The Nile cruise is the part of an Egypt itinerary people are most curious and most uncertain about. Here is the honest version.
A Nile cruiser is not a cruise ship. Most carry between forty and a hundred passengers, have a sun deck with a small pool, and tie up alongside one another at each stop, sometimes three or four deep.
That last detail surprises people. You may well walk through two other boats to reach the shore, and your window may look onto someone else’s cabin for a night. It is entirely normal and much less annoying than it sounds.
The route
Almost all cruises run between Luxor and Aswan, in one direction or the other, over three or four nights. Northbound and southbound cover the same sites in a different order; neither is better, though southbound tends to end more restfully.
The fixed stops are Esna lock, the temple of Horus at Edfu, and the double temple of Kom Ombo. Karnak, Luxor temple and the west bank are done from Luxor at one end, Philae and the High Dam from Aswan at the other.
The rhythm of a day
Early start for a temple, back aboard by mid-morning, sail through the middle of the day with lunch and the sun deck, a second site in the late afternoon, dinner at anchor. It is a slower pace than a land itinerary and most travelers are grateful for it by day three.
What the sailing is actually like
This is the part that sells the trip. The banks are close, agricultural and almost entirely unchanged: date palms, sugar cane, water buffalo, small brick villages, children waving from the shore. Several hours a day on deck watching that go past is not filler, it is the reason to go.
Choosing a boat
The differences between boats are mostly cabin size, food and how full they are, rather than the itinerary. A smaller, older dahabiya sails under canvas, carries a dozen people, moors in quieter places and takes longer. A modern cruiser is more comfortable and more sociable.
Tell us which of those two you would rather have and the rest of the itinerary can be built to match.
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