Le Riad Hotel de Charme, Cairo, Egypt

Finally, Cairo is blessed with a true boutique hotel that embraces the best of Egyptian style through the centuries. Le Riad is on Sharia El-Muizz, the glorious medieval thoroughfare lined with mosques, old bathhouses and restored merchants' houses that span 800 years from the Fatamid, Mamluk and Ottoman periods to today.

The renovation of the 1960s apartment block to become Le Riad is the brainchild of Syrian Youssef Takla and Frenchwoman Véronique Sedro, an Egyptologist who chose every piece of antique furniture, framed the nomadic jewellery, collected the local cinema posters, sourced photographs of famous Egyptian dancers and beauties.

Each suite in this lush-yet-quirky Cairo hideaway has its own rich colour theme, from jewel blues to sweet pinks and modern monochromes with thoughtful