A dahabiya and a cruise ship sail the same river, past the same temples, over the same three or four nights. Almost everything else about them is different: the size, the pace, the sound, what a day feels like, and what you pay. Here is how we would choose, having put guests on both for years.
- A cruise ship carries somewhere between a hundred and two hundred guests, has a pool, a restaurant, a bar and a timetable. A dahabiya carries twenty at most and moves at the speed of the wind.
- The ships are the easier trip and the better value. The dahabiya is the quieter, more personal one, and it costs noticeably more per person.
- Same temples, same licensed Egyptologist, same route. You are choosing how you travel, not what you see.
What a dahabiya actually is
A dahabiya is a two-masted sailing boat, wide and shallow, built the way the Nile was travelled before engines. Ours is the Swan: ten cabins and two suites, twenty guests at most, cabins of 24 square metres with windows onto the river. There is no engine under your feet. When the wind drops, a small tug takes over, and the boat moors for the night at islands and stretches of bank where the big ships cannot go.
It is a proper boat with proper cabins and bathrooms. People sometimes imagine something closer to camping, and it is not that. It is a small hotel that happens to be quiet and to move.
What a cruise ship actually is
A Nile cruise ship is a floating hotel. Three to five decks, forty to seventy cabins, a sundeck with a pool, a restaurant, a lounge bar, and on most of the ships we use a spa and a gym as well. The standard, deluxe and luxury categories differ in the finish and the food, not in the shape of the trip. Every ship we work with is five-star.
Ships keep to a timetable, sail for a few hours each day and moor at the town quays in Luxor, Edfu, Kom Ombo and Aswan, usually alongside other ships.
Where the two really differ
Pace
On a ship the excursions run to the clock: out around half past six, back for lunch, sailing by one. On the dahabiya the same visits happen, but the day has more give in it. The boat leaves when the wind is right and stops when the light is good. If you like knowing what happens at ten o’clock, take the ship. If you like not knowing, take the dahabiya.
Company
Twenty people against a hundred and fifty. On the dahabiya you will know everyone’s name by the second evening. On a ship you can disappear into a corner of the sundeck and nobody will notice. Neither is better. They suit different people.
Where you sleep at night
Ships moor at the quays, often three or four abreast, so you may walk through another ship’s lobby to reach the shore. The dahabiya moors at a quiet bank with nothing around it but palms and the sound of the water. This is the single thing our dahabiya guests talk about most afterwards.
What is on board
The ship has the pool, the gym, the spa, two bars and an evening programme. The dahabiya has a shaded deck, cushions, a good cook and quiet. If your children need a pool at four in the afternoon, that decides it.
The cabins
Closer than you would expect. A standard ship cabin is usually around 22 square metres; the Swan’s are 24. Both have a window onto the river, a private bathroom and air conditioning. Ship suites are larger than anything on a dahabiya.
The temples
Identical. Karnak, Luxor Temple, the Valley of the Kings, Hatshepsut, Edfu, Kom Ombo, Philae. The same licensed Egyptologist guides both, and both include every entrance fee and transfer in the programme. Read how the two directions differ if you have not yet decided which way to sail.
The price
The dahabiya costs noticeably more per person. Twenty guests are sharing a boat and a crew that a ship shares among a hundred and fifty, and that is where the difference comes from. It is not a markup on the same thing; it is a smaller thing. Current prices are on each boat’s page.
Who should take which
Take a ship if it is your first time in Egypt, if you are travelling with children, if you want the pool and the facilities, or if the budget matters. It is the trip most people should do first, and it is a very good trip.
Take the dahabiya if you are two, if the occasion is one you want to remember, if you have done the ship already, or if quiet matters more to you than a spa. Photographers tend to choose it, and so do people who have had enough of hotels.
Departures
The Swan leaves Aswan on Fridays for three nights and Luxor on Mondays for four. The ships leave Aswan on Wednesdays and Luxor on Saturdays. Tell us your dates and we will tell you what is sailing.
The prices for both sit side by side in how much a Nile cruise costs.
