Four Seasons Hotel Cairo at Nile Plaza

The Corniche El Nil bends south out of the centre of Cairo past the embassies of Garden City, and the Nile Plaza complex stands on the river side of the road: a tower of glass and sand-coloured stone with the hotel in it, a shopping arcade at its feet and apartments alongside. The Four Seasons Hotel Cairo at Nile Plaza opened in 2004, five years after the brand's first Cairo hotel across the river at the First Residence in Giza, and it is the one that business travellers and official delegations use.

History

The hotel was developed by the Egyptian group that also built the First Residence, as the centrepiece of a mixed-use scheme on a riverside plot that had long been earmarked for a hotel. It opened in 2004 and quickly became the venue for the state dinners and summits that pass through Cairo, which was the brief: a hotel big enough for a delegation and close enough to the ministries and embassies of Garden City. It has been refreshed in stages since, with the restaurants rebuilt in the second half of the 2010s.

Architecture and design

The tower is a plain modern high-rise of 30 floors with a two-storey podium on the Corniche. What sets it apart is the plan: the building is oriented so that no room looks at another building. The rooms on the west face the Nile, with Rhoda island, Giza and the pyramids beyond on a clear day; the rooms on the east look over the old city to the Citadel and the Mokattam hills. The public rooms are large, with marble floors and a lobby that fills with the city's wedding parties on Thursday nights.

Rooms and suites

The hotel has around 365 rooms and suites, which makes it the largest Four Seasons in the Middle East. Rooms are generously sized by the standards of the brand and all have floor-to-ceiling windows. The suites on the upper floors have the Nile on one side and the Citadel on the other, and the top-floor suites are the ones used for state visits.

Dining

The hotel has more restaurants than most in Cairo. Zitouni serves Egyptian and Levantine cooking and is the place where visitors eat the koshari, molokhia and grilled meats that the city does best. 8, the Chinese restaurant, is on the eighth floor. Bella is the Italian room, with a terrace over the river. There are also a steakhouse, a lobby lounge used for tea and a pool bar on the Nile-side deck. Most of these are busy with Cairenes rather than guests, which is the best sign of their standing.

Wellness

The spa is on the podium level, with treatment rooms, a hammam, steam rooms and a fitness centre with a view of the river. The outdoor pool is on the podium deck above the Corniche, lined by palms and facing the Nile, and it is heated in winter.

Weddings and events

Cairo weddings are large, loud and late, and the hotel is built for them: a grand ballroom on the podium with its own foyer and a terrace on the river, with a second, smaller ballroom and a run of meeting rooms for conferences. The hotel is a standard choice for ministerial summits, press conferences and the dinners of the diplomatic corps. Capacities are not given here.

Location

Garden City is the embassy district laid out on curving streets south of Tahrir Square, and the hotel is on its river edge. The Egyptian Museum on Tahrir is a ten-minute walk north along the Corniche, and the Grand Egyptian Museum at Giza is about 45 minutes by car depending on the traffic. Cairo International Airport is roughly 45 minutes to an hour away. For anyone choosing a luxury hotel in Cairo for a conference or a state-level event, this is the default.