Luxor Egypt
Luxor is an Egyptian city in the southern part of the country, also referred to as Upper Egypt. In the Arabic language, Luxor is called Al ‘Uqsur, which means “The Palaces.” My sons and I visited Luxor during our trip to Egypt. Before visiting Luxor, we spent 4 days in Cairo. Luxor has its own international airport(LXR), but if you’re already in Cairo, a flight to Luxor from Cairo takes roughly an hour and a half. If you don’t feel like flying into Luxor, you can get there by car, train, or bus. I believe there are also cruises which you can ride to Luxor.
Getting to Luxor
If you choose to catch the train to Luxor, the prices are low($10.50), but the ride will take around 10 hours. Bus tickets are cheap($10), but like riding the train, you’ll be sitting on the bus for a long time. If you’re strapped for time, then I wouldn’t recommend riding the bus. As for the boat ride, it’s the slowest. A boat ride down to Luxor can take up to 2 days, depending on where you’re traveling from. Boat tickets cost around $50 per person. Riding a felucca down the Nile river might be a fantastic experience if you have time to spare.
Our Place
While in Luxor, my sons and I stayed in an Airbnb
called Malkata House. Our Airbnb was in the perfect location, in walking distance of the Medinet Habu temple and near the Valley of the Queens. Malkata house is located in a quaint village full of friendly locals. Our host, Mohammed, was super helpful. Before arrival, Mohammed scheduled everything, booking our hot air balloon ride, scheduling our tours, and arranging for his personal chef(Chef Hassan) to make all of our meals(breakfast, lunch, and dinner) at a reasonable price. All of our meals were homemade but restaurant quality while in Luxor.
Things to do
In terms of things to do in Luxor, Luxor has a lot to offer. My sons love riding ATVs, so Mohammed connected us with a friend who owned ATVs, and we took a ride out into the desert within an hour of arriving in Luxor. We rode out to a location called Wadi Zayed, which was really interesting. Our guide Amr told us that Wadi Zayed was once underwater, supposedly 2 million years ago. We found several fossilized clam shells, which my sons kept as souvenirs. After our short hike and fossil-finding expedition, we also had an opportunity to watch the sunset as we rode back to Malkata house. Chef Hassan, met us with a delicious meal upon arrival at Malkata house.
Riding Hot Air Balloons
The next day we woke up around 4am and headed out to ride hot air balloons($120). Luxor has been rated as one of the top destinations in the world to ride hot air balloons. In 2013 there was a horrible hot air balloon crash in Luxor, and unfortunately, 19 people died. Immediately following the incident, new safety regulations were introduced to prevent further mishaps. Considering my sons were on this trip, their safety is my utmost priority; however, I felt confident in the pilot and what I saw in terms of safety guidelines. I would have had no problems canceling if I saw anything dangerous.
There must have been 15-20 hot air balloons, and we all took off shortly before sunrise and had the opportunity to enjoy the rise of the sun while we enjoyed the ride. During the ride, we also had the chance to enjoy views of the Luxor temples such as Karnak, Luxor, Valley of the kings, and Valley of the Queens. The hot air balloon ride lasted around 1 hour, and afterward, we returned to a delicious, hot, and fresh breakfast prepared by Chef Hassan.
Exploring Luxor Egypt
After breakfast, our tour guide arrived, and we began our exploration around the sites of Luxor. I wish I had scheduled more time in Luxor because there is a lot to see, but we crunched in as many sites as possible. Our guide was a highly knowledgeable Egyptologist and gave us the history of several places during our tour. We visited the Colossi of Memnon, 9 tombs(there are ~63 currently known) in the Valley of the Kings, Hatshepsut Temple, Luxor Temple, and Karnak Temple. Writing about everything we saw would turn this blog post into a book, so I recommend watching the video at the top of this post.
My sons and I had a fantastic experience in Luxor. In hindsight, I would have spent more time in Luxor and gone on a 1-2 day tour to Cairo. Cairo was an amazing place, but overall we enjoyed Luxor more.
Pictures of Luxor
