Pavillon Winter Luxor

Accommodation at the Pavillon Winter Luxor ran to 116 rooms in a low, modern block that kept its head below the palm canopy. Decor was contemporary rather than antique, in whites, crimson and gold, and every room faced the greenery rather than the road. Most had a private furnished balcony over the gardens or the pool, and all came with air conditioning, a seating area, satellite television, free WiFi, a minibar, a safe and 24 hour room service. None had Nile views, and the hotel never pretended otherwise; the river was a short stroll across the Corniche.

Breakfast was the meal the Pavillon Winter Luxor did best, and the one most of our customers planned their days around. It was served in and beside the garden from early morning, with a generous buffet, fresh French pastries and chefs frying eggs and flipping omelettes and pancakes to order. Service began as early as 5.30am, and the kitchen would happily pack a breakfast box for guests heading out to a dawn balloon flight or an early start in the Valley of the Kings.

Dinner across the gardens at the Winter Palace

The real ace was next door. A short walk through the gardens brought Pavillon guests to the Winter Palace’s grand venues: the candlelit 1886 Restaurant, a French gastronomic room where jackets were required for gentlemen, the Royal Bar with its deep red walls, damask and nightly pianist, and afternoon tea in the Victorian Lounge. Very few four star bills anywhere bought that sort of evening, and it is the side of the estate the restoration is expected to bring back in style. In central Luxor you were also spoilt for restaurants in town, many within a ten minute walk.

The gardens were the point of the place. Laid out for the Winter Palace’s wintering guests more than a century ago and walled off from the city, they gathered rare plants, fruit trees and palms collected over generations, with some trees well past their hundredth birthday. Paths wound between beds of bougainvillea towards quiet benches, the air smelt of jasmine in the evening, and birdsong did a remarkable job of drowning out central Luxor a few hundred metres away.

The pool at the Pavillon Winter Luxor

At the heart of the gardens sat a genuinely large outdoor pool, shared between Pavillon and Winter Palace guests, ringed by palms and shaded loungers and heated in the cooler months, which mattered from November to March when Luxor’s evenings turn crisp. L’Oasis, the swim up bar at its centre, kept swimmers in cocktails and mint iced tea. This was never a resort pool with organised fun; the loudest thing most afternoons was ice settling in a glass, which is exactly how its regulars liked it.

Neither wing ran a big spa operation. The estate’s answer to wellness was the gardens themselves, a swim, and an early night before the Valley of the Kings. The restored hotel is promised a different scale of pampering, with The Spa at Mandarin Oriental planned within the same tranquil grounds, alongside reimagined gardens, water features and a new pool.

Few hotels anywhere sat this close to a wonder of the ancient world. From the gate of the Pavillon Winter Luxor you could be inside Luxor Temple within a few minutes, and the temple after dark, floodlit and almost empty, was the great free show of any stay. The restored Avenue of Sphinxes runs from its forecourt towards Karnak, and the Corniche, the felucca moorings and the caleche ranks were all across the road.

• Luxor Temple, a few minutes on foot
• The Corniche and felucca moorings, across the road
• Luxor souk, around ten minutes on foot
• Luxor Museum, a pleasant riverside walk or five minutes by taxi
• Karnak Temple, about ten minutes by road
• Avenue of Sphinxes, from Luxor Temple’s forecourt

Across the river to Thebes

The west bank holds the heavyweights: the Valley of the Kings, Hatshepsut’s great terraced temple at Deir el Bahari, Medinet Habu and the Colossi of Memnon, with dawn balloon flights drifting over the lot. Allow around 45 minutes by road via the bridge, or do it the local way by ferry from near Luxor Temple and pick up a driver on the far side. Karnak deserves a half day of its own; go early, before the coaches and the heat.

On every Luxor holiday we sell, we arrange guided excursions with qualified Egyptologist guides, timed to dodge the crowds. Whichever hotel takes the Pavillon’s place in your plans, the sightseeing works exactly the same way, and it remains the best reason on earth to come to Luxor.

In February 2026, Mandarin Oriental announced it would take over two of Egypt’s most famous hotels, the Winter Palace in Luxor and the Old Cataract in Aswan, in partnership with Talaat Moustafa Group. The Winter Palace complex, including the Pavillon wing, closed to guests in early 2026, and the flag formally passed from Accor’s Sofitel brand in May 2026. A complete restoration of the 1907 building is now under way.

The plans are ambitious: a refined collection of rooms and suites, six dining venues, elegant event spaces and The Spa at Mandarin Oriental, all set within renewed gardens with new water features and a new pool. The reopened hotel is expected in late 2027 as Mandarin Oriental Winter Palace, Luxor, though on a historic restoration of this scale the precise date may shift. How the 1996 Pavillon wing features in the finished hotel has not yet been confirmed, which is why we cannot promise the Pavillon Winter Luxor will return in its old form or at its old prices.

The same programme will see the Old Cataract in Aswan restored, and Mandarin Oriental is also launching a luxury Nile cruise between Luxor and Aswan. For the full story and the latest news, see our Mandarin Oriental Winter Palace, Luxor page, which we update as details are released.

The estate stands on Corniche el Nil, the tree lined boulevard along the Nile’s east bank, just south of Luxor Temple in the walkable heart of the city. It is the classic Luxor address: feluccas and cruise boats moored across the road, caleches clopping past in the evening, and the souk, cafes and restaurants of the town centre a few minutes inland. The Pavillon Winter Luxor sat within the walled gardens behind the palace, so it enjoyed the address without the traffic noise.

The hotels we recommend as alternatives share this geography. The Sonesta St George sits a short drive south along the same Corniche with the same easy reach of Luxor Temple, and the Steigenberger Nile Palace is a little further along the east bank with proper Nile view rooms. On every Luxor holiday we sell, we arrange transfers between the airport and your hotel, with your driver waiting on arrival.

Straight answers on the closure, the Mandarin Oriental restoration and where to stay in Luxor instead.