About Dina

Dina Abou El Soud, the owner of Dina’s hostel, moved from Alexandria to Cairo at the age of twenty-six and was on her own for the first time. In Cairo, she began looking for work and since she was fluent in English she ended up working in hostels and as a tour guide for several years. While she has a diploma in tourism and hotel management, all of her experience in this industry came from working in hostels. After hunting for months, in 2008 she found her first place and began renovating with a partner. While this hostel did not work out due to licensing problems in the building, she did not stop looking for a hostel. After work, she would walk all around downtown talking to the various bawabs (doormen) and simsars (brokers) trying to find a place where she could make her own hostel. Her persistence paid off and in January 2010, she finally opened her own place. Dina’s Hostel started with only four rooms, but the hostel quickly developed a popular reputation and less than a year later, she also took the apartment next door and had twelve rooms in total. After working in so many other hostels, Dina is very excited to finally have her own place, which, out of the thirty plus hostels in Cairo, was top-rated on hostelworld.com in 2010. Dina always says, “The place found me, I did not find it!”

Warm, clean, and affordable, Dina’s Hostel is an excellent place to stay at while in Cairo. Cathedral ceilings, high French windows, wooden floors, and sunlit rooms provide a quiet escape from the bustling streets of Cairo. While the hostel is newly renovated, it still maintains the atmosphere of the 1910 building in which it is located. If you are looking to stay in an authentic downtown apartment, this is the place for you. Spacious rooms coupled with modern and clean bathrooms will make your stay at Dina’s Hostel comfortable and relaxing.

Dina’s Hostel is located in the heart of Downtown Cairo, walking distance from the Nile, the Egyptian Museum, Islamic Cairo, and the Khan el Khalili Bazaar. Downtown’s wide boulevards and streets were laid in the late 19th century and its architecture is mostly Islamic, French, and Belgian. Downtown is also famous for its friendly ahwas (coffee houses), where you can enjoy herbal teas, Turkish coffee, fresh juices, and shisha while sitting beside by artists, writers, and activists. From carts selling foul (beans) in the streets to fancy restaurants, there are plenty of different cuisines to try in Downtown. The main streets are lined with shops of all kinds, and in the small alleyways you can still find cobblers, seamstresses, and other workshops. And, of course, Tahrir (liberation) Square, the center of the Egyptian revolutionary uprising, is in the heart of downtown.

During the Egyptian revolutionary uprising in January and February 2011, which Dina took an active part in, many people called Dina’s Hostel “The House of the Revolution” because she opened the hostel for meetings and to many people who were protesting in Tahrir Square and needed a warm meal, some rest, or a hot shower. It also became a central hub for journalists covering the events.  Since February, Dina has also made the hostel an open art space for activists, journalists, and artists to gather, and is engaged in mobilizing change in Egypt. The hostel now has a monthly art exhibition and lecture series.