We stayed there for three nights while on a cruise in March. We found that there was not much to do, just boat trips on the river or a busy 'Hastle hastle hastle' market. There is not much to see at the dam, just soldiers.
Stay in Luxor instead, a brilliant place!

hi
we went on a 2 day trip down to aswan in january. we were based in luxor & it was our 2nd trip to egypt our first trip we went to cairo from luxor so this time thought we'd head off to aswan as i really wanted to go to abu simbel. we flew down to aswan for our stay & we were in the new cataract hotel it was fine but if i had a recommendation just for ambience it would be the old cataract hotel which is next door to the new cataract, beautiful old moorsh style building. both hotels have a gorgeous location overlooking the nile & elephantine island. as guests to the new cataract we could have a drinks on the beautiful terrace of the old c hotel & we really enjoyed sitting there. it was about a 10 min walk from these hotels down to the main strip on the nile.

personally i would prefer to stay in luxor as from there you have the option of going to cairo, seeing all luxors sights & going to aswan. we really enjoyed aswan and spent our time down in some cafe/bars right on the nile on the main drag where all the huge cruise ships park up. it was nice to sit in these places enjoy a drink where locals go too. i loved abu simbel & it was well worth the trip. there is a lot of hassle in aswan from felucca captains but it wasnt aggressive, i will say that there was much more hassle there from men staring at me overtly much more so than in luxor. i made sure i wore cropped trousers & covered up my strappy top with a jacket when we were walking around/left the bars but the men still would walk 2 paces in front of me staring at my covered up chest saying'lovely lady,lucky man etc etc, oblivious to the fact that i was holding hands with my husband & he was on the verge of exploding into violence!!!!! but apart from that in still enjoyed seeing somewhere else different in egypt. i would have liked to stay maybe abnother 2 days ( we were there for 2 nights 3 days) but that would have been enough. there was not so many tourists wandering aound the toursits we saw all seemed to shelter in their big crusie ships & allow themselves to be herded off to the sights without really venturing around aswan which was a shame, as the locals we met ( not the leery ones) were very friendly & welcoming.

i dont know much about the 2 hotels you mentioned but be aware one hotel in aswan ( not sure which ) is possibly the most incredible blot on a beautiful landscape i have ever seen, it is on the other side of the nile from the town & has what looks like an airport control tower at the front & is unfinished - horrible

aswan & abu simbel airports were an experience to say the least, chaos would be a complete understatement but we just laughed & didnt let it spoil a great little trip.

if you have any specific q's about aswan please let me know (post or pm) & i'll do my best to answer for you i can also send some pics to an email if wanted to give an idea of what its like round aswan.

We went to Aswan last year, as part of a 3 centre (Cairo, Aswan, Luxor) holiday by air and loved it!

We stayed on the Isis Elephantine Island hotel. It does look a bit odd, but when you are on the island you don't have to look at it. It is really peaceful there with a large swimming pool and choice of restaurants etc.

We found Aswan to be much less 'touristy' than Luxor and more of a normal Egyptian town. The daily market is certainly a local affair, with more fruit and veg than tourist tat. Ther are also a couple of nice places to sit by the river - our favourite is a little bar/restaurant on a boat on the Nile - the EMY.

We went to Abu Simbel by minibus (hired our own from Thomas Cook). This was £50 each (cheaper than the £65 they ask for an excursion) and we went at 1030 not 0400!