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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The biggest, most chaotic, fastest set of road crossings you'll possibly have ever encountered. It's good to cross the streets here, but be careful and be ready to run. No one obeys the lights, and sometimes the lights don't work.

Around Tahrir is the American University in Cairo, a huge government building, some shitty hostels and some decent cafes. One in particular, Ali Baba, has a bit of a hackneyed name but is famous and was the favourite of the recent Novel laureate/Egyptian novelist who died, Naguib Mahfouz. I didn't get around to going to Ali Baba. There are other good outdoor cafes in the area, too.

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Near the American University Cairo (AUC) dorms, there is a great cafe with an outdoor terrace called Cafe de Paris. It's popular with the Zamalek crowd, open late, does good shisha and food. A great, relaxed place to spend an evening.

18 Yosef al-Gindi Street, Bustan Center

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This district on the island of Gezira is calmer, greener and more pleasant than the rest of Cairo. It's a great area to wander and explore; lots of the embassies are in Zamalek, and it's got a good mix of worldly Egyptians and expat foreigners. There are big parks, pleasant avenues, lots of cafes.

Right on 26th of July street (the main arterial avenue) there are lots of bars, restaurants and cafes, so give it a wander and select things if you like the look of them.

The Cairo opera house, which is meant to have good performances, is further south on the island of Gezira.

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Islamic Cairo is amazing, there is so much to see that we spent three days there looking around.

It's also great in the evening to spend some time in a cafe drinking mint tea or some Turkish coffee and playing backgammon.

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Water pipe. There are lots of different types. Most popular is shisha tufaah or apple shisha. It is better to start off your smoking career somewhere like Fishawis in Khan el Khalili or in one of the bigger hotels as the tobacco tends to be smoother. Sha'abi (poor peoples') tobacco, available in cafes everyhwere, is very rough and not for the inexperienced.

The ultimate shisha experience involves shisha, aseer farawla (strawberry juice), a glass of water and a few arabic music videos on the telly.

Everywhere in Cairo

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It's an Egyptian drink made with milk, sugar, rosewater and pistachios. Lovely with a shisha tufaah.

Best place to drink it is Fishawi shisha cafe in the Khan el Khalili market.

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The sort where they’ve never heard of cappuccino. Rickety stools and tables, bitter-sweet tea, sawdust on the floor, a haze of smoke, a flickering TV … and, of course, the customers. Savour while you can.

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