lUXOR EXCURSIONS

speedmaster_2

Please can someone advise if they have been to Luxor in Egypt and visited all the sites. I am in the process of budgeting for my Itinerary but can not find any information on prices for the main attractions/excursions. All the costs are for booking via a inclusive package/agencies which appear to charge extortionate amounts!

I would appreciate it if any one can help me.

TRAVELMAN_2

http://www.solimantravel.co.uk/contactus.html

Whack an e-mail through-we use them in the uk for flights/packages-v. good! Try the UK office 1st & also e-mail Egypt office.

Hope it helps!

Chris

LesD

There are so many options. Either from the UK or when you get there. Be aware, however, that the heat means that any decent tour to the west bank - Valley of the Kings, etc. - should start in the early morning (5 a.m. or earlier!).

speedmaster_2

LesD wrote:

There are so many options. Either from the UK or when you get there. Be aware, however, that the heat means that any decent tour to the west bank - Valley of the Kings, etc. - should start in the early morning (5 a.m. or earlier!).

Thanks for your response. We would rather pay for the excursions when we get there from the ticket office, do you have any tips or any suggestions. What sort of price ranges should we be looking at?

Rickycowslip

Watch out for the 2 day cruises. many people pay £000s for a trip-of-a-lifetime cruise down the Nile, and because there are so many sights in Luxor they then stop over for a couple of days. The boats then offer a cheap two day cruise back up the Nile to various sites to keep the boats going. We went in February and there were as many crew as there were passengers. Really posh en-suite bedrooms and swimming pools on deck - amazing experience and incredibly cheap - about £100 each including food and excursions, one overnight on the boat

Incredible place Luxor - the hyrogliphics are everywhere and the temples are just amazing, and right outside the hotels. Yes its hot, but dry heat so not that uncomfortable

saveapenny

do a hotair baloon ride over valley of the king at sunrise it takes your breath away
a couple of nice sites to look at before you go
http://touregypt.net/
http://www.thebanmappingproject.com/ thsi one is my fav it helps you decide which tombs you realy want to see

monkeyspanner

Can't give you specifics on prices but can recommend a Luxor company who worked for Kuoni when we went. I am sure they could arrange trips for you.

The name is Eastmar Travel and they are based on the Corniche in Luxor. Web site is http://www.eastmartravel.com

If you are staying in Luxor your main options are:

The two main temple complexes on the east bank (same side as the hotels).
Luxor which is in town right next to the River.
Karnak which is a little way out of the main part of town but can be easily reached by taxi.
Both of these you can do on your own if you wish by buying a ticket at the gate.
I would recommend a guide as you will get more out of it. But if you just want to gaze in awe and are not too bothered about the history or interpretation just go and have a wander around. (Karnak is huge)
There is also a night time sound and light show at Karnak which is very atmospheric if a bit cheesy. Check which nights are the english language shows.
The Luxor museum is also worth a visit and you can do this on the way back from Karnak.

The west bank. This is were all the Tombs and Mortuary temples are and is normally done as a full day trip.
Standard Tour is:
Colussus of Memnon-Two big Statues
Valley of the Kings- One ticket here covers you for entry to 6 tombs and if you go on a trip you will probably be guided in two or three and given some time to explore others of your choice, depends which are open as they try to rotate which are open to reduce the effects of moisture. I think Tutankamum's is on a separate ticket but not 100% sure. As tombs go its small and a bit disappointing and most of the contents are in the Cairo Museum.
Valley of the Queens-smaller tombs but still quite interesting. The best of these is the Tomb of Nefertari which has been extensively restored. Entry to this is by separate ticket purchased in the office close to the Colussus, ask your guide. Daily ticket numbers are restricted.
The Ramesseum- Mortuary temple of Rameses II. Worth a visit but I prefer Medinet Habu The Mortuary Temple of Ramses III which is more complete and has some fantastic wall carvings still with original colours.
The mortuary temple of Hatshepsut- Impressive in itself and in its setting but reminds me of Nazi architecture.

From Luxor you can also visit the Temples of Edfu Esna Abydos and Dendera the first two are standard stops by the cruise boats the last two are further from the river and require coach transfer depending on the political situation they may or may not have trips running to them.

Recommend you get the Insight Guide and please check the ticketing details above as they may be out of date

speedmaster_2

Hello many thanks for the detailed response. That was very helpful

Dora_the_Explorer_5

If you're travelling independently your hotel will be able to fix you up with a driver/guide so you can easily visit Aswan and the Temple of Philae which is absolutely wonderful and the cost will not be that high and well worth it. The same applies to the other temples mentioned except the Valley and Karnak which you can easily reach yourself.
If you're going during the winter the temperatures are not that high during the day, so early morning starts may not be that necessary and it's dry so feels cooler than the temperature reading.
Enjoy haggling but please remember that Egypt is to all intents and purposes a third world country, so haggle but don't drive people into the ground and strip their dignity. If you're thinking of putting a trip to a perfume factory on your itinery, don't if you sometimes get hay fever or asthma - they are very, very perfume-y! A trip to see papyrus paper being made is a great experience and you can buy original paintings on papyrus there and watch the ladies painting them and get yours signed by one of them.
Prepare to be hassled if you take a stroll outside your hotel - a tip I was given was to give the first person that hassles you a quid to walk alongside you and keep the rest of them away for a while.
Egyptians are extremely warm and gracious but they have to do what they have to do just to get by, life is hard for many of them and their standards are not ours. Walking along the corniche (promenade) in shorts and bikini top is ok for Brighton but not for Egypt - both men and women find it offensive. You'll see horses drawing carriages on the corniche at Luxor and elsewhere - their drivers will be whipping seven kinds of !!!!!! out of them if they don't have a passenger; sadly this is normal and nothing can be done about it. Horses are whipped in Egypt in the same way as cars are kicked in the UK - they're a means for getting from a to b. The upside is that you may see goats faffing about on the pavement outside the British Airways office and paying no attention to the traffice zooming past on the road or to pedestrians! Try and fit in a sail on a dhow - an amazing experience and unchanged for thousands of years.
Stock up with Lonely Planet and Rough Guide and have a good soak in Egypt before you get there.
Enjoy the amazing sights, the wonderful sounds and the quite stunning smells. I'm so envious of you! You'll either never go again or fall in love with it.

ChloeC_2

I'm leaving for Egypt tomorrow so I'm doing some last minute "studying". I get really panicky before travelling if I'm not organised to within an inch of my life and this thread has been really useful.

I've been reading the Lonely Planet guides to the places I'm going (Cairo, Luxor, Sharm el Sheikh). These have been really interesting and I'll just have to hope that the 1 million post-its in the books correspond to the reality when I get there!

One thing I wanted to know (and I'm not sure if anyone will be able to answer in time) is whether it would be possible to see Cairo and Luxor without the commercial guides. Is it easy enough to get taxis to these places? Do the taxi drivers usually speak English? How easy is it to sort out tickets and getting around the sites? We are on a slightly tight budget (although we will get student discounts for some things), so I wanted to know whether it would be possible to see everything "on the cheap" or whether it is really worth going for the organised tours. In Luxor and Cairo we are staying in hotels out of the centre.

Also, at the Valley of the Queens the Temple of Nefatari sounds unbelieveable but the Lonely Planet guide says you need to be there 6am to get tickets due to the limit on numbers per day. If we were to "go it alone" with the sights, would it be easy enough to get a taxi from the hotel to near this sight?

Any help would be most most most appreciated. Thanks guys!

bcl999

Have they re-opened Nefertari's tomb? I visited it in December 2000. It was one of only two "jaw-dropping" moments on my month-long trip of Egypt. I also went over to Jordan for a couple of days and the other moment was the view of the Treasury at Petra from the end of the Sidq. On the other hand, Abu Simbel was a disappointment, other than the engineering feat to move it, and it was quite an expensive item as I went on the Egyptair 747 from Aswan.

I went early to Nefertari's tomb but there was only me and a young Japanese couple waiting to get in. At that time there was a daily limit of a certain number of people. The curator gave us as long as we wanted - I think there is supposed to be a time limit - and I got to take pics. There still wasn't a queue or anything when I came out.

I' m sure I have since read that they had to close it again as even with all the air-conditioning measures they installed, it was still being damaged by the amount of visitors. I didn't know thay had since re-opened it. My advice is not to miss it.

I had a taxi that day and went there first then to Valley of Kings and the other places. Your hotel will tell you how much is a reasonable price for the car & driver.

I didn't take a guide in Cairo and saw everything i wanted to. Your hotel will tell you how much you should pay for a taxi to wherever you are going and so you shouldn't get ripped off, except maybe from the airport when you arrive (or maybe e-mail hotel and ask them how much a taxi should be from there)

I even used the undergorund to go to a suburb I wanted to visit and I used the normal public bus to go out to Giza one night for the Son & Lumiere at the Pyramids. (When I visited them in the day, I had a taxi for the day as I wanted to go to Memphis, Sakkara, etc as well.) I went on the ordinary river boat down to Coptic Old Cairo. I went on the train (think it was the express one) to Alexandria for a day. I spent a day at the Egyptian Museum - could have spent longer there.

My "bible" for my visit was Lonely Planet so you shouldn't go wrong. It saved me money when i visted St Catherine's monastery. The hotel in the village insisted there was no service bus to Sharm and I would need to take a taxi (it's quite a long way and I didn't want the expense). However, the LP book said there was one right after the midday prayers (it was a Friday), leaving from the square in the village. I went along a bit early and sure enough the bus had arrived, the driver was in the mosque and i had time to go back to the hotel, check out and pick up my things. BTW, if you are going there. avoid a friday as the monastery is supposed to be closed. I was lucky and tagged on to a group of pilgrims they let in.

Are you planning to visit Aswan? I liked it as a "place" much better than Luxor. Of course, you have to visit Luxor to see all the sites but my overwhelming memory of Luxor is the smell of horsesh*t! They have caleches (horse-drawn carriages) which go back & forth along the Corniche and the place stinks - or it did at that time anyway.

So, while nothing can beat a GOOD tour guide for little bits of intersting information you wouldn't normally pick up, I would say there is certainly no need to use the organised tours.