Obelisk Nile Hotel

The room smelled of mould, probably because the bathroom ventilation isn’t good. The bathroom itself is modern, though it doesn’t have a rainfall shower head. The room had blackout curtains and was much quieter than the street, so I got a good night’s sleep. The TVs support Miracast. When the kettle broke, they replaced it right away. They also lent me a can of insect spray for the mosquitoes. The phone connects to reception, and someone came up within 10 minutes. Service was great.

For a mid-range hotel, it felt worth the price for the room, Nile view and convenience. Tour groups can pick you up easily on this side of the river. We stayed two nights during the week before Christmas, as a couple visiting Aswan. The hotel is on the east bank of the Nile beside the main road. You enter along a long, raised corridor with a security scanner and two guards on duty. Reception and the rooms are below the road level, with steps up or down to reach them. There is a lift, but we didn’t use it since our door was just one flight of stairs away. The bellman carried our luggage. It’s a sprawling, open-air setup, like private beach cabanas but by the Nile. The walk from the room to the entrance is long, though walking through the garden was fine. Our keycard room had two single beds and was spacious but simple, with a cupboard, tiled floor and loose carpets, armchairs, a vanity desk, directional wall lamps beside the beds, a shared bedside table with accessible sockets, and a full-length mirror near the bathroom. The WC has an integrated bidet or shattaf, operated with a knob on its lower right side that you turn counterclockwise. There’s also a bathtub and shower. Toiletries and fresh towels were provided daily. Outside the door were chairs and a table, with views of the garden and Nile. Reception staff were okay but didn’t interact much. Housekeeping did its job well. The kettle was clean, coffee and tea packets were replenished, and we got welcome fruit on the first night. Breakfast is a level below reception. The lobby is plain, with steps behind the counter leading to the restaurant, where breakfast is served. There was a wide choice of continental and Middle Eastern food. Desserts were mostly bread with different toppings. We ate in the restaurant our first night, but the onion soup was terrible. It seemed they also run dinner cruises, as we saw guests being led to a boat, though we didn’t try one. Breakfast boxes are common in Egypt for early tours. For our 4 am pickup to Abu Simbel temple, we collected ours from the restaurant. It came in a bag with sweet breads, sandwiches, grapes and an orange, a juice box and a bottle of water. Quite a packed meal.

The private chalet-style rooms were clean, with good service and food at the onsite restaurants. Breakfast was good, and the views over the Nile and Elephantine Island were wonderful. It’s easy to walk around Aswan, arrange boat trips, and get to the airport, about half an hour away.

The location is excellent, right across from the Nile, and breakfast had a decent range of options. We booked a standard twin room for two nights, but the first one was awful: it smelled strongly of smoke, hadn’t been cleaned properly, and was very dated, with peeling walls and mould in the bathroom. We arrived after midnight and had to get up at 6 am, so we didn’t have the energy to go back to reception and ask for another room. When we got back at 5 pm the next day, the room still hadn’t been cleaned. We asked to move and were given a better room, at least partly renovated, but the sheets were dirty and there were several hairs in the bed. The Nile-view rooms may have been renovated, judging by other reviews, but the other rooms definitely aren’t worth the price they charge.