There can be a certain social stigma attached to public drunkenness. Although Egyptians sometimes choose to ignore this, for a foreigner to be drunk in public is somewhat culturally insensitive and gives rather a bad impression. Most pubs tend to be testosterone-filled hard-drinking dens where lone foreigners and especially lone women may feel uncomfortable.
That said, there are numerous places in Luxor to buy alcohol. Many restaurants, above the basic on the street places, sell lager and wine. They are generally made obvious by Stella signs outside or by having people drinking inside them. Brandy is also popular.
There are two open-air restaurants opposite the temple about 200m south of the main entrance which serve Stella lager for 14LE including tax (as of September 2011) and other local beer and wine for fairly reasonable prices. The huge Stella signs outside give them away. If you can't find somewhere convenient serving alcohol, it may be an idea to ask the staff in your hotel for directions. 'Cafeteria' can be the euphemistic name for a pub in Egypt, and pubs can be quite hard to find if you don't know exactly where to go.
There is a duty-free shop close to the north end of the Luxor Temple, seen slightly to the right across the busy junction - it has plastic see-through shutters at its windows and a guard outside. If you take your passport and go within two days of arriving in Egypt, up to three bottles of main-name spirits and beer, etc. at well-reduced prices, per person, can be bought. After the two days you can only buy the Egyptian equivalent. They also sell electrical products and close at 10pm.
Drinking in the street or in parks is fairly widely done, but not recommended for foreigners as it is technically illegal and alcohol is generally cheap enough in restaurants anyway.
The Most Frequently Asked Travel Questions about Luxor
Where To Stay & Best Hotels in Luxor - updated Apr 2024
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Luxor Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.
