Sofitel Legend Old Cataract Aswan

Impressive hotel with its historic legacy and a newer building with stunning rooms, overlooking the harbour area of Aswan. We had room in the new building on the 7th floor, with a larger terrace, including a seating area and a separate area with deck-chairs. It was just a joy sitting there, watching all the action on the harbour. The pool area was empty, as most people are on excursion during the day. Hence, take a day extra to just enjoy the hotel. The restaurants are very good, however, the French one is only indoor and requires a formal dress code. Nevertheless, the Arab restaurant is excellent and not as crowded as the main restaurant. Because this terrace is the most famous one, it is also attraction a lot of selfie-making tourists, taking hours for the perfect picture instead of enjoying the view…(a general problem one encounters traveling these days…)

Lovely breakfast, nice facility, beautiful hotel, full of history and amazing views on the Nile. Friendly staff.

We could have had a higher floor room as we specifically asked for it, but it was just one night so we understand that other longer stay guests would be prioritized for this.

Located centrally on the water, this hotel is truly majestic in its looks and in service. As we checked in, we were greeted by Nour. She showed us the property and escorted us to beautiful rooms, very very spacious, with a separate sitting area and a huge walking closet. View was amazon. Hotel had many services like spa etc. Restaurants need attention. Terrace restaurant, with the most beautiful view of the sunset has a great menu. But the kitchen is far away and food was always cold, by the time it arrived at the table. VERY SURPRISED FOR A LARGE RESTAURANT LIKE 60 people, only one server. Server was amazing, but he could not serve so many people Hotel needs to help him

Truly appalling service. We visited for cocktails and sunset at 5pm. You have to buy a voucher at the reception for approx £25 per person which is knocked off whatever you spend. There is no explanation of this and we spent 15 mins trying to even do that with long queue of people we thought were checking in. We then got access to the hotel grounds and went to the bar to be told we couldn’t use the bar as we were outsiders - charming. We had to use a different outside terrace or lower level terrace. We went to the first terrace and was told there were no tables as they were all booked for afternoon tea. We went to the lower terrace to be told the tables were all reserved. All empty I might add. But apparently all reserved. Why sell tickets for cocktails at sunset if you cannot seat people or take orders - it feels like a scam just to charge entrance. Everyone that also had tickets was confused and angry and the staff all looked bemused and disinterested at how busy it suddenly was. We eventually persuaded the waiter to let us sit at one table because my parents in their 80s were getting frustrated. He took orders for four drinks and didn’t return for 20 mins. We then went to complain to someone but a table came available on the upper terrace - we asked if we could sit and were told there are no reservations so yes we could sit . We then had another woman come over to tell us we couldn’t sit down as there was a waiting list. We argued and just sat down to later see NOBODY on any wait list. At the same time the lower level terrace we were told was all reserved was completely empty. Another waiter came over after 15 mins and we explained we ordered cocktails (at this point) 40 mins ago and he said they clearly were not coming so we reordered. Now we had a table we decided to eat - having missed the sunset due to the walking around to find a table or a waiter. Drinks came. Food did not. After almost 45 mins the waiter came over and sheepishly said ‘can you repeat your order’. He hadn’t ordered it. This was really clear but wouldn’t admit it. We eventually got starters at 7:15pm having arrived at 5pm The food wasn’t even hot. We complained and were simply told it was a busy time at sunset and there were a lot of Chinese visitors. We said that’s no excuse and if you don’t want outsiders to visit then don’t charge them to come in and just refuse. Or just get more staff. He agreed and said everyone was tired because of Ramadan. This just is not a valid excuse. It’s Egypt. It’s Ramadan. It’s Chinese new year. This must be one of the most visited hotels at sunset - how can they not know that and staff The entire entrance and drinks and food came to over £350 - no apology - not even a free drink as a sorry. Honestly appalling. And as we left the outside restaurant for guests had three tables eating, the inside bar and inside restaurant not a soul - maybe you should be kinder to people from outside who are not guests prepared to spend more money in your hotel than the actual guests. Sort yourself out Sofitel.

To describe the service at this hotel, the only fully appropriate term is SHAMEFUL. A five-star hotel that charges a €30 entrance fee just to get in, only to provide this kind of treatment. Low-quality food arrived after 1 hour and 45 minutes of waiting under the sun, with flies hovering around us and mosquitoes biting us. We waited half an hour just to get water. The food did not arrive all at once but in 15-minute intervals. There were 10 of us seated at a table meant for 5, and when we asked for the situation to be improved, we were treated with indifference and dismissiveness. It’s truly a shame because the location is beautiful, but it’s frustrating to hand over money to those who live off a reputation built decades ago and presume they no longer need to care about hospitality and customer service. Many other people around us were also unhappy with the poor service. To sum it up, the experience simply put me in a bad mood. I strongly recommend that management seriously reconsider how they handle non-hotel guests and their restaurant service, because I will be telling everyone I can not to set foot there.

The only thing that makes this hotel receive good reviews is location. It is located in a very beautiful site of Aswan providing magnificent Nile view from many room types. HOWEVER, a more important thing that needs to BE IMPROVED is FOOD HYGIENE. I got a severe food poisoning from the food I consumed here. I'm confident about this because I chose to dine at the restaurants in the hotel for my whole stay. Even with on the trip to Abu Simple, the lunch box was provided by the hotel (with quite expensive additional charge, of course). My symptoms started about six hours after the last meal I had here and there is no way that I could get this from any food from elsewhere (I stayed for 2 nights, more than 48 hours, not eating outside). It was so bad. I had chill, persistent nausea that lasted 3 days, and frequent watery diarrhea for 5 more days. It was one of the worst food poisoning I ever had. This illness ruined the rest of my trip, which was a wonderful Nile cruise. I had a very difficult time going on excursion to many temples and I had to skip visiting Valley of the King, which is one of my dream destination because of this. I am aware that there are some risks of getting food poisoning during travel. It's totally understandable if you get it from some poor-hygiene street food. But it shouldn't be from one of the most luxury hotels in Egypt like Sofitel Legend Old Cataract. Moreover, their "renowned" service is something unreal. I think it is just a pretentious service to escalate the guests' experience more than a sincere willingness to service. To explain this, the staff who checked us in was very polite but acting like a robot. He explained everything with a well-trained flowery language. But when we asked for a USB charger that we forgot to bring from home, the only thing he could do was insisting that the hotel only had a normal adaptor without USB port. No further assistance. On the next day when we mentioned this to the chauffeur that drove us to Abu Simbel, he just simply made a quick stop at the mobile shop on the way back and we got our USB charger. That's it! We wonder why the staff at the hotel couldn't recommend this. It was so simple. Overall experience at this hotel was awful. The only good thing that impressed us was the view of the Nile from our room's balcony but the illness ruined the rest of our trip and gave us a bad impression of going back to this beautiful country.

Had a wonderful afternoon tea at the beautiful Old Cataract Hotel watching the sunset over the River Nile The location in the Promenade Bar was superb, the tea and food excellent, and Soliman provided impeccable service. I couldn’t recommend it highly enough!

We stayed at this hotel expecting a true luxury experience, given the rate of over $950 USD per room per night. Unfortunately, what we encountered was deeply disappointing. First and most concerning: the room cleanliness was unacceptable. There was visible dried nasal residue left on the headboard from a previous guest. This is simply indefensible at this price point. The slippers provided were cheap and visibly not properly cleaned. For a hotel charging nearly $1,000 per night, this level of hygiene is shocking. We stayed in a room on the 4th floor of the new building, where intermittent drilling and construction noise could be heard during our stay. This significantly impacted the comfort and rest we expected. The balcony floor was also dirty and poorly maintained. In addition, the front desk service was disappointing. The staff member named Madonna appeared visibly unhappy when interacting with us. Her attitude felt indifferent and unwelcoming, almost as if we owed her something. It was uncomfortable enough that I withdrew the USD tip I initially intended to give her after the room tour, and only left a small amount in local currency out of basic courtesy. Most concerning is that none of the issues we reported were resolved in a timely or satisfactory manner. If you are someone who frequently stays in true luxury properties and values cleanliness, professionalism, and service standards, I would not recommend this hotel. It seems more suited for Instagram photography than for guests seeking genuine high-quality hospitality.

Historical and lovely property with a fantastic location and view. We checked out one day early but our agent #high end journey didnt give us the refund which I beleive sofitel passed on to them. Staff in general across need training to bring jn the level of refinement and service expected of this rich heritage.