After spending a week in Dubai, Shae and I hopped on a plane to Cairo, Egypt to visit there for six nights. The first three of those nights were spent at the Ramses Hilton, a hotel that overlooks the Nile.
The hotel is a little dated, although they’ve been updating some of the rooms and so that’s helping improve the property. It’s in a nice, central location in downtown Cairo, but that also means you get all the sounds of the city.
Here’s a full review of our stay at the Ramses Hilton.
Check-In
I received an email from the hotel a few days before our arrival advising that because I have Diamond status, we could check in and check out at the Ramses Lounge on the 29th floor. When arriving at 7:45pm, the lobby area was extremely busy, although the front desk itself didn’t seem to have a line.
Despite that, we decided to head up to the Ramses Lounge as I figured there might be more likelihood of getting a decent room upgrade there. The staff members at the desk there were very friendly, but were checking in another guest at the time and so they told us we could relax in the lounge and they’d come get us.
About 15 minutes later we were able to start the check-in process. However, despite it being 8pm by that stage, they advised that our room wasn’t ready yet. Thankfully they were still serving dinner in the lounge, so we headed to the upstairs dining area in the lounge to have something to eat and drink while we waited.
At 8:45pm no one had stopped by to let us know if our room was ready yet, so we went back to the lounge’s desk and were handed our keys. While we appreciated that our room was finally ready, it was a little disappointing that they hadn’t let us know it was ready as we’d just been killing time.
Bedroom
The Ramses Hilton has at least 21 different types of room. I’d booked a King Guest Room With Nile View as I wanted to ensure we got a view of the Nile as some rooms only have a city view.
Thanks to my Hilton Diamond status we were upgraded to a King Executive Room With Nile View which was room 2710. This was on the 27th floor, with the hotel having a total of 30 floors. Floors 26-29 are Executive Floors, so if you book one of those rooms (or are upgraded to one), it means you’ll get good views of the city and/or the Nile. From what I’ve read online, all the rooms on the Executive Floors have been renovated, so they’re in better condition than their older, non-renovated rooms. There was a sign in the hotel during our stay advising they were renovating certain floors (I think floors 23-24), so it seems like they’re starting with rooms on the top floors and then working their way down.
When entering our room the bathroom was on the left and the bedroom was straight ahead.
The room’s king bed was comfortable; the pillows were OK, but not as good as some hotel pillows.
In the corner was a living area with a sofa and two coffee tables. I think the sofa opened up as a sofa bed (based on the fact that the closet had bedding for one), but I didn’t check if that actually was the case or not.
On the opposite side of the room was a long countertop, half of which functioned as a desk. On the right side of it was a TV and beneath that were some dresser drawers and a mini fridge.
Egypt apparently uses plug types C and F which have two round pins. Our room at the Ramses Hilton had those power outlets, but they also had a couple of UK-style power outlets (type G) which have three pins. I’m not sure if non-renovated rooms have both types of power outlets available, or only renovated rooms.
The desk had a room service menu on top. For reference, during our stay 1 USD was equal to ~16 EGP.
There was a shelving unit above the desk on the left which had an electric kettle, tea and coffee items and a couple of bottles of water.
To the right of the desk was a large closet which contained an iron, ironing board, luggage rack, safe and extra bedding, presumably for the sofa bed (if that actually was one).
To the right of the closet was an additional luggage rack.
Our room had a small balcony overlooking the Nile; we arrived after dark, so here were our views when we checked in.
Here are the same views during the day.
While we loved the views from our room, one thing that wasn’t so great was the noise. It’s apparently impossible to drive in downtown Cairo without beeping 43+ times per minute. Multiply that by thousands of cars and a balcony door that isn’t particularly soundproof and you don’t have the makings for the most peaceful of locations.
While that’s to be somewhat expected when staying in a city, it would be nice if they’d invested a little money on thicker windows and doors when renovating the rooms to make the outside noise a little quieter. We therefore played wave sounds on Spotify at night to try and cover up some of the noise.
Bathroom
The bathroom had a large walk-in shower with both a rainfall shower head and a handheld shower head. There were only two bath towels provided and no wash cloths, but what was lacking on that front was more than made up for by the rainfall shower. It had excellent water pressure and so having a shower each day was delightful.
Overall, I was pretty happy with our room. We had an excellent view of the Nile, the hotel had renovated the room nicely and the shower was excellent. The main downside was the traffic noise that could still be heard from our room, but perhaps that’s an issue at all hotels in downtown Cairo.
One other minor flaw is the fact that the hotel only provides two bottles of water daily. Considering how hot Cairo gets, only getting 500ml of complimentary water per person each day isn’t really sufficient as I’m assuming it’s not wise to drink water straight out of the tap there.
Ramses Lounge
The hotel actually has two lounges – the Ramses Lounge on the 29th floor and the Executive Lounge on the 26th floor. We had access to both, but always went to the Ramses Lounge. I had a quick look in the Executive Lounge just before we checked out and it seemed to be a similar setup, so I don’t know if there’s much of a difference between the two.
The Ramses Lounge is spread out on two levels. When entering the lounge, the desk where you can check in and check out is on your left. When walking through, there’s a bunch of seating available on that level, along with a children’s play area.
The Ramses Lounge is open from 6am to 11pm each day. Breakfast is served from 6am to 11am, with Happy Hour apparently being from 6pm to 8pm based on a sign they had outside. However, either that sign was incorrect or they might extend it a little later seeing as we were still able to eat after 8pm the night we arrived.
Breakfast and the Happy Hour are served upstairs in the lounge where there are lots of dining tables and chairs rather than sofas.
Ramses Lounge – Breakfast
There was a much larger spread available at breakfast than I was expecting. There were multiple hot options available each day, along with breads, pastries, fruit, yogurt and much more.
On our first morning we were asked if we wanted any eggs cooked to order, so we both ordered omelets. We were also offered the option of an Egyptian breakfast, so Shae took them up on that offer, with falafel, ful medames, flatbread and what seemed to be an olive tapenade brought to the table. On subsequent mornings we weren’t asked if we wanted any of these, but it was presumably still possible to order them.
Ramses Lounge – Non-Meal Hours
During the day there were still soft drinks available in the lounge, along with bite-sized dessert options.
However, I was told in no uncertain terms by the guy who seemed to be the lounge manager that we were absolutely not to take any drinks from the lounge to our room – they had to be consumed within the lounge or not at all.
While he was presumably just enforcing the hotel’s policy, it’s a crappy policy. I get that they don’t want people to take advantage of the free drinks by just loading up a bag with tons of cans of soda, but not allowing your guests to take a single can of soda back to their room is ridiculous. Later on during our stay in Cairo we bought a can of soda and a large bag of chips from a local store for 10 EGP which is about $0.64, suggesting a can of soda only costs $0.35 or so even with that store’s markup. The Ramses Hilton therefore presumably buys them for even less than that, meaning their policy is even more stingy as it’s not costing them much.
When we were about to head out to the Egyptian Museum, I wanted to fill up an empty bottle with some water seeing as the hotel only provides the two small bottles of water per room per day. He didn’t seem keen on that either, but he did allow me to fill that small water bottle in the end.
As a quick side note, in the photo of the soft drinks above you’ll notice three shelves of Coca-Cola. The shelf on the top-right was actually Coke Zero – rather than coming in black cans like in the US, in Egypt they come in red cans with a small black ring around the top.
Ramses Lounge – Happy Hour
The evening Happy Hour provided a good selection of food for guests with lounge access. We found that having a large breakfast saw us through to the Happy Hour which was more than enough food to serve as dinner.
The food options changed each night, but there were always several hot options, bread, small bites, fruit, desserts and more. Complimentary beer and wine was also provided.
Amenities
The hotel has a number of amenities spread out over various floors. Here’s a sign that’s in the elevators which shows where everything is located.
Speaking of elevators, those weren’t great. There were between 5-7 elevators (I forgot to make a note), but it only seemed like a few of them actually worked. It often took several minutes for any to arrive, so we always took the stairs when going from our room on the 27th floor to the Ramses Lounge on the 29th floor as we’d have to wait ages otherwise.
Even more concerning is what happened one time when we got in an elevator to go down to the lobby. We got in on the 27th floor and the door didn’t close for a while. Eventually it closed, but then the elevator shuddered violently and just stopped. It stayed stuck in place for what felt like forever (but which was probably only 15-20 seconds) before going down to the 26th floor and opening its doors. We didn’t want to risk being in that elevator a second longer, so we jumped out just in case it decided to move of its own volition and waited a few minutes for another elevator to show up.
Going back to the actual amenities, there’s an outdoor swimming pool on what’s effectively the 3rd floor.
Next to the pool was a patio with more seating and loungers.
That area overlooked the Nile, but you had to go right up to the railing to see it due to the greenery in front of it.
Also next to the pool was Breezes Lounge & Grill, one of several restaurants at the hotel.
On that same floor – but inside the hotel – is a barber shop and hairdresser.
To the left of those is the health club which contains a spa and the fitness room.
The Ramses Hilton also has a casino available if you want to try your luck.
There’s not really much for me to say on the amenities front though as we didn’t use any of them during our stay.
Parking
We used taxis and Ubers to get around Cairo, so we didn’t rent a car. I’m glad we made that choice as driving in downtown Cairo is hectic to say the least as three lane roads become five lane roads.
If you do end up driving to the hotel, the Ramses Hilton charges 125 EGP (~8 USD) per 24 hours for self-parking and 150 EGP (~9.50 USD) for valet parking.
Service
Service at the hotel was good overall and certainly well-intentioned even if the execution wasn’t always amazing. For example, it took about an hour for us to get checked in and get the key to our room even though we didn’t arrive until 7:45pm, so it’s not like we arrived late morning/early afternoon when you might expect your room not to be ready.
Hassan in the Ramses Lounge was always lovely and Monica at the desk in the Ramses Lounge was very friendly and helpful.
Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi is free for all guests at the Ramses Hilton and the speed and connection always seemed to be good.
Check-In & Check-Out Times
Check-in is from 3pm and check-out is at 12pm. We wanted to visit Old Cairo on our final day and wanted to ensure we didn’t have to rush too much, so we were able to get a 2pm late checkout.
Location
The Ramses Hilton is in a central location downtown and as mentioned earlier is right on the Nile. It’s within walking distance of The Egyptian Museum, although you have to be willing to cross a few roads to get there. I was a little apprehensive about that initially, but the traffic moves so slowly around there that it was no problem making our way across safely.
Cost
When booking our stay, the cheapest available room was approximately $65 per night including taxes. I wanted to ensure that we at least had a Nile view, so our room cost $79.44 per night including taxes.
I paid for our stay with my Hilton Aspire credit card which comes with a $250 resort credit each year which can be used at certain properties. Somewhat surprisingly, the Ramses Hilton was listed as an eligible property even though it’s not what I’d class as a resort. That means the $238.32 cost of our room should be covered entirely by that resort credit, although I’m still waiting for that credit to hit our account at the time of writing this review. It’s not a big deal if that doesn’t post as we stayed at a different Hilton resort the week after which was also an eligible property.
Points Earned
We earned 18,404 points as a result of our stay which isn’t a bad return for one that cost ~$250. The breakdown is as follows:
- 1,851 base points
- 1,851 bonus points (from Diamond status)
- 3,702 bonus points (from a triple points promotion Hilton was running)
- 1,000 bonus points (MyWay bonus points from Diamond status)
- 10,000 bonus points (milestone bonus which is awarded for every 10 nights you stay once you’ve reached 40 nights for the year)
Seeing as I paid for our stay using my Hilton Aspire card which earns 14 points per dollar when paying for stays at Hilton properties, we’ll earn an additional 3,336 bonus points for a total of 21,740 points. Those points are conservatively worth $87, but we tend to get much better value than that when redeeming them. That means we effectively got more than 1/3 back of what we paid in the form of points.
Final Thoughts
The Ramses Hilton is a decent enough place to stay if you’re looking for a hotel in downtown Cairo that’s a chain property but which isn’t too expensive. It has a good view overlooking the Nile and has two lounges if you book an eligible room or have Diamond status which are both serving breakfast and dinner (not all lounges are doing that right now due to COVID).
It’s not an aspirational property though. It feels dated, although they’re at least updating the guest rooms so that they’re more pleasant to stay in. Their elevators feel ancient and although the hotel has a number of amenities, none of them stood out as particularly noteworthy.
Our Rating
Room = 4.1 / 5
Hotel Amenities = 4.2 / 5
Food = 4.4 / 5
Location = 4.2 / 5
Service = 4.1 / 5
Overall Value = 4.2 / 5
Total = 4.2
Address
Ramses Hilton, 1115 Nile Corniche, Sharkas, Bulaq, Cairo Governorate, Egypt
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Kathy says
I just returned from Cairo and Sham El Sheikh. I stayed at the Ramses Hilton as well and I agree with most of your review. Unfortunately since I was a few nights short of Diamond, I paid for my upgrade and was given an outdated corner room on the 18th floor. Thankfully it was well insulated and shielded all the busy noise from traffic. The view was amazing. I was grossly overcharged for taxi and tour services. The hotel’s “taxi” from the airport is more than quadruple the cost of an Uber. This is true of their tour service and nearby taxi drop offs. I was outraged at having to ask for fresh squeezed carrot juice 4-5 times while watching them bring carrot juice to other guests coming after me, I like to tip for good service but did not feel I received good service that day. I also let the hostess know of my dissatisfaction about being ignored while others received fresh juice from the fresh squeezed juice station. The next day (and the rest of my stay), without asking they immediately brought fresh carrot juice to my table, each day I left 100 Egyptian Euros as a tip because it was a self-served buffet. They hovered around my table to snatch it up before I could leave my seat. The second incident that infuriated me was after checking out as I was getting into my Uber, a guy from the hotel asked if I had checked out. I assured him that I had. However, he motioned to my Uber driver to wait. Apparently he went inside to check to see if I had indeed settled my bill and came back and motioned to the drive to take mo to the airport. I’m trying not to think of this as being racially motivated. I’m African-American. Otherwise, other than being overcharged everywhere I went, I was treated like a queen. Congratulations on your 50 states goal. Hawaii was #47 for me and I was stuck there an extra 5 days after 9-11. I finished the Dakotas in 2006 and just made it to Alaska in 2021. My international travel got in the way of trying to finish those last 3 states.
stephen says
Congrats on already getting to 50 states! I’m sorry you had a couple of bad experiences at that Hilton, but glad that it sounds like you had a good time in Egypt otherwise 🙂