New Cairo is what Egypt looks like when it builds from scratch. Laid out across the desert plateau east of the historic capital, it is a city of wide, fast boulevards, gated compounds, glass office towers and vast shopping malls — a deliberate counterpoint to old Cairo's glorious chaos. There are no ancient layers here and no pretence of them; the appeal is space, order and polish. For visitors it works less as a destination in itself than as a window onto how prosperous, contemporary Egypt actually lives, shops and dines — and as a comfortable, modern base on the eastern edge of the metropolis.

The centres of gravity are the malls, and they are genuinely impressive. Cairo Festival City Mall anchors the district with its dancing fountains, international flagships and a sprawling food hall, while Point 90 Mall and, further out, The Grove in neighbouring Madinaty serve their own polished crowds. But the real revelation is the food. New Cairo has become the city's most exciting dining ground, ranging from Zooba — which reinvents Egyptian street food with style — to acclaimed restaurants like the sushi specialist Kazoku. For greenery there is the well-kept Family Park, and for grand comfort the Royal Maxim Palace Kempinski.

After dark is when New Cairo comes into its own. Egyptians dine late, and the district's terraces and restaurant rows stay busy well past midnight, the air cooler out here on the plateau than in the dense city below. It is a relaxed, car-borne kind of evening — valet parking, rooftop cafés, families and friends spilling out of malls and gardens. The setting matters too: New Cairo sits squarely on the booming eastern corridor that runs out towards the new Grand Egyptian Museum and the New Administrative Capital, so a stay here places you at the leading edge of the country's twenty-first-century ambitions.