Sofitel Winter Palace Luxor

sadly tired and underfunded

Sofitel Winter Palace is a famous and historic hotel.

The hotel is located in the city of Luxor, across the main road from the East Bank of the River Nile.

This grand old place was built by speculative builders, ostensibly for early British tour operator, Thomas Cook, but officially as a private palace for King Farouk.

It opened its doors in 1907 and for much of the rest of the century served as a prime location for winter breaks for British gentry, as well as being a favourite spot for various celebrity archaeologists, including Howard Carter and his financier Lord Carnarvon.

If you look carefully at the architecture, it is clear to see that this place was never a work of art. Its faux grandeur is very much of the catalogue component variety. Nevertheless, the overall impression is of a gentile establishment from the ‘belle epoque’.

On the ground floor, there is a lovely bar, an impressive function room and a rather uninspiring dining room.

The 116 rooms are set on three floors above and range from modest standard rooms to impressive multi-room suites. The general feeling is that the rooms to the rear are more desirable, looking out over the lovely grounds, rather than the busy main road.

To the rear, the extensive gardens are really pleasant, a genuine oasis in this busy modern city. The collection of trees from around the world is hugely impressive.

The extensive swimming pool area and associated restaurant are very pleasant, although the fact that they are shared with the adjacent lower cost hotel is a significant negative.

We usually recommend a three night stay, which gives you two full days, one for the archaeological sites of the West Bank and another for the temples and other sites here in the city. If you add a fourth night, then you can add the fascinating and much more remote archaeological sites at Dendera and Abydos.

We have very mixed feelings about the Winter Palace. Usually we are suckers for an historic hotel, but this place really lets itself down in some areas.

Most notably, the building is desperately in need of a major makeover. A grand old hotel like this needs a great deal of maintenance and imagination if it is to remain fresh and relevant. Although we do appreciate that investing in Egypt can be a difficult decision for a big international hotel chain, the underfunding is very evident.

A significant negative for us is that we generally prefer to be based at a hotel on the more rural West Bank. With the exception of Karnak Temple, there is little reason for most people to come into the city. The majority of the best sights are on the other side of the river and the drive there and back on the very large new highway is a long way from being the ideal aesthetic experience.

If you are looking for a genuinely upmarket property in the greater Luxor area, then we would usually turn to Al Moudira Hotel.

We usually recommend deploying at least three nights in Luxor, since the handful of hotels on the west bank are both unusually high quality and very relaxing.

The more time you spend here, the more likely you are to get under the surface of the place, avoid the crowds and get out to some of the lesser-known sites.

Seasonality

Luxor experiences a conventional northern hemisphere climate, with a pleasantly warm dry winter Nov-Mar and an uncomfortably hot dry summer centred on May-Sep.

During the Nov-Mar winter season the daytime temperatures typically reach a balmy 25C, with night-time temperatures plunging to a chilly 8C. These warm (rather than hot) conditions have led to winter being the most popular time to visit, meaning that visitor numbers reach their peak, especially around Dec-Jan. We therefore recommend November to mid-December and mid-January to March (excluding a week either side of Easter), although even then you probably need to deploy traffic avoidance measures when visiting the key sites.

The month of April represents a transition between winter and summer conditions and, in many ways, offers the best of both worlds, with visitor traffic also being relatively low (except for a week either side of Easter).

During the May-Sep summer season the daytime temperatures typically reach 41C, with nighttime temperatures holding up around 23C. These conditions are generally considered to be too hot and visitor numbers are much reduced.

The month of October represents a transition between summer and winter conditions and, in many ways, offers the best of both worlds, with visitor traffic also being relatively low.

Most trips spend 12-16 nights exploring the Nile Valley in a north to south direction. Luxor usually comes second, after the pyramids in Cairo and before a boat trip down to Aswan.

Getting there

Luxor is usually the second stop on an Egypt trip, after Cairo.

Guests returning to Egypt on subsequent trips may choose to avoid Cairo completely and fly directly into Luxor. Notably there are direct flights from London.

Most of our guests fly from Cairo to Luxor, but it is also possible for more intrepid travellers to take the overnight train.

The most popular way to leave is on a cruise boat, four to five nights south down the river to Aswan. This leg can easily be done in a few hours by train, or can be done by road if you want to visit the various sites along the way.

usually 3-4 nights between Giza and Aswan