Hotel Luxor Novotel Reviews

We went on a two week stay at the Luxor Novotel hotel in egypt in July/August 2004.
We had the most fantastic time and cannot praise the staff at the hotel highly enough.The standard of courtesy and service shown to us by the hotel staff was 5 star quality and we all felt that the Novotel had a family run atmosphere and we were definitely made to feel like one of the family.

Upon arrival at the airport we were greeted by Helen the Hayes and Jarvis holiday rep who managed to get the balance right between being available when needed during our stay but not interfering unnecessarily.She was absolutely fantastic!

The Luxor Novotel may not be the most luxurious hotel in Luxor although it definitely deserved its 3 star + rating but we all feel that when we return to Egypt next year we cannot think of anywhere nicer to stay.
Upon arrival at the hotel we were put in a Nile view room with wonderful views every day of sunsets etc.
The gardens of the hotel were in my opinion one of the best in Luxor with three gardeners who seemed to work 24 hours a day.One of these gardeners brought my wife freshly picked flowers from the garden every day which delighted her.

The swimming pool is a floating platform sat on the Nile which works extremely well complemented by the ever helpful staff who were always on hand to help.

The hotel is well situated near the centre of Luxor and convenient to our favoured modes of transport-kaleshes and feluccas which we used on a daily basis never paying more than 10 Egyptian pounds(90p) for a kalesh and 40-60 Egyptian pounds(£3.30-£5.00)for a three hour fellucca ride.
Luxor itself was a great holiday destination with plenty of things to do and see.
Security was evident everywhere with armed police on every street corner but this actually reassured us and we did not feel this was too obtrusive.

We went on one Hayes and Jarvis excursion-Fellahs tent-which proved to be a really good night out.The other excursions seemed to be expensive especially the three night cruise to Aswan which was priced at £125 each which was also the price for my 13 year old daughter!!I ended up getting two night cruise with Panorama to Aswan for £50.Quite a saving!!!

Also I booked an excursion through Moon river travel,a local travel agent,to the Valley of the Kings/Queens and Hapshetshut for £10 a person.Our travel guide was Mr Sunshine who is mentioned in several tour guide books.He really was brilliant!!A real Egyptian gentleman.

Overall a wonderful experience beautifully complemented by Hayes and Jarvis through their rep.

One downside was the Monarch flight home.The seats were cramped.Our flight had faulty air conditioning with one half of the plane sweating cobs and the other half freezing.The staff on the plane were less than helpful and showed a marked contrast with all in Egypt.The plane ran out of water and blankets leaving most of the passengers unhappy and harrassed.On top of all of this one of the plane's toilets was not working which limited us to two toilets between several hundred people.

We however refused to let Monarch's failure spoil what was the best holiday we have ever been on.Well done Hayes and Jarvis.We will come to you again!
Two things worth doing whilst in Luxor apart from the normal excursions to Valley of Kings/Luxor Temple and Karnak etc.
1.Go to 1888 restaurant in the old Winter Palace for evening dinner-You will need to dress up as shirt and tie a minimum requirement but well worth it.Top quality food and excellent guitarist and pianist in the bar.Locals thought this place was expensive but worked out at about £15 each for three courses-excellent!!
2.On our last night we took a two hour fellucca ride on the Nile with a table laid out by the hotel with a local meal and drinks.We sat and sailed on the Nile and watched the Sun go down eating a lovely Egyptian meal all for less than £20 for all three of us!!