Dispatch from Egypt



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I’d wanted to visit Egypt since I was a girl—since I stood in line for hours holding my mother’s hand outside New York’s Metropolitan Museum, waiting to see King Tut when Egyptomania seized America; lying on our orange rug reading the Time Life Great Ages of Man: Ancient Egypt, its papyrus-like lettering etched into my mind; and, of course, from the glamorous images of the S.S. Sudan steamship in Death on the Nile.

For whatever reason, it never happened. Egypt always seemed just slightly beyond reach—too far, too complicated, a place that would require more time and planning. The Arab Spring didn’t help, nor the long pause of Covid. The options felt limited: go backpacker/budget-style, or join a large packaged Nile cruise and stay in a chain hotel. Both approaches felt at odds with the Egypt I had imagined.

Recently, though, something began to shift. Cairo was supposedly seeing the start of a renaissance in building restoration and hospitality. The long-anticipated Grand Egyptian Museum—more than two decades in the making—finally opened near the pyramids. There seemed to be a proliferation of smaller dahabiyas and historic boats plying the Nile (even the S.S. Sudan has relaunched with eco-friendly engines). Most intriguingly of all to me, a quietly ambitious new company called Egypt Beyond had begun restoring and assembling a network of privately owned houses and small hotels across the country. The project was co-founded by Florian Amereller, a German-born lawyer who spent much of his career living and working in Cairo before turning his attention to hospitality. His idea was not to build conventional hotels, but to restore distinctive historic properties and link them together into a loosely connected collection of places that reflected Egypt’s layered cultural history.

So when the UK-based bespoke travel company Cazenove + Loyd invited me to visit one of Egypt Beyond’s newest properties—a Nile-side villa called Beit El Nil in Luxor, near its flagship property Al Moudira—and to sail aboard the Nile Canopus, a newly launched dahabiya that was unlike any boat on the river, I said yes pretty much immediately. And since it would be my first time in the country, I decided to add a couple of additional stops in their portfolio: the Immobilia apartments in Cairo and La Maison Bleue in El Gouna, on the Red Sea.

My excitement largely eclipsed any hesitation I might otherwise have felt. In the days leading up to the trip, American warships were quietly moving into the Mediterranean and the Red Sea in what commentators described as the largest military buildup since the second Gulf War. Ramadan had just begun. There would be a full blood moon—and a partial lunar eclipse. Mercury was retrograde. The atmosphere felt oddly electric. Still, I was going!

Cairo – Immobilia Apartments

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My Immobilia Apartment – Rudi’s Office

I arrived in Cairo just as dawn was breaking and was met at the airport by a driver who whisked me into the heart of Downtown. As the morning light gradually strengthened, the city emerged in layers: boulevards of patinated Beaux-Arts and Art Deco buildings and balconies hung with laundry, shopkeepers opening up for the day, and the constant honk of traffic that would become the unrelenting soundtrack of my stay.

Rising above it all was Immobilia, Cairo’s first “skyscraper” and one of the great architectural landmarks of the district. Completed in 1940, the building was part of a vision to shape downtown Cairo into a cosmopolitan capital modeled loosely on Paris. In its heyday it housed film stars, politicians and cultural icons, among them the legendary singer Leila Mourad and the actor Omar Sharif. Amereller has begun quietly restoring several apartments here—so far four units ranging from one to three bedrooms—meticulously preserving original architectural details while furnishing them with vintage Art Deco and mid-century pieces sourced from Cairo’s antique shops and rescued from historic homes in Alexandria. The result is less a hotel than a series of full-service apartments designed to evoke the atmosphere of elegant Cairene homes from the 1930s and ’40s, complete with butler service provided by a former staff member of the American embassy.

The entry, I had been warned, can be a little startling. A dim gray lobby with fluorescent lighting and plastic signage leads to a rattling elevator accessed by key fob. But stepping out upstairs feels almost like walking through a portal into another era. My apartment, called Rudi’s Office—named after the engineer associated with the construction of the Aswan Dam—was immediately transporting. An Art Deco dining table and sideboard stocked with vintage glassware anchored the main room, while a library with a rattan armchair and striped sofa invites you to pull down one of the many Egyptology volumes from the shelves. A vast marble bathroom is stocked with robes from Malaika, the Egyptian cotton brand founded by Amereller’s Ecuadorian wife, Margarita Andrade. My favorite room was the kitchen: a luminous space with terrazzo floors, a massive traditional sink, handmade ceramics and a fully stocked larder. Floor-to-ceiling windows opened onto a terrace overlooking Cairo’s chaotic rooftops, an ideal perch from which to witness the call to prayer rolling across the city.

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Wagdy’s; Siwa Creations

From that vantage point, the rooftops looked almost bomb-struck—piles of rubble, satellite dishes and improvised structures scattered across the skyline. Yet the view also hints at a different story taking place below. Over the past several decades, many affluent Cairenes moved away from downtown to the leafy island neighborhood of Zamalek and later to newer suburban enclaves, leaving behind grand apartments that gradually fell into neglect. In recent years, however, a younger generation of artists, designers and entrepreneurs has begun drifting back, opening cafés, galleries and boutiques amid the old shops.

Later that morning I set out with Philomena Schurer-Merckoll, Egypt Beyond’s co-founder, to wander the surrounding streets. Crossing Cairo intersections requires a particular kind of faith—cars rarely stop at crosswalks; instead, you simply step forward and trust that the river of traffic will somehow part around you. Philomena held my arm and navigated the flow for both of us. We paused briefly at a mid-century Venetian-style coffee house before ducking into several antiques shops that serve as a kind of informal sourcing network for Immobilia’s interiors. The highlight was Wagdy’s, an Aladdin’s cave of vintage china, Egyptian lithographs, Murano chandeliers and alabaster statues, all piled together in glorious abundance and priced at a fraction of what they might command elsewhere.

Philomena eventually dropped me at the old Egyptian Museum on Tahrir Square, housed in a grand but faded pink building dating from 1902. Inside, the galleries still feel wonderfully old-fashioned: dusty wooden cases, handwritten labels, statues and mummies arranged side by side. Until recently the museum held more than 100,000 objects, including the golden treasures of Tutankhamun, many of which have now been moved to the new Grand Egyptian Museum. Even so, the place remains deeply atmospheric, like wandering through an archaeologist’s cluttered storage rooms.

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Mummies at the old Egyptian Museum; the museum’s entrance

The Immobilia apartment comes with a driver, and I took advantage of this the next day, heading to the Grand Egyptian Museum on the Giza Plateau. Years in the making, the massive glass-and-granite structure designed to echo the pyramids’ geometry rises from the desert near the Great Pyramids themselves. A massive statue of Ramses II greets visitors at the entrance, before a dramatic staircase lined with statues and sarcophagi leads upward through galleries devoted to Egypt’s three kingdoms. The most famous objects, of course, are the treasures of Tutankhamun, displayed together for the first time since their discovery—his golden mask, several nested coffins and sarcophagi, the ceremonial chariots. Yet what moved me most were the smaller things: sandals, grooming tools, and boxes that held food for the journey to the afterlife—objects that had survived more than 3,000 years.

From there we drove a short distance to the Giza Pyramids. A VIP entry had been arranged by Cazenove+Loyd, a worthwhile splurge. Instead of joining the crowds at the main gate, you’re ushered into an air-conditioned lounge with coffee and snacks before setting off across the plateau by golf cart. The pyramids themselves—the royal tombs of the pharaohs Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure—built during Egypt’s fourth dynasty (around 2500 BCE), not to mention the Sphinx, are so familiar from photographs that I’d worried I might feel oddly inured to them. But standing in their presence, the scale is overwhelming in a way that images never quite convey.

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King Tut’s famous gold mask; the entry of the GEM Museum

To glimpse them without the distractions of the modern era, the best approach is to ride out onto the desert side of the plateau by camel or carriage, which I did somewhat reluctantly (riding a tourist camel is not on my bucket list). Yet once there, with the vast stone mass rising out of the sand, it becomes easier to imagine how the pyramids might have appeared thousands of years ago. This illusion was occasionally broken by the camel-wallah urging me to perform the familiar social-media poses—throwing my arms in the air and pretending to pinch the tip of the pyramid between my fingers—but the view is still worth it.

I didn’t go inside the pyramids themselves, having heard from many other travelers that the narrow passages are cramped, airless and lead ultimately to an empty chamber. If I’d had another day in Cairo, I would instead have gone to Saqqara, about a thousand years older, where the stepped pyramids and surrounding necropolis allow you to wander through multiple tombs and chambers, often with far fewer people around.

After an amazing lunch at Khufu’s—the mezze spread and molokhia, the traditional Egyptian green soup made from jute leaves, were excellent—I headed across the Nile to Zamalek to do a bit of shopping. The leafy island neighborhood is lined with elegant apartment buildings and a handful of stylish boutiques, including Madu, which carries the Malaika linens I’d admired at Immobilia, and Siwa Creations, founded by Laila Neamatalla (sister of Mounir, founder of the eco-lodge Adrere Amellal in Siwa). I picked up a few embroidered cotton napkins, pillowcases and striped pajamas that somehow managed to fit in my carry-on.

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The Great Pyramids; lunch at Khufu’s

By the time I returned downtown I was running too late to stop for a drink at The Immobilia, the building’s newly restored salon floor and former headquarters of Mobil Oil, where three suites open onto a space filled with low-slung Art Deco armchairs and sofas overlooking the rooftops. Residents can have dinner served there, but that evening I instead joined Philomena and several of her friends and family across the street at another restored apartment called The Embassy (also available for stays). Over more molokhia, spiced chicken and lamb, the conversation drifted late, and I began to grasp the larger vision behind what is being built here, a sense of feeling at home.

El Gouna – La Maison Bleue

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La Maison Bleue

Before heading south to Luxor for the heart of the journey, I carved out a couple of days by the Red Sea. Egypt Beyond has begun cultivating relationships with a handful of like-minded properties beyond those it owns, and one of the most intriguing is La Maison Bleue, set in the resort enclave of El Gouna.

After a short flight to Hurghada and a drive along the coast, the road eventually reached the gates of El Gouna, a modern waterfront development of lagoons and marinas that has become a weekend retreat largely for wealthy Cairenes, some Europeans and visitors from the Gulf. The town has the curious atmosphere of a Mediterranean theme park—clusters of villas, canals, cafés and boutiques connected by footbridges—but the hotel immediately distinguishes itself from its surroundings.

La Maison Bleue appears almost unexpectedly at the edge of the sea, a grand Belle Époque-style mansion painted a perfectly chic shade of grey-blue. It was the passion project of three friends: owner Samih Sawiris, the late designer and arts patron Amr Khalil, and architect Olivier Sednaoui—who together assembled a team of artisans, craftsmen and historians to build a house inspired by the great private villas of Alexandria, when Egypt’s port cities were still deeply connected to Europe and the Levant. With a pastiche of inspirations from Ottoman to Venetian to ancient Greek, the effect is less like a hotel than the home of a wealthy cosmopolitan family from another era.

The interiors feel collected, appointed with hand-carved mashrabiya screens, Murano chandeliers, and vintage furniture, while oil paintings of maritime scenes and shelves of books give the place the look of an old seaside residence. With just 13 suites, the vibe is intimate and unhurried, the kind of place where everyone drifts between pool terrace, spa, bar and dining room with the ease of houseguests.

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 La Maison Bleue hallways

Food is one of the main attractions here. La Maison Bleue joined Relais & Châteaux about a year ago under the stewardship of GM Jane Drotter, who had a background in Michelin fine-dining and was brought in to help revive this seaside sleeping beauty. The kitchen is led by chef Vincent Guillou, a tall, affable Breton who has lived in Egypt for decades after first arriving to open a restaurant in Cairo. Dressed in immaculate double-breasted whites with a panache reminiscent of Gusteau in Ratatouille, he appears in the dining room during service, pausing at tables to interpret the evening’s menu. The cooking leans French, but incorporates Egyptian ingredients—local seafood from the Red Sea, vegetables grown on property, herbs from the gardens. Everything was excellent: prawn risotto flavored with saffron, an Egyptian lentil soup so good I had it twice, and a crème brûlée with the thinnest caramel crust that shattered like ice under the spoon.

The hotel was unusually quiet during my stay, and a chilly wind swept in from the sea—no doubt exacerbated by the news headlines about of the strikes in Iran, which suddenly made the far shore of the Red Sea feel disconcertingly close. I did venture out by tuk-tuk to one of the nearby marinas. The waterfront promenade, lined with cafes and boutiques, has the surreal look of a miniature Portofino transplanted to the desert, with a smattering of well-heeled visitors drinking rosé by moored yachts. Honestly, unless you’re looking for nightlife (none of the bars were open during Ramadan), it was difficult to imagine a good reason to leave La Maison Bleue.

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Hammam; kite-surfers on the beach

The hotel positions itself partly as a wellness retreat, with nutritionists, trainers and physios available to guests, and there is something about the place that gently nudges you toward relaxation, however you choose to define it. Many of the guests, largely French and German, braved the sun beds under the chilly azure sky, as dozens of kitesurfers just off the beach skimmed the water like dragonflies. I did a boot-camp style workout in the outdoor gym with Abdelrahman, a trainer from Alexandria; joined a yoga class led by his German wife, Sandy; and let my ambient anxiety about geopolitics dissolve under a limb-bending Thai massage and a facial, interspersed with soaks in the hammam’s hot-cold plunges. At night I slept nearly nine hours straight in a room whose thick plaster walls and domed ceiling created a kind of perfect sleep cave.

Because of the fierce winds, I wasn’t able to go out by boat to snorkel alongside the pod of wild dolphins that allegedly frequent this stretch of coast, but heard from many that it is a highlight when the weather cooperates. By the time I left, I felt thoroughly restored and ready for the next leg of the journey.

Luxor – Beit El Nil & Al Moudira

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Beit el Nil villa pool

After a 3.5-hour drive west to Luxor, through red canyons that gave way to open desert, the landscape suddenly turned green—fields of crops, palm trees and small village farms appearing like a ribbon of life. This was a sign we were approaching Luxor, which for millennia has been one of the most fertile regions in Egypt, thanks to the black silt deposited by the Nile’s annual floods.

It is also the home to Al Moudira, which I had often heard described as one of the most distinctive places to stay in the world. And how. Set on Luxor’s West Bank, not far from the tombs and temples that made the city famous, the hotel feels like a deeply personal estate—an Arab-Andalusian fantasia conceived by Italian-Lebanese designer Zeina Abouhkheir, who spent years filling it with antiques, textiles, and architectural relics from her travels across the Middle East and North Africa. (The name Al Moudira means “lady boss,” a moniker she earned while overseeing the construction.)

Over three years ago it was acquired by Florian Amereller, who carefully updated the rooms, spa and gym, adding an organic farm and craft workshops while wisely leaving the soul of the place untouched. Most importantly, he kept Zeina Abouhkheir. Although the estate includes a number of villas scattered throughout its garden grounds, the newest addition is about 25 minutes downriver: Beit El Nil, a 12-room exclusive-use villa on the banks of the Nile.

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The “winter garden” room; breakfast outdoors at the villa

Whereas Al Moudira is all bold maximalism, Beit El Nil has a quieter vibe. The house was completely renovated since its acquisition from a Swiss family, with polished plaster walls, yards of reclaimed marble, beautifully crafted wood millwork forming built-in wardrobes and bookcases filled with Egyptology. The visual focus is the expansive garden, which runs from the house, past a swimming pool and vegetable patch, and down to a private stretch of riverbank—a view that’s best taken in from the “winter garden” pavilion above—a glass and iron conservatory inspired by the bones of old Egyptian villas. It is the kind of place made for a house-party takeover: I could easily picture a group of friends or family sitting around the pool with glasses clinking under the fig and grapefruit trees.

We were welcomed by Abbas, the elegant GM always in a navy sports coat, who had come over from Al Moudira to oversee the villa. As some of the first guests to stay there, it felt incredibly special that evening to sip a hibiscus-infused cocktail as the sun sank over the river, the call to prayer drifting across the fields. On the opposite horizon a full moon rose, surrounded by a luminous halo. A full blood moon on the Nile! The moment felt auspicious.

Before bed, I wandered down to the water’s edge, where I could sense more than see the river gliding quietly past in the darkness. I lay on my back to moon-bathe for a while, thinking about the countless generations whose lives had been sustained by this body of water, and the civilizations that had risen and fallen along its banks.

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Hieroglyphic detail; Temple of Queen Hatshepsut

Luxor’s ancient sites are an easy drive from the villa, and the next morning we set out with our guide, Ahmed, to explore them. Our first stop was the Medinet Habu Temple, whose reliefs vividly depict the military campaigns of Ramses III, including the grim scenes depicting piles of severed hands taken from defeated enemies. We continued to the Valley of the Kings, the desert necropolis where the pharaohs of Egypt’s New Kingdom carved elaborate tombs deep into the cliffs. It was here that Howard Carter discovered the tomb of Tutankhamen in 1922, though dozens of other tombs fill the valley—many surprisingly still retaining bright paint colors, their corridors filled with hieroglyphs and celestial imagery mapping the ruler’s passage through the underworld.

“The project of Egyptian life is death,” Ahmed said, referring to the extraordinary energy and resources that the pharaohs devoted to constructing their tombs during their lifetimes. Nowhere is that ambition more visible than at the Mortuary Temple of Queen Hatshepsut, a monumental terraced complex that rises straight out of the limestone cliffs. Hatshepsut initially ruled as regent for her young stepson, but ultimately declared herself pharaoh and presided over more than two decades of prosperity. During her reign Egypt revived long-distance trade expeditions, sending ships to the Horn of Africa to bring back frankincense trees, gold, ebony and exotic animals.

Whereas the tombs were built on the Left Bank, the side where the sun sets, temples of worship were erected across the river on the Right Bank. I have been to Greece many times and thought I understood ancient monumental architecture, but nothing prepared me for the sheer scale of the Egyptian temples. At Luxor Temple, visitors walk through colossal sandstone columns and statues of Ramses II before reaching temples dedicated to the god Amun. It was once connected by a sphinx-lined avenue to the Karnak Temple complex, which served for nearly two millennia as the principal sanctuary of Amun, patron deity of Thebes (Luxor)—one of Egypt’s most important priestly centers.

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Sunset at Luxor Temple

Generations of pharaohs expanded Karnak so it feels almost like a city: long passageways of colossal columns, enormous courtyards and halls, centered around the Great Hypostyle Hall, with 134 towering papyrus-shaped columns, and obelisks carved from a single block of granite. In the 19th century, when Egyptomania first seized Europe and America, many countries began hauling off these monuments or building modern versions inspired by them, the most famous being the Washington Monument, a symbol of permanence and national ambition. Looking at old photographs of Karnak’s obelisks half buried in sand during the 19th century European arrivals and thinking of the news of the day, it was hard not to feel the strange resonance of history.

It was on that very day that the U.S. State Department placed Egypt on a list of countries Americans were strongly advised to leave. Although I had signed up for the State Department’s STEP program—which is supposed to deliver travel alerts by email and text—I had heard nothing; the news reached me instead through international media. After much deliberation and a stream of anxious exchanges with my husband and daughter, I reluctantly booked a flight to Paris for the following evening.

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Villa interiors at Al Moudira

Still, I still had one more evening in Luxor. We went for dinner at Al Moudira, walking through a maze of lantern-lit courtyards to reach the newly opened Moudira Farm Kitchen, presided over by Gioconda Scott. The British chef is an immediately magnetic presence, wearing a chic hand-sewn Guatemalan huipil paired with a long skirt—“I needed some kind of uniform,” she laughed—and bringing with her an instinctive, seasonal approach to cooking shaped by her upbringing at Trasierra, the soulful olive estate and retreat in the hills of Andalusia founded by her parents in the late 1970s.

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Al Moudira

Invited by Amereller, Gioconda arrived in Luxor in September with her husband and three children, and by December had opened the restaurant—an outdoor dining room anchored by a wood-fired bread oven, drawing on produce grown on the hotel’s 12 hectares of farmland and ingredients sourced from nearby Nile-side farms. Her kitchen is staffed entirely by young cooks from Luxor, whom she has trained in the kind of simple, seasonal cooking she grew up with. Each day she writes and prints the menus by hand. Over dinner—plates of aromatic mezze with bread cooked on embers, roasted fresh vegetables from the garden and delicately spiced lamb and tilapia—she spoke about her philosophy of teaching the team “to cook with love,” as she put it, an intuitive way of working that initially felt utterly foreign to them. But kindness prevails: “I don’t want to eat other people’s suffering,” she said—an idea that would echo days later as stories about Noma’s René Redzepi began circulating.

Gioconda’s warmth and optimism infused the entire evening. By the time we left, the weirdness of the day had vanished and we all felt strangely enchanted.

The Nile Canopus

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Aboard the Nile Canopus

The next morning, I finally received an alert from the US State Department: Egypt was no longer on the “depart now” list, and was relegated to Level 2: “Exert caution.” This 24-hour aberration was confounding, to say the least (had it been a mistake? Confusion about geography?), but the die had been cast: my ticket changed, my family anticipating my return… so I reluctantly stuck to my exit plan.

While I was now, quite literally, missing the boat, I at least did get to come aboard long enough to send off my companions (who had British and French passports and had not received the same exit mandate). One of three dahabiyas developed by Egypt Beyond—including Set Nefru, a 5-cabin vessel originally built for the royal family—the Nile Canopus was custom-built to emulate the golden era of Nile travel in the late 19th century, and had only launched in December.

Dahabiyas, I learned, have no engines (so no juddering or rumbling as they ply the water), and though some have sails for when the wind cooperates, they are typically towed through the water by small tugboats. Being smaller than the cruise ships that shuttle tourists from Luxor to Aswan (or in reverse) gives them a certain freedom: stopping at riverside villages or temples the larger ships can’t easily reach, detouring for a picnic along the banks, and mooring along the side to spend the night.

Stepping onto the shaded deck—covered by a safari-style canopy, a nod to archeologist Howard Carter’s lodgings during the King Tut excavation—it was easy to imagine what a gracious voyage this would be. A day spent gliding upriver past palm groves, small villages, Coptic churches and farmers working narrow strips of fertile land along the Nile. At sunset, the dahabiya would moor along the riverbank for a peaceful sleep on the water. In the morning, we’d set out early to investigate the Temple at Esna, one of Egypt’s most beautifully preserved ancient sites, before the larger groups arrived. Anyone staying on longer would encounter the storied sites further upriver: the Ptolemaic temples of Edfu and Kom Ombo, and on to the island temple of Philae.

Inside, Nile Canopus has the quiet gentility of a throwback era: a library/living room, 10 cabins in total, including 4 large suites with grand brass beds and private terraces overlooking the stern. The boat can be booked for private voyages or by individual cabin. I heard later that the food was excellent, as it should be—like its flagship property, the dahabiya flies a Relais & Chateaux flag (the first boat to do so), and both the staff and the kitchen are drawn from Al Moudira.

Though I had to pry myself from the boat, I wasn’t sorry to spend the few last hours before my flight at Al Moudira. The property draws you in like a kind of maximalist country (or rather oasis) estate: a labyrinth of courtyards, domed salons, gardens and arched passageways filled with antiques and textiles gathered from across the Middle East. Opened in 2001, the property has grown gradually over the years and now includes 54 rooms/suites and six private villas, some of the most extraordinary I’ve ever seen anywhere. One can still feel the hand of founder Zeina Aboukheir, a lifelong collector, in every corner: from the patterned tile floors and woven bedspreads to vintage rugs, Murano chandeliers, oil paintings and old travel posters—including in Villa Zaina, her own residence, which is often available for stays.

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Pigeonnieres; ceramics studio at Al Moudira

Wandering the grounds feels a bit like a treasure hunt. Small seating areas appear unexpectedly behind stands of palms or under canvas tents. One path leads to a large pool surrounded by striped chaises and date palms, another to a tennis court. More recent upgrades include a lovely spa with hot-cold plunges and hammam, a well-equipped gym, and a small juice bar serving freshly pressed concoctions.

Food is central to the estate’s life. There are now three restaurants, including one run by chef Ali, a Somali whom Aboukhir adopted as a teen and, of course, Gioconda Scott’s Moudira Farm Kitchen, which draws heavily on produce grown on the 12-hectare organic farm recently created at the edge of the property. Nearby, open-air wooden pens house an improbable mix of animals: peacocks and ostriches, other species of fowl including Muscovy ducks and Pharaonic chickens, as well as pigeons who occupy two towering dovecotes; along with cows and goats—some of these are kept for food and some for education.

Another recent expansion under Amereller is a cluster of artisan workshops, created to support regional craft traditions while providing employment for the surrounding community—and at the same time, producing handmade pieces used across the property. Walking through them that afternoon—past pottery and glass kilns, weaving looms, rattan, paper, alabaster and brasswork studios, in which a handful of artisans worked pridefully on their craft—I found myself thinking back to something Gioconda Scott said at dinner the night before: “People want to go somewhere that matters.” In front of this tableau, the idea resonated. What has been created here and was now emerging in pockets throughout Egypt suggested an approach to hospitality rooted not only in history, but in living culture.

Later at the airport, I handed my passport to the ticket agent. He flipped through it until he reached the page stamped with my Egyptian visa. “You’re leaving so soon,” he said.

“Yes,” I said. But I’m coming back.”

He handed me my boarding pass and smiled. “Inshallah.”

I was hosted on this trip by Cazenove+Loyd, UK-based bespoke luxury travel experts. A similar journey, including guided large or small-group stays in Cairo, Beit El Neil/Al Moudira in Luxor, and a voyage on the Nile Canopus between Luxor and Aswan, can be booked directly through them.+44 207 384 2332 or info@cazloyd.com

Comments


4 responses to “Dispatch from Egypt”

  1. TessTobin Avatar
    TessTobin

    Thanks to Yolo’s Egypt Travel Planner, I stayed at the Al Moudira in 2024 and LOVED it. I’ve told so many friends to go! Probably my favorite hotel I’ve ever been to, and without a doubt, the hotel with the best luxury-to-price ratio!

    1. Alex Postman Avatar

      Thanks Tess – it was indeed as good as I’d heard!

  2. Anna M Avatar
    Anna M

    This dispatch was better, as literature, than any novel I’ve read in 2026.

    1. Alex Postman Avatar

      Oh my gosh, Anna, thank you. I am beyond honored—and so happy that it resonated with you! Sequel/last act coming soon, I hope….

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