- Luxor
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Egypt
Now is the best time to go to southern Egypt – the weather is perfect and the locals will be particularly pleased to see you after a lean year. The Winter Palace’s grander rooms and elegant late 19th century façade overlook the Nile, and conceal from the bustle of the Corniche a lush and well tended garden. You can relax with a drink or a swim after a day exploring the sights, and watch the desert sun turn even the drabbest building to gold as the sound of the muezzin rises from mosques all around. For a romantic dinner, albeit without alcohol, go to the atmospheric Sofra , where delicious mezze are served on round brass tables under hand-blown glass chandeliers.
www.sofitel.com, H1661@sofitel.com, tel +20 95 238 0425
www.sofra.com.eg, Mohammed Farid St, tel +20 95 235 9752
Cool, smallish pleasant place to have a snack or drink. Good for vegetarians.
Between the corniche and the evangelical church
This lovely little family-run hutted camp is a true oasis of calm on the West Bank - perfect for independent-minded souls who want to be close to all the monuments but avoid the brutal commercialism of the mainstream Luxor scene. Your money goes straight to the local economy, not tour companies, and you'll meet friendly local people who can help you arrange any trips and activities for a fraction of the price on the East Bank.
Great food (lentil soup is amazing!) and incredibly friendly staff. Ask to meet Nemo, the owner - he can also arrange all your trips for you and if you need any shopping done, he's your man! A visit to Luxor without a visit to Smileys simply wouldn't be right!
Passport Street, Opposite Nile Palace Hotel
Great food at resonable prices. Staff are friendly and have a sense of humour, and the whole place is spotless. Ask for Captain Nemo - he can fix anything from boat rides to balloon trips and airport transfers. If he can't do it he knows someone who can, he knows everyone.
Opposite the Nile Palace is Passport Street, next door to Murphys Bar.
I would like to recommend a restaurant I discovered in Luxor. It is called Sofra Restaurant & Café. Both food and ambience were excellent and it was the highlight of the trip to Luxor for some people I was travelling with. We were so impressed that we went there four times in one week.
90 Mohammed Farid street, El Manshia
and near by the train station in Luxor
Phone 095 2 35 97 52
www.sofra.com.eg
This colonial-era hotel in Aswan, about 80 miles south of Luxor, is famed for Agatha Christie's Death on the Nile. The glamour has faded but it remains a lovely retreat from the heat and hawkers where you can take scones and tea on a palm-fringed balcony.
Sofitel Old Cataract Hotel, Abtal El Tahrir Street, Aswan;
tel: 00 20 97 316000
Great restaurant outside the Sheraton Hotel - good selection of food reasonably priced, British run.
Luxor has a good selection of places to eat, particularly in some of the large hotels.
For example, the recently-opened Indian restaurant at the Sheraton has received excellent reports and is well worth a visit. Other hotels such as the Hilton and Emilio also house very good restaurants and are open to non-residents. At the budget end, there are several good-value ‘tourist’ restaurants.
The Ramses restaurant adjacent to the Emilio on Sharia Yusef Hassan, is a very reasonable, basic place somewhat undiscovered by the bulk of tourists.
The restaurant at the St Marks Hotel on Sharia El-Karnak is cheap with pleasant service but in need of a facelift. The Amoun and El-Hussein which are next door to each other further down Sharia El-Karnak and attract large numbers of tourists, both are good value serving mainly western dishes.
Although the town isn’t renowned for its nightlife, some of the larger hotels such as the Etap and Sheraton have discos until the early hours where you can also see bellydancing shows.
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