Maadi is Cairo's most comfortable residential suburb — a garden district 9 km south of downtown, developed by the British in the 1900s on a grid of tree-lined avenues running down to the Nile. It has always been the preferred address for Cairo's international community, and remains today the area with the highest concentration of embassies, international schools, Western-style supermarkets, and English-language restaurants and bars. The streets are wider, the pollution slightly less severe, and the pace noticeably calmer than central Cairo.
Road 9 is the main commercial and restaurant street, running parallel to the Nile and lined with European-style cafés, wine bars, and international restaurants. The Maadi Corniche alongside the Nile is good for an evening walk. The Cairo Metro (Line 1) connects Maadi to downtown in about 20 minutes.