For the first hotel stay of my Allegris round the world journey, I had a quick overnight at the 349-room Le Meridien Cairo Airport. I travel through Cairo fairly often thanks to the great premium fares available out of Egypt, and over the years I’ve stayed at the Le Meridien several times.
Continue reading: Review: Le Meridien Cairo Airport, Egypt
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Good to know about the shuttle to T2. When I stayed there & left on Etihad, I walked to T2 along the roadway w/ mu luggage… not fun LOL
That gym seems rather large for a standard airport hotel. Looks like a great property for what it is!
The property is often a very good value on points. And its convenience when flying into or out of CAI is great.
For people wanting a tour of Cairo and the surroundings, you could even base yourself out of this hotel and just hire a private tour guide to do the tours while staying at this hotel.
This hotel (or at least its free wifi) saved me when we arrived in Cairo early one morning. Our SIM cards were not working, I couldn't connect to any airport wifi and the tour guide that was supposed to meet me out front of the airport was nowhere to be seen. After 30-45 minutes of trying to find the tour guide while also simultaneously fending off aggressive touts, I lugged my suitcases across the road to the Le Meridien hotel parking lot close enough to get on the wifi to contact my tour guide and get it all straightened out.
While the room decor is a little tired and I noticed, from the photos, a lack of USB photos and only a limited number of electrical outlets, this could be a great place to spend a night or two. Especially with the resort-esque outdoor pool.
Truly, this looks like an EXCELLENT hotel by any standard. A solid 4 stars. It reminds me of the Le Meridien at Kuala Lumpur's main train station. Another equally impressive property.
I love the 24/7 coffee bar and 4 a.m. restaurant breakfast. It makes total sense given the weird arrival and departure times in the Middle East and Gulf. For the life of me, I don't understand why more AIRPORT hotels don't have at least coffee by 5 a.m. Even downtown city center hotels -- it's amazing how many have NOTHING until 7 a.m.
There are no shortage of Marriott hotels in Cairo. In fact, I believe there's a SECOND Le Meridien. So, maybe management feel the need to go the extra mile to poach customers from other less-generous properties?
This property also illustrates how weird Le Meridien is as a brand. It's completely ignored and forgotten by Marriott. You have some great Le Meridiens, like this one and Kuala Lumpur, but then you have the Denver Le Meridien that is basically a step above a Courtyard or AC but below a Westin or Renaissance.
Great review Ben and very timely for me as I'll be staying at Le Meridien Cairo in November for just one night with my mom (who's 79) for the convenience of being right at the airport. We arrive in Cairo at 5:55 AM on Egyptair so my idea is to get 6 ~ 7 hours of sleep in the hotel, then take a Uber to central Cairo to stay at the Cairo Marriott for the rest of our trip. If I were by myself I would just go to the main hotel and walk around/wait for the check-in time. All of this considering I'm Bonvoy Platinum so should be able to get a 4:00 PM late check-out; have you ever requested this late check-out benefit at Le Meridien Cairo or have you heard of any issues?
One of my weirdest hotel stays ever was in Dakar. Being my first visit to Africa and landing at a stupid time (01:45 or something), I decided to opt for an airport hotel and thought that the Meridien would be a solid option. While it met my top priority of getting me from the airport to my bed quickly and safely, it was in urgent need of refurbishment with peeling paint, electrical issues etc, and the following evening the bar was completely overrun by prostitutes and devoid of other customers - I have not seen anything else like that in hundreds of hotels I have visited across all continents. I moved to a more central hotel which ended up being very very good, if rather pricey (the Meridien wasn't cheap either).
Sometimes they have weddings and it can last until late. It is very noisy. Actually they do actively seek wedding deals in Cairo.
Egyptair put me up at Le Meridian after the London flight arrived too late for my onward connection. I found the staff most helpful and nothing was too much trouble. The facilities available were top quality. I just wished I had more time to enjoy the hotel.
As I remember, although it can be a long walk, one can walk from the other terminals to the hotel. I know I walked on along the roadway once (which as stated below can be difficult with luggage), but I think they let me into terminal 3 to walk over the bridge. Fairly sure I did that when leaving the hotel.
As to the comment on USB ports, always safest to use your own charger and not use the USB ports.
You did an excellent job of keeping people out of your photos....It's almost scary!
Ben, when you're in a developing country like Egypt, do you ever brush your teeth with bottled water? Do you avoid eating salads or anything rinsed in tap water?
I've had some bad cases of food poisoning while traveling in developing countries, so since then I've erred on the side of caution. Curious to here your thoughts/experience!
Not surprised - my surreal experience happened about 15 years ago and even the airport has been replaced by a new facility in a totally different location.
I've never gotten sick brushing my teeth with tap water and then spitting out the water. I use alcoholic mouthwash after brushing, however.
Because there's now malware that can infect your devices from USB ports. Nothing's safe any more.
My husband and I stayed there in March before our looonnnngggg flight home (CAI-LHR-SEA), due to the very early departure. Great hotel, nice staff, but apparently the Lebanese restaurant is closed on Mondays and there's no sign. I know.... gadzooks. But we wanted to be in bed early and had waited to have dinner until that restaurant opened at 7:00 only to show up and find it still dark! We had to go to the front desk to ask in order to find out it was closed. The Chinese restaurant was excellent though. We found the room to be comfortable and QUIET which was a huge plus in an airport hotel. I agree with Ben on those half shower dividers - there's no way to avoid water getting everywhere. I do wish we had stayed longer to really explore, but it was a nice stop, and convenient to get to the airport early in the morning. We'd been in Egypt for a month and the whole trip was AMAZING.
I have stayed here many times. My only issue with this hotel is the airfreshners. They spray vile toxic air freshners straight in your face as you leave the elevator. When I stayed three nights recently, I developed a throat irritation and became sick from the air freshener constantly sprayed at me. Spoke to reception many times about this and they dont seem to care for your health. Also, don't eat the buffet during Ramadan. Majority of our tour group got food poisoning.