Cairo, train, camels from Flats in Luxor

Tours from Flats in Luxor

This unique piece of marketing highlights that Flats in Luxor isn't just Luxor nor is it just accommodation. We often arrange entire tours of Egypt for people who want a quality, independent and completely tailored itinerary.

Jane Akshar and Mahmoud Jahlan can work with you to suggest places that fit YOUR interests and time available.

In Cairo we have excellent guides with good Egyptology and can recommend hotels all over the city from 3* cheap and cheerful to 5* dead posh. 

As the picture shows transport from camels to trains can be used for transfers, though most people go for internal flights where available.

The desert, middle Egypt, scuba diving, Nile cruises and safaris have all been options we have arranged for our guests.

And of course Hidden Luxor with Hussein Omar and his team of guides

BTW if you are wondering where the picture comes from it is based on old tourism posters that Jane Akshar stitched in cross stitch

Quad Bikes in Luxor

Great family fun in Luxor, quad bikes in the desert near Medinet Habu, Luxor. Real safaris no man made tracks.

We arranged this for a lovely set of guests, the kids were more confident than the parents.

Give your kids a jump start with an Egyptian holiday.

Egyptology features as part of the UK National Curriculum and children love mummies and pyramids. Having an Egyptian holiday can really spark their interest and help them at school.

I should know, I got interested when I was 9 and it has been my hobby and now my work. We can help you with attractions that children will enjoy, even a little bit of homework.

I recommend the Egyptian Echo and Horrible History Awesome Egyptians as pre holiday reading.

Photos from Middle Egypt

Middle Egypt Trip Slideshow: Jane’s trip from Luxor, Nile River Valley, Egypt to 4 cities Kharga, Al Minya, Sohag and Asyūţ (near Asyut) was created by TripAdvisor. See another Egypt slideshow. Create your own stunning free slideshow from your travel photos.

Luxor Egyptology Course

3rd November 2011, 6 day course in Luxor $1,500 excluding flights, visa and insurance including guides, lectures, site visits, half board and accommodation.

Jane Akshar presents a course on Luxor.


The structure of the course will be an evening lecture followed by a morning visit with an Egyptian guide. This enables you to get high quality Egyptology knowledge whilst still giving work to the locals. The guide is one I use regularly who has an MA in Egyptology and he will attend the evening lectures.

Here what people say about the course.


The course will also include some local cultural tours such as camel rides, felucca sailing.
Accommodation and half board are included in one of Flats in Luxor high quality apartments.
Day 1
• Arrival in Luxor
• Evening Meal
Day 2
• Breakfast
• Donkey Ride over the Ridge
• Lecture on Luxor Temple
• Visit Luxor Temple
• Lecture on Karnak
• Evening Meal
Day 3
• Breakfast
• Karnak Temple
• Open Air Museum
• Lecture on Valley of Kings, tomb of Ay and the Carter House
• Evening Meal
Day 4
• Breakfast
• Valley of Kings
• Tomb of Ay
• Carter House
• Camel Ride
• Lecture on Medinet Habu, Sennefer and Rekhmire and Roy and Shu Roy
• Evening Meal
Day 5
• Breakfast
• Medinet Habu
• Sennefer & Rekhmire
• Roy & Shu Roy
• Lecture Ramasseum, Assasif Tombs and Pabasa
• Felucca Sunset Dinner Cruise
Day 6
• Breakfast
• Ramasseum
• Assasif Tombs
• Pabasa
• Lecture Deir el Medina, Merenptah and Pashedu
• Party Dinner Night
Day 7
• Breakfast
• Deir el Medina
• Merenptah
• Pashedu
• Depart for flight back

Please email me jane.akshar@flatsinluxor if you wish to book this special tour of Luxor

Desert Safaris

Our great friend and regular driver Rageeb has just acquired a flashy new jeep for desert tours, with air conditioning. He has been doing desert tours for us for some time but having only a minibus has had to keep to the regular roads. Now with this, the latest model in land cruisers, he can go any where. So if you want a trip in the Western Deserts please contact us and we can arrange Rageeb for you.



Oasis, Great Sand Sea, Uwaynat Desert, Gilf el Keber, Kharga, Dakhla, Farafra, Bahariya, Siwa, Areg, Qara, Baris, Dush, Darb al Arbain Desert, Forty Days Road, Wadiryyan (Fayoum) are all places you can visit by desert safari. You can experience everything from a one day tour to 2 weeks or more depending on your desires. Below is an example of a 1 day and 5 day tour. Trips can be arranged from Alexandria to Abu Simbel through the desert.

One Day Luxor – Baris - Dush – Kharga - Luxor

The tour starts in the early morning from the new road and takes the ancient caravan tracks. This is a short cut between Luxor and Kharga where you are free to wander in desert, see a real oasis, met local people and see places of beauty. The route takes you via the Black Valley, Crystal Quarry, Deers Valley, Alabaster Valley, sand dunes and the Temple of Isis at Duch.

Visit one of the oldest Christian necropolises in the world at Bagawat home of the oldest Basilisk church, the Exodus Chapel and Peace Chapel. Then onto the Temple of Hibis built by the Persian king Darius in the 26th Dynasty. The best preserved temple in the Western Desert built for the God Amun Ra.

You will see many different types of sand and rock formations with plenty of wild life birds and reptiles together with a hit spring swim.

Five Day Tour Kharga, Dakhla, Qasir, Sand Sea, Farafra, White Desert, Bahariya, Black Desert, Valley of the Golden Mummies

Day 1 Depart Luxor for Kharga, Visit Bagawat the oldest Christian necropolis and Ptolemaic temple of Hibis. Camp beyond the Roman fortress under the desert sky

Day 2 Drive to Dakhla where you will experience traditional Bedouin hospitality and have a hot spring swim.

Day 3 Experience the beauty of Qasir, the oldest inhabited Islamic town, just outside Dakhla. Visit the old city of Mut and Balalt, one of the earliest Pharaonic sites. Our drive takes us deep into the Western Desert and close to the great Sand Sea. Visit Farafra Oasis for lunch and head into the magical White Desert to look for fossils and black pyrites. . The White Desert is the largest I the world, there are beautiful formations such as mushrooms and ice cream cones!!! The to the chalk and limestone formations in the desert for dinner and an overnight camp sleeping under the stars.

Day 4 – On to Bahariya oasis via the Crystal Mountain where you can hunt for quartz. Take a hot spring swim close to the black desert and its pyramid shaped mountain of Visit the Valley of the golden mummies

Day 5 Leave for Cairo, see the pyramids, sphinx and Egyptian museum

Cost cutting by Luxor Tour Agents

Just checking the prices of tours on the Corniche in Luxor and noticed that the major Luxor companies have reduced the number of ticketed sites from 3 to 2. Like cutting the size of the chocolate bar and keeping the price the same.

I am pleased to sat Flats in Luxor group still offers a PRIVATE tour of up to 3 sites, English speaking guide, tickets, a/c transport and LUNCH for only $80 USD a head. We also give half priced tours for student card holders as well as children.

Luxor Forum: Flats in Luxor/Trip review - TripAdvisor

Luxor Forum: Flats in Luxor/Trip review - TripAdvisor

We are quite happy to do tours for people not staying at the flats and here is a review of a tour. They used our guide Hussein who is really popular with my guests families and Egyptologists, pretty good

Tours of Upper Egypt now there is no convoy

Such good news as from yesterday the convoy system ceased around Luxor. This means you do not have to leave at a set time, travel at breakneck speed with no stops, visit the sites at the same time as 100's of other people or only have a short time.

For sites like Abydos this will mean lots of time and an opportunity to visit the entire site and no compulsory visit to Dendera.

For Aswan instead of just being able to visit Edfu and Kom Ombo on route you will also be able to stop at Tod, Moalla, Esna, Gebel Silsila and El Kab

I understand the Aswan to Abu Simbel convoy still operates but who knows that might change as well

Donkey Ride over the Ridge

One of our most popular family tours isthe Donkey Ride over the Ridge. We have had everyone from 4 year olds to 80 year olds do this trip and everyone seems to enjoy it. The views are spctacular. Here is an old story of mine originally published on Tour Egypt giving my view of the experience.

I now know where the expression, "walk like an Egyptian", come from. Whoever first said it almost certainly had taken the donkey ride over the ridge on the West Bank at Luxor (ancient Thebes), Egypt. It is an amazing experience following in the steps of the workman that built the tombs on their daily commute from their homes at Deir El Medina on one side of the mountain to the Valley of the Kings on the other side.

We started really early as it is much cooler then and easier on both man and beast. I had asked for and been promised a nice quiet animal. It had to be very strong as well as I am no light weight. I went with my daughter and some friends and we started at my home on the West Bank of Luxor. The donkey man, Ashraf, managed to get us all on board which was an accomplishment in itself. My saddle seemed to be really insecure but off we went. This is an amazing way to travel with the soft clip clop of the donkey's little hooves plodding along. Exchanging greetings with locals on their way to work, we got to the cross roads where the big tours busses have right of way. Well actually they didn’t because our donkeys were determined to keep on going and we couldn’t stop them. The policeman was in fits of laughter as he stopped all the big coaches so this group of middle aged ladies on uncontrollable donkeys went across. Our guide was laughing too hard to be of use. Actually he told me afterwards he always lets that happen because the guests enjoy it.

We went passed the Colossus of Memnon and up to the workman’s village at Deir El Medina. One can appreciate the site of Amenhotep III's mortuary temple so much better from this vantage point and we were going slow enough to take note of all the current excavation work. It was very interesting.

At Deir El Medina we started ascending the mountain. The donkeys needed little guiding as they had done this route many, many times, which was just as well because hanging on required all my concentration. The path ascended quite quickly and within a few minutes one can see the village laid out beneath. It is truly an amazing way to view this site, looking almost like a plan drawing.

Just to the right looking back one could see the Valley of Queens and even in the distance the mortuary temple of Ramesses III at Medinet Habu. Only 10 minutes and already we had fantastic views. However, the ascent started getting steeper and my saddle more insecure. Whoops I started to slip and gracefully, I like to think, descended to the ground. I told the guide that saddle was wrong and we got it sorted out and were off again.

There were a couple of places where we had to get off and lead the donkeys but we were able to ride most of the way. There were some people doing the same route by foot, which if one is young and active is a great alternative, but I am neither, so I was sticking to my donkey. Well at least I was trying to. It was interesting to think about treading in the footsteps of the tomb builders who traveled the same route so many thousands of years ago. One wondered if those steps cut in the rock were from ancient times. The views were spectacular, the landscape and in the distance a hazy glimpse of cultivation. But it was the sites that I couldn’t get over. We had already seen Medinet Habu, Deir El Medina and the Valley of Queens, and wasn’t that the Ramasseum in the distance. Down below us there was the temple of Hatshepsut and to the side the Valley of the Kings.

Actually at the top one realizes the relationship between the Valley of the Kings and Deir El Bahri much more clearly. It is only a short distance between the two. It made it much easier to understand the relationship between Hatshepsut’s tomb and her temple. The Valley lay beneath our feet and we could see what looked like small ants scurrying around going into tombs, the entrances of which we could see clearly. On the other side we could look straight down on the top terrace of Hatshepsut's temple and the ramps of the lower levels.

At the top my daughter amused herself looking for fossils and we found loads. At this point the donkeys left us as it is very steep. They descended by themselves in no time but we took ages as we walked down by the side of Hatshepsut's temple getting the most fantastic views. Stumbling across rock cut tombs and small burial pits, we found even more fossils and came back with bulging pockets.

I guess one could call this trip the poor man’s balloon ride as the views we got were similar but the price was a lot cheaper. Of course, the tour took a little longer than the balloon rides as well, which themselves take only a little more than an hour.

But we hadn’t finished, we now went back through the villages and roads with the donkeys picking up pace as they sensed their stable lay ahead. Our feeble cries of “hush hush” had no affect and actually we were a lot more confident by this time and rather enjoyed racing along in our donkey derby, though I can't say now who won..

But I know I am going to regret it tomorrow, my poor muscles, yes I shall definitely be walking like an ancient Egyptian.

Feedback about kids tours

Lovely comments about my tours

http://scotsabroad.wordpress.com/2008/03/29/the-original-king-tuts-place/

We also seemed to be very lucky being in the right place at the right time, as we were often alone at major sites, and we met a wonderful family, the Bishops, who were prepared to take the risk and come with us on a tour Shona had cleverly arranged with a rather eccentric (but brilliant) Englishwoman called Jane Akshar living in Luxor.

This is Jane Akshar who offers accommodation, tours and cruises in Luxor. Shona found her website while in Cairo and contacted her before leaving for Luxor. Jane said she would provide a tour that included a serial killer and some dressing up! We encouraged another family staying at our hotel to join us. John and Melanie have three lovely boys who were brilliant with Cairo and Lucas. Thank you Joe, Luke and Daniel Bishop. John seems to be quite famous back home. Click on his name in the Blogroll to find out for yourself (he is touring his comedy show in Scotland next month). Great fella, great family and great company. Cairo made us laugh the day before, having been told about the tour and the content, by asking us if we were finding out about the ‘breakfast killer’ that day. The serial killer turned out to be Ay, who bumped off a few on his way to the throne including, according to Jane, Tut, and we visited his tomb (#23) in a secluded part of the Western Valley. We were the only people inside - we even had to get the key holder to come up and open it for us. Incredible. We visited another couple of tombs (Roy and Shuroy) and the boys got to go into some catacombs carved in the rocks, disturbing bats and getting a glimpse of ancient mummified bodies lying side by side. Then it was on to the Temple of Seti the 1st and a bizarre enactment of something silly. Great fun. I think the school will be using Jane’s services in the future when we send groups down to Luxor. She certainly brought things to life and was full-on for the whole morning.

Kid's Tours

We just had a load of fun with a big kids tour. I had to make up some new roles so we had

Mr and Mrs pharaoh
Hittite Princess
Royal Scribe
Keeper of the Royal Zoo & Leopard
General
300 handmaidens
Priest of Anubis

what I try and do is act out scenes from tombs and temples and if I get enough time with a family we will see everything we have acted out over a few days.

This time it was two families and as you can see even Dads join in and make lovely Royal Handmaiden!


But sometimes the blushing bride or Hittite princess can hide her/his beauty lol however we always seem to have fun

Donkey Rides in Luxor

If you like the idea of a donkey ride in Luxor then you are going to love our special tour. The Donkey Ride Over the Ridge. It is described in full detail with loads of photos here http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/donkeyride.htm A great way of orientating yourself on the West Bank for later independent touring or just for interest. You get to see most of the West Bank from a distance and the views are wonderful. I often call it the poor man's hot air balloon. It takes about 2 1/2 hours and we can arrange it from our flats but also from where ever you might be staying. Very popular with children and families although those under 4 -5 might prefer to share a donkey with an adult. The oldest person we have had take the tour was 83 so no worries there. Our donkey man has been leading this tour for many year and will happily help those less agile.

Quiet Tour

We have been offering the 'Quiet Tour' for some years now and it is consistently popular. The aim is to show you 3 sites where you are the only tourist. Of course this can not be guaranteed but even if there is someone else there there certainly won't be crowds. We generally take you to a royal tomb, nobles tombs and a temple.

There are actually quite a few choices of what site to visit and we generally make the selection after meeting you, finding out what interests you and where you have been before. My favourite combination is the Tomb of Ay in the western Valley of the Valley of Kings. the Nobles tombs of Roy and Shu Roy and the memorial temple the Ramses II, the Ramasseum.

This tour is also very good for kids as they find crowds overwhelm them and they can enjoy what is front of them with no grown ups to block the view.

Kids Tours

I know that most guides tend to talk over the heads of children, especially if they are young but kids can enjoy Ancient Egypt to. I first brought my daughter here when she was 8 and by doing our tours on donkey rather than in a boring old taxi she found it a fun holiday.

I try and make my children's tours fun by dressing up and take advantage of the quietness of the temple of Seti I by acting out Pharaoh at the window of appearances. The guards are very good natured about helping me and joining in and the faces of the local children watching us had to be seen to believe.

Another Typical Desert Tour

This tour is much longer 22 days but goes over the Western Desert, Abu Simbel, Aswan, Luxor, Abydos, Armana, Cairo, Alexandra. It is including all tickets, transport, guides and accommodation in our choice of 3* hotels. All for $2000 USD per person

1 Arrival in Cairo
2 Our driver picks you up in A/C Mini Bus and on route depending on security restrictions you see Crystal mountain, Black Desert, Valley of Golden Mummies then you stay overnight at Bahariya
3 On to Sand Sea, White Desert, Quasar oldest Islamic Town with an overnight stay at Farafra
4 Oldest Christian Cemetery, Temple of Hibis, Museum overnight Kharga
5 Arrive in Aswan see the Philae Sound & Light
6 Next day visit Philae Island, Unfinished obelisk, High Dam, Nubian Museum overnight in Aswan
7 Early start to Abu Simbel then transfer to a Felucca for your sail to Luxor
8 Visit the temple on the Nile at Ko Ombo
9 Next stop Edfu with an overnight at Gebel Silesia
10 Arrive at Esna then transfer to Luxor for the next 7 nights
11 In Luxor walk over the mountain with local guide
12 Visit Valley of Kings, Colossus Memnon, Hatshepsut
13 Valley of Queens. Nobles Tombs Ramose group, Merenptah Temple
14 Workman’s Village, Medinet Habu, Ramasseum
15 Karnak & Luxor Temples
16 Ay, Seti I, Roy and Shu Roy
17 leave Luxor stop at the temple of Seti I at Abydos overnight at El Minya
18 Visit Tel El Amarna, Beni Hassan and arrive in Cairo for until the end of your holiday
19 Sakkara, Memphis
20 Giza & Museum
21 Old and Islamic Cairo
22 Visit Alexandria and see the Roman remains and the famous library

Typical Tour

We recently did this tour for a set of guests and if you are looking for ideas it may help you. Expect to pay $1000 USD per person excluding international airfares. This is for a private guided trip with all tickets, transport, transfers and accommodation. Accommodation in Cairo and Aswan is in 3 star hotels personally chosen by us and in Luxor at one of our flats.

Day 1 Giza Pyramids and Museum Overnight Cairo

Day 2 Sakkara and Memphis and Dashur Overnight Cairo

Day 3 Old and Islamic Cairo, Bazaars Sleeper Train to Luxor

Day 4 Donkey Ride over the Ridge and Karnak Sound and Light Overnight Luxor

Day 5 Karnak and Luxor Temples, Felucca sunset Cruise Overnight Luxor

Day 6 Valley of Kings, Temple of Hatshepsut and Nobles tombs, Camel Ride Overnight Luxor

Day 7 Workman's Village, Medinet Habu and Ramasseum, Overnight Luxor

Day 8 Valley of Queens, Ramose and Merenptah temple Overnight Luxor

Day 9 Road transfer to Aswan: Edfu, Ko Ombo, Philae, Unfinished Obelisk and High Dam Overnight Aswan

Day 10 Abu Simbel, Shopping Sleeper Train to Cairo