Mena House rooms

What is the difference between the pyramid view garden room and the pyramid view old palace room?

What is the difference between the pyramid view garden room and the pyramid view old palace room?

the old palace rooms look directly to the whole Pyramids. The Garden view rooms you only see the tops.

http://www.youtube.com/smeyer418#p/u/55/DV8001zjMmA

Plus, the Old Palace rooms are in the older, historic (and beautiful) part of the hotel. The Garden view area is new and lacks any character, although the rooms are nice enough.

Having only stayed in the new wing, I can't tell you what the rooms are like in the original building, but our "pyramid view" room in the new wing was one of the nicest hotel rooms we have ever stayed in, anywhere. Incredibly comfortable and luxurious. I wish we could have enjoyed it (and the hotel) more, but we were only there overnight, and even then got in very late and left very early.

I just came back 2 weeks ago . Our garden room had a view of the Pyramids. Very nice room - very comfortable, well furnished and very clean. The original part of the hotel is much more interesting but not that different. The walk to the main part of the hotel is very pleasant but if you don't want to walk there is a golf cart shuttle. The service was superb.

Walk the gardens - very nice.

We stayed three or four nights in a pyramid view old palace room in Jan. 2009 and had the pyramids right in front of us. The room was very large and had a tiny balcony/terrace overlooking the gardens and the road up to the pyramids. It was almost if you could reach out and touch them! The bathroom was large as well but both rooms appeared a little tired and were in need of some refurbishment.

The food at the Mena House was excellent. One evening we had dinner in a large courtyard type room and there was dancing and singing. A great way to enjoy a great meal. We used the in-house travel agency (I think it was called Misr Travel or something like that) to book a private tour to Memphis and Sakkara as well as the Giza sound and light show one evening. They were very professional and helpful.

After leaving the ship about 7:30 am touring all day then going to the sound and light show we were so tired we just wanted to go to bed. So paying extra for view didn't matter for us. All of Mena House is great.

Even with us asking and having Ramses cut the shopping time to just a potty break, it was still a full tiring day.

Have an early breakfast and walk about the garden and take some photos of the view from there.

But Ramses didn't give us much time for that as they wanted us to be finished with breakfast and checked out by 7:30 am. Ramses was an excellent value.

We stayed three or four nights in a pyramid view old palace room in Jan. 2009 and had the pyramids right in front of us. The room was very large and had a tiny balcony/terrace overlooking the gardens and the road up to the pyramids. It was almost if you could reach out and touch them! The bathroom was large as well but both rooms appeared a little tired and were in need of some refurbishment.

The food at the Mena House was excellent. One evening we had dinner in a large courtyard type room and there was dancing and singing. A great way to enjoy a great meal. We used the in-house travel agency (I think it was called Misr Travel or something like that) to book a private tour to Memphis and Sakkara as well as the Giza sound and light show one evening. They were very professional and helpful.

Could you tell me a little more about the meal with the dancing and singing? Did you have to book it in advance before you arrived at the Mena House? Was it expensive? Were there a lot of people smoking? Thanks!

Polyseraph: No, we just walked into the restaurant and asked for a table for two. Didn't even know there was a show along with dinner. The restaurant was the Al Rubayyat, the principal restaurant of the Mena House. I just looked at the bill which I kept in my file: 580 EGP for the dinner and 181 EGP for a bottle of wine. I don't recall about the smoking but that's hard to avoid in Egypt.

Polyseraph: No, we just walked into the restaurant and asked for a table for two. Didn't even know there was a show along with dinner. The restaurant was the Al Rubayyat, the principal restaurant of the Mena House. I just looked at the bill which I kept in my file: 580 EGP for the dinner and 181 EGP for a bottle of wine. I don't recall about the smoking but that's hard to avoid in Egypt.

Thank you very much! This was exactly what I wanted to know.

The Indian restaurant had great food. We had a room on 12th floor (1201) with a peekaboo view of the pyramids. The even numbered rooms have a more full view. It was fun sitting in the garden outside and watch the camels and horse carriages go up to the pyramids.

We had a tour of the Winston Churchill Suite which is amazing!

After leaving the ship about 7:30 am touring all day then going to the sound and light show we were so tired we just wanted to go to bed. So paying extra for view didn't matter for us. All of Mena House is great.

 

Even with us asking and having Ramses cut the shopping time to just a potty break, it was still a full tiring day.

 

Have an early breakfast and walk about the garden and take some photos of the view from there.

 

But Ramses didn't give us much time for that as they wanted us to be finished with breakfast and checked out by 7:30 am. Ramses was an excellent value.

Just to give an alternative point of view for those thinking about staying at the Oberoi Mena House but worried about not having much time to enjoy its opulent amenities: Many say you won't have enough time but after reading hundreds of posts about the Nile Cruise and the Sound & Light show (and the videos online) my wife and I decided that we would not really care for a Nile Cruise in the middle of Cairo and we would probably prefer to view the light show at the Pyramids from the luxury of the Mena House. (The sound part of the S&L show sounds pretty cheesy and besides, we are both students of Egyptian history).

We figure that we may only be here once in our lives so why not spring for a Pyramid view room in the Old Palace section and spend our evening having a great meal, enjoying authentic Egyptian entertainment and hospitality and walking around this amazing hotel and grounds. It may not suit everyone's tastes but we are looking forward to this as a way of highlighting our stay in the land of the Pyramids. I'll post a report when I return, to tell everyone if it turns out to be what I hoped for.

Just to give an alternative point of view for those thinking about staying at the Oberoi Mena House but worried about not having much time to enjoy its opulent amenities: Many say you won't have enough time but after reading hundreds of posts about the Nile Cruise and the Sound & Light show (and the videos online) my wife and I decided that we would not really care for a Nile Cruise in the middle of Cairo and we would probably prefer to view the light show at the Pyramids from the luxury of the Mena House. (The sound part of the S&L show sounds pretty cheesy and besides, we are both students of Egyptian history).

 

We figure that we may only be here once in our lives so why not spring for a Pyramid view room in the Old Palace section and spend our evening having a great meal, enjoying authentic Egyptian entertainment and hospitality and walking around this amazing hotel and grounds. It may not suit everyone's tastes but we are looking forward to this as a way of highlighting our stay in the land of the Pyramids. I'll post a report when I return, to tell everyone if it turns out to be what I hoped for.

We look forward to reading your review as we are planning the same option for our overnight in Cairo in September.

We had 2 nights at the Mena House booked as part of a land tour with Museum Tours. It was quite a private tour as my husband and I were the only participants. When we arrived at the Mena House from the airport, our guide went to check us in - they had booked us the tourist part - garden wing. We mentioned to the desk clerk that it was my 50th birthday that day and he said he had a surprise for us - he upgraded us to the old wing with direct pyramid views and sent up a cake later in the day. The room was a little dated, compared to those in the garden wing, but the view was fabulous and well worth a surcharge. We are in two different restaurants during our stay - one had a show after dinner. They also had a world class Indian restaurant in the hotel, but we are not Indian food fans and skipped it. The most amazing part of the stay was sitting on a chair in our room and photographing the pyramids from our window. You can see our Egypt photos at http://www.pbase.com/michaelblum/egypt__2009

We look forward to reading your review as we are planning the same option for our overnight in Cairo in September.

I promised that I would post a report after my visit, so here it is (apologies for the length):

The Mena House Oberoi easily surpassed my expectations and although I have visited many beautiful hotels around the world, it is now number one on that list in every respect for beauty, opulence, character, comfort and service.

Originally, we had intended on staying overnight on an excursion from our cruise ship but when the stop at Alexandria was cancelled in February, we changed our cruise to a shorter one and booked on our own, an overland tour of Egypt through Cairo and Luxor that would allow us 2 nights at the Mena House and more time to enjoy its charms.

We arrived in the evening after an eye-popping drive through Cairo (is there any other kind?) to Giza from Cairo airport. The driving is crazy but our driver Sayed was terribly skilled and good-natured so it was always fun. What was eye-popping to us was Cairo’s poverty; we were well-informed and forewarned yet thoroughly unprepared for the reality. It continued to be heart-wrenching throughout our tour.

When we drove into the security gates at Mena House, though, the contrast to the sights of our drive in through Giza was stark indeed. The fact that the Mena House was once the hunting palace of the Khedive Ismail should have prepared us for its potential beauty but the Oberoi Company has obviously taken the palace’s original attributes and enhanced them tenfold into something even the Khedive himself could not have imagined.

Mena House sits on 40 acres of manicured gardens with royal palm trees lining the pathways, gardens filled with flowering hibiscus trees, and alabaster fountains everywhere. It is an oasis of sheer beauty that, by itself, would be breathtaking enough, only then, as you walk through it, you look up and see the Great Pyramid of Khufu … and your heart stops dead. It has the ability to sear an indelible memory into the soul of even the most road-wearied traveler.

There are few visitors in Egypt right now. It broke our hearts to see how impossible it must be for Egyptians who depend on tourists to make a living. That being said, there is a plus side for the traveler who visits today: we had the Mena House and all of Egypt’s incredible sights largely to ourselves.

In the lobby bar - an oasis of carved mahogany, gilt panels and oriental bead-work in vast windows that offer a Pyramid view - my wife and I were offered a greeting glass of hibiscus juice and entertained by a 3-piece classical ensemble as we waited for our tour leader to check us in. We never saw more than a handful of guests in our whole stay. At Egypt’s sites, we stood before Tut’s Golden mask for twenty minutes … alone! We spent an hour and a half walking around the Red and Bent Pyramids accompanied by one lone guard on his camel … not another human being in sight, then I spent 40 minutes in Snefru’s burial chamber at the heart of the Red Pyramid, again, completely alone, with only the sound of my own breathing. We sat in the Great Hypostyle Hall of Karnak Temple … alone. What incredible memories; what unique experiences.

At the Mena House, we had originally booked a Palace room with Pyramid view but the Palace section was scheduled for renovation so we booked a Garden section room with pyramid view, instead. As it turned out, the renovations were postponed and we were offered a choice. After seeing both and to my own surprise, we actually chose to stay in the Garden section. True, the Palace rooms have more “character” and a better (closer) Pyramid view, but the Garden section rooms with Pyramid view are more modern, much larger have much larger balconies that look over - you guessed it - the beautiful gardens! And that makes the Pyramid view even better, as you sit with morning coffee in hand and imagine yourself to be a sultan gazing over the opulence of his palace.

We also chose not go to the Sound and Light Show or the Nile Dinner Cruise. We opted instead to fully bask in the Mena House’s exotic ambience. We savoured a dinner at the Moghul Room - purported to serve Egypt’s best Indian cuisine - and we wandered throughout the Palace halls. The food in the Moghul Room was exceptional; the service was both professionally attentive and unobtrusive. Whereas, sauntering through the Palace, its décor, the shops, bars and other restaurants, kept us thoroughly entertained. We weren’t worried about missing the Sound and Light Show because we knew we would get to take in the one at Karnak temple in Luxor and, as it turned out, we were thrilled with it. We had heard that the Pyramid Sound and Light Show was “cheesy”.

In conclusion, what I recommend to anyone who will be spending one or several nights in Cairo is to decide what you are looking for when visiting. If you are looking for exciting night-life and want to be close to the heart of Cairo, do not consider the Mena House Oberoi. But if you wish to be close to the Pyramids of Giza and the necropolis of Saqqara; you wish to be surrounded with opulence, greenery and maybe lounge in a pool where you can open an eye to catch another glimpse of The Great Pyramid; if you want to be pampered after a hot day’s tour and don’t plan on stepping out in the evening … then the Mena House is definitely for you. And, if you do plan to take in the S&L Show at the Pyramids, you’re five minutes away and will get back to the Mena House in time for an Auld Stag Egyptian Whiskey at the Lobby Bar before it closes ;-)

Best of luck in your travels! Enjoy.

Thanks for a great review. We are planning to stay at the Mena House for 4 nights this fall - can hardly wait!!

What is the difference between the pyramid view garden room and the pyramid view old palace room?

I booked in August with egypt private excursions and they booked a pyramid view garden. When I come I would be happy to share my experience

thanks

terry