Luxor
Taxis are the easiest way to get around Luxor. Any journey within the town centre should cost around EGP 5 or EGP 10 from one end of town to the other, that is, from the south of town to Karnak. This is the price for the car, not for each person. As in Cairo, you can hire a car for the day by agreeing a price with the driver, which is worked out by kilometres.
In Luxor, caleches or horse-carriages operate in the same way as taxis for short journeys. This is a more leisurely way to get about and can be cool and pleasant on a warm day or evening. The prices should be the same as taxis, though the caleche drivers seem to argue more. Agree a price for your journey first. The drivers may often try to take you on a roundabout route calling at papyrus shops and bazaars at which they get commission, or they will suggest a visit to the camel market. Be warned, this is only open on a Tuesday! If you don’t want to do this be firm!
There are microbuses or ‘arabayas’ which operate on circuits around the town and this is a very inexpensive way to get around once you know the routes. Any journey in an arabaya should cost 25 piastres (EGP 0.25), but they will often charge tourists EGP 1. You can get on and off anywhere on the route, but they can get very crowded and you may have to share your seat with a basket full of live chickens. It’s good fun if you like adventures.
A passenger ferry operates from the Corniche to the West Bank all day and most of the night. These cross the Nile about every 15 minutes depending on the time of day and cost EGP 1 (for tourists) for each journey. Alternatively the owners of motor boats will constantly tout for your business and usually charge EGP 5 each for a single journey. Look out for Egyptians crossing by motor boats which operate the same way as the ferry and at the same price.
On the West Bank there are taxis to hire. A return trip to the Valley of the Kings should cost around EGP 40-50 per car and the driver will either wait or come back for you at an agreed time. There are arabayas here too in the form of covered Peugeot pick-up trucks which do a circuit of the West Bank but do not go to the King’s Valley. Just wave one down wherever you are and bang on the window to get off. They should cost 25 piastres for any journey, though foreigners may be asked to pay more.
You can also hire bicycles inexpensively in Luxor and on the West Bank. A good way to get around as there are no hills. There is no charge for bicycles on the ferry.
I could go on. There are donkeys, camels, horses, with boys touting for business wherever you go.
Security
Since the mid-1990s there has been a threat to tourists from terrorist activities in Egypt, but except for the Sinai coast, there have been no major incidents since 1997 and security has been stepped up drastically since then. This means that independent travel is not as quite easy as it once was. From 2009 however, the armed police convoy has ended between Aswan and Luxor and down into Middle Egypt and visitors are no longer obliged to travel all together in long lines of vehicles.
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