Luxor: Hilton Luxor (February 2010)

This was my favorite hotel of my trip to Egypt and Jordan. I could have stayed here for a week without any problem. The public areas are gorgeous, including the lobby, pool, and restaurants. There are a few small shops off the lobby, including a bank and an ATM machine (I don’t think that ATM took American cards on the PLUS/NYCE/STAR system, though). There are several restaurant options; we enjoyed the four that we tried. We booked an upgraded room, and I would highly recommend that to everyone. We were on the second floor of the building adjacent to the Nile. I think there were only 27 rooms in that building, nine per floor on each of three floors. The main part of the hotel was farther from the Nile and pool, and more stories high. The big bonus to the upgraded rooms are the large balconies/terraces; the standard rooms in the main building have a little triangular sliver of a balcony, not even large enough to fit a chair, while we had a spacious terrace with two teak chairs with comfy cushions and a small table. The room was really comfortable, although not overly large. It certainly wasn’t the largest room we had during our trip; on the contrary, it may have been one of the smallest, but it was the one I liked best and felt completely comfortable in. The hotel seemed deserted, although I saw many people at the pool during the day; I’m not sure where they disappeared to at night. We only spent one night here, sadly. There is a little grocery store just outside the gates, but alcoholic beverages were harder to come by. There was a restaurant right outside the gates, and they sold us some beers by the can to take back to our room (we like to save a little money when we can). I don’t recall the restaurant name, and they didn’t take credit cards, so I don’t have a receipt, but it was almost directly across from the hotel driveway; the restaurant also functioned as a one-terminal internet cafe and library. We ate lunch at the poolside restaurant on the first day, followed by dinner on the outdoor Sunset Terrace, combining foods from Silk Road and Olives. In the morning, we had breakfast at Rosetta, which was included with our room rate, and very complete and plentiful. Internet access was free, but only because my spouse is a Hilton Hhonors Gold member. The staff was very friendly and helpful in every way. There was a metal detector to enter the lobby, and the gatekeeper at the street entrance was extremely thorough. I would stay here again in a heartbeat.