Western Desert
This vast salmon-pink resort still offers the most comfortable and only properly clean rooms in Al Kharga. The staff is wonderfully friendly, the swimming…
Must-see hotels in Egypt
Northern Nile Valley
Around the corner from the forlorn Semiramis Hotel and across the square from the train station, this three-star 45-room hotel is popular with managers…
Red Sea Coast
About 10km north of Al Quseir, this camp is a veritable paradise for shoestringing scuba aficionados. Rocky Valley lures in divers by offering a variety…
Luxor
The Happy Land, a backpackers’ favourite, offers clean rooms and bathrooms, plus friendly service, a copious breakfast with fruit and cornflakes, and a…
Cairo
Not far from Ramses Station, the Victoria is a grand old palace where the simple but decently clean rooms run off long halls lined with clouded mirrors…
Port Said
The friendly management makes this typical Egyptian cheapie stand out from the crowd. Light-filled rooms have teensy balconies and come in a range of…
Alexandria
The Metropole could once have been called classy but has fallen on hard times. Although it was entirely revamped in the 1990s – including a magnificently…
El Gouna
In the heart of downtown El Gouna, this tastefully decorated four-star is adults-only. The hotel, whose name translates as 'the mayor's house', eschews…
El Gouna
We really like Mosaique's bright rooms, with their balconies, comfortable beds and blue-and-white textiles. The location on Abu Tig Marina makes it easy…
Suez Canal
This cement block out of town on the shore of the lake doesn’t look like much, but its sparkling clean (if institutional) rooms are decent sized and all…
Cairo
Retro-tastic. The hundred or so rooms come crammed with as much stripey brown furniture – to match the fetching brown-striped curtains and bedspreads – as…
Sinai
This slightly ramshackle and friendly set-up offers very basic rooms amid grounds with plenty of shaded seating areas for chilling out after a long trek,…
Luxor
This 322-room marble-clad hotel, with faux Pharaonic columns and a flame-like fence around the roof, has a kitsch value that should not be overlooked. It…
Alexandria
Book a seafront room and princely views of the Med from the balcony are yours for a pauper's budget. Alexandria's safest, most solid budget option is…
Mediterranean Coast
The Rixos (formerly Ghazala Regency) used to cater to European package tours but now focuses on Egyptian families. Rooms are large, but the decor…
Cairo Outskirts & the Nile Delta
The Marina is a somewhat upmarket affair near the Al Fatr Mosque that caters to local business travellers. Fairly standard rooms are comfortable despite…
Luxor
Charming little guesthouse in a mud-brick house with seven different themed rooms, all large with tiled bathrooms and small salons in Arab style. Tayeb,…
Steigenberger Al Dau Beach Hotel
Hurghada
Large, tastefully decorated rooms, a mind-boggling amount of activities on offer and an absolutely mammoth pool make the Steigenberger a long-running…
Siwa Oasis
Kelany's small rooms may be showing their age, but they're still a step above other budget places in Siwa; if you're looking for a cheap sleep with air…
Luxor
Nestled in a palm grove, the Nakhil or ‘Palm Tree’ is on the edge of Al Gezira. This resort-style hotel has 17 spotless, well-finished domed rooms, all…
Al Fayoum
The few basic but clean rooms here are part of a larger potters’ compound, in a nice green spot with plenty of space to lounge around and a small pool…
Cairo
Off either side of an open-ended hallway where street noise reverberates, the rooms here are dreary and the service surly. But the view from the front…
Luxor
An old stalwart of the budget-hotel scene, this 25-room hotel has clean rooms, a washing machine for guest use, a luggage storage room, a rooftop terrace…
Bahariya Oasis
Right in the middle of town, this concrete block has well-kept rooms with powerful air-con and beds that even boast two sheets. It's a solid, safe choice…
Mediterranean Coast
On the plus side, Reem is a hop, skip and jump across the Corniche from the beach. On the negative side, the rooms are straight out of a 1980s how-to…
Cairo
Pleasantly old fashioned with high ceilings and a wrap-around terrace for breakfasts, the Mayfair is the cheapest sleep in the neighbourhood and on a…
Dahab
A classic of the Dahab camp scene, Bishbishi offers cement huts and shaded cushion-strewn garden areas for socialising. Expect a lot of wear and tear to…
Cairo
This well-positioned hostel is easy-going, and the rooms have high ceilings, wooden floorboards, large windows and balconies – though those on the 5th…
Western Desert
This guesthouse has 12 simple domed rooms with clean bathrooms in mud-brick chalets. The chalets are set in a delightful garden on the edge of the desert,…
Northern Nile Valley
Overlooking the Nile and the noisy corniche, this was once the best place in town, but it now looks drab. There are two levels of rooms, but neither are…
Cairo
The Sara Inn offers both dorms and private rooms for shoestring travellers and is a small and personable place where you can easily get to know the staff…
Port Said
The Holiday is a wee step up from Port Said's cheapies, with modern tile-floored rooms decked out in shades of beige and boasting Ikea-style furniture and…
Al Fayoum
Built in 1937 as King Farouk’s private hunting lodge, this hotel was where world leaders met after WWII to decide the borders of the Middle East. There…
Port Said
This faded classic still manages to maintain a tiny smidgen of its original colonial charm, though to get a sense of its long-gone hey-day in the clean…
Mediterranean Coast
Slap bang on the Corniche, the Negresco (under restoration at the time of research) is a solid choice. The large rooms are ridiculously overpriced for…
Cairo
You enter this Nileside tower through a rather cramped, bland lobby, but things definitely get better in the rooms, which are bright and modern, with nice…
Dahab
This all-in-one ramshackle place (combining dive shop and tour office) offers one of the best-value shoestringer deals in town. It has a huge range of…
Cairo
The Royal’s rooms take a minimalist approach to furnishings and come with mini-fridges, office-style desk chairs and frosted-glass cubicles as in-room…
Suez Canal
Because of a complete lack of competition, Hotel Green House is still the nicest place to bed down in Suez. Rooms are desperately dated in dreary 1980s…
Western Desert
One of the only decent (and we use that word loosely) budget hotels in Al Kharga. The air-con mostly works, the water runs and the rooms pass muster if…
