The Jolie Ville used to be the Mövenpick Jolie Ville, but it is now part of the Maritim group. It is now the Maritim Jolie Ville. People tend to refer to it just as the Jolie Ville - except many local people who still know it as the Mövenpick.

The Jolie Ville is about 4kms out of town on the south side. It has a courtesy bus service 6 times a day that stops at the Isis hotel (in the 'restaurant' area of town), the Winter Palace in the Centre of Luxor and near MacDonald's and the market, behind Luxor Temple. There also used to be a bookable courtesy boat service running between the hotel and a pier opposite the Old Winter Palace twice a day, but the boat has been out of service for quite a while and there is no sign yet of its replacement.

The hotel is a complex of separate buildings. The reception area is in one of several new stand-alone buildings which also houses some shops, a bank, a bar, a conference hall (the Sobek) and the business centre with computers and a free library.

The main restaurant, the Jolie Ville, is in a separate building. This building has always housed the main restaurant but the restaurant has now been enlarged and has taken over most of the area that used also to contain the old reception, Kings Bar, shops, business centre and bank before these were moved to the new building as part of the hotel's expansion. The Jolie Ville restaurant provides breakfast, which can be taken inside or out, lunch and nightly themed buffet dinners.

Breakfast is the usual self-service. The hotel claims that it offers the widest breakfast choice in Luxor. We have to contest that, having experienced wider choice, especially of fresh fruit, pastries and cereals, and foods from different cultures, at the old Mövenpick and at 5 star hotels in town. Choice is, nevertheless, ample. Orange juice is real squeezed juice and other breakfast juices are real from cartons, not artificial. Hot drinks are served at the table. The coffee is really rather good for hotel breakfast coffee. Certainly better than the charcoal-tasting weak brew often offered, even in the 4 and 5 star hotels.

Jolie Ville dinners are also buffet-style and themed, with a focus on a different culture each night. They are very expensive for what they are. The quality of these international dinners is variable and typical of serve-yourself buffet offerings that you might encounter on organised tours. If you prefer not to experiment with international foods or don't want a self-service buffet, you can use one of the à la carte restaurants, where quality is a little better but prices even higher.

La Fleur is one of the à la carte restaurants. At the moment it is attached to the Jolie Ville restaurant, with a separate main entrance on the Nile side, but it is set to move next door, to part of the former Sobek building, as part of the ongoing changes. As its name suggests, this is a French restaurant serving higher quality meals with a price to match. Unless you choose the cheapest options for each course, you would normally have to allow about LE300 per person for three courses and a drink here, although there are chef special menus each day, which provide three courses for around LE200. There are also multi-meal deals which offer one three-course meal here, one barbecue on the terrace outside the Jolie Ville restaurant and one buffet in the JV, all for LE375. That is LE375 each, so if there are two of you, you will need to buy two of the meal packages. This is fair value for the 'La Fleur' part, but it does mean that you are stuck with a couple of the JV buffets. You can get three really good meals in town for much less than LE375.

The third main indoor restaurant is Zigolini, which promises authentic Italian lunches and dinners. It will be to the south (up river side) of the other restaurants, also in the building that used to be the Sobek Hall, but although the conversion is finished and the restaurant appears ready to go, it had not opened when we last visited in January 2012. A Nubian House was once promised, providing one of the part-time specialist dining opportunities but that does not exist yet, either, and mention of it has been dropped from some literature..

Additionally, there are outside restaurants throughout the island. The 'Sherazade Terrace' is the original outside restaurant and is essentially an outdoor Nile-side extension to the Jolie Ville. You can take breakfast here, too. The Nakheel Terrace serves the infinity pool and the Nily restaurant is next to the Horizon pool. So you never have to go far from the pool or your lounger for a drink or snack. Staff from these outside restaurants provide pool-side waiter service.

Prices of all meals are on the high side, as you might expect for a hotel without local competition: overall about 40% higher than the better restaurants in town for most snacks and meals or two-to-three times higher for La Fleur. As food and drinks are a little expensive by local standards, many guests choose to stay on a bed and breakfast basis and to eat in town. If you do not linger over your evening meal, the 7pm bus into the 'restaurant area' in the south of Luxor (get off at the Isis hotel) and returning on the 9.15, will give you about two hours dining time. If you want longer, the savings compared with hotel prices will easily cover the cost of the taxi.

As well as the outdoor restaurants, you can get drinks and some snacks from three bars. The old King's bar has been recreated as the Ascot bar, to the right (as you face the Nile) of the Jolie Ville restaurant. You can get to it from the front, from the Sherazade Terrace or from inside the Jolie Ville restaurant. There is also a lobby bar in the Reception building; a 'Moga Bar' next to the Horizon pool and, very occasionally, 'Sunset Island': an enlarged area at the end of the pier in front of the Sherazade Terrace. All in all, plenty of opportunities for refreshments without having to go too far, wherever on the Island you happen to be.

The original guest rooms are arranged in 21 clusters of bungalows on both sides of the restaurant. The bungalows are not detached individual structures, but octagonal blocks divided into 16 wedges, each of which is a guest room. Each bungalow has its own terrace with lounger and chairs. Most of the bungalows have been refurbished and even the basic, lowest cost ones are now very well equipped with LCD TV showing over 50 channels for many nationalities; in-room safe; complimentary tea & coffee; complimentary Wi-Fi and cable internet access; plenty of storage space and a well-fitted bathroom. Some bathrooms have a shower over small bath but others have shower only, so be sure to mention a preference when booking. Unusually, you can't lock or bolt the bathroom door.

The standard of refurbishment is good in terms of the facilities offered, although the standard of work may cause the fastidious to grimace: bathroom wall tiles are not well applied; grout is missing in places; switch and and socket plates are not lined up, even some televisions are not level, and so on. Small points, but a huge amount must have been spent on the work and we think that better attention to detail could have produced a better job at the same cost. Although we have not ourselves experienced anything more serious, we have heard others complaining about problems such as gaps in the structure and intermittent failure of the hot water supply, quite possibly attributable to a work programme dictated by speed or cost - or poor choice of contractor - rather than quality. Pity.

We have not tested the wi-fi throughout the site, but we have found the signal to be poor, and to drop out completely, in places. Of course, the effect of this will depend on the sensitivity of the modem in your computer as well as the signal strength of the hotel's router. Possibly for the same signal strength reasons we found the internet connection could become very slow. Try it where you are but if you have the same experience it is worth going to the Reception building, where the signal is generally better. If the connection is not good for you, and if you are sending lots of emails, it may be best to stack them in your outbox and to go to the Reception building for a 'send session'.

The in-room safes in all the rooms we have used are securely fixed to a shelf in the wardrobe, but the shelf itself lifts out! Anyone with access to the room can remove the safe on its shelf. Once taken away, they only have to try 9999 combinations to open it. Not very secure really. If you have anything really valuable, it would be better to leave it in the safe at main reception.

Tea and coffee facilities are fine, but standard supplies seem to be limited to one sachet each of coffee and creamer and one tea bag per person per day.

There are some nice touches. You can order your own style of pillow, in 5 levels of hardness. We found that even the softest was quite firm and very thick, so if you are one of the increasing number of travellers who prefer to take their own favourite pillow, we think you might still like to do that. Another nice touch is that there is an electric socket that will take a variety of plug types, including the british 13amp square plug and the three-pin 5 amp round (but not the Indian or South African 15 amp round).

There are ten new two-storey blocks to the south (left as you face the Nile) of the adult pool and restaurant area. These have essentially the same amenities as the refurbished original bungalows, but provide more space. Unfortunately the quality of the build is as bad as the refurbishment, so there are reports of issues from time to time. The new flats (they are still called 'bungalows' by the hotel despite their 2 levels) surround a new 'Horizon' pool, heated in winter, and small 'Nily' outdoor restaurant and 'Moga' bar. The Horizon pool is similar to the Infinity pool, but even larger, complete with a children's area, slides and play equipment.

Between this cluster of flats and the Nile, at the southern tip of Kings Island, are three 'Royal villas', each with their own Jacuzzi pool. These villas can be rented for 10,000 USD a day, but daytime-only use can be reserved for 50 euros per couple per day if you are a Jolie Ville resident. Add 15 euros per person per day if you are not. The hotel expects the villas to be used by short-stay guests of residents or by one of a couple getting married who want to stay apart until the big day.

The hotel has massive grounds covering 163 acres (660,000 Sq M) with a long Nile frontage: much more space than you could hope for in any hotel closer to town and much more also than Luxor's two other out-of-town hotels, the Sofitel and the Hilton. As well as providing opportunities for strolling along the Nile or amongst the trees, the grounds hide tennis and other sports facilities for the energetic. For the more restful there is a relaxing area beside the Nile where classical music is played as the sun sets.

The Jolie Ville has a much-praised club for children. It provides activities as well as pool areas and play equipment in separate parts of the Infinity and Horizon pools.

The delightful 'Infinity' pool itself, like the Horizon pool, is heated in winter. Both of these pools are close to the edge of the Nile but at a higher level so there is an illusion that you are swimming in the Nile itself. So mum and dad can relax in one of the main pools within site of the little ones - and there are usually lifeguards on duty too.

As well as this and the Infinity and Horizon pools, there is also a separate adult only 'Relaxing' pool nearer the main restaurant and some distance from the children's, Infinity and Horizon pools for those who want to swim in a quieter environment.

The hotel advertises an extensive range of activities including the usual aerobic and other pool and sporting events, but also including tours of various parts of the hotel and basic arabic lessons. Don't expect all of the advertised events to happen! We have abandoned waits in the appointed place for basic arabic and have waited in vein for internal tours. If you particularly want to participate in any of the events, it is best to confirm your interest with Customer Services in the Reception lobby, just to make sure someone knows they have a customer or at least to avoid a pointless wait.

The 'Fellah's tent' is in the grounds of the hotel. This is the destination of the drinking, eating and culture show trip offered by tour agents. These evenings are popular and generally praised by those who like that sort of thing. The Fellah's Tent has been near the northern tip of the island for a very long time. There was a plan to move it to a new location close to the zoo on the south-east side, although there is no sign of that happening.

The zoo has also been moved from beside the Nile, in the infinity pool area, where it used to house the Mövenpick crocodile, to the south-east edge of the site. It has also been improved considerably, providing much more spacious accommodation for the residents, which include 'petting animals' such as goats, as well as camels and big birds. Although better than before, you have to question whether keeping animals in restricted (albeit improved) space has anything to do with a holiday in Egypt, and whether any pleasure it may give some visitors will be outweighed by the displeasure of others.

Impressive facilities include a huge fitness and spa building with extensive facilities, free for residents; chargeable chiropody and hairdressing and a clinic. All in all, the Jolie Ville is almost a village on its own island.

'Old timers' have expressed some concern that the extension of the hotel would spoil what had been a quiet, uncrowded and restful holiday island. Although we have enjoyed the old hotel since its Mövenpick days, and although we were ourselves uncertain about the effect of the extension, we now think it has been well done and that the extra facilities provided, including the increase in pool and dining space, will put most minds to rest on this point. Although there are more guest rooms, the guests will be more spread out, so crowding is less likely to be an issue. There is already a tendency for guests in the 2 storey blocks to use the Horizon pool and Nily restaurant, whilst the residents of the bungalows incline to the Infinity pool, for example. A possible exception is the Jolie Ville restaurant which, despite having two separate food collection areas at busy times, can become rather hectic when the hotel is busy, especially when large (sometimes possibly 100 - 200) day groups arrive for a meal as part of a tour.

There was also some concern about the loss of open space, including the old bird-watching areas. Bird life does not appear to have been adversely affected by the expansion of the hotel, although there is certainly not as much open space or bird habitat as there used to be.

If all this geography sounds complicated, there are boards all over the grounds which have maps of the island to help visitors to get around and find the building they want. A copy of a similar map, kindly supplied by Martin Smale, is here. Close the page with the map to come back to this page.

Some new features were not yet available when we were last at the Jolie Ville in January 2012. One is the promise of the map of the island and other hotel and sightseeing information on the room TVs. Most of the information pages on the TVs just refer you to a telephone number. The room bill feature on the room TVs does work!

The walk along the main part of the Nile itself is still pleasant, but the extra leg along the tributary that makes the grounds into an island, between the Nile and the access bridge, appears rather neglected. The pathway itself is broken in places and needs careful navigation. Shaded benches along the route are welcome, but there are no 'hides' for devoted bird watchers, of which the hotel attracts quite a few.

In our experience, the Jolie Ville have excellent staff. In some other hotels, management can be hard to find and difficult to identify and some administrative staff can be officious. Not so at the Jolie Ville, where everyone from the very visible hotel manager, other management and operational staff are available, keen to make you feel welcome and to do what is necessary to make your stay as good as it can be.

If you want to be out of town and if you are happy with the concept of a hotel that is a collection of bungalows and flats rather than a single building, and especially if you are bringing children to Luxor, then we think you will be pleased with the Jolie Ville with its plentiful amenities, for a quieter and more hassle-free holiday than you could hope to get in Luxor town centre or the southern cluster hotels - but do think about going our for your main meal for better quality and much, much better prices.

 

Review updated January 2012