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Luxor Journals

Night Train to Luxor

Best of IgoUgo

An August 2000 trip to Luxor by jemery

Room with a View - I Photo - Hilton Luxor, Luxor, Egypt More Photos
Quote: Cairo has the pyramids and Sphinx, but ancient Egypt’s most fabulous tombs and temples are at Luxor, 670 kilometers farther up the Nile. You can fly or take a cruise ship there, but I took the road less travelled by ...
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Night Train to Luxor Best of IgoUgo

Overview

Memnon and his Queen Photo - Luxor, Egypt
Quote:
It’s incredibly rejuvenating to have a leisurely dinner in a quality restaurant, board a train with a small but comfortable private sleeping room, and fall asleep as you watch the moonlit Nile Valley roll by. Other writers have called Luxor ‘a huge outdoor museum.’ That’s an apt description. The partially-restored ruins of two massive temple complexes are just outside the city center. Thebes, the ‘Valley of Kings’ where Tutankhamen and the other Pharaohs sleep, is a few miles away across the Nile. This is the highlight, and will give you a new appreciation of ancient civilization. Budget a half-day to see Luxor Temple and the even larger Karnak site. Visualize the state...Read More

Hilton Luxor Best of IgoUgo

Hotel | "New Karnak Hilton"

Riverfront Park, Karnak Photo - Hilton Luxor, Luxor, Egypt
Quote:
The New Karnak Hilton, a large, modern property, is 4-5 miles south of the railstation and airport at Luxor. It’s just beyond Old Karnak, at the far end of the Corniche, a broad riverfront highway. The site includes a large, garden-like park adjoining the Nile and, from my room, I could look across the river to the desert hills of the West Bank. The room was spacious --- two queen-size beds, as I recall --- and, as you’d expect from an upscale chain like Hilton, included a very well-furnished bathroom. Though arriving hours before the ‘official’ check-in time, I was given an upstairs room with a private balcony. (My immediate reaction was to extend my stay another day.) The ho...Read More

Member Rating 4 out of 5 on June 24, 2001

Hilton Luxor
NEW KARNAK
Luxor, Egypt
20 095 2374933

Room with a View - II Photo - Ramses Hilton, Luxor, Egypt
Quote:
This high-rise hotel overlooks the Nile (a plus) but is hemmed in on three sides by major traffic arteries (a minus). It’s within a block of the Egyptian Museum (a plus), but, because of the traffic, getting there can take 5-10 minutes. Once you make it to the museum, another short walk takes you to the Sadat ‘Metro’ station. My original room looked out over expressways and the ruins of an earthquake-ravaged building. On returning from Luxor, I was on a high floor with a magnificent view up the Nile. Rooms on both of my stays were spacious and well-furnished, as were the bathrooms. The baths had more toiletries than one could ever use and bidets --- a European amenity that I wish more N...Read More

Member Rating 3 out of 5 on June 24, 2001

Ramses Hilton
Cornich el Nil
Luxor, Egypt

Island Mosque, Cairo Photo - Le Steak at Le Pacha 1901, Luxor, Egypt
Quote:
Le Steak at Le Pacha 1901 offered two of the things I cherish most in a restaurant: a great selection of seafood entrees and an early dinner service. It is one of the best overseas restaurants I’ve encountered in eight years of worldwide travel. Le Pacha 1901 is a multi-level, multi-room restaurant complex on a barge docked in the Nile. It’s on the east bank of the long, park-like island that extends much of the length of downtown Cairo. Le Steak, on the lower deck, had a large bar and dining area and a somewhat more intimate section separated from the main room by a divider. Both rooms had water-level views of the Nile and East Bank. The host apologized for not seating me in a riverside booth...Read More

Member Rating 4 out of 5 on June 24, 2001

Le Steak at Le Pacha 1901
Mid-River Island, Cairo
Luxor, Egypt

Valley of the Kings Best of IgoUgo

Attraction | "Thebes and the Valley of Kings"

Temple Columns, Thebes Photo - Valley of the Kings, Luxor, Egypt
Quote:
After a brief pause to photograph the working-class village of Qorna, we headed directly for the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepshut. It loomed over the parking lot, nearly a quarter-mile away up a stone ramp. (The guide probably chose this first because the heat would only get worse later.) To better impress her subjects and rival kings, Hatshepshut posed as a male during her reign. The original carvings, he said, portrayed her as one. Jealous successors later changed her back into a woman. Many of the frescoes and carvings are well-preserved and restored. Though we had only limited access to the interior, we could study, but not photograph, its successions of story-telling hieroglyphs. Pho...Read More

Member Rating 4 out of 5 on June 24, 2001

Valley of the Kings
Luxor
Luxor, Egypt

Rail Experience Best of IgoUgo

Attraction | "The Rail Experience"

Cheat Sheet Photo - Rail Experience, Luxor, Egypt
Quote:
The hotel restaurant arranged an early dinner seating for me so I could take Cairo’s ‘Metro’ to the station instead of an expensive taxi. The overnight train from Cairo to Luxor was a fast express, diesel powered, with a first-class section specifically reserved for Western tourists. This included two sleeping cars and a club car with a congenial bartender who spoke near-perfect English. There was time before dark to see the first Nile crossing and the southwestern outskirts of Cairo. Then, one could shut down the lights, nurse a final after-dinner drink in darkness, and enjoy the moonlight until bedtime. The only drawback was that the schedule was designed for a comfortable ...Read More

Member Rating 4 out of 5 on June 24, 2001

Rail Experience
Ramses Station
Luxor, Egypt

Quote:
It was late. I was tired. I’d spent nearly an hour getting my visa and clearing customs/immigration at the Cairo airport and was looking forward to a quiet night and soothing drink at the Hilton that I’d reserved for a few nights before heading to Luxor. Instead, I blundered into the middle of the Egyptian equivalent of a Shriner’s convention --- except that these were real Arabs. Thursday night in Cairo is like Saturday night in the U.S., and this Thursday was apparently an extra-special one. Half the Arab world, it seemed, had gathered in the hotel lobby. Being Muslims, they didn’t drink alcohol but they did smoke hookahs, elaborate pipes filled with water and other substances. (It ...Read More