This Luxor Hideaway Turns Slow Weekends Into a Dreamy Ritual

You wake up slowly to the sun streaming through your window and the smell of fresh bread baking in a clay oven. Outside, a pebble path leads you to breakfast from your stone lodge, past glistening green gardens and towering palm trees. Droves of sheep meander through the verdant landscape ahead.
This is no mere fairytale. You are in Gamandy Ecolodge in Luxor’s El Tod Village—the boutique, sustainable hotel rooted in the natural landscapes and community traditions of one of Egypt’s oldest cities. SceneTraveller spent a weekend exploring its peaceful grounds between the ancient wonders of Luxor itself and Aswan.
Gamandy Ecolodge takes sustainability seriously by preparing food that they’ve harvested from their farms and building their furniture by hand. The infusion of nature is clear in every detail of the stay, from tree stump bedside tables, to the clay pottery sitting on shelves, to the straw lampshades that drop from the ceiling. As the sun sets, the night sky stays bright with stars—a rare sight for those of us who have been desensitised to city life.