As I mentioned in an earlier post Barbara and I visited Luxor about 10 weeks ago and I do love the city. It has a wonderful selection of 5 star hotels many of them located right on the banks of The Nile and all of which have excellent facilities.

I’m not a great beach person and often prefer relaxing around a pool rather than on a beach and if you are the same then you will find that all of the major Luxor hotels have wonderful pool areas most of which are set in beautifully manicured gardens running down to the edge of The Nile.

Add to that the wide number of temples and sites of archealogical interest that you can visit whilst in Luxor and you have a fantastic base to have a fascinating yet relaxing holiday.

Barbara and I take the Dorling Kindersley “Eyewitness Travel Egypt” guide book with us when we travel and there is an extensive section on Luxor within the book and would be an ideal travel companion.

If you would like to know more about any of the hotels in Luxor please feel free to call either Barbara or Colin on our Freephone 0808 1089 100 number.

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They include the Sofitel Karnak, which is situated in a lovely location on the banks of the Nile near Karnak Temple. The Sofitel has wonderful facilities and beautiful grounds including a fabulous swimming pool location. A great hotel for families too.

Then we visited the unique Maritim Jolie Ville which is located on an island on the Nile and is a very tranquil location for a week’s “chill-out”. Again the facilities available are superb including a fantastic gym and spa centre with yoga and pilates classes offered.  The views across the Nile are to die for and they have a daily “watching the sun go down over the Nile” highlight each evening which plays out to the accompaniment of beautiful classical music.  A unique location with excellent facilities.

Our own favourite is the very well-known Sonesta St. George which again is in a superb location on the banks of the Nile and which has a great range of room types to offer including a number of absolutely stunning suites that would make your eyes water. Friendly staff and excellent food offerings would make a week here a fabulous experience.

Finally we visted the world-famous Old Winter Palace which boasts a Royal Suite that is usually occupied by Royalty, Politicians and movie-stars.  The atmosphere is really “old-colonial” but there is also a new building within the beautiful gardens that offers excellent accommodation within a really tranquil setting.  They offer a superb open-air dining experience around the stunning pool area.

If we could get away at the moment and wanted a week to simply relax in tranquil surroundings then I would be off to Luxor like a shot.

If you would like to find out about the availability and prices of holidays in Luxor please call us on our FREEPHONE 0808 1089 100 number.

Why not find out all about Nile Cruises by obtaining a copy of our exclusive FREE Nile Cruise Guide

The only problem was that instead of arriving at the flight desk at our normal time of 3 hours before we left it to 2 hours. Bad move as we were at the back of a long queue and there were 4 long queues. Normally we are at the front of the queue and have no waiting. This time we were actually the last people to check in and we were the last people to board the plane. Luckily we had good seats in row 3 so we weren’t right at the back if the plane.

Flight was delayed by an hour because of fog but the captain made up time and we arrived just 30 minutes late. After a smooth transfer through the airport we finally boarded our cruise ship, the excellent Royal Viking Nile cruise ship which is where I’m txting this now. We have a lovely upper deck cabin and we are just about to go down for dinner.

Early start tomorrow so we’ll probably have an early night.

To finish…I would definitely recommend the Premier Inn at Manchester Airport. I would suggest you ask the hotel reception the difference in costs between the shuttle and a taxi and I would always turn up early for check-in.

Why not find out all about Nile Cruises by obtaining a copy of our exclusive FREE Nile Cruise Guide

If you read our earlier post today you will have read that a client of ours is currently in Luxor and is due to cruise at any moment and reports that Luxor is as normal and that the Nile cruise ships are ready to recommence immediately.

Lets hope that travellers from the UK will start to visit Egypt as soon as possible to help restore Tourism which is such a great part of the Egyptian economy.

Why not find out all about Nile Cruises by obtaining a copy of our exclusive FREE Nile Cruise Guide