I have booked a western style hotel near Tahrir Square, but want to spend a few more days in the “Islamic Cairo” neighborhood near the bazaar. Hotels there seem to either be super expensive or super nasty. Might anyone have hotel suggestions for Islamic Cairo, or for other old neighborhoods to explore?
Thanks
Be careful where you book a hotel. I have been to Egypt three times and had Egyptian friends that warned me about certain areas.
The Tahrir Square area is safe and near the old Egyptian Museum. I don't recommend that you try exploring Cairo on your own. Do it on a group tour.
We went last year and stayed in Cairo before and after a Nile cruise. Both times we stayed near Tahrir Square as that seemed to be where most of the hotels are. I don't remember seeing many hotels around Khan Al-Khalili, tho it was easy for us to get there from where we were staying. We travelled independently the whole time we were in Cairo, tho we used guides for visiting the Giza pyramids and Saqqara pyramids, and we didn't have any issues. The metro is good and ubers are extremely inexpensive so it's easy to get around on your own. Zamalek is also a nice neighbourhood tho definitely more upscale (it's also where all the embassies are).
If you take a taxi, have the hotel make the call and take down the cab number. My Egyptian friends told me some tourist have been taken out to the desert, robbed, perhaps assaulted and left.
