PARTY FOUL, MAN: the owner of the Grand Hyatt Cairo recently decided to ban liquor from his hotel. Citing religious reasons, the Saudi owner showed everyone he was totally serious by reportedly pouring over one million dollars-worth of beer, wine and whisky into the Nile River.
One million dollars. Into the river.
Dude, COME. ON. There are thirsty men and women in America; why'd you have to go and be that guy by dumping all that precious nectar into a @#$%!*# river?
According to the LA Times, the Egyptian Hotel Association is all like "oh hells no":
The move is a gesture to bring his business into conformity with Islamic standards. That may be so, but the Egyptian Hotel Assn. has its own rules. The organization has given [the owner] an ultimatum: Either put the liquor back by July 2 or have his hotel demoted from five to two stars
Ha! That'll show him: take away stars from his hotel to depress him so much that he'll want to drink away his sorrows. Well played, Egyptian Hotel Association.
Meanwhile, we're wondering if the Nile tastes delicious right now.
We now present you with our VIP Hotel Reviewer Series in which we hand-pick experts in the travel and media worlds and beyond to tell us what are their favorite hotels and why. Once a week, we'll feature a hotel review from said VIPs about their favorite leisure or business hotels. Pay attention: These VIPs are experts at what they do and they don't mess around when it comes to their hotels.
Our next VIP reviewer is Chris Clarke, the blogger behind the hotel industry site Vacant Ready He's traded living in Vancouver for Egypt for a little while and of course is checking out the hotel scene over there. Here's his story on a little holiday he took.
I'm currently based in Cairo, and like most of my colleagues here I look forward to getting out of town for a little R&R. Last weekend I checked into the all-inclusive Sonesta Beach Resort for five days of amazing Red Sea snorkeling. This was not my first time visiting Sharm, but it was my first visit to the Sonesta Resort.
The expansive resort grounds are very well maintained, and offer just about any activity imaginable. Guestrooms are huge, though fairly sparse in amenities. Food and beverage offerings were surprisingly good for an Egyptian all-inclusive -- right up until I got sick the last night after dinner.
This surprised me since my system is accustomed to all kinds of abuse from Cairo's culinary scene.
Alcohol may be on the brink of extinction at Egyptian hotels, if the worst fears of tourism officials there come true: After the Saudi owner of the Grand Hyatt Cairo banned the sale of alcohol at the hotel, destroying millions of dollars of the stuff in the process, officials now worry that other properties may soon follow, the BBC reports.
It's unknown why the owner had staff pour bottle upon bottle of wine and liquor down drains, though some suspect it may have something to do with Egypt's enormous Muslim population, which is barred from consuming alcohol, even in cooking, according to the Koran. Supporters say foreign visitors "should respect the local custom," while critics argue that "just as Muslims expect to be served Halal food on international flights, they should be prepared to respect the desires of their Western guests," the BBC writes.
Hyatt has, of course, asked for the decision to be overturned, fearing that Western tourists won't stay at the property and that it may lose its five-star rating, the BBC says.
If the ban does catch on, we expect staying at a hotel in Egypt will be like an overnight at any Disney property--and they're certainly not hurting for business. Plus, guest reviews of the hotel are nothing but raves. Though we do worry: first alcohol; what's next--porn?
Last time we visited Egypt it was sans laptop, but we're intrigued to know how the WiFi situation is doing there now. According to the website of the Nile Hilton in Cairo, their hotel "boasts wireless internet access throughout" and they plug it a second time when describing the rooms by enticing guests with the opportunity to "keep in touch with wireless internet access".
We are suckers for a room with a killer view. We find that we are even more likely to forgive some minor hotel inconveniences if we can stare out the window at something pretty--yeah we are that shallow. Let's help out our fellow hotel mavens by uploading rooms with killer views to the HotelChatter/Flickr photo pool, or by sending the photo along to us. We will feature our favorites in this space from time to time. Remember to tell us the name of the hotel and the room number of the hot view.
Think historic Cairo, think Roda Island in the middle of the Nile River and you've got the perfect location for a hotel: and it's the Grand Hyatt Cairo. This view comes from here and looks over a sunlit Cairo downtown.
If your room doesn't have the same killer view, just head to the revolving restaurant for dinner and you'll get all possible views. (If you have a long stay there are eleven more restaurants to try in the Grand Hyatt complex). And then of course there are plenty of other Cairo views to be had once you get outside your hotel: the pyramids, the old town, and museums galore.
Cubicle Dreamin' is a feature in which we ask the hotel mavens to take some time out of their busy work day, surf the Internet, and tell us what hotel they wish they could beam themselves to right that very second--all on the slave driving companies dime, of course. Oh, like these people aren't surfing aimlessly anyway--at least now their purposeless clicking will be cobbled together into useful hotel stories--we hope. Have a destination hotel you are just dying to leave your cube for? Send the story our way.
In this episode, Hotel Maven Amanda K "walks like an Egyptian. Ooh wey oh. Enjoy.
Fancy a float down the Nile? I do, but I want to stop at the Old Cataract Hotel near Aswan in the south of Egypt. For a start, I just love the name, "Old Cataract"; although these days the Sofitel tag normally gets hung on the front of that.
The history of the Old Cataract goes back to its opening in 1899 when plenty of rich Nile-cruise travelers began finishing up their trips there. Agatha Christie was one of them and she liked it so much she set some of the scenes from Death on the Nile here.
The modern day version of the Old Cataract has 123 rooms and 8 suites, and I'd like a night in a suite. They look like the elegant yet inspiring kind of place where Agatha Christie would have stayed. At night I think I'd eat in 1902, the French restaurant at the Old Cataract, before setting off to sail the Nile once more ... Ah, if only I'd been born a century earlier and I could have met up with Agatha, too.
We are suckers for a room with a killer view. We find that we are even more likely to forgive some minor hotel inconveniences if we can stare out the window at something pretty--yeah we are that shallow. Let's help out our fellow hotel mavens by uploading rooms with killer views to the HotelChatter/Flickr photo pool, or by sending the photo along to us. We will feature our favorites in this space from time to time. Remember to tell us the name of the hotel and the room number of the hot view.
Here we have a Killer View with an anti-service review. The Pyramisa Suites & Casino in Cairo is billed as a five-star but as shahzad_wigan found out, has the "world's worst service". TripAdvisor reviews also echo the "not a five-star" sentiment.
But for those of you headed to Cairo and determined to stay in luxury settings, shahzad also has this bold booking tip:
Hotel rooms are about 40% cheaper if booked through a local travel agent. Easily available at airport. Rates vary from 100- 120 USD a night for a five star. Yes, damn cheap.
What to do in Egypt when you grow weary of the Pyramids of Giza and the ancient Sphinx...when the tales of Cleopatra's romantic and political connections and influence to the Roman Empire get old... when the sprawling city of Cairo seems like one big dusty drag and you just wanna go pool-hopping?
Then get yourself over to Sharm el Sheikh at the Southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula and do a little dunk at the Hilton Sharm Waterfalls Resort. This area of shore along the Red Sea is reputed to offer the best diving in Egypt.
Here the Hilton chain takes advantage of the waves and throbbing sea with a 401-room resort that has six pools, a beach, and a jetty out to the "house reef." It's more relaxing than a handful of hieroglyphs.
Tripadvisor reviews boasts that the resort is popular with Russians and Eastern Europeans; the pools are kept deliberately cool to offset "the devils' anvil" (what Omar Sharif called the sun in "Lawrence of Arabia"), and it gets big points for liberal towel dispensation.
On the downside, it suffers from a slow funicular that brings you from pool to lobby level.
And food? Did someone say food? There's an Italian restaurant, a Lebanese restaurant, a main dining room and, of course, the Seashore Pool Bar & Restaurant, not to mention the usual American fare if you want it - pizza, burgers, and the standard US breakfast buffet. There's also four bars, a health club, Jacuzzi, massage, dive center, and steam rooms, plus a cyber café.
Ask the hotel concierge about the shuttle vans over to the nearby resort strip in Na'ama Bay for a change of pace, or take a desert exploration trip for a bit of sand in your shoes. One day outings to Petra in Jordan are available, so you can get back to feeling like a big dusty drag.
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by Jenna
