The Winter Palace and Sofra. Places to stay and to eat in Luxon

The Winter Palace in Luxor is not the best hotel in the world. It may not even be the best hotel in Luxor (but it probably is). It was built in 1886, and actually used as a palace early in its life.

But it was converted to a hotel a long time ago.

The first room they gave us was very nice.

A nice big bedroom:

 a nice sitting room:

and treats! That is a chocolate Nefertiti in the background:

But when we returned from the temples, Doreen noticed that other rooms had balconies, so she asked if we could switch.

 After a tiny bit of hemming and hawing, they said that they would upgrade us.

That was a surprise, as we had a very big room. I asked for the room number but they wouldn't say.

The bellboy brought us upstairs to move our stuff, and again he wouldn't tell us what the room number was. He said it was a surprise.

Well, they put us in the Royal Suite! the sitting room was huge. It had a full kitchen, and enormous bedroom:

and a view you could not beat from the balcony. Which is where we had a beer every afternoon.

But it was hard to beat the hat rack down by the dining room:

Or the view into the gardens

But that view of the Nile!

But we still needed to head out to dinner. We had read about a place called Sofra, and it was withing walking distance.

The wait staff was great, and very helpful

We had bread

and the double mezzes platter (four hot, four cold)

 Couldn't be beat.

Then back to the Winter Palace.