Crossing the Nile
There are two ways you can cross the Nile from the hotel. The Tourist ferry, about 200mtr from the hotel, costs 1LE per passenger, and runs 24 hours a day. After about 10pm the service becomes quite irregular and you may have to wait quite a while for the ferry to start its journey. The alternative way is to cross by motorboat. This costs 5LE and you hire the boat, so you can have several passengers. In many ways it is more convenient than the ferry, as you set off immediately, and is much faster. We have our own motorboats for your convenience.
Local Shops
Close to the hotel are several mini-markets selling a reasonable range of products - water, cans & bottles of Cola, Sprite, Fanta etc, cigarettes and snack items. Close to the ferry is a fairly large supermarket with a much wider range of goods. In the village of Gezira (about 5 minutes walk) you can find pharmacies, greengrocers, bakeries, coffee and juice shops and hairdressers. For tourist souvenirs, books and other items it is perhaps better to wander around the shopping streets of Luxor.
Phones
Many visitors bring their mobile phones with them, and are then horrified by the roaming charges applied by their service providers. This can be avoided by buying a Holiday SIM Card from either Vodafone or Mobinil (Main stores in Television Street, Luxor) at a cost of 25LE. These can be recharged by buying pay-as-you-go cards from most supermarkets in the area. If your phone is locked by your service provider, you can unlock it at various places - we can certainly help you to do this.
Changing your money
Unfortunately we do not have any banks here on the West Bank. To change your holiday money or Traveler's Cheques, you will have to cross the river and go to any of the major banks on the East Bank Corniche near the Winter Palace. ATMs are plentiful in Luxor if you prefer to use them.