I cannot recommend this hotel highly enough. The staff are extremely friendly & hugely attentive. Quite literally, you will be treated as a precious commodity. When we first arrived, our bags were taken from us from the Taxi & taken up to our room while we checked in. A Safety Deposit box was purchased for the exorbitant sum of £1 for the week from the friendly reception staff! The lobby when you arrive looks pretty basic, but the rooms are a good standard & kept impeccably clean. On more than one occasion we got back very late the night before & slept in, but the room cleaners would wait until we were up & about, to clean the room, if they were inconvenienced by being kept waiting they didn't show it, in fact, we were greeted on our return by towels & bed sheets etc being sculpted into origami-style characters including a swan & a crocodile complete with a chicken in its jaws :-)
The roof bar has a superb swimming pool which is most welcome as we were sitting in 120 degree heat most days, even in the shade one would get hot quickly, so a dip was most welcome. The pool was pristinely clean & very inviting. They serve a wide range of drinks up there & although they call the food 'snacks', a
fillet steak of the highest quality for just over £3 deserves a better description than 'snack'!
Downstairs there is a gift shop & jewellery store, the latter offering great items at excellent prices. We bought a silver ring elsewhere which turned my partner's finger green, you will NOT get the same problem with the hotel jeweller. Silver costs about £4 (english) for a ring & gold (18 carat!) was £10 per ounce, meaning a fairly chunky cygnet ring would cost about £50. The equivalent over here would set you back probably more than double that!
Breakfasts were OK, but the A La Carte restaurant was great value in the evenings. If you get the chance of half-board, take it. We paid an extra £30 pp for a 4-course meal every night & after going through the menu, we can assure you that all the dishes are good.
The downstairs bar is open an hour later than the roof bar & plays some good music, but it closes at 1am, so if you want a later night, find a bar elsewhere that will be happy to take your money - you shouldn't find that difficult, if you spend, the local ones tend to stay open.
By the way, if you like to watch the sun set over the Nile with a cool cocktail in your mitt, this is the place to go!
SIGHTS:
I suppose you won't need reminding of the incredible things to see in Luxor. The Temple is worth a look & at 20 Egyptian Pounds (just under £2) is a bargain as are all the other tourist attractions. Valley of the Kings is a MUST, we went with the tour company, but as other reviewers have said, there are better deals in the tour shops that are built into the Old Winter Palace building. Don't worry about reliability as if they were rip-offs, they simply wouldn't be allowed to trade by the hotel owners. We used Carlson Wagonlit for a day trip by air to Cairo as recommended by another review here & it was excellent, one of the best parts of our holiday was being danced past the long check-in queue at Luxor airport by our travel rep, to sarcastic comments such as "Ohh, they must be bleeding royalty!" hehe. If you do the trip to the West Bank, take in the Workers Village, where the people who cut the Valley of the Kings tombs are buried, it's more interesting than the Valley of the Queens & gives a great insight into the workers that created the history that we all still want to visit to this day.
We only went for a week & wanted a bit of relaxing time by the pool after a tough year, so didn't manage to see Karnak, Abu Simbel, take a Hot Air Balloon ride or many other sights, but we will be going back to do those again. Someone we met at the hotel who has been to Luxor 7 times fully recommends the Nile Cruise to Dendera too ... so that's our itinerary sorted for next time!
Recommended is a drink in the Old Winter Palace Hotel. The place oozes colonial class & although the meals are expensive, you will be blown away by the majesty of the surroundings. Just have a drink in the bar at English prices & feel upper class for the evening - just wear something smarter than Union Jack shorts & a Sex Pistols T-Shirt or you won't get in!
CONS:
The one bad point about the town is the hassle & rip-offs. Don't take a kalesh (horse-drawn carriage). the horses stink & are obviously not treated well. You will get taxi drivers calling to you to garner trade, you will be swarmed by taxi drivers the moment you set foot outside the door of the hotel.
If you get a taxi driver you like & negotiate a good price, he will want to keep you for the duration of your stay. Do this, but make sure you keep the terms of your agreement fresh regularly as they will try to rip you off at every available opportunity. We found a driver's meal added to our bill at one place, it seems a few words in Arabic & his food was charged to us. No problem really, but it would have been nice to be told. Also, when we were returned to the airport, the cost was huge as for the first time in the holiday, we had neglected to agree a cost & the guy we thought was friendly to us took full advantage! Arguments ensued for the first time on the trip!
I've read a lot about the Egyptians being very friendly, but bear in mind that they are only friendly as they are taking money from you. Go into a shop & they will sit you down & be full of smiles, but say you don't want to buy anything & the smiles quickly evaporate into frostiness. I know this won't be a popular view, but when we go back, we will be a lot firmer & less trusting, don't be fooled by the friendliness, it's all designed to get more money out of you.
As a guide, local trips (1-2 miles) in a taxi should cost about 10 Egyptian pounds, Luxor to the airport about 30-40 Egyptian. They will try to rip you off at the airport when you arrive, don't pay more than 40 Egyptian - if they don't like it, another taxi driver will!
Lastly, hoard small notes like the Egyptian pound (about 10p) as they are very useful for the local custom of Baksheesh (tips). You will pay this for everything from having your bags carried, to having something pointed out in pidgin English in a tomb, to being handed loo paper in a toilet. One Egyptian pound is OK, but they will push for more ... just give them the quid & begone! Don't, whatever you do, show them a bigger note as you won't get it back, ask at the hotel for change, they will be happy to oblige.
I think that's about it. Sorry if anyone doesn't like my jaded view of the Egyptian people, I can assure you that I am a person who is very willing to see the good in everyone, but that is a bad quality to have in Luxor. We'll definitely be going back, but watch out for Egyptian rip-offs. Knowledge is the bomb. Forewarned is fore-armed. Enjoy yourself but look after Number 1!
Dont be put off by this review. Egyptians are the same as any other Country in the world. If they can make a fast buck they will. We found a taxi driver that took us round for the duration and made sure we did not receive hassle from any other driver. He only charged what was agreed and he made sure we were looked after. Bakseesh is a part of the culture and the locals depend on it. Use a taxi driver to take you to the sights for a1/4 of the cost of tour operators. The one we used was Hamdy Ahmed (email hisam2000@yahoo.com) he was trustworthy and indeed we are going back in June 2006 and using him again. One other point medicines are dirt cheap there for the same as England. Zovirax, Canisten things like that whihc are expensive here are ery cheap. We boughts loads. Zovirax cost us about 2 quid for a tube 6 times bigger than the brit one!
j3ssica 08.08.2004 16:17
Some parts sound quite nice but you've put me off now!
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Aug 5th, 2004
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