The Hotel

LIVE LIKE A PHARAOH: FABULOUS PLACES TO STAY IN EGYPT

2022-07-18

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For decades, well-heeled visitors to Luxor, Egypt, have checked into the Winter Palace, a grand hotel built on the east bank of the Nile in 1886. But in 2002 a pink Oriental palace of domed suites emerged on the Nile’s less congested west side.

The soul of this unique boutique hotel is Zeina Aboukheir, its owner and managing director. Although she grew up in Lebanon, Aboukheir can best be described as a citizen of the world. An accomplished photographer and jewelry designer, she traveled and lived around the globe before falling in love with Luxor’s west bank. It was there that she decided to build her dream hotel; a cosmopolitan oasis that attracts a like-minded crowd of polyglot jetsetters and creative individuals.

"It was a pity to come here and not to find a single tourist," Aboukheir says. "Since that time, I decided to do something to bring tourists back to the area. I decided to provide the area with a certain quality of accommodation that would attract only quality tourist, which Egypt has unfortunately lost," she says.

"I don't care about the number of travelers I am getting, my concern now is much more about the quality. I do not deal with travel agencies but only with individuals," explained Aboukheir. "And, you know, I don't make any publicity, people come through word of mouth. My main goal is actually to create something like home; to let the traveler feel at home."

If Al Moudira’s guest list is anything to go by, Aboukheir may have succeeded in doing just that. In a relatively short period of time, her quietly luxurious boutique hotel has been drawing privacy-seeking celebrities such as Mick Jagger and Kate Moss, as well as haute cobbler Christian Louboutin. “Before I owned property in Egypt, I always stayed there, it feels like a family home,” explained Louboutin, who owns a flat in Paris’s first arrondissement, a houseboat on the Nile, and a house outside of Luxor.

Article

The soul of this unique boutique hotel is Zeina Aboukheir, its owner and managing director. Although she grew up in Lebanon, Aboukheir can best be described as a citizen of the world. An accomplished photographer and jewelry designer, she traveled and lived around the globe before falling in love with Luxor’s west bank. It was there that she decided to build her dream hotel; a cosmopolitan oasis that attracts a like-minded crowd of polyglot jetsetters and creative individuals.

"It was a pity to come here and not to find a single tourist," Aboukheir says. "Since that time, I decided to do something to bring tourists back to the area. I decided to provide the area with a certain quality of accommodation that would attract only quality tourist, which Egypt has unfortunately lost," she says.

"I don't care about the number of travelers I am getting, my concern now is much more about the quality. I do not deal with travel agencies but only with individuals," explained Aboukheir. "And, you know, I don't make any publicity, people come through word of mouth. My main goal is actually to create something like home; to let the traveler feel at home."

If Al Moudira’s guest list is anything to go by, Aboukheir may have succeeded in doing just that. In a relatively short period of time, her quietly luxurious boutique hotel has been drawing privacy-seeking celebrities such as Mick Jagger and Kate Moss, as well as haute cobbler Christian Louboutin. “Before I owned property in Egypt, I always stayed there, it feels like a family home,” explained Louboutin, who owns a flat in Paris’s first arrondissement, a houseboat on the Nile, and a house outside of Luxor.

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