In a town where tourism accounts for 85 percent of the economy, it's hardly surprising that you can't move without being importuned to step inside a shop, rent a caleche, or have your shoes shined. Hassled and overcharged at every turn, some tourists react with fury and come to detest Luxor. Keep your cool and sense of humour; it's possible to find genuine warmth here. Once you get to know a few characters and begin to understand the score, Luxor seems like a funky soap opera with a cast of thousands. Cool feluccca guys and bazaar hustlers, nervous rich tourists and piastre-pinching backpackers - their dealings and misunderstandings are as intriguing as the monuments.

Most foreigners come between October and February (especially Christmas and New Year), when the climate is cooler than you'd imagine, with chilly nights and early mornings. Around the end of March the temperature shoots up 10A°C, making April the nicest time of the year to visit, though the weather remains agreeable until late May or early June, after which the daytime heat is oppressive till late October, when the temperature plummets. During the summer tourism is well down, and the locals have time to sleep by day and party at night.