My Trip to Cairo, Egypt!

My girlfriend and I went on another lavish trip to a Fairmont Hotel, but this time we stayed at the Fairmont Heliopolis Towers in Cario, Egypt. We were on our way to Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt at the Red Sea, but stopped in Cairo to check out the Pyramids and Museums for a couple nights, as well as the amazing Fairmont Hotel. The moment we arrived we were totally amazed at the interior of the lobby and hotel. The pictures above hardly do justice for what it looks like in person. Who would have thought it possible to have so many full sized palm trees and wonderful flowers all growing instead the atrium!  The lights inside would change colours every now and then and they change as you walked through Heliopolis Towers into Fairmont Heliopolis, which is attached to the same building/hotel. There are lots of restaurant choices inside the hotel and they are all located within the atriums and surrounded by fauna. Our favorite restaurant for dinner was called “Lan Tania” which isn’t listed on Fairmont.com for some reason… It was absolutely amazing if you like spicy food!  They have a scale of spiciness from 1 to 5!  I can’t imagine what the 5th level must be like… 

The first morning there we got our driver to take us to the Pyramids early in the morning to beat the rush and then went to the Cairo Museum from there. The Pyramids are amazing in every way except for going inside of. I do not recommend that anyone goes inside the pyramids unless you are comfortable in tight, dark, hot and very confined spaces. I couldn’t believe that they don’t limit the number of people in at a time because there is only one way in and the same way in is the way out! Took about 5 minutes to get inside of the King’s Chamber and about 30 minutes to try and get out! It was kind of scary if you are not nimble enough to squat down on a slope going down a wooden ramp head first with nowhere to move as you wait for the person in front of you to take a step closer to the exit at the bottom of the tunnel. The lights also went out several times which made it pitch black, but luckily some tourists brought flashlights inside, but you’re not allowed cameras inside! Anyway, I could go on and on about going inside the pyramids… it was an experience that’s for sure, but maybe not worth the 100 Egyptian Pounds per person. The Cairo Museum is amazing! You can actually touch a lot of the large artifacts as well, surprisingly. Not sure if I like that idea… They also don’t allow cameras inside, so you have to leave your cameras in a locker, which is free of charge, but you also risk something being stolen because people run the lockers for you. So beware. There are signs saying not to have cash in any of your bags when using the lockers. The Museum also makes you pay extra to see the mummies! I couldn’t believe it. 

Once back at the Fairmont we put on our bathing suits and hit the pools. We ended up using the pools at the Fairmont Heliopolis because they had several pools and a nice landscaped surrounding. Because the hotel is so close the Cairo Airport we could hear airplanes flying quite low often. This wasn’t that big a deal for us because we actually enjoyed watching the planes fly overhead. It is a bonus that the hotel is so close to the airport anyway because then you won’t be late to the airport to catch a flight if there is traffic in the city. On our last day we found out that the Fairmont Heliopolis Towers has their own pool as well!  That was ok though because the pools we went to we were given all kinds of free small drinks, yogurt parfaits, and bowls of different nuts and things! Amazing service and definitely well worth using that pool area in the end. Egyptians are extremely nice and courteous and a lot of people spoke English, so you can imagine how nice and helpful the staff at the Fairmont was!  

After Cairo we took a short flight to Sharm El Sheikh where we relaxed on the beach and did lots of snorkeling and did some scuba diving. The Red Sea has some of the best scuba and snorkeling in the world, second to Great Barrier Reef in Australia. Simply amazing fish and coral and its all protected. This was my second time coming to this great destination and it is still one of my favorite all time destinations. I have included a couple images of the fish that can be seen just off the piers using my underwater camera. We also have great video using the same camera while snorkeling. I would recommend that anyone traveling to Egypt or thinking of visiting Egypt should definitely make a stop in Sharm El Sheikh. Amazing!