Luxor, once known as the ancient city of Thebes, was the captial of Egypt from 1570 BCE to 1069 BCE. Like most of Egypt, The Nile flows right through Luxor, dividing it into the East Bank and The West Bank. The East Bank is where you’ll find mots of the large hotels, shops, residential areas and two of the most important sights of Ancient Egypt; Karnak Temple and Luxor Temple.

We arrived in Luxor in the afternoon, after our driver from Memphis Tours transported us by Mini Van from Hurghada. The Drive took around 3 hours and we drove though some very barren, desert landscapes.

Unfortunately, Hallie and Rooney came down with feverish, flu like symptons on this day, so by the time we reached the hotel in Luxor, The Sonesta St George, they were in no state to head out sightseeing. Braino stayed at the accommodation while they slept and Farley and I headout with our guide LT to visit Karnak Temple and Luxor Temple. As sad as it was that two of the three girls were sick, it was still a lovely afternoon, spending some one on one time with Farley.

Karnak Temple

Dating from around 2055 BC to around 100 AD, the Karnak Temple Complex is a collection of temples, chapels, pylons, and other structures, making it one of the largest religious complexes ever built.

Inside the Karnak Temple Complex, the Precinct of Amun-Ra, is the only part that most visitors get to see. The other three parts, the Precinct of Mut, the Precinct of Montu, and the dismantled Temple of Amenhotep IV, are not open to the public.

The most impressive area is the The Great Hypostyle Hall, where the awe-inspiring towering columns soar towards the heavens. The other iconic sights to look out for are the Obelisk of Thutmose I and Queen Hatshepsut along with many huge statues of Ramses II.

Our guide, LT was a qualified Archeologist and Egyptologist and had so much knowledge to share. He also specialised in spiritual tours and had worked on film shoots as a historical consultant including The Scorpion King with Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson. He was such an interesting character and was very proactive at offering to take our photo, which is always lovely. I actually didn’t get any photos with him.

Obelisks of Thutmose I & Queen Hatshepsut.

Luxor Temple

After Karnak Temple, we headed to Luxor Temple, which is only a short 2km drive away. There is an Avenue of Sphinx Statues that once linked Karnak Temple and Luxor Temple.

Farley, LT and I arrived as the sun was setting but were surprised to find the crowded were still quite thick. LT mentioned that these crowds were nothing compared to amount of people who visit between Christmas and New Years. Visitors would have to line up for hours just to enter the temples. No Thanks! I’m glad we had missed those sort of crowds by a couple of days

Luxor Temple resembles a smaller version of Karnak Temple and was built by Amenhotep III (1390-52 BC) but completed by Tutankhamun (1336-27 BC) and Horemheb (1323-1295 BC) and then added to by Rameses II (1279-13 BC). The Temple interestingly has evidence of Christian worship and remains of a Coptic church. There is also a Mosque that was built on top of the Temple while it was still buried under the sand. It has been preserved and still stands to this day.

The front of Luxor Temple is guarded by 6 statues of Rameses II - two seated and four standing. Originally two 85m tall obelisk stood on either side of the entrance but one only remains today, the other can now be seen at the Place De La Concorde in Paris.

If I could choose a super power, I would want to be able to go back in time to see ancient sites in all their splendour . Or to the late 1800s, when these temples were half buried in the sands of time, before any one saw the value in excavating the ruins of the past. Karnak Temple and Luxor Temple are magnificant in their current states, it’s hard to imagine what they would have looked like over 3000 years agao. Even with the crowded they still have an ethereal, otherworldly vibe, that makes you marvel at history and the evolution of civilisations. I felt very proud to be able to return to Egyot and share the experience of visiting these temples with Farley, 18 years after visiting them for the first time.

Straight after our time in Norway, we flew via London to Hurghada, Egypt where we spent two weeks exploring the main sights of Egypt, arriving on January 2nd.

Before we left Australia in May 2024, we had all our accommodations and flights booked until the new year, which was everything up to Norway. It was in August that we decided we’d head to Egypt after our time in Norway based on a few reasons:

I had been to Egypt in 2007, when I was I 21, and had the most amazing time. I’ve always dreams of going back and loved the idea of showing my family the magic of Ancient Egypt.

As Australian, we were able to stay for 90 days out of a 180 period in Europe, based on the Shengen Zone tourist restrictions. So after Norway, our 90 days were up and we were not able to visit any more European countries so we had to make a decision to head beyond Europe at this point. (Although Ireland is apart of the European Union, it is seperate to the Shengen Zone, which is why we were able to stay for 90 days Ireland first. )

We were able to find some cheap direct flights to Hurghada from London with Easyjet so while we were still in that part of the world, it seemed the like most opportune time to include a visit to Egypt.

Also, as we had spent so long in the colder climates, we were keen to change it up a bit and get some sun. January is in fact Egypt’s winter as well but the temperatures were quite pleasant - around 23 degrees celsius.

Our itinerary

4 x Nights in Hurghada

Hurghada is a coastal resort town along the Red Sea. It’s a hot spot for snorkelling and scuba diving and has an endless choice of all-inclusive resorts. Amarina Abu Soma Resort and Waterpark was a smaller resort but it had great pool area and a private beach too.

3 x Nights in Luxor

From Hurghada we visited Luxor and Cairo as a part of a private guided trip through Memphis Tours. This ment that we had private drivers and mini vans to get around in, private guides at all the sights and 5 star hotel accommodation and flights between Luxor and Cairo and also between Cairo and Luxor.

Unfortunately, we all came down with a nasty fever / cough. Braino first showed signs of it on the last day in Hurghada and then poor Hallie and Rooney came down with it on the day we travelled from Hurghada to Luxor, which also happened to be Hallie’s Birthday. (Thankfully we had a bit of a celebration for her the day before, knowing that her birthday fell on a travel day)

Then Farley and I felt sick that night. We all spent the following day in beach and missed out on a whole day of sightseeing. We even arranged for a doctor to come out at night as Hallie’s fever was still pretty intense, she had a bit of a delirious spell. He prescribed some antibiotic for us and we were able to make the most of the following day.

What we did in Luxor included:

Karnak Temple and Luxor Temple on Luxor’s East Bank (This was just Farley and Me on the afternoon that we arrived. Braino stayed in with Hallie and Rooney who were feeling sick)

The Valley of The Kings ,West Bank of Luxor where we entered three of tombs - Rameses III, Ramses IX & Ramses IV,

The Mortuary Temple of Queen Hatshepsut, West Bank of Luxor
The Colossi of Memnon, West Bank of Luxor
Boat ride on the Nile to Banana Island, a Banana Plantation along the Nile.

We stayed at the Sonesta St George Hotel in Luxor which had a beautiful view out over The Nile.

3 x Nights in Cairo

During the two full days we had in Cairo our Itinerary included:

The Giza Plateau where were visited the Pyramids of Giza and The Sphinx
The Step Pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara.
The Egyptian Museum in downtown Cairo
The newly built Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza.

In Cairo we stayed at the Steigenberger Pyramids Cairo, where we had an incredible view of the pyramids from our rooms.

4 x Nights in Hurghada

After our time in Cairo, the tour with Memphis Tours officially ended upon our arrival back in Hurghada. We stayed for another 4 nights at Pickalbatros Jungle Aqua park Neverland Resort, which was another huge all - inclusive resort with multiple water slides and pools. It was also where we celebrated Farley’s birthday.

We thought the kids would love all the waterslides but to be honest, our energy levels were still low post sickness and the water in the pools was still quite cold. Some were heated but it was hard to get a lounge chair around these popular pools.

To top of it off, Braino, Hallie and I all caught a case of Gastro towards the end of our stay. Unfortunately for me and Hallie it was the day that we caught the flight back to London so that travel day was extra challenging.

Overall, Egypt is an incredible, eye opening place to visit and we will always look back on our time there with a sense of wonder. But it was unfortunately affected by the bout of sickness that we all experienced. Thankfully it didn’t have us out of action for too long but it did affect our energy levels and the general morale of everyone during our excursions

We also realised that all inclusive hotels probably aren’t our thing. Even though they seem like good value for money, there isn’t a lot to do unless you want to literally swim and sit by the pool all day. At both hotels we were all in the one hotel room so it was quite a small space to hang out in. The food was all buffets, and while the variety and quality wasn’t too bad it got a bit monotonous going to the same dining room three times a day.

Also, we were there during the time of year when the weather was slightly too cool for swimming. Perfectly fine for Europeans escaping the freezing winters but for us, the weather was similar to a Brisbane winter. Perfect temps for the days of sightseeing in the sun but not so much for swimming and lounging by the pool.

I’ll share some more posts on the specific places we visited in Cairo & Luxor in upcoming blog posts.

East Bank of Luxor - Karnak Temple & Luxor Temple

Egypt - Two Week Family Holiday in to the Land of The Pharaohs

Our itinerary