Tailor made holidays: Cairo has everything from ancient squares to 'warren' of cafes

People planning to take a tailor made holiday to Egypt may like to consider visiting Cairo, as the city has a huge range of attractions on offer.

There is Old Cairo, where luxury travellers can take in Coptic Museum of ancient Christian artefacts, the Babylon Fortress and the Greek Church of St George, among other attractions.

But Ahdaf Soueif, an Egypt-based writer, put forward the opinion that the cities backstreets known as the Bursa is a bustling hive of authenticity.

One of the activities which travellers on tailor made holidays can take part in is "smok[ing] a shisha in the Bursa, Cairo's downtown warren of pavement coffee shops".

She wrote in the Guardian newspaper: "This labyrinthine cluster of pedestrianised back alleys around the city's stock exchange has long been a meeting [place] … you'll find it empty in the day but heaving late into the night."

In 1999, Ahdaf Soueif's novel The Map of Love was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize.