Guest Book

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