|
The Auberge du Lac
Hotel, Fayoum Oasis
By Jimmy Dunn and
Diaa Khalil
With appreciation to South
Sinai Travel for some of the pictures.
 The Fayoum Oasis
is often advertised as a quieter, more relaxed, less crowded
destination in Egypt, but it is not really an oasis at all.
Rather the water from the Nile is diverted there, as it has been
for many centuries, to create a rich agricultural area.
But surprisingly, the Fayoum will not be found n
many tour itineraries, despite its rich pharaonic and
Greco-Roman heritage and attractions. While well known in
Egypt, and to Egyptian enthusiasts, casual tourists to Egypt
probably hardly know of its existence.
Like the Fayoum itself, we were surprised when we sent our
roaming
reporter, Diaa "Eye Candy" Khalil, out to find
the famous Auberge du Lac Hotel, and no one seemed to be
able to direct him to its location. While it is, hands
down, the best hotel in the area, it is nowhere to be
found on the Internet, and few guide books to Egypt even
mention it. Many that do, ignore its rich history.
 The Auberge du
Lac was built as a hunting lodge by King Farouk, and in its
hayday, having been converted to a hotel, has seen many famous
personalities cross its threshold, mostly for hunting parties.
But it also became a favored retreat for political figures, and
so, history tells us that King Ibn Saud and Winston Churchill
met at the hotel in 1945.
Today, the hotel is a four star resort, with many amenities
that can
 only
be found at the Auberge du Lac while visiting the Fayoum area.
These include bars and a snooker lounge, four restaurants, a
discotheque, tennis and squash courts, a fine health club
with a Turkish bath, both loofa and dry oil massage, and
not one, but two large swimming pools. It sits on Lake Karoun,
said to be the oldest lake in the world, but truly the oldest
man made lake, on which the hotel maintains its own port.
La Brasserie & Les Rois Restaurant
 Rooms
are comfortable, rather than luxurious, and include air
conditioning, private baths, minibars, color TV with in
house video, satellite connection and direct dial telephones.
However, it is not a bad idea to take a look at the room one is
supplied prior to moving in, as some appear to be better than
others.
The hotel will also set up extensive tours of the Fayoum, both
by land and boat, and if for some reason one is not inclined to
seek out the many monuments in the area, the Fayoum is also well
known as a bird reserve.
The Auberge du Lac Hotel
Lake Karoun, Fayoum, Egypt
Cairo Phone: (202) 358-2356
Cairo Fax: (202) 359-5717
Fayoum Phone: 084-70002 / 712730
Fayoum Fax: (084) 710730
Looking out past the Pigeon House to Lake Karoun
|
