Aboul Sir, Giza

You wake to the Abusir pyramids, which stand in the window before anything else does — and Giza and the Grand Egyptian Museum sit twenty minutes away, which is the right distance from both. The house was designed by Ahmad Hamid, a 2010 World Architecture Award winner working in the lineage of Hassan Fathy, and it opens into a double-height living space warmed by a grand fireplace and hung with contemporary Egyptian art collected personally by the owner, Taya Elzayadi. Three en-suite bedrooms in the main house, two more in the guesthouse with its own kitchenette and sitting room; ten sleep here comfortably. There is a sleek open kitchen and a second one behind it for the serious hosting. Outside: pool, gym, ping-pong, barbecue, an outdoor fire, shaded terraces, an orchard garden, and a treehouse the children will find before the adults have unpacked.

It is a private house, staffed but not a hotel. There is no reception, no room service, no concierge desk downstairs. Staff housing is a separate building and everything else is yours. That is precisely the appeal, and it means anything you want to happen has to be asked for in advance rather than picked up from a phone by the bed.

The chef needs three days. A private chef is available, working from set menus, and those must be ordered three days ahead. Dietary requirements, allergies and children's preferences go in at the same time, in writing. Last-minute dinner for ten is not a thing the house can conjure.