The world's greatest open-air museum, and where to sleep in it
This is a practical guide to sleeping in Luxor written for people who actually want to see the place, not a booking engine dressed up as a guide. We cover the whole of Luxor Governorate: the East Bank Corniche from Luxor Temple down to the Winter Palace, the West Bank villages of Gezira, Ramla and Old Gurna, the area around Karnak Temple and Karnak Village, and the quieter stretches out towards Banana Island and the country gardens south of town. Every hotel is grouped by area so you can pick where to sleep before you pick a room.
We are not the booking engine. When you tap "See price" on any listing you are handed to app.impt.io, which aggregates over 8 million hotels worldwide and matches or beats the rate you would get on the big-name sites. The difference: every booking made through this site funds one verified tonne of carbon removal via IMPT, at no extra cost to you. Same room, same price, one tonne of CO2 taken out of the atmosphere. That is the entire deal.
The East Bank is Luxor as most people picture it: the Corniche, the felucca captains, the Souq off Sharia al-Mahatta, and Luxor Temple lit up after dark. Stay here if you want to walk to dinner, hail a taxi at midnight or roll out of bed into Karnak. Prices are the highest in the city — Nile-view rooms at the Sofitel Winter Palace or Steigenberger Nile Palace run $150 to $250 in season — but budget places on Television Street and around Youssef Hassan Street stay under $25 all year.
Fields and mudbrick villages of the West Bank with the Theban hills behind
Where to stay in Luxor
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Hotels in Luxor
Trips worth planning around
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Worth a rainy afternoon
From the journal
All posts
2026-07-08
The Abu al-Haggag mawlid: Luxor's biggest festival explained
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2026-07-02
Coptic Christmas and January peaks in Luxor: the mini-season within winter
Between January 5 and January 8, Coptic Christmas pushes domestic prices up 25% and adds one of the year's more atmospheric nights.
2026-06-24
Best Hotels for Solo Female Travellers in Luxor
Seven Luxor hotels ranked for how they actually handle solo women — the safety details, the harassment filter, and which ones organise sightseeing without the hassle.
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The 7 best cheap eats in Luxor, ranked
Seven meals under $5 ranked by whether you would actually go back the next day.
Before you book
The questions we get most, answered with this month’s numbers.
In the low season (June to August) you can find clean budget guesthouses on the West Bank around Gezira and Ramla for $8 to $15 a night, and East Bank backpacker spots near the Souq and Television Street from $12 to $20. Air-conditioned three-star hotels with breakfast and a pool typically sit at $25 to $40 off-peak.
October to April is peak, when daytime highs are 22 to 28C and Nile-view rooms at properties like Steigenberger Nile Palace push $120 to $180. June to August the West Bank hits 42 to 45C by lunchtime, but the same rooms drop to $60 to $90 and budget guesthouses halve their rates. Christmas and New Year are the single most expensive week.
For first-timers, the East Bank Corniche between Luxor Temple and the Winter Palace suits those who want restaurants, the Souq and a taxi rank on the doorstep. The West Bank around Gezira and Ramla suits slower travellers who want farmland, sunset over the Theban hills and cheaper family-run places. Karnak Village suits anyone wanting to walk to the temple at dawn.
You do not need a car. A local ferry crosses the Nile from the Corniche to the West Bank every few minutes for around 5 EGP ($0.10). Taxis across town run $2 to $4, and a full West Bank tomb-hopping day by taxi is $20 to $30. The train from Cairo to Luxor is 9 to 11 hours; sleeper cabins are around $80 one way.
Most visitors get this wrong: individual tomb tickets add up fast. The Luxor Pass ($100 standard, $200 premium including Nefertari and Seti I) covers every East and West Bank site for five days and pays for itself by day two if you plan to see Karnak, Hatshepsut, Valley of the Kings and Medinet Habu. You must buy it in person at the Public Relations Office behind Karnak Temple, with a passport, cash in USD or EUR, and one passport photo.
When you tap "See price" on any hotel here you are handed to app.impt.io to complete the booking. The room and the rate are the same as anywhere else, but IMPT funds one verified tonne of carbon removal for every booking made through the site, at no extra cost to you. Same hotel, same price, one tonne gone.
Luxor as it actually looks
Where rates moved in Luxor this month, and which places we sent people to.