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Sofitel Cairo Maadi Towers and Casino
By
Juergen Stryjak
Maadi is the expatriates’ dormitory town at the southern
border of Cairo. The people think Maadi is Cairo’s green lung,
which is not true, since many of the green areas have already been
replaced by sterile, gray, concrete high rises. And they think it
has no good hotel, which is not true, either. Juergen Stryjak
tested the Sofitel Cairo Maadi Towers – and was surprised.
Even if a tourist has already visited Cairo once or twice, he
probably won’t be familiar with the Cairo suburb of Maadi. This
neglect of Maadi is quite understandable for tourists, as there
are no sights, no nightlife, no decent hotels and Maadi is located
far, far, away from the city center. This is, in part of the image
of Maadi, but it doesn’t reflect the reality completely. Maadi
has some advantages, which make it, in my opinion, interesting and
convenient for tourists, too.
Among these advantages is the Sofitel Cairo Maadi Towers and
Casino, a Five-Star hotel, which surprised me, when I recently
settled down there for one night. It belongs to the Accor group,
which also operates some of the most famous historical hotels in
Egypt, for example the Winter Palace in Luxor, the Old Cataract
Hotel in Aswan and the Sofitel Alexandria Cecil.
Don’t expect an architectural jewel. The Sofitel Cairo Maadi
Towers are as plain and austere as many of the concrete piles in
the neighborhood. Maadi is legendary as a green suburban oasis,
with lots of villas and quiet little streets, therefore making it
especially popular among expatriates and the Cairene upper class,
but as it is with many legends, it survives because of its
glorious past. Today, the big city has swallowed Maadi, and many
of the villas have been displaced by gray high-rises. The Sofitel
Cairo Maadi Towers and Casino is one of them, definitely not a
landmark of architecture.
Its real value which I discovered immediately after entering
– and then at every turn: a very special friendliness, honest
and welcoming, and much more than the usual routine kindness of
such places. Before I checked in, I saw meetings and conferences
announced at a bulletin board, held here by Daimler Chrysler,
CLICK Mobile Network and other big companies. When I left the
hotel the next day, I knew I had discovered the reason for this:
the hotel exudes its very own warm and personal hospitality,
something which I have experienced before only at pensions and
little family-operated traveler hotels.
 For example, the restaurants. I had lunch at »Little Italy«,
the house’s pizzeria at the lobby level. Despite a large number
of guests, the waiters talked to me as to a friend, they wanted to
know my origin, asked me for my opinion about Cairo, whether I
felt comfortable here or uneasy – and if I would like to have
some Parmesan cheese over my Lasagna. I agreed and the waiter
returned with a cheese mill and covered my Lasagna with Parmesan,
grated by hand. At the end, he invited me for a free espresso. I
sat beneath the shining colored glass ceiling, watched the people
passing by in the shopping arcade behind the restaurant’s arched
windows and tried to remember when was the last time I felt so
relaxed in a restaurant.
At night I had dinner at »El Rancho«, the newly opened
tex-mex restaurant of the hotel, and I don’t want to repeat
myself, but here again, I received the same attentiveness. As for
the cuisine, I sampled a mixed grill plate, with pieces of strip
steak, sirloin steak, t-bone steak, all together for LE 42 ($ 11),
and it was mouth-watering. I ordered a non-alcoholic beer, and
another guest, already slightly tipsy from his alcoholic beer,
asked me, very seriously, if I have adequate health insurance,
because non-alcoholic beer would be very harmful. The waiter
smiled and kept my plate filled with delicious fresh chips and
cheddar sauce. The atmosphere is as cozy as the restaurant’s
leather sofas and wooden saloon chairs.
Next morning at the Maadi Café (24 hour service), where the
breakfast buffet is arranged for the guests, I was hopelessly
late, nearly one hour after the buffet closed. The waiter could
have charged me for my breakfast à la carte, but he offered,
instead, to bring me whatever I wanted from the buffet, which was
still available in the kitchen.
All rooms at the Sofitel Cairo Maadi Towers and Casino are
air-conditioned, tastefully decorated with warm colors, expensive
looking wooden furniture, color televisions with satellite
reception and other amenities, common to Five-star hotels. Each
room has its own balcony, the higher the better, overlooking the
Nile, with the pyramid of Saqqara on the horizon, the oldest
freestanding man-made structure in the world. Particularly
romantic is watching the sunset by the pool on the third floor
terrace, above all because you can’t see the heavy traffic
rushing along the Corniche in front of the hotel. You can watch
the sun going down over the Nile, a very peaceful moment.
 Beside the above-mentioned restaurants, the hotel features a
French restaurant, »Le Clovis«, also »Darna«, a typical
Egyptian farmhouse restaurant, »Ali Baba«, which is a romantic
open air cafeteria, a Casino as well as the »Pullman Bar« –
and not to forget: »French Corner«, the hotel’s bakery
featuring the best cake in town, if we follow the Egyptian Chefs
Organization’s recent decision to grant the hotel’s chef
Mourad El Bery a gold medal for Best Pastry Chef. His colleagues
Tarek Shaaban and Fathi Mohamed won the bronze medal for the Best
Wedding Cake.
Despite Maadi’s image as a remote neighborhood, the distances
to important places are shorter than one may think. Due to the new
Moneib Bridge and the Ring Road, it is possible to reach the
Pyramids of Giza within only a few minutes, depending on how
boldly your taxi driver hits the gas pedal. The metro, a fast,
cheap, clean, safe connection between Maadi and the city centre,
stops at some important sightseeing places like Coptic Cairo
(Station Mar Girgis), the Egyptian Museum at Tahrir Square as well
as the downtown shopping area (both Sadat Station), Islamic Cairo
(Station Al-Ataba) or the Cairo Opera (Station Opera) – the
latter two after switching to the second metro line at Sadat
Station. Maadi itself is very American, due to thousands of
Americans, which live here, among other foreigners. This leads to
a large number of Western-style shops, German bakeries, fast-food
outlets and modern shopping malls. Just beside the hotel, you will
find the multi-story Alfa Market, which offers nearly everything
that the tourist may have left at home.
Let it not be said that Tour Egypt doesn't overwork our
staff.
Author
Juergen (Hoose) Stryjak looks relaxed, but after a hard
days work, his condition might be described more as comatose.
Reservations
Sofitel Cairo Maadi Towers and Casino. Corniche el Nil, Maadi,
Cairo, 11431. Telephone: +20–2–52 60 601 and 52 60 602. Fax:
+20–2–52 61 133 and 52 61 155. E-Mail: sofitel1@internetegypt.com
Room Rates: Standard $ 110 (Single), $ 132 (Double); Superior $
127 (Single), $ 143 (Double); Executive Suite $ 383; Presidential
Suite $ 550. |
