Steigenberger Cecil Hotel

The Cecil opened in 1929 on Saad Zaghloul Square, where the Corniche bends around the Eastern Harbour, and it rapidly became the drawing room of cosmopolitan Alexandria. Somerset Maugham and Winston Churchill passed through, British intelligence occupied rooms during the Second World War, and Lawrence Durrell fixed the hotel permanently in literature by lodging his heroine Justine in its mirrored lobby. The Moorish-flavoured facade and the vintage lift remain gloriously of their period.

Rooms are comfortable and traditionally furnished rather than opulent — this is a heritage business hotel at approachable prices, not a palace — and the ones to request face the harbour, where the fortress of Qaitbay stands on the site of the ancient Pharos lighthouse. Watching the fishing boats cross the bay at dusk from a Cecil balcony is Alexandria distilled.

The city itself is the draw: the catacombs of Kom el-Shoqafa, the Roman theatre, the modern Bibliotheca Alexandrina honouring the ancient library, and seafood restaurants along the harbour. The rooftop restaurant and old-style bar give the hotel evening life. Manage expectations on polish and the Cecil rewards handsomely; it is a hotel for readers, romantics and travellers who prefer patina to gloss.