Egypt Luxor Holiday, Travel and Touring Guides.

Holiday Guide to Visiting and Touring Egypt's fantastic Ancient Tombs and Temples in and around Luxor.

Our Guides relate to a holiday in Luxor, Egypt during February 2006 - any prices quoted are for guidance as they reflect that period only and have probably since gone up. Apart from many photographs taken in and around Egypt's fabulous Karnak and Luxor Temples in the city there is also plenty of information about our self-guided sightseeing trips and tours out across the River Nile to the West Bank to visit Luxor's Ancient Sites around the tombs and temples at the Valley of the Kings, the Valley of the Queens and the Tombs of The Nobles and Workers. Our intention was to do our own thing by organising our own sightseeing days out and schedules in order to visit Luxor's various tombs and temples locations - in fact the only "organised" trip we did was a Nile Cruise down the River Nile to visit Dendarah. There is lots of general and hopefully useful holiday information about the city itself i.e. restaurants, getting around and about costs, the environment and generally how we found Luxor as a holiday destination for tourists and visitors.

We found the air quality was sometimes really bad in Luxor - especially near where the large diesel-engined hotel boats were moored. The photo on the right shows how, although the sun had been up for more than 3 hours, it was unable to penetrate the mucky and polluted air. We stayed at the Mercur which is situated right alongside the Nile and where at times there were 12 cruise river-boats moored - these Nile river hotel boats seem to keep their diesel engines running all the time and the exhaust fumes were awful at times. On top of that the throbbing noise from the engines was really invasive. We had originally booked a room so we could have a River Nile view but after a couple of nights we moved rooms to get away at least from the noise. Walking around the city seemed to be perfectly safe - there are plenty of police around for a start but anyway the local people just gave a good impression of welcoming you. The only real drawback was being constantly approached by taxi drivers, hire boat owners and so on - as well as children and even adults asking for baksheesh - more on this further down the page. There are lots of -tourist- police around all armed with either pistols or kalishnikovs as well as plain clothed police usually wearing black suits or leather jackets - though some of them were in Arab dress - we got to chat with several of them and they were really friendly.

Visas: Once you arrive at Luxor airport you need to purchase a visa - there are several desks open and it's just a case of handing over around 10 UK Pounds. You also have to fill in an entry form (these were handed out during the flight on our trip) so remember to have a biro handy. At the airport when you leave you have to fill in another simple form as well - mostly all these forms require are names and addresses plus passport numbers.
Currency: The Egyptian Pound is indicated as LE - the exchange rate in November 2009 was around 9 Egyptian Pounds to an English Pound. The hotels all seem to have exchange facilities but you can also easily use UK currency, USDs and Euros if you wish in shops and so on. We soon realised it is very useful to have a good supply of LE 5 and 10 notes since tipping is expected especially around the various archaeological sites - but don't have them all together since if the recipient sees a wedge of notes they will be pestering to have them all. We just kept maybe 30LE in one pocket and the rest hidden.

Transport: There are loads of taxis circulating around Luxor and the drivers will often slow down and ask you if you want to go anywhere. It is important to agree the fare before getting in the taxi - generally speaking anywhere around the city should not cost more than 12LE. On the West Bank you can get a taxi out to the Valley of the Queens or Kings from around 30LE. You can also hire a taxi in Luxor for the whole day if you wish - we were offered this for 10 UK Pounds and the deal was the driver would take us from Luxor (via the road bridge) to the Tombs area and just hang around while we did our sightseeing at various locations, ferrying us around to wherever we wanted to go, with no time restrictions etc. and then bring us back to Luxor when we had finished (although a tip would need to be added to this amount too).

There is also a local bus service or arabaya - these are in fact like transit vans and everyone just packs into the back on wooden seats or even hang off the back. They are mostly used by the locals to get around and will stop anytime for you - cost usually just 2 or 3 LE. We used them several times on the West Bank to get out to the Tombs - if you hail an empty bus they will take you out from the ferry to the tombs area for around 5LE and not stop for anyone on the way.
Crossing the Nile is straightforward - there is a Tourist Ferry operating but we used the Local's Ferry - the price should be 4LE return for 2 people - this Local Ferry runs 24 hours a day and they cross The Nile about every 10 minutes or so.

 If you walk down to the Local Ferry you will often be approached by owners of small boats suggesting they will take you across cheaper than the Local's Ferry - the cheapest we ever found was 10LE so hardly cheaper but they are worth trying out just for the different experience. Almost certainly if you use them they will also offer you a taxi ride up to the tombs or anywhere else you want to go - but be certain to agree the price. One guy we went across with took us to "his" taxi for an agreed price of 25LE up to the Valley of the Kings - we got into the taxi which already had a driver - when we got to the Valley they wanted 25LE each - we simply gave them 30LE to share between them and that because we got bored arguing.
Finally in Luxor you can go on the horse drawn carriages or caleches - these take you around for usually about 5LE but sometimes will offer a 30 minute ride for even less if things are quiet. They drive amongst the traffic with the taxies and coaches etc. impatiently trying to get past them - we saw one very nearly get crushed by a coach and another time a horse got knocked over though thankfully lots of people rushed over and got it onto it's feet very quickly and it seemed OK. If you are walking along the paved area alongside the Nile the drivers will often pester you badly - staying alongside you for ages shouting at you to hire them - very annoying after a while.

Begging and Baksheesh. Unbelievably annoying and widespread in Luxor. Take a stroll along the paved area by the Nile and you will be frequently approached by people just begging for money, trying to get you to change money, selling various trinkets etc. - it can be so annoying when all you want to do is have a quiet wander around. Walk into any of the Bazaars and forget having a browse in the shop windows - show the slightest interest in anything and the shop owners are onto you like flies and will follow you along for a while trying to get you to go into their shops. At Karnak Temple we were asked several times by the Tourist Police for baksheesh - unbelievable. Actually the whole begging thing starts off at and finally ends at Luxor airport - when you arrive someone will try and take your case to put it onto the transit coach - this is often only a few yards but they will want or try to get 20LE or so from you. At Luxor airport when we got to the check-in desk to leave the guy who puts the labels onto the cases insisted on being paid to simply lift them onto the conveyer belt - most of us simply refused of course.

Food: You can eat in any of the hotels - most of them have various themed restaurants i.e. Egyptian, Thai, Italian or Indian etc. - we used three independent restaurants namely the Eclipse (steaks and chicken and also has a bar), Snobs (great steaks and chicken plus the presentation was excellent) and the Lantern (English type food like pies but also steaks etc.) - with Snobs perhaps our favourite. You get a nice big plateful and I especially liked the steaks which were big and cooked beautifully. A starter, main course and sweet plus a cup of coffee for two people was typically costing around 180LE. The wine we found to be not that good and it was very expensive. These restaurants are located towards the Sheraton Hotel end of Luxor but the taxi drivers know them by name so all you have to do is grab a cab and pay your 10LE to find them if you don't fancy walking.

Sightseeing: We had decided to go to Luxor very much at the last minute - one of our "things to do" has always been to visit Egypt's temples and tombs and coupled with horrible cold English weather the time seemed just right to go there. The temples are really impressive and what was a real bonus was that you do not need to go on organised "holiday company" trips - these are generally very expensive compared with "do it yourself" and all they do is whisk you around in a coach from one place to another. Go on your own and you chose where you want to visit, how long to stay and where you want to wander off to next.

You also of course see much more of real life since you are in amongst it rather than staring out of a coach window. Whilst walking around we saw some small crocodiles in one canal, watched the sugar cane being cut and transported out on a narrow gauge railway and the amount of wildlife to be seen is amazing - from black kites to all sorts of waders to kingfishers. More than once whilst walking in villages we were invited in for a cup of tea, we also got shown round one temple site by the secret police and then sat with them for half an hour having a drink and talking about all sorts.
The only sightseeing mistake we think we made was our schedule in that we visited Karnak on our first day - this temple complex is so impressive that others are rather dwarfed in comparison. For instance Luxor Temple is really impressive but on a smaller scale - so we should have visited Karnak last of all. . .

Concerning the tombs on the West Bank we visited the various locations starting at the Valley of the Queens (20LE for 2 tombs), Valley of the Kings (55LE for 3 tombs). However the most impressive and colourful tombs were those found around the Valley of the Nobles (20LE for 2 tombs) and the Valley of the Workers (20LE) - these two locations in our view should not be missed. The only disappointment was the famous tomb of King Nebkheperura Tutankhamun, the 11th king of the 18th Dynasty - firstly you had to buy an individual ticket to enter it (70LE each) i.e. far more expensive than any other - and the tomb just was not that particularly impressive visually. It is a shallow tomb and all you have is the sarcophagus containing his mummified remains and some drawings on the tomb walls - compare that with the nearbye Ramses III tomb which is absolutely fantastic with it's sheer size and content.
Not all the tombs are open all the time so it is worth doing some research on the web or from books and maybe picking out 9 or 10 that you think you would like to see so that on arrival at the ticket office and finding some are closed you have your alternative choices ready.

What to wear and not to wear around Luxor's streets and ancient sites: Just a note on this - before we left my wife was very unsure about what would be acceptable to wear so this may be useful for potential visitors. Low or even relatively low cut tops seem to be a "no" as were short skirts and even knee length shorts seemed to sort of attract attention in places. Most women seemed to be wearing either long skirts or more often trousers and had tops which at least covered their shoulders.

An 8km walk we enjoyed whilst on holiday in Luxor Egypt wandering around the Canals and Countryside out on Luxor's West Bank.

Whilst on holiday in Luxor, Egypt we found it easy to go out and about on our own and one of the things we enjoyed was having a nice quiet walk around parts of the West Bank. Before leaving for our Egypt Holiday we had planned that we would be able to walk between as many of the various tomb and temple ancient sites which are to be found on Luxor's West Bank as possible rather than take organised coach sightseeing trips/itineraries. What we did not expect was just how fertile this area was - fields going quite a distance out into the desert - lots of trees and shrubs and the wildlife was brilliant. Much of this due to quite an extensive series of canals in the area - these allow the farmers to easily irrigate the land with their pumps.
  Our unexpected bonus was that we could make ourselves up a nice walk into the Luxor countryside using the canals to create an 8km or so walk - this is described below. It should be noted that we did this walk in a temperature of around 90 degrees and found this was pretty warm after a while - possibly it would not be very comfortable to take this walk in much more heat since there is little shade and for quite a stretch no possibility to buy a drink.
The only real problem we had with our Luxor walk was having to convince the taxi drivers on the West Bank that we did not in fact want to go to any of the ancient sites but were intending to simply go for a walk - they really did find this hard to believe for some reason. We simply walked away from the ferry and headed into the town through it's main street. As a slight diversion it is well worth having a quick wander around the town's side streets - have a look for instance at the clearly visible Mosque just off the main street on the left.
At the far end of the main street and where the houses/shops have ended take a road forking off right - the road goes between open countryside and fields as it heads back to the River Nile and to the Tourist Ferry Terminal. There is not very much to see here but you can sit on the wall under the trees by the police check post and perhaps have a chat with the friendly policemen.
Head back along the road and after a few minutes look out for and take a small road going off to the right. This road is quite interesting because there are loads of birds in the fields and on the right hand side you soon walk alongside a small canal. The canal was particularly good because we saw two small crocodiles swimming across to the far bank.

 The road soon rejoins the main road, turn right and continue to follow the canal - there was some rubbish around but also lots of birds and other wildlife. Quite soon you reach the next small town - walk on through with shops and small businesses on the left hand side - immediately before the crossroads turn left onto a dirt track - now the canal is on your right. This now becomes simply a case of following the canal - initially there are lots of houses etc either side but soon you are walking mostly between trees and fields. There were lots of birds to see including kingfishers and every so often you pass small farms and other tiny houses.

 The track is quite dusty and you get warm walking along here  as there is little shade. The canal is used as a water source for the farmers to irrigate there fields and you often pass noisy  old diesel pumps sucking the water out and pushing it into irrigation ditches - really interesting. There is little traffic on the track - just the occasional old tractor, arabaya or a meandering donkey and cart. Eventually the track turns sharp right and heads inland to reach a road. Turn right and now you have a choice of walking back to the crossroads on a dusty track which runs alongside another canal or you can take an arabaya from here which will take you all the way back to the Worker's ferry terminal.

These are our Egypt related topics:-

Useful Books: The following travel books may be of great benefit if travelling and touring around Egypt's Ancient Sites - Egypt Rough Guide  Egypt Insight Guide  Egypt Eyewitness Guide  Egypt Lonely Planet

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