This cafe is rough and raucous, with the most varied clientele ranging from footpads to intellectuals, musicians, businessmen, down-at-heels actors, students and dons from the nearby AUC (American University in Cairo). This is one of the few places left in Cairo that savours the city's past and colourful diversity, but it's a past that is firmly in the present. It's a great place to have a beer and thrash out the issues of the day, practise some Arabic or simply to make contact with a real cross-section of Cairo life. Moving among its French decor - faded mirrors, marble tables and creaking ceiling fans - is Saad, the wonderfully eccentric barman and a real character who will welcome you warmly with wonderful Egyptian humour. This place is a must for the adventurous but not for the fainthearted. I loved it throughout my twenty years in Cairo and know I still have a place there whenever I return.

The Hurreya Cafe, Midan Bab al-Khalq, behind the AUC. It's on the corner, across the square from the market.

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This is the oldest hotel in Cairo, with a really cool bar and a manual elevator. It has a nice, genuine colonial atmosphere.

Windsor Hotel, 19 Alfi Bey Street. near the cinema.
Tel : +20 2 591 5810
www.windsorcairo.com

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Mint is a great restaurant in Mohandiseen. The atmosphere is brilliant, the international dishes are all cooked perfectly and the decor just finishes the experience off. It is a bit difficult to find but don't give up - it is well worth it.

Mint restaurant, Gezirat El arab street, Mohandiseen.
Tel : 00 20 (2) 345 5510/2

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