A Room With A View And History…Winter Palace

The front of the majestic hotel.

Looking down the main staircase leading to the lobby.

I love old hotels, not dumpy ones, but the charming, luxurious, oozing with history kind.  Whenever I can, I try to peek inside one of these hotels or if I am lucky, stay!

The hotel with the most in Luxor is the Winter Palace on the banks of the Nile.  Managed by the Sofitel group, the Winter Palace is gracious and beautifully restored set amidst a lush garden and one gargantuan pool. 

We arrived very late in the evening from Soma Bay and were ushered into the grand lobby.  While we were waiting for our room, we were offered glasses of karkade juice – yum!  We were helped by a man who looked like a wizened magician, evidently in absolute control behind the reception desk.  No wonder, he has been a fixture at the hotel for 40 years or so!! 

The view out our window - Nile Terrace hotel bar in the foreground and the Nile.

Gathering the kids, we walked up a grand staircase to our room facing the Nile.  The room was small but the windows opened onto a full view of the Nile.  Grand!!  Absolutely grand!  When we woke up one morning and opened the windows, we were astounded to see large colorful balloons across the Nile, taking off in the early morning mist and quiet, the noise of traffic from the corniche below, not yet making a meaningful impact.  Absolutely magical!

Our stay came with breakfast at the hotel.  The breakfast, while served in a very nice room, was not that great.  Oh well.

Other than that, we really enjoyed our stay at the Winter Palace.   Our girls loved the pool and so did we.  Coming back hot and dusty after seeing the temples, the pool was a godsend.  The girls made quite a few friends at the pool.  What an oasis in the middle of Luxor.

The backside view of Winter Palace from its garden.

Winter Palace offered massages.  I was hesitant about getting a massage but the young woman who came around the pool offering massage seemed so nice that I gave in.  It wasn’t great and it wasn’t even relaxing, since she was very talkative and wanted to know about my husband, whether he was Muslim or not etc …but it was an interesting experience.

For dinners we decided to eat at the hotel and not venture out into town.  The hotel served an outdoor buffet with entertainment which changed nightly.  One night the dervishes whirled away, another night belly dancers etc.  And the food was excellent!  It was the best food we had on that trip to Egypt.  I highly recommend staying at the Winter Palace.  Make sure you book a room in the ‘old’ Winter Palace and not in the new wing, connected to the original building. 

Another place recommended to us by my husband’s relatives was the Jolie Ville Movenpick King Island resort.  I looked at the website and at that time, 2007, the rooms looked shabby to me.  It seemed like it would be a lot of fun for the kids but we chose history and location over a ‘resort’ setting.