commission. The man near a monument who says it is closed today and offers an alternative. The camel ride at Giza where getting down costs more than getting up. The taxi with no change for a 200 note. The tea that turns out to have a price after you have drunk it. The counter is boring and effective: decide in advance where you are going, decline unsolicited guiding, ask the price before accepting anything, and carry small notes. A flat la shukran, repeated once, ends most of it.

October to April is when Cairo is comfortable — 18 to 27 C, dry, and cold enough for a jacket on January evenings. Summer runs 35 to 42 C and the city goes nocturnal; if you come in July, do the monuments before 10 am and sleep through the middle of the day. The khamaseen blows in on and off between March and May, a hot southern wind that turns the sky beige and coats everything in fine dust for a day or two at a time. It is not dangerous, but keep a mask handy if you have a chest condition. Winter mornings can be genuinely hazy with smog, which usually clears by noon.

A felucca is a wooden lateen-rigged sailboat, and hiring one for an hour is the cheapest good decision in Cairo. Boats moor along the corniche in Garden City, at Dokki, and by the big hotels in Zamalek. The rate is roughly 400 to 700 EGP for the whole boat per hour, not per person, and it is negotiable. Go at 5 pm so you are on the water at sunset with the Cairo Tower on one side and the Giza skyline turning gold on the other. Bring your own drinks and snacks, because most captains are relaxed about it. If there is no wind they will row, and it is still worth it.