Name: Guesthouse Bet El Kerem
Address: Nagh El Kuba, Aswan, Aswan, Aswan, not available, Egypt
Rating: 9

Air conditioning

24-hour reception

Smoke-free property

Garden

Terrace

Private check-in/check-out

General

Non-smoking rooms

Room service

Family room

Wardrobe/Closet

Linens

Mosquito net

Rooms

Ironing

Laundry

Luggage storage

Services and amenities

Packed Lunches

Bottled water

Meals

Internet access

Internet

Airport transportation

Transfer services

Transfer

English

Arabic

Languages Spoken

Tour assistance

Tourist services

Library

Bike rental

Barbecue grill(s)

Hiking

Fishing

Sun Deck

Ping-Pong

Recreation

Parking

Free Parking on Premises

Beach/pool towels

Pool and beach

Meeting and presentation facilities

Business

Cycling

Sports

Playroom

Family/Kid Friendly

Kids

Location

At the hotel

Aswan Airport

Guesthouse Bet El Kerem

Aswan

child-bed

child-bed-fee

external-private-bathroom

private-bathroom

shared-bathroom

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limited-time

lounge

treatment

no-window

bay-view

bosphorus-view

canal-view

city-view

courtyard-view

garden-view

golf-view

harbour-view

inland-view

lake-view

land-view

mountain-view

ocean-front

ocean-view

oceanside

panoramic-view

park-view

partial-ocean-view

partial-sea-view

partial-view

pool-view

river-view

sea-front

sea-view

street-view

sunrise-view

sunset-view

water-view

with-view

annex

basement

main-building

1-bedroom

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not-guaranteed

wired-internet-access

smoking

sauna

duplex

safe

mini-bar

breakfast-for-1

breakfast-for-2

pets-allowed

wi-fi

kitchen

I don’t normally write reviews, but in this case I have to share our experience about our stay. Positives, great views of the castle/ watch tower and handy location, just a short ferry ride to the other side of town. Cons, The rooms are very basic and we had a bad mosquito problem probably because there was a 30mm gap under the door and the second door to the room didn’t close properly. The electric zapper didn’t work and I asked for a replacement, big mistake the owner who had been very nice up until this stage told us to pull the blankets up higher, and told me spray was bad for my health (zapper was ok) so after a spirited discussion he finally agreed to get some spray. Next day our guide picked us up and asked to use our toilet which resulted in a rude shouting tirade from the balcony to the guide for using the toilet. He is a nasty piece of work and unless you are desperate I would give this place a miss. I nearly forgot to mention the cats in the dining balcony walking on the tables eating our food off the plates. Yuk and walking on the kitchen bench while he was preparing food, 

Arrogant and rude.

What a cook! Abdel’s welcome lunch on the terrace of Bet El Kerem was the perfect start to our stay. Their location is incredible, with views of sand dunes, tombs, and the Nile. They went above and beyond arranging our tours around Aswan, even our transportation to and from the area - this is the part of our experience that really sang. The guest house was clean and well maintained. We loved mornings and evenings on the terrace. Ask Abdel to tell you a story - he is such an interesting person.

Hospitality And Personality

We have stayed in the guest house for two nights in early Feb 2020. 

Facing the hill of the Tombs of the Nobles, the guest house is situated at the southern edge of a Nubian village. It has a lush garden in the front that evidently takes a large effort to maintain in the climate and rather stands out in its surrounding environment. 

The house and rooms are clean and well maintained (other than the locks in the doors to the rooms that insistently test one's skill and patient to open). With simply equipped but adequate bathrooms, the rooms are nicely furnished, quite and comfortable. 

The roof terrace is a very special place overlooking the hill and the city in the east bank afar. Tastefully decorated with a blue as the base color, it's comfy and homey. It's where the guests rest (with free coffee, tea and other fruity drinks) and dine. 

The breakfast and dinner offered in house are specially wonderful - it's a home-made  gourmet with quite a few touches of a great chef who mixes various styles however retaining the local style as the main theme. 

The great chef is no one other than Abdel, the owner of the guest house, who is open, friendly and helpful, a proud Nubian with a deep root in the local community. He is very capable making one home in his guest house!

The guest house is just a 5-minute walk to the ferry which takes 5 LE to cross the Nile to the city center in the east bank.

If into it, one can walk around the surrounding village neighborhood that appears rather plain and basic, observing the folks going about their daily lives.

An Excellent Guest in the West Bank of Aswan

Our room was comfortable and the food good. We enjoyed meeting our tour guides who went out of their way to get to know us and to let us know them. However, the owner of the hotel was abrupt and surprisingly unhelpful. For instance, he did not show us how to turn the air conditioner on. Moreover, the logistics were poor. He failed to arrange for us to be picked up at the airport at the beginning of our trip. Since we arrived at 3 am, that was inconvenient. He could not be reached and, after 2 hours, we managed to contact the office in Holland to get help. Later in the trip, previously arranged transportation to the airport failed due to miscommunication so that we had to engage a taxi at the last moment.

A comfortable guest house but irascible host

★★★★★: guesthouse
★★✰✰✰: package tours

About the review for the guesthouse, it was squeaky clean and quiet during the night. It is located next to the "desert," so they must have spent plenty of time maintaining the cleanliness. Guests can have unlimited water, coffee, tea, juice and fruits during the stay. From the rooftop, you can have a spectacular view of the Nile and the tombs of the nobles, which is extremely pretty around sunset. Breakfast was okay. The public ferry runs daily and brings you from the East bank to the West one with LE5 / person. If you prefer to stay in a tranquil and cozy place, I would highly recommend this guesthouse.

The followings are the reviews of the package tours we booked with Experience Nubia. I would like to start saying that I think it is wonderful to see my money directly goes to local Nubian people instead of large enterprises for tourism and I always try to spend my money on local businesses when traveling. I also appreciate the transparency of the price list on their website so my friends and I could control our budget in advance.

You can see our tailor-made itinerary in the attachment. It was discussed by Ellen and me through the emails before the trip. Ellen wasn't at the guesthouse during our stay but Abdel was.

1) They agreed to pick us up from Aswan train station on Day 1 but they forgot, so we ended up waiting at the station for 30 minutes. They gave us a free and perfect lunch on the same day to apologize.
2) The drivers on Day 1 and 2 were not staying on-site with us, meaning that we had to tell him for how long we were going to visit the attractions before getting off the car. If we finished earlier, we had to wait for the driver. If the attraction was unexpectedly large, we had to leave without seeing everything. We found this kind of inconvenient.
3) On Day 1 and 2, the driver, boat driver and felucca sailor asked for tips which was not mentioned in advance. The driver and the boat driver even forced us to tip. Abdel told us it was out of his control. Just to be clear, tip was meant for having great and extra services but all they did was their jobs that we paid so we really didn't understand why we had to tip, especially forcing us.
4) They were not clear about our itinerary so we ended up going to  Abdel every night to confirm the plan for the next day before going to bed.
5) The screenshots I attached are the chat history between Ellen and I. The main thing I'd like to point out is the misunderstanding between Abdel and us about the tour guide for camel market. To be short, we were confirming whether the tour guide is included in our itinerary but Abdel thought we wanted a tour guide. However, he didn't mention the extra price in the discussion so they decided to book a guide for us without asking us before (and without cancelation). Before they booked a guide for us, Abdel was on the phone with us asking how was the Nubian dinner and he could have let us know in the same phone call before booking it. Unfortunately no, we only got a notification from Ellen that we had to pay for the guide. After the explanation, both Ellen and I agreed it was a misunderstanding and she would talk with Abdel next morning. "...it will be okay." She typed. However, the next morning before departure, it seemed that Abdel didn't get the update and he still insisted us to pay for the guide. I tried to call Ellen several times but she didn't answer, so we had no choice but to pay for the guide. For your information, guide for the camel market will not be necessary after our experience. The information we got was fairly similar which you could read online and from Lonely Planet (the introduction was very short, about 1-2 minutes and that's it). Compared to other guide we saw in the market, we think it was overpriced.
6) As we had 2 separate activities on Day 2 in the morning and in the afternoon, we thought that the driver would stay with us all the time. However, before the driver dropped us in Aswan center for lunch, we tried to call Abdel to confirm the meeting point in the afternoon, but he didn't answer, so we got off and had lunch. We also tried to call Ellen and she didn't answer either during lunch. Later, we got a call from Abdel saying that we had to go back to the guesthouse by ourselves to start the felucca sailing. To be honest, we actually expected a driver to pick us up after lunch as we planned a day trip with them. This misunderstanding could have been avoided if they informed us earlier.
7) We were disappointed to see Ellen's reply regarding not knowing why she had to call us back. It seemed that Ellen had a better picture about our itinerary but Abdel didn't, so we were getting a little tired explaining all the things all over again when arrival. We also wanted to explain ourselves about the unexpected guide to clarify the miscommunication, but it seemed that they directly "shut the door." This is contradictory to what you would read in other reviewer's reply about communication is vital for them.
8) In the end of our stay, when we were making the payment, Abdel told me that my problem was that I was writing too many emails to Ellen about the tailor-made tours. From a customer's perspective, I think the judgment was not fair as our itinerary was tailor-made and we tried to ask all the doubts and leave all the details in the document to avoid misunderstanding.

If you still want to book tours with Experience Nubia, here are some suggestions:
a) Get an Egyptian phone number so you could stay in contact with the driver and Abdel/Ellen.
b) Try to make everything clear in the itinerary, including starting time, visiting time of each attraction, lunch time and place, starting and ending points of each trip, etc.
c) Discuss the tailor-made itinerary ahead, I'd say minimum one month before. I would avoid tailor-made plan.

Great accommodation but disappointed tailor-made package tours

I enjoyed everything about it, it was very welcoming both the host & staff. The location was ideal, it's setting, easy to find, beautiful decor, rooftop dining with delicious meals & great company. The host was kind & generous, I felt at home there.

An amazing place to stay.

Our family of 4 (2 adults, 2 teens) spent 2 nights at this guest house.
Our first night we arrived around 8pm and even though we’d booked the family room we were relocated to another house- a short distance away- from the main guesthouse. 
In this house we had 2 bedrooms, each with their own bathroom. 
The rooms were clean. The bathrooms were ok but awkward (with the shower spraying across the entire room). However it felt a bit isolated.
The next morning we relocated to the main guesthouse. We were given a delicious breakfast on the rooftop. It was really great.

In the main guesthouse we moved into the family room: 4 beds and a bathroom...only the bathroom was separated from the room by a shower curtain - kind of weird & awkward. We all agreed to use the main bathrooms for our stay!
The sheets and towels were clean. Again the breakfast was delicious. There’s a ping pong table where Abdoul will challenge you to a match or two!
Getting to the guesthouse is quite easy.  It overlooks the Tombs of the Nobles. The ferry takes about 5 min,and costs 2 Egyptian pounds.  From there it’s about a 5 min walk.

I really appreciated the friendliness of Abdoul and his philosophy at the guesthouse. He insisted we feel at home and provided fruit, water, tea, coffee throughout the day.

Lovely guesthouse

We stayed at Bet el Kerem for 2 x nights and we really enjoyed our stay. The rooms are basic but very clean.  Abdel the owner was very hospitable and could not do enough to make our stay more enjoyable.  He arranged a trip to Abel Simbel for us in which was very good value.  If you want to make your stay in Aswan more authentic then we would definitely recommend staying at the Bet el Kerem. 

Great Experience

We stayed at Bet el Kerem for 3 nights and it was a memorable stay! The guesthouse is lovely and authentic with a lovely garden and roof terrace. Great views and very close to the ferry. Abdel is an amazing host and great cook. We had a lovely time with him! If you like ping pong make sure you have a match with him! Abdel also organises tours and all kind of workshops. We will definitely come back if we come back to Aswan. Highly recommended!

Great guesthouse on the Westbank!

About a quarter mile mostly paved walk up from the public ferry (5E#) landing, this guest house is easily found with its 3 story bright blue color. Arriving by overnight train and departing the next day by dahabeya, our one day and dinner was spent back on the east bank. Our few hours in the guest house were excellent. The room was large, good water temperature and pressure, and the owner's homemade breakfast on the rooftop was a perfect finish.

Guesthouse Bet El Kerem

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