10 things not to do in Luxor, Egypt.

Spend Money.

Apart from your flights and hotel room, you'll be hard pressed to spend money in Luxor, unless you allow yourself to be ripped off or wish to buy pashminas and replica relics. Everyone will try to help you with everything, including pointing at something for your to photograph and then ask you for money for what they did, be firm and polite and say no.

A taxi from the airport is LE 80, around £4, ask and confirm the price before you do anything and check it's LE (Egyptian Pounds) and not $ (Dollars).

Expect to pay up to LE 700 per person for a full day tour of the West Bank, to include the Valley of the Kings, a couple of temples and the tour guides, brothers, Alabaster or Papayas shop. You will have to pay extra to visit Tutankhamen. You can however do this cheaper yourself, but I'd recommend a tour guide a) to tell you the     history b) to stop you being hassled and c) to get
                                                                                    you back to your hotel.
You have to pay your hotel bill in foreign currency, you are not allowed to pay in Egyptian Pounds, but you can withdraw local currency from the cash machines. Banks are heavily guarded, but don't let anyone try to assist you and preferably withdraw money in pairs.

No one will have change anywhere, and will delay giving you change in the hope you won't bother waiting.

Bring Kids.

Don't bring kids with you unless you are prepared to keep a very close eye on them 24/7 and entertain them yourself. While the hotels have pools, they are a long way from the rooms, terraces, life guards are rare. There are no facilities in Luxor aimed at entertaining children, whilst there is a MacDonalds, there isn't a play area, there are no swings and slides to be found or public parks and internet is scarce.

Use the Internet.

Leave that laptop at home. There is little if no wifi in public places and in the hotels, you are limited to two devices per room. Wifi is often limited each day and costs around $10 per 250mb. Your mobile phone provider will sms on arrival with cost of calls, but if you wish to buy a sim card, you can only get this at the airport.

Drink coffee.

I found one coffee shop that served anything that resembled the coffee I like to drink. Nescafe seem to have the monopoly over here and a latte is 2 powered tubes and over heated milk, not nice. Ask for a cappuccino, it's likely to be from a Nespresso machine.








Drink the water

We've travelled to many locations around the world and we often forget to check if we can drink the tap water. To date we've never been ill from drinking the water, but one of us, usually Peter, has had food poisoning. Brushing teeth is ok, but avoid ice in drinks, ask the waiter to give you the bottled water to open, so you can check the seal and personally I avoid foods with high water content such as watermelon and cucumber.






Shop

There are NO high street stores in Luxor, all you'll find are local shops, souks and markets, mainly selling souvenirs and replica, tacky and low quality, clothes and bags. You'll be hard pressed to find a supermarket, corner store, pharmacy, so bring all your toiletries and medications with you.




Queue

December and January are the height of the tourist season, but don't expect to have to wait in long queues for anywhere, there are sadly few tourists coming to Luxor since 2011, due to the current political climate.

Get tired

Luxor is a relaxing place to visit, tours start early morning, 3 days minimum stay to visit all the sights, take a trip on the nile, fit in a hot air balloon trip and enjoy leisurely drinks and meals in the hotel.


Walk anywhere

Don't expect to walk anywhere in Luxor, the second you step out your hotel you'll be inundated with requests to use taxi's and horse and carriages. If you do get a taxi, the driver will tell you he will wait for you at your destination, until you've finished, so don't pay them until you get back to your hotel.





Relax with personal safety

There are many warnings about travelling to Luxor and Egypt in general. The biggest risk is around mosques at prayer times and if you see large groups of people forming, then it is advised to leave the area and not hang around to see what is going on. Use the hotel safe for your passports, laptops, etc and only carry with you cash and cards that you think you'll need each day. Keep your bag in full sight at all times.

Can you see the Big 5 at Kruger in a small car?

The answer is YES.

This was my 4th visit to Kruger National Park and I was hesitant as to how much we would see in a small rental car on the tarred roads. We visited Kruger in September 2014 after our trip to Richard's Bay to go Whale watching.

My son and his girlfriend had already requested to go on sun rise and sun set organised drives as they were here on a holiday of a life time and didn't want to miss a thing.

The morning we entered the park, we took nearly half an hour leaving Marloth Park where we were staying due to giraffe on the road, zebra and various antelopes.

It took a further half hour to get over Crocodile River before we entered the park as we saw elephants, cape buffalo, a crocodile with it's kill, various birds and hippos.

We stuck to the tar roads and drove up to Lower Sabie, we only left the tar roads for the short drive to a hide and by the end of day 2 we had seen Lions, Black Rhinos, White Rhinos, Elephants, Hippos, Cape Buffalo, giraffes drinking, a rock monitor lizard, monkeys and baboons and we were now ignoring the antelopes.

Suffering with animal fatigue and lack of new sightings on Day 3 we decided to identify birds and I saw more on this trip than I've ever done before.

So for those of you still reading, it appears we've only seen 4 of the Big 5, but wait....our last night as the sun was setting, I decided to go for a walk, my son and his girlfriend were in the pool. A guide called me over and on the opposite side of the river was a Leopard, stalking several Impala. Taking a quick photo, I ran back through the woods to the lodge, passing a woman with young children and I gasped 'Leopard....river.....quick' and she ran off from where I'd just come. Son and his girlfriend, grabbed flip flops and we ran back to the river, in time to see the Leopard striking for the Impala, it missed and wandered down to the river for a drink.

It was only at this point that the woman realised that she'd run in the direction of the where the Leopard was, not checking that it hadn't been chasing me and judging by the state of the fence, there wasn't a lot separating me from the wildlife in Kruger.

We finished the holiday by watching an African sunset

Needless to say my son and his girlfriend didn't book the sunrise or sunset tours as we saw The Big 5 in 3 days by sticking to the tar roads.