Nile Castle

Terrible place to stay. Do yourself a favor. Don’t stay here. Otherwise, I am sure you’ll regret it. It’s an unclean place. They don’t care about tourists but just want to rip off everyone. The breakfast is a joke. In general, the restaurant in the hotel is terrible and unclean. You’ll get sick if you eat there.

The hotel is about 40 minutes away via Careem Taxi App.. We were a bit worried when the driver took us through a very rural setting that it might be isolated, but it’s actually in the nicer part of Luxor and 10 minutes walk from the 10 pound Ferry. Mohammed the owner is young guy running a hotel and seemed impressive witih his grasp of Italian and English. What struck me was the view from the hotel of the Nile, absolutely stunning. Mohammed asked us if we wanted tours but wasn’t pushy. This is nice because during the trip the guides sometimes went overboard trying to sell tours to you, Mahmoud has respect and patience. The access is easy, no elevator and we were in the 2nd house, small bit of a wait to get a welcome coffee which was nice. The room was fine and clean. Bathroom had no toilet paper and hot water was off when we arrived, so we’d to ask for a hair dryer, paper and towels but the other hotels always seem to have these upon request only too. The wifi was a bit better than our Cairo hotel, sometimes a but weak, a. The WE mobile network from the sims we bought in airport was marginally better. No bugs, insects, flies so very relaxing and since we stayed in November, didn’t need to test air con. Mahmoud checked if we wanted tours when we did see him, but he wasn’t intrusive. Only issue to get the hairdryer took multiple calls, we eventually got it sorted. We’d read and heard from others that there was an issue with power cuts, but never when we were there, maybe we were lucky. We’d to get a ferry every morning to get to the Karnak and Luxor temples, but it’s the quieter side of the river and I think better to avoid the fumes and noise if you need a rest after a long days sightseeing. Breakfast in morning was fine, eggs, bread and falafel. Nothing dissimilar from the rest of the hotels. Staff were the quickest in Egypt to get the breakfast, and when it came it was very good. We didn’t have dinner there considering there were multiple bars outside (one even had *gasp* Stella beer which was about 60 a bottle, the best value we found even against the local market across the river). Finally on check out the cleaner guy was helpful, didn’t need to check the room and didn’t keep us waiting. Overall, I’m quiet happy we stayed here and would give 4/5, as it was good value for money. You’re not paying for the Ritz Carlton here, Mohammed seems to be an honest guy doing an honest days work and that made our trip better. I think the improvement Mohammend is to have the towels, toilet paper and hair dryer already in the room means less hassle. Also, some recommendations in advance about the price of the ferry, airport taxi, train station ticket is good, do not try to sell these yourself.

It's a lovely cosy house overlooking the Nile that has been converted into a guest house and we loved staying here. Mohammad (or MoMo as everyone call him), who runs the place, is an extremely affable chap and he also organized the car and guide for our sightseeing in Luxor, not to mention the Felucca cruise. We were upgraded to one of the premium rooms on the first floor overlooking the Nile and the view of the sunrise from our room was amazing. The guest house also has a restaurant on the terrace and sitting there in the evening while watching the boats go by on the river below is a very pleasant experience. On the whole, we had a great time here and loved staying here. I would have given 5 stars to the property, but there are a couple of things that detracted from our overall experience and though MoMo made every effort to address our concerns, I think more long term measures are required - the first being that maintenance needs to improve. The hand shower pipe in our WC was leaking and spraying water from the pipe and not just the nozzle. Neither of the bedside lamps were working either. The second grouse is on training and communication pertaining to the service staff in the restaurant - we had an early departure on one of the days and literally had to wake up the folks in the kitchen at 7 am to get breakfast, whereas breakfast is supposed to be available at 7 am as per the information provided at the time of checking in. The service staff also made us have dinner in the middle of a power cut the first night, despite knowing that the power would come within an hour (power cuts in Luxor are predictable and planned) and they could have waited till the power came back, instead of insisting that we have dinner in the dark. We had to have our food by the light of a mobile phone as they couldn't or wouldn't arrange for candles (MoMo later said that they did have candles and he couldn't explain why the staff never brought them out) and it was not a pleasant experience. The service staff also kept asking us to pay for the bottled water immediately though we were guests at the property and not walk-ins for dinner. However, most of the issues were on day 1 - service improved dramatically after we complained to MoMo and our subsequent stay was great. However, there is definitely scope for improving the communication between the managerial and service staff and training the staff in the restaurant to be professional and welcoming, so that the experience for a guest remains consistently good. Having said that, these incidents were minor irritants in an otherwise great stay and I would gladly stay here again.

Amazing place staff very kind and helpful. Momo, Muhammad, and Mustafa are the guys! Always work on your pleasure and make you feel like family. The hotel is across the river 5 minuts from the luxor temple and the city centre. They have programs as visiting the banana island 🏝 by boat, swimming in the nilo river (do not swim :) ), and a dinner in the boat with an amazing sunset.