Cairo is enormous and the traffic is severe, so where you stay determines how much of each day you spend in a car. There are four or five realistic choices.
Zamalek
The northern half of Gezira island: tree-lined, embassy-heavy, with the best restaurants and bars in the city and the only genuinely quiet streets in central Cairo.
Suits: almost everyone. This is the standard recommendation and it is a sound one — you can sleep, walk to dinner, and reach Downtown in fifteen minutes. Trade-off: the bridges jam at rush hour, and the metro stations at either end of the island are a walk from the middle.
Downtown (Wust el-Balad)
The Khedivial city, with all three metro lines meeting in it.
Suits: travellers who want to walk, budget hotels, and anyone who wants to be in the middle of Cairo rather than beside it. The best-connected district by a distance. Trade-off: noise, which is constant and considerable. Traffic, horns and street life run late. Ask for a courtyard or rear room and expect it anyway.
Buildings are old and lifts are small and slow. Some of the budget hotels are on the fifth floor of a 1920s block with a cage lift, which is either charming or not.
Garden City
Immediately south of Downtown on the Nile, laid out as curving streets, with the large riverside hotels.
Suits: Nile views and proximity to Tahrir and the Egyptian Museum. Trade-off: the street layout was designed to be confusing and succeeds; and it is quieter than Downtown without being interesting.
Giza
Near the pyramids. A cluster of hotels and guesthouses, several with rooftops facing the plateau.
Suits: waking up to the pyramids, which is a genuine experience, and an early start at the site. Trade-off: forty-five minutes to an hour from everything else, in traffic. Giza itself is not a pleasant district to walk. Fine for a night or two at the start or end; a poor base for a week.
Maadi
A leafy suburb south of the centre, on Metro Line 1, with a large expatriate population, cafés and the Nile.
Suits: longer stays, families, quiet. Trade-off: thirty to forty minutes from the centre, and it is a residential suburb rather than a place with much to see.
What to check before booking
Noise. The most common complaint. Ask specifically about the street, and consider a higher floor away from the front.
The lift. Many central buildings have one small and slow lift, or none.
Air conditioning, which is essential from May to October and is not universal in budget places.
Metro proximity, which is worth more than map distance because it bypasses the traffic.
A rooftop, if you are in Giza — it is the reason to be there.
Booking
Egypt has a large stock of budget hotels and hostels of extremely variable quality, and photographs are often optimistic. Recent reviews are the only reliable guide, particularly about cleanliness, hot water and noise.
At the upper end the Nile hotels are internationally run and predictable.
The short answer
First visit: Zamalek. Walking and budget: Downtown. One night for an early pyramid start: Giza, with a rooftop.
Traffic as a booking decision
More than in almost any other city, where you sleep in Cairo determines how much of your holiday you spend stationary in a car.
Rough evening rush-hour times: Zamalek to Downtown, fifteen to thirty minutes. Downtown to Giza, forty-five to ninety. Maadi to Islamic Cairo, forty to seventy. Anywhere to the airport, forty to ninety.
Plan around it: do Giza on the day you arrive or leave, keep Islamic Cairo and Coptic Cairo on separate days, and use the metro where it goes.
Rooftops
Cairo hotels frequently have them and they are underrated. A rooftop in Giza facing the pyramids, or one in Downtown or Zamalek facing the river, gives you an hour at sunset that is worth more than a better room.
Ask specifically whether there is one and whether it is open to guests.
Booking practicalities
Prices are quoted in Egyptian pounds, US dollars or euros depending on the property, and given how far the pound has moved, the currency a rate is quoted in matters. Check which you are being charged in.
Many mid-range hotels expect payment in cash on arrival. Confirm in advance rather than assuming a card will be taken.
Hostels and budget
Cairo has a large hostel scene concentrated in Downtown, much of it in subdivided flats in 1920s blocks with rooftops. Standards vary enormously and photographs are optimistic; recent reviews mentioning hot water, cleanliness and noise are the only guide worth reading.
Several are genuinely good and run by people who will arrange drivers and guides at fair rates, which is worth as much as the room.