Sofitel Winter Palace Luxor — Hotel in Luxor City

Great historic hotel, the former kings palace and one of the best hotels in Luxor.

Visitors who wish to experience a bit of the old time charm of the Egyptian exploration age will feel right at home in this hotel, as some of the grandeur can still be felt. The Hotel is making an effort to maintain an upscale experience by enforcing an upscale dress code in the main building, which is appreciated (no shorts/bathing suits etc.).

Online check-in functionality works great. Reception staff will have everything already preperared. Great improvement over the years. Staff will always great you with a smile and provide some useful tips and suggestions. For first time individual visitors it is highly recommended to ask the reception staff or the conceriege for advice, they will be more than happy to help you. The hotel will also be able to provide unique experiences to guests (for example renting the Luxor temple for a private dinner and provide staff to serve the meal, with the ability to explore the entire temple alone in the evening).

Rooms are well kept and continously maintained. Exceptional cleaning staff. Incredibly friendly and always paying attention to small details to make the stay more enjoyable or little gestures to put a smile on your face. The hotel provides 2 cleanings a day. 1 full cleaning in the morning, while guests are at breakfast or out exploring and one additional one in the evening with a cleaning, towel swap and turn down service.

Breakfast is a good mix of continental breakfast, local food items and fruit. Eggs will be prepared to your liking by a chef on site. In true Egyptian spirit the staff is incredible. They genuinely enjoy interacting and serving the guests to ensure they have a wonderful start in the day. They certainly will do anything to make you happy going so far as to make you slightly uncomfortable by how quick and willing to help they are.

The outside Terrace in front of the hotel, which is on the first floor, provides an excellent view of the Nile and the Westbank, which is certainly worth a stop, best time to go is during the sunset (around 6 pm) and fully immerse yourself in the experience.

The hotel has a meticulously maintained garden, which is an Oasis of tranquility, Possibly the quietest place on the east Bank while still extremely central (Street noise is completely blocked out and the main noise is coming from birds who inhabitate the garden). Right next to Luxor temple and only a short walk to the ferry which saves about an hour of traveling time (extra 30 minutes each way and it is quite nice to cross the Nile on the boat) to get to the sites on the Westbank by avoiding having to go over the bridge outside of town.

Calm pool area in the middle of the garden with plenty of sunchairs to relax. Pool bar provides great service and good food at reasonable prices for a 5* hotel (excluding alcohol which is Generally overpriced in all hotels in the city, best to shop duty free or in a licensed store in town, which will sell it for 10-20% of the hotel prices). Both the poolbar staff and the pool attendants will go the extra mile to accommodate guests without having expectations to be compensated for it (while of course still appreciated).

The hotel provides great massages at reasonable prices. Which is a bit of a hidden gem as this is not actively advertised in the hotel so unless you call up or spend time at the pool where you will be informed about the services you are likely to miss this.

Sadly massages are pretty much the full extend of spa services offered. The hotel should consider redesigning the spa services and area as it is hidden in the basement of the main building and add a few more treatment options. I'm certain guests would appreciate facial treatments or hot sand therapies etc.,in a nicer environment. Overall the spa seems to be a bit of a stepchild of the hotel. Increasing the lighting in the hallway and adding a few more services would significantly improve...

This is the best hotel I stayed in during my 2 week trip to Egypt, perfect service, delicious food and elegant decoration. The Winter Palace is located on the east bank of the Nile River, about 10 minutes' drive from Luxor Airport, and overlooks the Nile River from the balcony. What needs to be mentioned is that since the entire hotel is surrounded by vigorous plants, the Nile River view room I stayed in on the first night was blocked by a palm tree from the view of the balcony. After negotiating with the reception, the hotel immediately helped me change a room with better view. The location of the Winter Palace is very close to the Luxor Temple and the Karnak Temple, which can be reached in less than 10 minutes on foot. If you want to visit the Valley of the Kings, it only takes about 25 minutes to drive directly from the hotel. If you take a ferry to the opposite bank and start from there, you can save most of the time. There are two restaurants in the winter palace, which provide Italian food and French food respectively. If you want to eat in one of them, you need to make a reservation at reception. They offer a decidedly formal service, the food is refined and tasty, and the waiters are polite and very friendly. And, although both restaurants have a dress code, I was provided with a suit jacket when informed that I wasn't bringing formal attire. The hotel itself provides a variety of services including currency exchange, laundry, etc., which are efficient and fair. Special reminder to guests is that all the hotel staff are very friendly and will not ask you for any tips, but when you walk out of the hotel, don't trust anyone who claims to be an internal employee of the hotel, they usually just fancy you wallet. Likewise, don't trust any taxi drivers near the hotel, they have absolutely nothing to do with the hotel and will usually quote you more than 10 times the price on careem. In addition, the winter palace has a royal garden, planting precious plants from all over the world, some of which have grown for more than a hundred years. You can even see peacocks and flamingos raised by the hotel on this lawn. Continuing to walk in, there are open-air restaurants and two clean swimming pools.Overall, even in all my travels, staying at the Winter palace was a memorable experience, I think if you can choose this hotel, don't hesitate, there is no better choice in Luxor. Every detail of it is not inferior to any other Sofitel hotel in the world. Here I would like to express my sincere thanks to all the staff of the...

I stayed for 1 night in luxor on a Tuesday and was scheduled to leave Wednesday night on a train to Cairo. Tuesday night was quiet and uneventful. Wednesday morning, I head out to a tour on the east and west bank. At 2pm, my tour guide is called by the hotel telling me to vacate the room because I am past checkout time and they need the room. I am on a tour on the west bank that I have to cut short because this hotel gave me no warning about the checkout time. No reminder such as 'bring your bags with you before you leave'. My tour was cut short and I returned to the hotel as fast as I could, but that was not good enough. The hotel staff kept calling my guide several times to offer to 'empty' the room for me. I don't want any staff member of any hotel packing my things because they are desperate to get me out. If they were so desperate for the room, they should make it clear instead of harassing my guide. They claimed they needed the room but also said I could keep my stuff in the room if I pay for another day. If you absolutely need the room why would they make that offer if another guest is waiting for a room. After I collect my things I sit in the lobby waiting for my pre-arranged taxi pickup to the train station in a few hours. Sitting quietly in the lobby for an hour, I am suddenly offered a courtesy room to "shower" as I was told. There is 1 difference between a courtesy room and regular room, the balcony. Everything about the room is the same, sleeping space is the same size and bathroom has the same setup. If the hotel has 'courtesy' rooms available, why not offer one from the start. Why let me sit in the lobby for an hour? Why not tell me in the morning as I left? Why not say when I checked in that the check out time is 12pm and strict? Just say it instead of keeping silent and then interrupting my tour and bothering my guide. My guide is not involved in the hotel so she should not have been bothered. Regardless of how busy and popular the hotel is, do not harass my tour guide. She should not get multiple phone calls and I should not have to cut my tour short. I paid for my trip to Egypt. This hotel will never see me as a guest and I will never recommend anyone stay at Winter Palace. There are plenty of choices on the Nile River but I fell for the 'best hotel in luxor' which...