Luxury in Luxor

Recommended days	4
Budget	£
Difficulty	Medium

This was a change from our usual type of holiday and we thought we’d experience a bit of luxury in Luxor. Due to temperatures, we were usually out of the hotel between 6AM and midday and then spent the afternoons idling around like 19th century Brits on their Grand Tour.

Egypt has always fascinated me. It’s incredible that 5000 years ago they had writing and stone buildings and 2000 years later they had …… writing and stone buildings. Progress is quite a strange thing, when you look at the changes in the UK in the last two thousand years it’s certainly a snowball effect. Barring a world disaster I can’t imagine how advanced we’ll be in another 2000 years.

Luxor is a great base for exploring ancient Egypt. Called Thebes by the Greeks (not sure why but I’m sure it’s in Herodotus somewhere) the city boasts the Temple of Karnak and the Valley of the Kings in the immediate vicinity with numerous other sites within a couple of hours. Flights are easy and we stayed at the Hilton which was on the banks of the Nile and absolutely idyllic.

It was like stepping into an oven when we got off the plane but it was oh so much nicer than the snow in the UK!  The hotel shuttle collected us and we were able to watch the scenery and unchanging life unfold as we drove. People cutting reeds in the marshes, donkeys towing trailers, irrigated crops and blaring horns. The chaos that is north Africa.

Our Accomodation

We had a room overlooking the Nile and the distant Valley of the Kings. Only two hotel views have been literally breathtaking and this was one (the other was the Hilton at Niagra Falls).

The next morning we were treated to the first of many awesome breakfasts. We then booked some tours of with the on site Thomas Cook rep (very reasonably priced too) and had a look around the hotel. I spent some time in the gym and Deb did some swimming and then we both snoozed on hammocks next the Nile. Pretty amazing and so different to our usual holidays! True luxury in Luxor!

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I generally don’t take many hotel photos but I loved this place and I guess it was unusual for us to spend some time actually in the hotel. This was both because it was so nice to relax but also because I didn’t really fancy wandering around on our own.

I am always very wary of chaos and with all the reports of attacks on foreigners in the area we took the cautious option. It is tragic as the people most affected by these things are the normal people who rely on tourism to feed their families.

Valley of the Kings

Our first tour was the The Valley of the Kings. It was an early morning start and a short trip on the river to where the minibus was collecting us on the western bank. The Valley of the Kings was very eerie, it’s only a few miles from the Nile but a totally different environment – barren and baking. The interiors of the tombs we saw were very impressive but no pictures were allowed although it did give Deb some ideas for wallpaper. 

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Temple of Queen Hatshepsut

It was a short drive from the valley to the Temple of Queen Hatshepsut and this was pretty awesome – very different design to the other temples too It’s a shame her son was a sulky, spoiled brat and defaced a lot of her images and cartouches but also an impressive king so maybe she taught him well!

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That was it for the day, back to the hotel before midday and another afternoon spent relaxing in the sun and going for a massage. What a nice life!

Medinet Habu & The Ramesseum

The next morning we had trips booked to Medinet Habu and the Ramesseum. Both were off the usual tourist track and therefore deserted. They were both impressive in their own way and also some of the original colour from the temples still survives – they must have been pretty splendid sights in their heyday. We stopped off to see the Colossi of Memnon too – an evocative name but the reality was terribly eroded.

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After such an exhausting afternoon we decided to take it easy the next day and just visited Luxor and Karnak, taking the boat south from the hotel. Luxor temple was a tourist magnet as it is in the town centre and so easy to get to.

One noticeable thing with these 3 buildings was the number of faces scratched off by early Christians who could not tolerate what they considered false gods. Good to see that intolerance is not the sole preserve of Islam ….

Luxor and Karnak

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Karnak temple is the largest in the world, built over 1700 years (think about that – it’s like we started building something when the Romans left and then finished it last week!) and enhanced by each king to celebrate Amun Ra.

The size and scale is astounding, the main hall with it’s original roof and columns must have literally put the fear of god into people. When we arrived it was just us, by 9.30 it was like a shopping mall! Bloody tourists ……

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This was a fabulous stay and we saw some amazing sights and enjoyed some downtime and luxury in Luxor. We didn’t actually mingle on this break and explore the local towns and restaurants which was a shame but the sheer span of history there is incredible.

2013