Things to do
Hiking on your Luxor Holidays
Hike from the Valley of the Queens to the Valley of the Kings. This will introduce you to the desert way of life. There are also some cliffs to cross on the way.
Transport options
Take the short trip to Thebes with its many splendid temples and tombs. Hire a bicycle and explore the area. The felucca is the ancient sailboat the Egyptian has been plying the Nile with for centuries. Take a felucca trip on the river a half an hour before the sun sets. It is well worth the couple of LE (Egyptian Pounds) it will cost you. If you are really adventurous, take a bus to Aswan and then take a two-day felucca cruise back to Luxor. Rent a camel and explore Luxor’s West Bank in the same way the Egyptians have for centuries.
Relaxation and Shopping
After a hot day exploring ancient temples and tombs, cool off in one of the luxury hotel's swimming pools. Shopping is a popular activity on Luxor holidays. There are two major markets in town. One is located inside an air-conditioned hall connecting two busy streets. Shops are located on both sides of the hall.
The more interesting market is the old one in the vicinity of the Luxor Temple. You will immediately feel as if you stepped back in time to an earlier age. Covered with trellises to protect shoppers and shop owners against the heat outside, it holds a huge variety of products. A word of warning: the souks of Luxor are notorious for the vast number of touts and for their persistence. If you do not know how to say no, you will soon be relieved of your money. The trick is to remember that bargaining is an age-old custom here. The initial price quoted will usually be about five times too high – but it can quite easily be a hundred times too high. The trick is to initially offer about 20% more than you are actually prepared to pay and as the vendor keeps on bargaining, you keep dropping your price. He will soon enough realise what is happening and offer you a more realistic price.
Excursions to nearby sights on Luxor holidays
Dendera hosts the famous and well-preserved Hathor Ptolemaic temple. A couple of hotels offer this trip to both guests and non-guests. You can also hire a service taxi in Luxor for this trip, but expect to travel in a police convoy. Another possibility is to take a boat trip to the site. It takes nearly a full day to get there and back by boat, so there is not a lot of time to actually explore the temple. These trips usually include lunch.
Another popular day trip is to the Temple of Seti I at Abydos. This temple boasts some of the most stunning relief work you will see anywhere in Egypt. The trip from Luxor is quite tiring and can also be combined with a day trip to Dendera.
Luxor is also a good base from where to explore the rest of Upper Egypt and travel to Abu Simbel and Aswan.