5.0 on Tripadvisor Licensed by the Ministry of Tourism and AntiquitiesMinistry licensed guides On the river since 2011 Luxor and Aswan, every week
Egypt, planned properly. When to come, what it costs, what you will actually see, and what a day on the river feels like — written by the people who run the boats, not copied from a brochure.
Upper Egypt is dry all year. The only real variable is heat. These are average daytime highs in Luxor.
Summer sailings are the quietest and the best value — temples early in the morning, the sundeck and the water for the rest of the day. See the full month by month guide, with Aswan and night temperatures.
From the Mediterranean coast down to Lake Nasser, roughly in the order the country runs. A Nile cruise reaches most of them without a single suitcase being repacked.
A Roman column and two granite sphinxes on a hill above the city. Alexandria is the one part of Egypt that feels Mediterranean rather than pharaonic.
Forty-five centuries old and still the largest thing any of us has built by hand. Half a day, early.
The whole Tutankhamun collection together for the first time, in sight of the pyramids themselves.
Two thousand years of pharaohs adding to one building. The hypostyle hall alone holds 134 columns.
Best after dark, when the colonnade is lit and the town is out walking. Ten minutes from the moorings.
Sixty-odd tombs cut into the rock, the painted ceilings still holding their colour.
Three terraces built straight into the cliff for Egypt’s most successful female pharaoh.
The best preserved temple in Egypt, and a double one shared by two gods, right on the water.
Still lying in the quarry where it cracked, part-cut from the bedrock. It explains how the others were made better than any museum can.
Moved stone by stone to its own island to save it from the water. You arrive by boat.
Four colossal Ramses figures carved into a mountain. An early start from Aswan, and worth every minute.
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Every ship we work with sails the same river and visits the same temples. What changes is the cabin, the deck and the table.
Prices are per person for the whole cruise, based on two sharing a cabin. Not per night.
Tea on deck, then away to the temples while the light is still low and the site is still empty.
Two or three hours walking the site with a guide who reads the walls rather than reciting dates.
Lunch as the ship pulls out. The bank moves past at walking pace — villages, buffalo, palm, the desert behind it.
The best hours of the day. Nothing to do and nowhere to be until the ship ties up.
Half past seven in winter, eight in summer. Then a lit temple, a Nubian band, or the deck and the stars. Whichever you feel like.
Most visitors buy a 30-day tourist visa. It costs $30 single entry — either online as an e-visa before you fly, or at the bank desk in the arrivals hall before passport control. A multiple-entry visa is $65. Your passport needs six months left on it.
The e-visa is the calmer option: apply a week or two ahead, print the approval, and walk straight to the immigration desk.
The currency is the Egyptian Pound. Hotels, ships and larger restaurants take cards; markets, taxis, the man with the donkey cart and every tip do not. Draw pounds from an ATM at the airport rather than changing money at home — the rate is better and the notes are current.
Tipping worries visitors more than anything else on this list, and it should not. In Egypt we tip each other constantly. It is ordinary courtesy, not a foreign custom being performed at you.
It matters here because for most people working in tourism a tip is not a bonus on top of wages. It is part of the income they live on. That is why someone will often wait beside you after doing something for you.
Guideline amounts for your guide, your driver and the boat crew are written on your itinerary, so you are never guessing. If you would rather hear the numbers from a person, ask us before you travel and we will tell you exactly what is normal.
Drink bottled or filtered water only, and use it for brushing your teeth too. On board, water and ice are safe.
Eat hot food that arrives hot, and fruit you peel yourself. Egyptian cooking is one of the better reasons to come — be adventurous with the kitchen, careful with the street.
No vaccinations are required for entry from most countries, but check with your own doctor before you travel. Bring any prescription medicine with you in its original box.
Most itineraries fly Cairo to Luxor or Aswan — about an hour, several times a day. The sleeper train is the slow, romantic alternative; the road is not worth it.
Once you are on the ship, the ship does the travelling. Transfers, coaches and site entry are arranged for you; you carry a camera and a bottle of water.
Four or five days covers Luxor, Edfu, Kom Ombo and Aswan properly, and that is what most people book. Seven-night sailings run in both directions and are quoted on request. Add Cairo at one end and Abu Simbel at the other and you have seen the country.
No. Every price on this site is per person for the whole cruise, based on two people sharing a cabin. It includes the cabin, full board, the guided visits listed on the ship’s page, and your Egyptologist.
You can walk into any site alone. You will see the stone and miss the story. A good Egyptologist is the difference between photographing a wall and reading it, and ours are included.
Your guide stays on board with you on most sailings. When the ship has no cabin free, he follows it along the river and meets you at every site, so the programme runs exactly the same either way.
Cabin, all meals on board, the sightseeing programme printed on each ship’s page, entrance fees where stated, and guiding. Flights, visa, drinks, tips and optional excursions such as the balloon or Abu Simbel are extra unless the page says otherwise.
Yes — that is most of what we do. Tell us the dates, the number of people and roughly the standard you want, and we will put an itinerary together and price it.
We will send back two or three ships that actually fit, with real prices for your dates.
