Hi Shamus

Luxor is my favorite destination in Egypt, you will have the chance to easily make your own way on foot to the Temples at Karnak, the Luxor Temple and the Luxor Museum without having to take an organised tour, they are all located along the Nile in Luxor on the Corniche.
You can also get to the West Bank via the small ferries that cross the Nile and then get one of the local taxis / guides who will be waiting on that side to take you to the Valley of the Kings/ Queens. While on the West Bank it is also worth visiting the Ramessuem, the Hatshepsut Temple, and the Tombs of the Nobles, while there you will be close to the Colossi of Menmon which are also worth a quick look at.
It is easily possible to do the tours of the West bank by yourself, just get a taxi as I mention when you get off the ferry on the West Bank or if you find a nice taxi driver in Luxor they will be happy to take you to all the sites on either a day or half day trip, the important thing to remember is that you must haggle over the price, pay roughly 1/2 the price first quoted by them irrespective if you get the taxi from Luxor or a guide / taxi on the West Bank.

Another option is to do the tours with an organised tour company who make it easy particularly for first time visitors, your choice is to use your tour company excursions via the rep or use one of the local companies who work out a lot cheaper, I can personally recommend a well known local company called Jolley's for all your excursions on the West Bank and further a field, they are located at the famous Winter Palace hotel on the Corniche.

Graham

Thanks Graham you have been very helpfull. Can you recomend good half board hotel, with things for 2 teenaged boys to do if stay around hotel.

Hi Shamus

We like the Sofitel Karnak which is located about 10 minutes out of Luxor, they operate a shuttle bus and also a boat that takes you to/from Luxor, they drop/pick you up at the Sofitel Winter Palace, The Luxor Temple and Karnak Temples or other points on the route if you ask.

The hotels in Luxor are not big on entertainment especially for teenagers, there are usually just activites such as football, tennis, volleyball / water polo etc.

Hotel Website http://www.sofitel.com/gb/hotel-5552-sofitel-karnak-luxor/index.shtml

Pictures http://travel.webshots.com/album/575199066RXwNZU?vhost=travel

Take a look at this for a good list of the hotels in Luxor http://www.booking.com/searchresults.html?aid=303948;label=eg-luxor-56IYXC*nggccBZF4qfSbJQS3736650891;sid=e48af92ec109566f827043e55282021e;city=-290821;class_interval=1;ss_all=0;radius=0;order=class

We managed to book 7nts BB at the Winter Palace Pavillion hotel in Luxor for September a few months ago at less than 90 UK pounds per person with Travel Republic.

With our flights combined from Cyprus (Larnaca) to Cairo, onwards to Luxor and return plus our accommodation costs come to 340 euros per person.

I've also arranged a transfer with a local guy who used to work for many years with Jolleys and now works for himself by private airconditioned minibus for 6 of us from Luxor airport to the hotel at a cost of 10 LE per person.

If his minibus is good, we will probably use his services for our excursions. We always do all our own trips and very rarely use a tour operator.

Looking for some balloon trip tips now!!!!

Enjoy Luxor and welcome to the "real" Egypt

My friend has some apartments to rent in Luxor, but more importantly for the OP, her husband is an accredited guide with the Minsirtry of Antiquities - I can PM you the details if you want

Hi Graham

Just noticed that the Sofitel is Half Board, thinking about going next Spring and was wondering if you could let me know how the food is ? What kind of breakfast and choices for dinner ?
Is it the normal buffet type affair or do you select from a table d'hote menu with limited choices of starters, mains, desserts ?

Presumably the drinks are quite expensive as they are in most hotels in Egypt, only got Sharm to compare with but have been 3 times, but dont really have a problem with drinks prices ?

Was thinking about booking the Jollie Ville, but just realised as this is HB and JV BnB Sofitel may be a marinally better deal. They both look fine for facilities.

Yours hopefully, Doe

Hi Doe

What kind of breakfast and choices for dinner ?
Is it the normal buffet type affair or do you select from a table d'hote menu with limited choices of starters, mains, desserts ?

It is all buffet style, breakfast consist of both Continental style including breads, cereals, pastries, cold meats, salad, fruit, yogurt etc etc, there is also a choice of hot cooked breakfast with boiled eggs, ham (bacon) sausages, beans and so on.
There is also a cook station on the terrace that you can get your fried eggs and omelettes made to order, additionally there is also a section that has Egyptian style food.

Dinners also have a large range of options - choice of soups, wide range of main courses that include meat and fish, also something for vegetarians if required, a large selection of desserts including pastries and puddings such as Crème caramel. Again there is a specialty section set up which has a different theme every night, Italian, Egyptian, French, Sea food, Asian etc.

There is also an àla carte restaurant in the hotel down beside the Nile, this is not included as part of your board basis.

Presumably the drinks are quite expensive as they are in most hotels in Egypt, only got Sharm to compare with but have been 3 times, but don't really have a problem with drinks prices ?

The drinks are certainly a bit dearer and are on a par with prices in Sharm for a bottle of local beer such as Luxor, Stella or Sakara, wine was very expensive at about £20 for the cheapest bottle.

There is a small supermarket located just at the gate where you can buy items such as water, snacks etc.

Graham

Many thanks for the speedy reply Graham. Going to try and find a few reviews as I havent done any research yet. I like the sound of the location with it being 4 miles out but having the shuttle.

Also most of the BnB hotels seem to offer a half board upgrade so I guess I need to add this to the BnB prices to do proper comparisons.

Doe

I like the sound of the location with it being 4 miles out but having the shuttle.

The location is nice, away from the hustle of Luxor but only 10 minutes from the centre. It is a different world when you get back to the hotel, very calm and peaceful.

The shuttle runs several times a day and will drop you of at any point between the Sofitel Karnak and the Winter Palace, handy for both Karnak and Luxor Temples and the Luxor museum, a nice way to do this is to take their ferry down the Nile from the hotel to the Winter Palace and then get the hotel bus back.

A taxi from the centre of Luxor back to the hotel only cost 30LE (about £3) so that is quite cheap anyway, remember and haggle.

This is a couple of pictures of their boats


The open countryside at the main gate


click on a picture if you want to see more pictures of the Sofitel

A friend of ours just returned from Luxor 2wks ago and told us there were roadworks all up towards the Sofitel Karnak and said she wondered how anyone staying there could get out and about. I suppose the only solution would be with the service ferry taxi provided.

We much prefer to walk around Luxor and so generally choose our hotel in accordance with our needs. For instance, we know we can walk from around the Gaddis / Isis hotel area up to the Luxor temple without much difficulty and the Etap (Mercure, I think it is now) is in a fantastic position for the Luxor temple and West Bank ferry, the local shopping and eating out.

We've always shunned the Jolie Ville, Karnak and Sheraton because they are too far out for us and don't like to be tied to having to use public or hotel transport all the time.

Looking forward to our trip now, about 6 weeks away - not that I'm counting

CwB

Thanks again for your valuable input folks.

Lovely pictures Graham

Decisons, descisions. Its very difficult when you havent been somewhere trying to visualise that area, layout and ways of making your way around, so its great to get the opinions of those that have already been.

I kind of visualise us being there for a week and doing trips to the sites three maybe four times during that period. I am assuming I will book at Jolleys as that is where you hear talked of the most and that the trips will be early morning till middayish and that we will spend afternoons round a pool in whatever hotel we choose and the evenings either eating in our hotel or eating in a restaurant in Luxor.

Doe

Hi Doe

That's exactly the way to do it!

Reconcile yourself that you will not be able to see or do everything in Luxor inside 1 week but choose what you would like to see on this visit. If like most of us who have been to Luxor, you will certainly want to return again and again....

Plan your trips for the morning, particularly the West Bank as it's way too hot to think about for an afternoon venture.

But, a camel ride through the village at sunset or a fellucca ride at about the same time is good and it's starting to cool down a bit from the daytime temperatures.

Stay by the pool in the shade during the afternoons just relaxing and having an obligatory dip about every 20 minutes or so and you will be fine.

Luxor temple is in an ideal location to do a late afternoon or early evening visit. Karnak for the sound and light show is a monster of a temple and don't let the hour of the show fool you, it will still be mad hot as the stone columns act like good old fashioned storage heaters. The warmth just flows out of them so if you go, make sure you take water!

Your West Bank tomb tickets will allow you access to 3 VOK tombs on one ticket. Buy an extra ticket for tomb 62 (Tuts) and that will be more than enough for you to do there. It's hot climbing in and out of the tombes. You may want to see Hatshetsputs temple too in the same trip but I wouldn't recommend doing the Queens or Nobles valley in the same trip.

We hope to visit Howard Carters house on this trip, something we haven't done before.

These maps may give you an idea of the layout of Luxor itself: http://www.luxortraveltips.com/maps/centralluxor.htm (Central Luxor)
http://www.luxortraveltips.com/maps/southluxor.htm (South Luxor)

eg, a walk from the Isis on the South Luxor map up to Macdonalds by Luxor temple will take approx 20 minutes or so without stops. On the first map - the El Luxor (was Mercure) and was also the Etap hotel to the ferrt will take approx 5 mins walking if you don't manage to pick up a taxi driver or a guide to the West Bank along the way. Just head down and hop on the ferry and you can be assured he will follow you across to the other side anyway

I wouldn't recommend booking a half board option and tying yourself to one place to eat every day. There are loads of restaurants to choose from in Luxor, reasonably priced and an excellent range of local Egyptian, western, fast food, basic simple food to a few higher class establishments. I think we've only eaten an evening meal in our hotels on 2 or 3 occasions when we've been staying for 2 weeks in one place. There are too many other interesting places to go to and watch the world go by from.

Enjoy!

CwB

Thanks again Cyprus especially for the links. Am also considering a nile cruise as an alternative so lots of reading to do. Sounds like Luxor warrents more than one visit !

Doe

Thanks again Cyprus especially for the links. Am also considering a nile cruise as an alternative so lots of reading to do. Sounds like Luxor warrents more than one visit !

Doe

It most definitely does!

We must be on our 8th visit to Luxor and still haven't seen all we want to see...

We do have a favourite tomb though and almost always take a visit to Tuthmosis III as we love the way you have to climb up to the entrance first before starting the descent. Hard work on the legs doing the tombs and if you haven't done any exercise for a while, your quad muscles will tell you all about it. The legs literally turn to jelly once you've climbed in and out a tomb or two

We do love Luxor and so are perfectly happy to go back every few years. It's just over 3yrs since our last trip and this time, we're taking 2 Egypt "virgins" with us. We know they will love it too after our experience with them on a trip a couple of years ago to Beirut and Syria from Limassol port.

Think a week in Cairo will be next on the agenda for us and them....

A cruise is most definitely the way to do it. We only did it on our last trip for the first time (3 days) and would most certainly consider another for a week. With a weeks cruise, you will generally start and finish at the same point whereas the odd durations go from one end to the other - so, starting a short trip in Luxor will usually end in Aswan and vice versa. A 7nt cruise starting in Luxor should generally bring you back to Luxor.

If you haven't booked yet, try pricing up the cruise and flights separately as well as combined as a package as you can sometimes get some good deals booking the cruise independently. Make sure it includes all meals and your excursions then you have no other real expenses to worry about or have to worry about buying tickets separately (other than for any extra tombs you want to visit).

We really enjoyed sitting on deck one evening at the front of our cruise ship in total darkness, feeling a warm breeze and watching life on the Nile. It was truly a wonderful experience.

CwB