How to choose the right area

Start with your week, not the map

Write down where you will physically need to be, and how often. Work. School. Hospital. Mosque or church. The friends or family who made you come here.

Then look at where those points cluster. The right area is usually the one that minimises the journeys you make most often — not the one with the nicest photographs.

The car question

This single question eliminates most of the map. Large parts of modern Cairo — the new cities and compound districts — assume you drive or use ride-hailing daily. Older central districts do not.

If you will not have a car, you should be looking at areas with real walkability and transport links, and you should treat that as a hard filter rather than a preference.

Questions worth answering honestly

• Will you drive, or depend on ride-hailing and public transport?
• Do you need international schools, and which ones specifically?
• How much noise can you actually live with?
• Do you want neighbours and street life, or space and quiet?
• Is this for one year, or for the next ten?
• Do you need to be near a particular hospital or clinic?

Visit at the wrong time

Anywhere looks good at 11am on a quiet weekday. Go back in the evening, and again at rush hour. Sit in the traffic you would sit in every day.

If you cannot visit in person, ask someone to record the journey you would actually make, at the time you would actually make it.