I have finally found a way to bring reviews and comments about Mara House and our Salahadeen Restaurant together within my own website. Sadly, I have been unable to find many about the Salahadeen because it has been open only to Mara House guests for some years now and Tripadvisor has deleted the reviews. The reviews here are gathered from sources such as Tripadvisor, Google Maps, guest blogs, letters from guests etc etc. I hope they give you a feeling for what Mara House and ourselves are all about. Enjoy – Mara
NOTE 8 Oct 2023. – you will find the latest guest comments for now at the end of the Mara House Page here
459 entries.
The highlight of our Egyptian trip!
My family and I loved staying at Mara House. Amr is a fantastic chef and manager who looked after us very well and we enjoyed his cooking. It was a wonderful Egyptian holiday for us, and we highly recommend staying at Mara house. The house is beautifully decorated and the dining room is especially gorgeous!
Posted on TripAdvisor
My family and I loved staying at Mara House. Amr is a fantastic chef and manager who looked after us very well and we enjoyed his cooking. It was a wonderful Egyptian holiday for us, and we highly recommend staying at Mara house. The house is beautifully decorated and the dining room is especially gorgeous!
Posted on TripAdvisor
Homely feel and warmly remembered
Fantastic stay with Mara house and cannot recommend enough. Mara and co were very helpful from the beginning of booking accommodation and recommending transport/logistics/sight visits, and throughout the stay
Amr (manager) was very welcoming and helpful, a good friend to be missed. Also, an incredible cook! I was well fed each evening with properly home made food.
Rooms are well kept and nicely decorated, and a comfortable sleep. Feels less like a hotel, and more like a home.
If you book your tours through Mara, the guides are very knowledgeable and patient, I spent three days with them visiting Karnak and Luxor, Abydos and Dendera (my favourite), and West Bank tour.
On return to Luxor, I will be sure to revisit Mara House. Hopefully, it will be soon!
Posted on TripAdvisor
Fantastic stay with Mara house and cannot recommend enough. Mara and co were very helpful from the beginning of booking accommodation and recommending transport/logistics/sight visits, and throughout the stay
Amr (manager) was very welcoming and helpful, a good friend to be missed. Also, an incredible cook! I was well fed each evening with properly home made food.
Rooms are well kept and nicely decorated, and a comfortable sleep. Feels less like a hotel, and more like a home.
If you book your tours through Mara, the guides are very knowledgeable and patient, I spent three days with them visiting Karnak and Luxor, Abydos and Dendera (my favourite), and West Bank tour.
On return to Luxor, I will be sure to revisit Mara House. Hopefully, it will be soon!
Posted on TripAdvisor
What a great find!!!! Hospitality, hsopitality and a little bit more!
What a superb find in Luxor for a family (2 adults and 2 teenagers) to explore the local sights. As soon as we arrived, we met the incredibly hospitable Amr and He provided tea on arrival. The apartment was incredibly clean and well presented, and unique with a more traditional feel.
The beds were extremely comfortable (which is major plus for us!), and the linens were soft and plentiful.
Breakfast was amazing, with a wide variety of local cuisine. A short walk into the main tourist areas through local streets all added up to an amazing experience.
If we were to visit Luxor again in the future, we would definitely choose Mara House.
Posted on TripAdvisor
What a superb find in Luxor for a family (2 adults and 2 teenagers) to explore the local sights. As soon as we arrived, we met the incredibly hospitable Amr and He provided tea on arrival. The apartment was incredibly clean and well presented, and unique with a more traditional feel.
The beds were extremely comfortable (which is major plus for us!), and the linens were soft and plentiful.
Breakfast was amazing, with a wide variety of local cuisine. A short walk into the main tourist areas through local streets all added up to an amazing experience.
If we were to visit Luxor again in the future, we would definitely choose Mara House.
Posted on TripAdvisor
Amazing secret hideaway in Luxor
An absolute charmer of a guest house in central Luxor, Maras presents a level of sophistication and style that’s usually well above my pay grade. Our suite (yes, suite – not just a room but an apartment) is a wall to wall mini museum of tapestry, carpets, classic furniture and local art, tastefully pulled together in a manner that makes you feel like a very honoured guest.
And that feeling continues when you engage with Mara, Amr and the team – the most genuinely helpful and supportive people I have met on any holiday, and always willing to go the extra mile for your happiness.
If you are reading this while planning a holiday – book it now. Suite 4 is a charmer, say yes when Mar offers you tea (the handmade biscuits were astounding), sign up for the feast and visit Abyssinian and Dendara too!
Travelled with family in Feb 2024. Reviewed on TripAdvisor and Google Maps
An absolute charmer of a guest house in central Luxor, Maras presents a level of sophistication and style that’s usually well above my pay grade. Our suite (yes, suite – not just a room but an apartment) is a wall to wall mini museum of tapestry, carpets, classic furniture and local art, tastefully pulled together in a manner that makes you feel like a very honoured guest.
And that feeling continues when you engage with Mara, Amr and the team – the most genuinely helpful and supportive people I have met on any holiday, and always willing to go the extra mile for your happiness.
If you are reading this while planning a holiday – book it now. Suite 4 is a charmer, say yes when Mar offers you tea (the handmade biscuits were astounding), sign up for the feast and visit Abyssinian and Dendara too!
Travelled with family in Feb 2024. Reviewed on TripAdvisor and Google Maps
Thanks for an amazing stay!
Wow! An oasis! A charming little hotel more like a bend and breakfast. Spacious and comfortable rooms like a step back in time. Amr and Aylie take great care of you tending to your every need. The Salahadeen feast has to be experienced. So delicious! Mo is an amazing tour guide. Very knowledgeable, keeps you away from the crowds. Mara has great recommendations for tours. Highly recommend!!
Travelled as family in Nov 2023. Reviewed on Tripadvisor
Wow! An oasis! A charming little hotel more like a bend and breakfast. Spacious and comfortable rooms like a step back in time. Amr and Aylie take great care of you tending to your every need. The Salahadeen feast has to be experienced. So delicious! Mo is an amazing tour guide. Very knowledgeable, keeps you away from the crowds. Mara has great recommendations for tours. Highly recommend!!
Travelled as family in Nov 2023. Reviewed on Tripadvisor
10 out of 10
by Bhaskar on
Hotels.com
Authentic Egyptian Hospitality
Posted Jul 15, 2023
Lovely residence. Feel like your stepping back in time. A more authentic way to experience Egypt. Rooms are far more exotic than your typical hotel room. We really enjoyed staying in a real Egypt neighborhood, served a delicious breakfast and feeling the warm hospitality of our hosts. They were great in organizing some special road excursions for us that we requested to ancient sites a little further away. Highly recommend 🙂👌
by Bhaskar on
Hotels.com
Authentic Egyptian Hospitality
Posted Jul 15, 2023
Lovely residence. Feel like your stepping back in time. A more authentic way to experience Egypt. Rooms are far more exotic than your typical hotel room. We really enjoyed staying in a real Egypt neighborhood, served a delicious breakfast and feeling the warm hospitality of our hosts. They were great in organizing some special road excursions for us that we requested to ancient sites a little further away. Highly recommend 🙂👌
5 out of 5
by Mona on
Expedia
Posted Jun 4, 2023
Wonderful stay for one night. Super helpful and responsive hosts even though the main person was injured. We managed with what’s app and the young guy who was there was really attentive despite the language barrier. Nothing was too much trouble. He kindly ordered a taxi for us and later re-sent it to pick us up. Breakfast was great too. Mara was very helpful even before we arrived with lots of tips. Highly recommended.
by Mona on
Expedia
Posted Jun 4, 2023
Wonderful stay for one night. Super helpful and responsive hosts even though the main person was injured. We managed with what’s app and the young guy who was there was really attentive despite the language barrier. Nothing was too much trouble. He kindly ordered a taxi for us and later re-sent it to pick us up. Breakfast was great too. Mara was very helpful even before we arrived with lots of tips. Highly recommended.
A lovely place to stay for me and my family
This was a lovely place to stay. My husband and I took our 3 young sons to Egypt and we spent 3 days in Luxor, staying at Mara House.
We were very well catered for, the breakfasts and the evening meals were delicious, the apartment was beautifully presented and well-equipped nd very comfortable. We had a peaceful and enjoyable stay.
We took a tour to Dendara and Abydos on one day (absolutely gorgeous) , and the Valley of the Kings on another which was everything you would hope for it to be; these were organised by Mara and were excellent.
I really do recommend this hotel for travellers with families, we felt well looked after and were sad to leave.
Travelled as family in April 2023. Reviewed on TripAdvisor
This was a lovely place to stay. My husband and I took our 3 young sons to Egypt and we spent 3 days in Luxor, staying at Mara House.
We were very well catered for, the breakfasts and the evening meals were delicious, the apartment was beautifully presented and well-equipped nd very comfortable. We had a peaceful and enjoyable stay.
We took a tour to Dendara and Abydos on one day (absolutely gorgeous) , and the Valley of the Kings on another which was everything you would hope for it to be; these were organised by Mara and were excellent.
I really do recommend this hotel for travellers with families, we felt well looked after and were sad to leave.
Travelled as family in April 2023. Reviewed on TripAdvisor
Fantastic Guest House
My wife and I, both in our 70's, stayed here for 5 days in Luxor with tour arrangements handled by Mara and her team for Aswan and Cairo. I was surprised by some recent negative reviews but understand that some people might have unrealistic expectations of a guest house in the third world. We feel the tradeoffs in exchange for the benefits surpassed our expectation, even without considering the low price for our stay. We have travelled extensively in Asia over the years and plan our trips far in advance in order to achieve the best possible experience. Mara was willing to put up with my frequent emails full of questions.
The suite was huge with a separate sitting room and bedroom, both full of antiques. Our wifi worked perfectly. We had a frig in the room. The bathroom is typical for a guest house and is as described on the web site. We had plenty of hot water and the shower drained onto the perfectly sloped floor and was dry and clean within 3-5 minutes. We always bring our own soap, shampoo, and tissues on trips which we have found needed at guest houses even in Europe.
Food was excellent. Breakfasts were enough for two meals. We expressed interest in local foods so Amr prepared different foul and soft Egyptian cheeses for us daily. Each day we had a sampling of local pastries, fresh bread and in season fruits. A vegetarian feast was served at our request one evening, and we had the best koshary of our trip one day for lunch. Most of our dinners were taken in local restaurants. Transportation was arranged for us which came on time and was always ready for us when we were ready to depart. Amr even accompanied us shopping, to places we chose, without being dragged to the large group tour stores with their inflated prices and commissions as is typical of Egypt. He also went with us on a caleche tour as well as a felucca trip to make sure everything went smoothly.
We felt that we had been welcomed into a private home, with children interacting with us and avoided the sterile atmosphere of a hotel.
We chose Mara specifically because we felt that her relationships with local guides and transport would be vastly superior to random guides arranged by a large hotel. We were not disappointed. We spent two days on the west bank, one on the east, and another on a trip to Abydos and Dendera, all accompanied by her inhouse guide Mo.
Mo accompanied us to Aswan stopping at Esna, Edfu and Kom Ombo on the way. We spent three additional days with him in Aswan. He even called us twice to check on us after we got to Cairo.
Tours in Cairo were arranged through Mara as well. She even set up an expeditor to get us through the airport in Cairo on arrival and departure smoothly, much faster than we could have managed on our own-also typical of third world travel.
I think that those with negative reviews might have had unrealistic expectations. We felt that we had a great experience at a low price.
Travelled as couple in May 2023. Reviewed on TripAdvisor
My wife and I, both in our 70's, stayed here for 5 days in Luxor with tour arrangements handled by Mara and her team for Aswan and Cairo. I was surprised by some recent negative reviews but understand that some people might have unrealistic expectations of a guest house in the third world. We feel the tradeoffs in exchange for the benefits surpassed our expectation, even without considering the low price for our stay. We have travelled extensively in Asia over the years and plan our trips far in advance in order to achieve the best possible experience. Mara was willing to put up with my frequent emails full of questions.
The suite was huge with a separate sitting room and bedroom, both full of antiques. Our wifi worked perfectly. We had a frig in the room. The bathroom is typical for a guest house and is as described on the web site. We had plenty of hot water and the shower drained onto the perfectly sloped floor and was dry and clean within 3-5 minutes. We always bring our own soap, shampoo, and tissues on trips which we have found needed at guest houses even in Europe.
Food was excellent. Breakfasts were enough for two meals. We expressed interest in local foods so Amr prepared different foul and soft Egyptian cheeses for us daily. Each day we had a sampling of local pastries, fresh bread and in season fruits. A vegetarian feast was served at our request one evening, and we had the best koshary of our trip one day for lunch. Most of our dinners were taken in local restaurants. Transportation was arranged for us which came on time and was always ready for us when we were ready to depart. Amr even accompanied us shopping, to places we chose, without being dragged to the large group tour stores with their inflated prices and commissions as is typical of Egypt. He also went with us on a caleche tour as well as a felucca trip to make sure everything went smoothly.
We felt that we had been welcomed into a private home, with children interacting with us and avoided the sterile atmosphere of a hotel.
We chose Mara specifically because we felt that her relationships with local guides and transport would be vastly superior to random guides arranged by a large hotel. We were not disappointed. We spent two days on the west bank, one on the east, and another on a trip to Abydos and Dendera, all accompanied by her inhouse guide Mo.
Mo accompanied us to Aswan stopping at Esna, Edfu and Kom Ombo on the way. We spent three additional days with him in Aswan. He even called us twice to check on us after we got to Cairo.
Tours in Cairo were arranged through Mara as well. She even set up an expeditor to get us through the airport in Cairo on arrival and departure smoothly, much faster than we could have managed on our own-also typical of third world travel.
I think that those with negative reviews might have had unrealistic expectations. We felt that we had a great experience at a low price.
Travelled as couple in May 2023. Reviewed on TripAdvisor
We only stayed 1 night, they welcomed us fantastically having arrived at 7 in the morning, we rested a bit from the trip and they prepared a typical breakfast for us there. Then we went to see the Valley of the Kings, the Temple of Karnak and that of Luxor and Amr provided us with a taxi that was with us all day, also very kind M'Hammad we laughed a lot with him, and at the end of the day, they prepared an exquisite dinner for us. Very kind and friendly people, of course if I return to Egypt and stop in Luxor they will be my number 1 option.