Tours in Luxor

What's actually worth your time in Luxor

Karnak deserves a whole morning; the Hypostyle Hall's 134 columns and the sacred lake reward slow walking. Luxor Temple is better floodlit after dark, with the reopened Avenue of Sphinxes running between the two. Across the river, the standard Valley of the Kings ticket admits you to three tombs, and the astronomical ceiling in Ramesses V and VI's tomb earns its surcharge. Hatshepsut's terraces are heavily reconstructed.

Luxor's museums, and which one to pick

Luxor Museum on the Corniche is small, superbly lit and undersold: the Akhenaten talatat wall and the statue cache dug from beneath the Luxor Temple court, roughly 400 pounds for foreigners, with a morning session and an evening reopening around five. The Mummification Museum, sunk below the Corniche, lays out embalming hooks and canopic jars in one room for around 220 pounds and shuts through the afternoon.

What first-timers get wrong in Luxor

Egypt's antiquities sites have gone cashless: Karnak, the Valley of the Kings and both museums take bank cards only at the window, so a fat wallet of pounds buys you nothing. Seti I's tomb is a separate and far steeper ticket than the standard three-tomb entry. The public ferry across the Nile costs a few pounds, though the drivers waiting at the West Bank landing do not.

When the weather turns in Luxor

Rain is a non-event here, a few millimetres a year, so the real bad-weather problem is the khamsin, the sand-laden wind that blows through March to May, grounds the balloons and greys out the West Bank. That is the day for Luxor Museum, the Mummification Museum and Karnak's roofed halls, or simply a hotel afternoon while grit works into everything outdoors.

What things cost in Luxor

Karnak runs 300 pounds for foreigners and the standard Valley of the Kings ticket 750 for three tombs, with Ramesses V and VI another 220 and Seti I an eye-watering 2,000. Luxor Museum is around 400 and the Mummification Museum 220. The Luxor Pass at 130 US dollars covers both banks but excludes Seti I and Nefertari. A kushari plate stays under 100 pounds.

When to go to Luxor

The month to avoid is August — around 43°C (109°F) with roughly 0 rain days. Prices and crowds track the weather here: January is the sweet spot, August the month most people skip.

Pack for peak season: Summer clothes, plus one light layer for air-con and evenings, Comfortable walking shoes — every guide on this site assumes you'll use them.

Where to base yourself in Luxor

• East Bank (Luxor town) — Main city — Luxor Temple, Karnak, hotels, the corniche promenade.
• West Bank — Valley of the Kings, Hatshepsut’s Temple, Colossi of Memnon — quieter accommodation.
• Karnak — Massive temple complex north of town — best at dawn or for the evening sound-and-light show.