We chose an 'Executive Room', which seems to be a standard room with access to the Executive Lounge. More on that later...

Room was smaller than I'd expected, but a good-sized balcony with a view over the pool and the Nile to the right. Bed was big, comfy, lots of pillows, the usual Marriott standard. There was only just enough room for the desk, chair and an armchair besides. The bathroom was fairly small, too, but a decent range of Marriott-label toiletries. Very, very average hotel hairdryer. Fluffy white bathrobes, though one disappeared on day two despite it being a double room. Apart from that, the housekeeping was impeccable. Minibar was quite well stocked. The decor is typically elegant and well maintained. The photos on the hotel's website are fairly representative, although they did make this type of room seem bigger than it is. We had very busy days, so weren't up for too much nightlife, but don't count on the TV for entertainment. A thousand channels with quirky local productions of MTV, soaps and Idol, but not much for English-only speakers other than news and a couple of channels running pretty old movies. Remember 'Starman'? Yup...

The room came with access to the Executive Lounge. Have stayed in hotels with this type of concept before, and this one was better in range and quality. Open during the day and evening, guests are welcome to stop in for a light breakfast or dinner, midday drink or snack, use the library and office facilities, all without charge. We loved the Executive Lounge. Great service, great food; drinks, fruit and little cakes at the ready...I want one of these installed in my house, complete with the staff. The Executive Lounge experience (and we experienced it a lot!) absolutely made our stay. You can't help but feel a bit naughty going back for your third visit for the day, but the staff are delightful and seem to welcome you even more warmly the more they see you. We gave in to the guilt and ate at the poolside cafe, too. The food was unfortunately average, but the surroundings were tropical, exotic and divine, so definitely worth doing.

Without exception, the Marriott staff were friendly, helpful and professional. Having stayed here, I wouldn't bother looking for an alternative in Cairo.

I've stayed in Cairo Marriot before renovations and I was very sceptical of re-booking despite my travel agent's assurances that the hotel's rooms are now in an excellent condition. Hotel's main building (lobby and corridors leading to breakfast room) as well as the spectacular gardens were always and remain the highlights of this hotel. Rooms are lovely refurbished however they still can not be described as "luxurious": medium size, comfortable large (2 queen or 1 king) beds, a small desk a table and an armchair. No sleepers or bathrobes, small closet. Bathroom was of decent size and clean but curtain and bath floor were torn. View from the last floor of the west wing was nice but can't be compared to Sofitel (ex Sheraton) or Hyatt.
Loved the breakfast (one of the best in Cairo) and the location (Zamalek), which is both "central" and "upscale". Food in the restaurants is tasty and cheap by European standards. Staff is smiling, helpful and attentive (as all over Egypt!).
All in all, if you can't afford Four Seasons or Hyatt.. don't hesitate...this is one of your best bets in Cairo!

I had a short break (four days) at the Cairo Marriott last week. My choice was suggested by my teenager daughter Isabella, who had seen some pictures of the “historical” wing of this hotel on a travel brochure. The fact proved her right.

These are my comments:

1. General

The hotel is very well kept. Everything is clean and appear to be in pristine conditions. We opted for a Nile view room on the executive floor. At a small extra-cost, this gives us access to the executive lounge, where you can have have American breakfast (plentiful and included in the room rate) and a selection of snacks and soft drinks throughout the day. Our room was on the 16th floor of the Gezira wing. It was ample and well fitted. The added bonus was the balcony overlooking the Nile, where in the evening it was nice to enjoy the pleasant breeze coming from the river.

2. Check-in/Check-out

Thanks to the good advice of fellow TripAdvisor reviewers, I decided to reserve airport pick-up (plus immigration assistance) service through the hotel. Although pricey for Egyptian standards (EURO 70), this proved to be a good choice. Before immigration I spotted a guy with a sign with my name. H took care of all the immigration procedures and escorted us to our cahuffeur-driven Mercedes. I only found odd that the driver would stop at a service station for refuelling in the mid of our journey to the Hotel. In retaliation, I halved my tip to him to EGP 5 (from the EGP 10 that seem to be customary for this kind of service). I think the message got across, as the guy did not show much appreciation for my occasional stinginess!
On our way out, we reserved a car through the in-house car company. We would have paid EURO 18 this time – I had decided that I could have done without a Mercedes this time. Unfortunately they made some confusion with our reservation and our car did not show up in time. This said, they were very good in procuring us another perfectly acceptable car within 10 minutes (presumably through an external contractor). Our anger was placated by the announcement that we would have paid only 12 EUROS for the service.
On arrival at the airport I was glad I had enough small change to keep happy all the people (included uniformed security guards!) requesting tips for various services. In retrospective, this vindicated my choice of requesting an “assistance” service on arrival.

3. Excursions

We reserved our trips through the concierge. The hotel offers two competing travel agencies. We opted for American Express and we took two full day trips (the first to Alexandria and the second to Giza, Memphis and Saqqara). As we were a party of three people, we decided to take a private car and a private Italian speaking guide. This cost us only marginally more vis-a-vis the “coach” option.
Our guide was a very pleasant young man named Mohammed who spoke excellent Italian. He really made any effort to let us make the most of our trip. This type of approach really makes the difference!
Conversely, we decided to go independently to visit the “Islamic” part of the town and the Egyptian Museum. That was not a good choice: however much research you might have made prior to the trip, you end up wasting a lot of time and probably missing what you would not have missed if competently guided.

4. Dining out

Disappointingly, we did not manage to have any really good meal in our stay in Egypt. We had our best meal in the much talked about “Abu Al-Sid” restaurant, which is located at 5 minutes from the Hotel. The food was delicious and also conveniently priced. What was missing was service. We had to wait for 10 minutes at the table before being given a menu, and when I asked for a list of drinks (I did not dare to ask for a “Carte de Vins” in an Islamic country!) they said that they had none”. Odd!
We also dined on board of the Maxime boat, that runs a two-hours cruise on the Nile. As we expected, the food was undistinguished and the show did not really impress us. The service was very attentive, though.
Following the advice of many trusted friends, I would have loved to experienced the famous Lebanese restaurant of the Grand Hyatt, were it not for its recently established “no alcohol” house regulations. Probably worth going if and when such regulations are lifted.

5. Hotel Restaurants

At the Hotel, we had dinner “al fresco” in the Egyptian Nights restaurant, located in the gardens of the Hotel. The food was quite good (especially the bread that they bake in front of you!), but the service was slow. I also found the bill on the expensive side.
Finally, as we were staying in an “Executive Floor” room, we were invited one night at a reception given by the general manager of the Hotel. As the venue was the “Salon Vert”, this gave us the opportunity to visit the “historical” wing of the hotel, a palace built by Ismail Pacha to host the dignitaries attending the ceremonies for the opening of the Suez Canal. As this building retains a good portion of its original fittings, it could very well be a touristic site in its own right – as it is, for example, the Chateau Fronténac Hotel in Quebec City – Canada.
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We stayed here for five nights with two small kids and it was wonderful. We loved visiting the sites of Cairo but it was so nice to relax at the pool and dine at the restaurants in the hotel. We traveled without a tour group and had no connections so it was a little nerve racking arranging this trip on our own. But once we settled on the Marriott the rest was all done. We could arrange tours through the concierge and even did some last minute shopping in the many shops at the hotel. I'm sure it could be done much cheaper but we did this last minute.

If you're doing this trip all on your own I would advise doing the pyramids with a private guide; the museum and Sound and Light show with a group and if you want to do the Bazzar also go with a group. Taking the black and white taxi was not fun for us and was a pain settling on a price. Also, I think the aromatherapy part of our tour to the pyramids was a rip off. I think you can buy the oils much cheaper in the States and I felt a little pressured to buy. The Papyrus Institute however was really relaxed and we loved seeing it.

Also, we stayed on the Executive level which we enjoyed very much. We liked having the use of the lounge which I think more than paid for itself with our eating breakfast and sometimes dinner there.

It was also nice to be able to charge meals and poolside drinks to our room and had no problems with this. We had nothing but wonderful staff helping us and my only problem was some of the shops there do barter which I wasn't prepared for but found out and saved half off my purchases. Guess all of Cairo is subject to haggling.