Three nights, four nights or the full week. The question comes up in almost every enquiry, and the honest answer is that three nights already shows you everything. The extra nights change how the trip feels, not what it contains. Here is what each length actually gives you.
- Three nights, Aswan to Luxor, covers every major temple between the two cities. Nothing is missed.
- Four nights, Luxor to Aswan, covers the same ground with more room to breathe and more time on the water.
- Seven nights is the two itineraries back to back. The temples are seen once; the rest is river.
Three nights: everything, briskly
The three-night cruise runs from Aswan to Luxor and leaves on Wednesdays. Day one is Aswan, with Philae, the Unfinished Obelisk and a felucca. Day two is Kom Ombo and Edfu. Day three is the whole of Luxor in one day: the Valley of the Kings, Hatshepsut and the Colossi of Memnon in the morning, Karnak and Luxor Temple in the afternoon. Day four you disembark after breakfast.
It is complete. There is no temple on the classic route that the three-night cruise skips. What it does not have is slack. The Luxor day in particular is long, and in summer it is hard work.
Choose it if you are short of time, if you are combining the cruise with Cairo and the Red Sea, or if you would rather spend the extra day somewhere else.
Four nights: the same, without the rush
The four-night cruise runs from Luxor to Aswan and leaves on Saturdays. It sees the same temples, but Luxor is split across two mornings, the ship passes through the Esna lock, and there is a full sailing afternoon that the three-night version does not have.
The extra night is mostly extra river. That sounds like a small thing until you have spent an afternoon on the sundeck watching the bank go past with nothing to do. For a lot of people that afternoon is the reason they came.
Choose it if this is your first Nile cruise, if you have the day to spare, or if you are travelling in the hotter months and want the sightseeing spread thinner.
Seven nights: the round trip
The week is the two cruises joined together, sailing one way and then back, without changing ship. The temples are visited once. The return leg is sailing, with the sundeck, the meals and the river, and most people treat it as the holiday part of the holiday.
It suits people who want to slow right down, who have been to Egypt before, or who simply like being on a boat. It is not the right choice if your aim is to see as much of the country as possible in the time you have; the second half adds hours on the water, not new places.
We price the week on request, because it depends on the ship and the season. Ask us and we will send the day-by-day.
What people add on
Whichever length you choose, the same three things get added most often. Abu Simbel is a day trip from Aswan, leaving before dawn. A balloon flight over the West Bank lifts off at first light from Luxor. And Cairo, with the pyramids and the Grand Egyptian Museum, goes before or after the cruise, which is what our tour packages are built around.
None of these need the seven-night cruise. A three- or four-night cruise with Cairo either side is the most common shape of a first trip, and it fits in eight to ten days.
How to decide
If you only have a few days on the river, take the three nights. You will see it all.
If you can spare one more, take the four. It is the version we would choose for a first visit.
If time is not the constraint and you want the river more than the list, take the week.
And if you are torn between the two directions rather than the two lengths, that is a separate question, and we have written it up: Luxor to Aswan or Aswan to Luxor. The boats themselves, from standard to luxury and the Swan dahabiya, all sail both lengths. And if it is the money you are weighing rather than the days, we have set out what a Nile cruise actually costs, class by class. If Cairo is part of the plan, Egypt tours with a Nile cruise covers how many days the whole trip needs.
Once you have settled on the number of nights, how to book a Nile cruise without overpaying covers the rest of the decisions, in order.
For what you actually see on each of those days, the Nile cruise itinerary goes through both routes site by site.
Once you know how many nights you want, the best time for a Nile cruise helps you pick the month.
