It's a four hour drive to Aswan without stops. If you just want to go as far as Edfu, you could take in some other places to the South of Luxor such as Tod, Moalla, El Kab.

As suggested above you will probably have to choose between Edfu and Dendera. The drive to Edfu is about 2.5 to 3 hours. If you leave Luxor early in the morning and only spend an hour two visiting the temple you could carry on to Aswan. As said, however, it would be a pretty hectic visit as it would take another 4 hours or so to get back to Luxor. Moreover this assumes there are no driving restrictions in force at the time which would make visiting Aswan impractical at best.

The Lotus Boat day trip to Dendera (if there is a cruise scheduled while you are there) is an all day affair and you won’t be back in Luxor until early evening if you are lucky. The Dendera temple is well worth seeing (as of course is Edfu) and the sail is quite enjoyable. It also gives a definite taste of a Nile cruise which for some (myself included) is enough. .

Again assuming there are no driving restrictions in force, you can take a taxi/hired car to Dendera and, if you want, Abydos. Dendera itself involves roughly the same driving times as Edfu. Assuming you don’t mind bargaining, hiring a taxi/car for one or more days is easy. They will be delighted to wait while you tour the sites or sometimes go about their business and return when you ring their mobile.

If they are rushed for time, many people dispense with the Valley of the Queens. Again, if time is an issue, the Ramesseum (where you can always pass the time quoting Shelly) is IMO a more interesting site than Seti’s mortuary temple. If you don’t want one, there is no need to hire a tour guide for any or all of the sites mentioned.

welcome to luxor any time , any way you can do all of this ,

day 1 - valley of the kings, medinet habu, deir el bahari/hatshepsut mortuary temple , lunch and rasmesuem , valley of the queens

day 2 - dendara temple at morning , after noon karnak temple and luxor temple , if you have energy enough you can visit museum .

day 3 - go to edfu & kom-ombo temples and back to luxor .

then you 'll visit many things and you have time for rest

also you can make another arrangement for the same places

have a nice trip

hamada

< 'day 2 - dendara temple at morning , after noon karnak temple and luxor temple ' >

Possible perhaps, but to visit Dendera temple from Luxor 'in a morning', then you would have to leave at about 4am to get back to Luxor by noon and then the last thing you would probably feel like doing is trudging around the temple. Then visit the museum in the evening ?????

As said, this MAY be possible (if you encounter no restrictions or hold-ups) but at the 'rate' you would have to go at, it certainly would not be enjoyable IMO, as that is FAR too much for one day.

It may be that our Egyptian friend is 'touting' for your business, or if not, then he is simply trying to kill you, LoL !

For some reason a line of text 'disappeared from my post (#5) which should have read :-

'then you would have to leave at about 4am to get back to Luxor by noon and then the last thing you would probably feel like doing is trudging around the Karnak temple complex (which is HUGE) and then going on to do the same at Luxor temple. Then visit the museum in the evening ?????

I hope that makes it more understandable.

The Temple of Hathor at Dendera is only around an hour and a quarter to an hour and a half drive away from Luxor. The Temples of Seti 1st and Ramses II at Abydos are around a further two hours drive after Dendera.

As there are travel restrictions on that particular route (and the one between Luxor and Aswan) it means tourists can only travel between the hours of 6am and 6pm without the need of a police armed convoy.

So, IMO it 'may' be possible to visit Dendera only in the morning (impossible to combine Abydos and Dendera into a morning trip from Luxor) -

Say leave at 6am - arrive around 7.30-ish (if there are no hold ups) spend 2 - 3 hours at the temple and be back to Luxor around lunch time. Then 'if' you had the energy you could visit Karnak Temple but like has already been said the site is HUGE and you might find your time rushed.

I am always very guilty of trying to pack too much into a day and finding myself rushed at various sites and not being able to enjoy them to the full, so my advice would be to not to try and 'see everything' in your five days in Luxor (impossible IMO) - take your time, relax and enjoy the sites you will see, not rush round them and eventually find yourself 'templed out'

Thanks a lot for the response. Yes I agree we should not try to see everything so I was thimking of cutting down on a few sites. If dendara is only a 2 hrs drive I was thinking of maybee revising my itinirary as follows

day1 karnak temple an the am, lunch then get dropped of at luxor museum. Walk back to hotel relax and see luxor temple early evening.

day 2 dendara in am and take in 1 or 2 west bank sites if time permits, and if they are any en route to dendara that make sense logisticaly.

day3 valley of the kings, hatshepsuts temple/ deir el bahari and some 1 or 2 west bank sites, basically a full day on the west bank.

day4 Either head for temple of horus/edfu or visit some other west bank sites.

I have to do some research still to find out what sites would be of most intrest to us. Thus far I was thinking dendara, velley of the kings, medinet habu, hatshepsuts temple, temple of horus/edfu and karnak and luxor temple as I think we will be staying near luxor temple. For accomodation I was thinking of the nefertiti or the winter pavillion (for my wife). Thanks for your help and any more advice would be great.

Sorry but AFAIK tourists are not really permitted to travel on the west bank route from Luxor up to Dendera, please see reply no. 11 from ElizabethH55 in the following topic - tripadvisor.co.uk/…43840546

So unless you find a driver willing to take you on the west bank route it would make it a pretty round about journey!

I would visit Dendera in the morning (it's only 1.1/4 - 1.1/2 hours max by car each way - depending on how many police checkpoints you get stopped at) leaving as early as possible ie 6am, if you go in the afternoon you might find yourself rushing around and cut short for time due to having to get back because of the travel restrictions in place on the route as I mentioned above.

Depending on what time you get back to Luxor and how you feel you could always head over to the west bank to visit a few sites in the afternoon after some lunch - if you get the ferry (1le per person) or a motorboat (5le per journey, not per person) over to the west bank there are some nice places you can stop for some lunch with good views over to the east bank and Luxor Temple such as the El Mesala hotel Nile Valley Hotel and Africa and then get a taxi to take you to whatever sites you want to visit from there, as a guideline back in March I paid 50LE (total, not per person) for drop off and pick up at a pre arranged time at one sites and 80LE - driver stayed with us / waited in the car park for around 4.5 - 5 hours) that was without haggling.

haven't stayed at the Nefertiti Hotel but can recommend the Winter Pavillion as can many regulars on the forum, lovely rooms, grounds are fantastic - perfect to relax in after a busy day sightseeing.

As SuzieM said, the tour agents will not take you to Denderah via the West Bank desert road. This also rules out using one of the many "limousines".

However, taxis are not subject to the same tourist licencing rules, so you may find a decent taxi who would take you to the West Bank sites and onto Denderah via the West Bank road. If you are staying at the Winter Palace Pavilion, there are lots of taxis parked across the street, talk to them and get a price.

You can be at Denderah in less than an hour using the West Bank road.