Luxor, renowned for the valley of the kings and the Queens, Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut, Colossi of Memnon, and Medinet Habu on its west shore, and the Karnak temple, Luxor temple, alley of the Sphinxes and the Luxor museum on the east side is a bustling tourist town that draws tourists from around the Globe, on their trip to Luxor and Aswan. To cater to this influx, Luxor is packed with hotels that suit all budgets, from the dingy to the uber chic. With tourism, comes the unfortunate side effect that certain parts of the city, and majority of it's transport are susceptible to uncomfortable haggling, a prerequisite to getting a reasonable bargain from the Egyptian guides, taxi and horse-drawn carriage drivers looking to make some extra Egyptian pounds. A lot of tour companies charge exuberant prices (Around 1000+ Egyptian pounds, per person, excluding entry tickets to the tombs), offering hassle free tours, to whisk you from your hotel in the morning, take you across the Nile onto the west side on a private boat, and into comfortable air conditioned buses or private sedans or SUVs to the valley of the kings and the queens and other points of interest, a traditional expensive lunch along the way, a trip to a souvenir shop and then back to the hotel come evening. For the slightly more adventurous, another option is to haggle with the taxi drivers in town, who promise a good deal, to pick you up, get you across on a private boat with a complimentary tea onboard that can cost about 50 pounds, and then negotiate a good price on the other side with drivers they know. Herein, lies the hassle of haggling and that uncomfortable feeling that you've grossly overpaid.
A common con in Luxor that you must be vary of, across any private transport, is that the price that they initially quote might be for 1 person, and if traveling in a pair, they'll demand double the initial price, so it is imperative that you clarify the total price for all passengers before commencing your journey.
And in both of these options, you've traveled like a tourist and not like a local, and that is something we don't like doing. If traveling to the valley of the Queens and the Kings like the locals do on a budget is your calling, then read on.
So what follows is a rough plan of action, with excerpts of our experience interspersed.
Start your day early and after a breakfast of koshari, foul and taamiye (you'll need the carbs for the long day ahead), leave by 0900-0930 from your hotel, and rather then haggling a price with the taxi or the horse drawn carriages, who continuously taunt you with 'you know how much? only 20 pounds', and reply to your lack of interest with a rather curious 'why not?', you can take the service cars, white vans, that ply through the length of the city (and across Egypt), notably with their doors open, throwing no caution to the wind, presumably for better ventilation. The cost is a mere 1 - 1.5 pounds (compared to the 50 you might've shelled out in a taxi), and you need to head to the public ferry, right next to the Luxor museum. The public ferry system, a bunch of rickety old wooden ferries, is efficient and plies continuously through the day across the Nile, and makes the journey in about 10 minutes. The price for Egyptians is 1 pound, and 5 pounds for foreigners. The ferry terminal is immediately right of the Luxor museum, and is unmissable due to the heavy footfall of the locals on their daily commute across the river.
As you enjoy the beautiful Nile and the warm dry wind of this arid region, chances are you might end up getting hassled by chancing taxi drivers from the west side looking for prospective customers. You can choose to haggle here and settle for a price (We found our ride for the day this way), or choose to wait and get to the taxi stand, right outside the ferry stop on the way side to partake in the haggling. Competition is fierce, so customers have the advantage. Depending on your haggling skills and your perseverance, you should aim to get anywhere between 200-300 pounds, all inclusive, for all 5-6 points of interest on the west side, which should take about 4-6 hours. We settled for a hard fought 250 pounds. The taxis you end up getting might be old and rickety, a far cry from the comfort of the buses or the private hires for the tourists, but it all adds to the experience. You can choose to see the vehicle before committing. We ended up in an ancient white Peugeot, with rusty doors and handles, and a rug for a seat in the back; it looked old, but it diligently navigated the slight slopes of the western bank.
The drivers will try to take you to shops selling alabaster statues, and other souvenirs along the way where they get a commission, or free tea; stopping and shopping here is subject to your interest and dispositions. The network is notably patchy and the drivers might not have a smart phone, for Luxor still lives in the beautiful ignorance of continuous stimulus, so ensure that you have credit on your phone to make international/Egyptian phone calls, for the drivers will leave you to roam around in the places of interest (which may take upto a couple of hours, especially for the valley of the Kings, and of the queens), and head back to the ferry terminal for a quick custom, or for a siesta, and you'd need to call them about 30 minutes before you are done with touring a particular location. Once you are done taking in the awe-inspiring history of the place, you will be taken back to the terminal, and here in parting, a small baksheesh, say 20 pounds, in addition to the initially agreed price will be expected. Here, after your long day, right in time for lunch, you'll find small shops selling delectable liver sandwiches and frying fresh fluffy taamiye, and juice shops selling sweet mango and fresh sugarcane juice to wash the food and the sub Saharan heat down. There is no hassling in the west bank noticeably, owing seemingly to a number of old western expats who call it home, and can be seen walking leisurely for their daily shop.
After a good reasonably priced lunch, you can take the quick ferry back, and continue on with your exploration of Luxor town and it's local markets, now that you have some extra pounds to spare from having intelligently navigated the day on a stingy budget.
Total cost -
250 + 20 (baksheesh) +
20 (ferry for two people both ways) +
4 (service van for two people both ways) =
294 Egyptian pounds.
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