Windsor Hotel Located in the heart of Cairo's shopping, business and theater districts, the hotel is within walking distance of some of the city's most celebrated attractions. The Egyptian Museum, Opera Square, Khan Khalili Bazaar, Abdine Palace. Built at the turn of the last century as the baths of the Egyptian royal family, the Windsor served for many years as a colonial British officers club before being purchased by a Swiss hotelier as an annex of the legendary Shepherds Hotel and converted into the 'Hotel Windsor-Maison Suisse.' Today, the Windsor's guestrooms retain an ambiance of faded grandeur and the hotel's famous Barrel Bar remains a popular Cairo rendezvous. More recently, the Hotel has been featured in a number of Egyptian and Hollywood films. While it's hard to imagine this hotel as royal baths, the British Officers' Club vibe is well and truly present. You can almost picture the officers in the cafe opposite, sipping on tea, sucking on sheesha (tobacco smoked through a water pipe) and supervising a shoeshine. As far as the rooms go, the sign in the hotel says it best: 'the guestrooms retain an ambience of faded grandeur', which is a little like being proud of a house that's a 'renovator's dream'