- Pickup is from your hotel or Nile cruise in Luxor before sunrise; a ferry then takes you to the launch site on the West Bank.
- The listing gives the flight as 45 minutes in its included list and about 45 minutes to one hour in its itinerary.
- From the air you see the Valley of the Kings, Hatshepsut Temple and the Nile; the tour visits no sites and lists no entrance fees.
- Luxor's average daily low is 5.9°C in January and 24.7°C in July, so pack a warm layer in winter.
- Transfers and the tour leader are private; nothing in the listing says the balloon flight itself is private.
It is an early, short program. Our hot-air balloon ride over Luxor picks you up before sunrise at your hotel or Nile cruise, takes you by ferry to the launch site on the West Bank, flies over the Valley of the Kings, Hatshepsut Temple and the Nile, and brings you back to your hotel or cruise ship. The flight is the whole program: no site visits and no meal.
The morning, step by step
- Pickup before sunrise from your hotel or Nile cruise in Luxor, by private air-conditioned vehicle, with a private tour leader (the person who escorts you and handles the arrangements; this tour lists no Egyptologist, a guide trained in ancient Egyptian history).
- Drinks and the ferry. Warm or soft drinks are served before you board a ferry to the balloon launch site on the West Bank. The included list names only a bottle of water, so ask if the hot drink matters to you. The itinerary also mentions a transfer to the West Bank before the ferry, so the exact order of road and ferry is not clear from the listing.
- The flight. The balloon gives views of the Valley of the Kings, Hatshepsut Temple and the Nile. On its length the listing disagrees with itself: 45 minutes in the included list, about 45 minutes to one hour in the itinerary.
- Back to your hotel or cruise ship.
Pickup is set by sunrise, which moves through the year, so confirm the time when you book.
Seen from the air, or on foot
The balloon shows the West Bank from above but takes you into no site, and it lists no entrance fees. To walk into the temples and tombs you see from the basket, you need a ground tour. The table compares the balloon with two of our Luxor tours that cover the West Bank.
| Balloon ride | Luxor West Bank, full day | East and West Banks in one day | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pickup | Before sunrise, hotel or Nile cruise in Luxor | Your hotel in Luxor | Your hotel in Luxor |
| West Bank | Valley of the Kings, Hatshepsut Temple and the Nile, from the air | Colossi of Memnon, Hatshepsut Temple, Valley of the Kings, Medinet Habu, Deir el-Medina workers' village | Colossi of Memnon, Hatshepsut Temple, Valley of the Kings |
| East Bank | None | None | Karnak Temple and Luxor Temple |
| With you | Private tour leader | English-speaking Egyptologist | Private English-speaking Egyptologist |
| Lunch | Not listed | Included, local restaurant | Included, local restaurant |
| Entrance fees | None listed: no site visits | Included; not the special tombs such as Tutankhamun, Seti I or Ramses VI, or camera tickets inside the tombs | Included; not the Tutankhamun tomb ticket |
Karnak, Luxor Temple and the Valley of the Kings are covered by UNESCO's Ancient Thebes with its Necropolis listing, inscribed in 1979. Our guide to splitting a Luxor day by bank shows which sites sit on each side of the Nile, and Valley of the Kings: tickets and tombs covers the valley itself. The full ground tours are Luxor West Bank, full day and Luxor East and West Banks in one day. A shorter ground option is the Valley of the Kings and Hatshepsut tour, a morning from your hotel or Nile cruise: the valley, Hatshepsut Temple and a photo stop at the Colossi of Memnon, with an English-speaking Egyptologist and the entrance fees included, but not the Tutankhamun tomb ticket. It is new on this site: its program follows how the day usually runs and is confirmed with your quote.
