Very nice! We were stuck in Aswan for about 4 weeks trying to obtain Sudanese visas this past summer (We are Americans, so...yeah) ha ha.

We ended up meeting a guy named Gasser Anwar via couchsurfing and through him we ended up renting a house from his cousin for the duration of our time there. It was on Elephantine Island (on the backside) and was quiet, had AC, hot showers, kitchen, etc. There were five of us there originally and then two of our friends joined us. We paid 250 Euro for the first week and then 150 Euro each week for the next 3 weeks. So that boils down to about $9/night/person for the first week and $4/night/person the last three weeks.

It seemed as though there were a decent number of houses for rent on the island. The upside was that they were all clean, cheap, QUIET, had AC, and had wonderful views of the river and the desert. The downsides were that you had to take a ferry to get there (either the free Movenpick ferry to the hotel and then walk around back to enter the village or haggle with the locals every damn time you want to go home). Also, vehicle parking is an issue, but we left our cars with another cousin of Gassers and there were no issues with that or money expected which was a nice change.

I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with Aswan, but having that house was a saving grace. The price was right and even the most stressful day was made better sitting on the back porch sipping on a drink watching the felucas go by.

Attached Thumbnails