# Heliopolis - Places to go



## Gounie

Living in El Gouna I love to take a trip to Cairo to go shopping. My friend and I are flying from Hurghada on 1st March for one night to celebrate her birthday. We are staying at the Holiday Inn at City Stars. I heard of a Salsa dance night at Portobello Restaurant in Heliopolis so will find out if this is still going on as I love Salsa. Can anyone recommend anything else to do in Heliopolis or where to go to celebrate a birthday. I like Abu El Sid in City Stars but we have one now in El Gouna. Is there anything else around to visit during the day near there? Another friend, who used to be a headmistress and lived in Heliopolis for six years has told us it will not be safe to go out at night. Is this true?


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## Lanason

There is a great Indian restaurant near city stars at a hotel called the Karvin. The restaurant in downstairs call the masala

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## MaidenScotland

I am sure you have been reading the threads and realise that crime is now being reported big time. Cairo is as safe as any other city but you need to be careful. Do not wear any jewellery or carry large amounts of cash , keep you credit cards separate. 
Use the hotel taxi service, it will be more expensive but safer.

Enjoy the break.

Maiden


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## CatMandoo

If you get a chance, stop by the bakery at the Baron hotel. They make the most delicious chicken pie! A mixture of chicken, mushrooms, in a cream sauce baked inside this puff pastry. It's huge, enough to feed 4 or 5.


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## ArabianNights

Sounds like fun! Have a good time. Its my birthday this month.... although I wont be celebrating it!


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## Gounie

Thanks for all this advice. We are really excited about the trip. We have early check-in and late check-out at the hotel and looking forward to enjoying the hotel, shopping, cinema, salsa and an Indian too!


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## ArabianNights

oooooooooohhhh LOL


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## GM1

BTW: you can also salsa dance in Hurghada, search on Google for Margot and Miguel


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## Gounie

GM1 said:


> BTW: you can also salsa dance in Hurghada, search on Google for Margot and Miguel


Yes they have come to El Gouna on many occasions. I did seven months of lessons last year with our own resident teacher and he also organised a group of teachers, DJ's and dancers from London to visit for a week and do workshops during the day for Salsa and Kizomba. I also met a few Cairo salsa dancers during that week too. Sadly it has become too quiet in El Gouna for the classes to continue.


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## Gounie

I got confused over the salsa nights. The Portobello restaurant is Friday night when we return to Hurghada so we could pop in for the lesson before we check in. Thursday night is at Bianncaffe near the Atlas Hotel in Mohandessin. That's a long way from City Stars. Do you think it would take hours to get through the traffic for 9pm on a Thursday evening and would a taxi from Heliopolis know his way around Mohandessin and vice versa even later at night please?


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## Gounie

Well my friend and I had a fab time in Heliopolis. The Holiday Inn was wonderful and we both had a free room upgrade. Couldn't fault the service and friendliness of the staff. After a hard days shopping we went to the Indian Restaurant at the Holiday Inn called Indira. The individual dishes were very expensive but we decided to try the set meal for LE129 plus taxes/service. The ambiance of the restaurant, service from the staff and quality of the meal was well worth it. We managed about half of everything that was served and stuffed ourselves full to bursting! There were samosas, murgh malay and soup to start, then bhuna gosht, alou mutter and basmati rice for the main course and naan bread, desert and fresh fruit to finish.

The following day more shopping and Stars Cinema to see the Descendants with George Clooney. Leaving the cinema teary eyed we realised that we hadn't left enough time to catch our flight back as Egypt Air had cancelled the last flight and booked us on an earlier one. We made a dash to the airport and probably would have made it had it not been for the rain and puddles everywhere causing traffic jams. No problem, they rebooked us on the 6pm flight the next day but it was now 10pm and we had nowhere to stay. I decided to call the Holiday Inn again to see if we could enjoy the same friends rate we'd paid the night before. I didn't realise at the time I had called the Intercontinental City Stars by mistake and thought the chap on reception who recognised me was the Holiday Inn but infact it was a friend who used to work in El Gouna. Thankfully he organised us a suite which was fantastic. We went into Bellini Bar and enjoyed the atmosphere of birthday celebrations and danced the night away to Arabic music. The next day we dashed back into City Stars to buy bikinis and then took advantage of the spa at the Intercontinental with hot, hot, hot pool and jacuzzi jets, sauna and steam room. We had late check out so enjoyed a movie on the giant TV screen in the suite and room service before allowing plenty of time to catch our flight!!


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