One of the great questions we asked ourselves and to which we have not been able to find an answer in view of the organization of our trip to Egypt was: how to visit the West Bank of Luxor, heart of the most majestic temples? How to organize the visit of this grandiose complex?
We have found very little information and advices from our research on tourist guides (ah, Lonely Planet really disappointed us!), internet and travel blogs. It seems that no one has ever posed the problem before!
The concern was given by the fact that we only had a full day to visit the ancient Thebes and that we would not be able to organize ourselves as well as possible (⇒ one-day itinerary to discover Luxor)
We were surrendering to the fact that the only way to visit the West Bank of Luxor was inevitably to take part in one of the many organized tours, with their own rhythms and set times. Fortunately, we did not follow the advice of the hostel owner and relied on our intuition … yes, it is possible to visit Luxor’s West Bank independently (and economically)! You need just a little organization and spirit of adaptation!
Here are some tips on HOW to visit the Luxor West Bank
You have arrived in Luxor and do not know which way to turn to visit the West Bank monuments. You have 3 different options for visiting the West Bank of Luxor:
1. Take part in an organized tour
The easiest and most trouble-free way is to participate in one of the many organized tours. It is possible to book them directly at your hotel / hostel: the visit takes about half a day starting around 8 am and the price is very competitive.
– PRO: we rely completely on the tour without having so many problems on which temple to prefer or not, we avoid wasting time and return to the time set on the eastern shore
– CONTRO: like all organized tours, the times are already planned and scanned, the organized route must be respected without the possibility of customizing it to your own tastes; moreover, since all the organized tours leave at the same time, it is practically impossible to enjoy the temples in peace and serenity, without the crowd of visitors around
2. Move by taxi
The second way to visit the West Bank is to rely on one of the many taxis found in the various sites of interest in the West Bank. It is possible to negotiate by taxi the ride for all the sites that you intend to visit or do single trips, covering the shorter stretches on foot.
– PRO: this solution allows you to customize the visit, directly choosing the stages to start and what to visit based on your interests; you can avoid the crush of tourists, reaching the temples before the organized tours arrive
– CONTRO: bargaining with taxi drivers is exhausting and difficult, often this solution turns out to be more expensive than an organized tour, count on spending between £E 200-400 and wasting time to decide which taxi driver you trust
3. Rent a bike
Third way to visit the West Bank is to rent a bike at your hostel. Unlike the scant information found online, the roads that connect one monumental complex to the other are not so rugged and difficult, but are easily passable. Of course, we must keep in mind the period of visit: under the scorching sun of July – August it is certainly advisable not to visit the West Bank by bike, if instead you have planned (like us) the journey in a more favorable period (like February ), it is absolutely worth hiring a bike!
– PRO: this solution is economic, sustainable and allows you to visit the west bank in a completely independent way
– CONTRO: there is no indication to reach the different sites of interest. However, this can be overcome by using the Maps me application. We had already talked about this incredible app that also works off-line to guide us on our trip to China (⇒ how to prepare for a trip to China?).
We opted for the second solution, relying on taxis for some rides. With the benefit of hindsight, however, the best and also the cheapest solution would have been to rent the bikes at our hostel: we could have taken them on the boat to get to the West Bank and visit the sites independently, with considerable savings in terms of costs and time. ..and without having to go crazy to bargain!
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