• A paved seafront promenade at dusk, a line of towers in the distance.

    New Alamein

    A seaside city risen from the sand in five years, its towers standing in the Mediterranean.

    Marsa Matrouh and SiwaEl Alamein, north coast

    €€€ High endSea view
  • Smooth hummus, drizzled with olive oil and scattered with seeds.

    Egyptian cooking, reworked

    Koshari plated, molokheya on a tasting menu: Cairo's new table.

    CairoZamalek, Downtown, New Cairo

    €€€ High endWhere locals go
  • Cairo's rooftops

    The city has started looking at its roofs — and putting bars on them.

    CairoDowntown, Zamalek, Garden City

    €€€ High endRooftop
  • The forecourt and the hanging obelisk, before the museum's triangulated façade.

    The Grand Egyptian Museum in the evening

    The world's most awaited museum, visited once the coaches have gone.

    GizaGiza plateau

    €€€ High endHistoric venue
  • A hotel room, bed made and bedside lamp lit.

    Downtown's boutique hotels

    Belle-époque buildings restored as small hotels — and their roofs open to everyone.

    CairoDowntown

    €€€ High endHistoric venue
  • A mud-brick lodge, domes and palms, at the desert's edge.

    Fayoum's eco-lodges

    Mud-brick guesthouses above the lake, two hours from Cairo.

    FayoumTunis and Lake Qarun

    €€€ High endBooking advised
  • A lodge and its palm grove, ringed by the dune.

    Siwa's lodges

    Sleeping in karshif — salt and clay — by candlelight, without electricity.

    Marsa Matrouh and SiwaSiwa

    €€€ High endBooking advised
  • A large golden curtain lit from within, above the rows of empty red seats of a darkened hall.

    The El Gouna Film Festival

    A week of Arab and international cinema, on the Red Sea.

    HurghadaEl Gouna

    €€€ High endPaid entry
  • A brunch table set by a window: bread, fresh fruit, orange juice and coffee.

    The Friday brunch

    The urban ritual that has replaced the family lunch in part of Cairo.

    CairoZamalek, Maadi, New Cairo

    €€€ High endFamily-friendly
  • A desert road at the foot of a cliff, a lone car in the distance.

    El Galala

    A new city on a plateau at seven hundred metres, above the Gulf of Suez.

    Marsa Alam & the Red SeaAin Sokhna

    €€€ High endSea view