For many tourists, the way to see the West Bank temples and tombs appears to be the highly priced offerings from their tour company.

Typical costs are £39 per person for a visit to the Valley of the Kings, Hatshepshut's temple and the Valley of the Queens. Included in this price are the ticket prices (approximately £9.50 per person).

To hire an air-conditioned minibus and a guide, and to visit temples and tombs that you wish to see, will cost at most 200LE (£20) for up to six people (total price), so adding the cost of the tickets, the trip will probably cost an individual in this situation about £12.

The other plus of this is that you can actually spend as long as you wish at a site, and not have to rush back to take in the obligatory visit to an alabaster or papyrus shop, for which the tour leader on the coach can make up to 50% of your purchase price in commission.

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Many people bring their mobile phones when they come on holiday to Luxor. Calls to the UK on a UK-based network attract high roaming charges, and the recipient of the call has to pay similar charges to the caller. A simple solution to this is to buy a Holiday Sim Card pack, from the Vodafone shop at the bottom of Television Street. The cost is 25LE, and it will give you an Egyptian phone number, which means that you pay a lower international call charge, and the recipient pays nothing. The card has a life of 6 weeks, and can be topped up with pay-as-you-go cards that are readily available throughout the city. If your phone needs 'unlocking' there are several phone shops where this can be done at a cost of between 30-50LE.

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