Cruising the Nile from Luxor to Aswan
Let me remind you: I am not a cruiser. I would much rather idle away on land than board a floating petri dish. However, I recognize the fact that in some parts of the world, traveling by boat is the best way – and sometimes the only way – to truly experience the area. In Egypt, many of the top sites to visit are in Luxor and Giza, but there are a plethora of other wonderful sites in between Luxor and Aswan, located on the shores of the Nile – and cruising the Nile is the best option to see many of them. Lets be honest, sitting in a hot car or bus driving several hours in 100+ degree weather did not sound like fun. I also put on my epidemiology hat and did the math: traffic accidents are far, far more deadly in Egypt than cruise ships, and there were also two passenger train wrecks in Egypt the week we were there, so the odds were in our favor for the cruise.
So, how does a non-cruiser select the right cruise? And what are the options? Egypt has many options in fact – from tiny inexpensive feluccas where the presence of bathrooms is questionable, to the large fancy cruise ships with multiple stories, rooftop pools, and hundreds of passengers. I decided a smaller ship which could dock at the smaller ports and sites was a must, with few passengers, but also with the requirement of a decent on-board bathrooms of course. I looked hard at Noor el Nile, but ended up going with the Dahabiya owned by the tour guide company we used, Real Egypt. A Dahabiya is a smaller Egyptian sailboat which has the advantage of docking at smaller ports along the Nile. Typically these boats hold very few passengers (10-18 max). Our boat had 2 levels: a top deck with a covered seating area and small beverage station, a dining area, and plentiful lounge chairs both in sun and shade. On the bottom floor were rooms for the passengers and crew, as well as the kitchen. Due to the pandemic, we lucked out being the only 2 passengers on our boat (although our friends traveled in 2019 and also ended up as the sole passengers – per our guides, cruising numbers have been down since 2011 and there are a glut of boats). Since I found it hard to find details about any of the Nile cruises on line or in guide books, I thought I’d share our itinerary.
Day 1: Boarding the Dahabiya
After a morning touring the West Bank in Luxor, we drove about 1 hour to where our boat was docked. We were greeted with hibiscus tea and a spray of bleach for our shoes and luggage (I am glad they take cleanliness seriously…but also really regretting the dark grey color of luggage we brought….I guess we will never have trouble identifying our luggage in the airport again). Our room was a comfortable “suite” with a king bed, a surprisingly modern bathroom with tub/shower combo, and a small balcony out back.
Our crew spoke little English, but were incredibly friendly. We also had a guide from Real Egypt who joined us on the voyage. We were treated to a multi-course lunch of local stews, mezze, salads and pita, and then off we went. While March and April can see severe wind storms, we did not have the wind in our favor during our trip, so we had to be tugged with a tug boat most of our journey. As afternoon settled in, it was clear that this was going to be a vacation. There was no WiFi and no TV – just books to read, plenty of sunshine, and the shoreline of the Nile streaming by. Mid afternoon was “tea time” and we were served fruit and a pastry. Tea, instant coffee, and soft drinks were unlimited at a self-serve bar on the ship. Each day we would sail until close to sunset. On the first night, we docked on a small island for the night and took a short walk before sunset through the local village, while our crew broke their Ramadan fast. Two other boats sailing with us were also docked, each with just one couple on board (!) – it seemed comical for us each to have our own ship and crew, but it is the 2020 way of life I suppose – and I didn’t feel guilty that we were giving so many crew members a job and income for the week. Dinner started with soup, then roast chicken, roasted potatoes, french fries, a pasta, and several veggie salads.
One thing to know about the smaller ships is that they do not carry alcohol, though you can bring your own. We opted not to bring anything since we did not know if a refrigerator or ice was available, and hot beer or wine did not sound appealing. There was in fact a tiny communal refrigerator used for soft drinks which could have held a bottle or two. We decided it was probably good for us to just detox from everything (hah!), but if you do want to bring alcohol on board, the best place to stock up would be the duty free shop at the airport. We saw advertisements in the airport stating that one could continue to shop at the duty free shops within 48 hours of your flight, so even after an overnight in Cairo, we would have been able to purchase at the duty free shops on our way to Luxor.
Day 2: El Kab tombs & Edfu temple
After a short sail and a breakfast of crepes, various cheeses and yogurt, we arrived in a local village and took a 20 minute walk on a dirt road to the El Kab tombs. The tombs had housed many a traveler over subsequent millennia, but still contained well preserved documentation of ancient Egyptian life. One contained the oldest known depiction of a horse and chariot in Egypt. The walk to and from El Kab was along a large wall of mud brick remains, which were the remains of a large ancient city. Mud brick was cheap, easy, and plentiful for building. Back at the boat, lunch was waiting: an eggplant tahini dish that I wish I could re-create, roasted potatoes with dill, chunks of roasted beef with caramelized onion and peppers fajita style, a stew of tomato, green bean and carrot, and a spinach soup.
Shortly after lunch, we docked and took a carriage to get to our second stop of the day: Edfu temple, the second largest in Egypt next to Karnak temple. This temple had been vandalized by Christians hundreds of years ago, but was still impressive. The 30 meter high outer wall dwarfed us and the two other tourists visiting in the hot sun. Behind the outer wall, we visited the priest’s changing room and library, as well as my favorite: a room dedicated to the creation of perfumes and elixirs, with the recipes written on the wall in hieroglyphics. The beauty of heiroglyphics is that they are gorgeous works of art, but contain a ton of historical information. For example, one pillar’s heiroglyphics documented how they lifted a large obelisk from the ground to be positioned upright, using ropes to pull the top of the obelisk up, but also by digging the sand out underneath the bottom of the obelisk. One of the photos I took is a hieroglyphic of numbers that document number of stones used to build temple (1 million). The mud brick city located outside the temple exterior shows how far under sand this temple was buried under sand previously before it was excavated – and yes, they are still digging out). Currently, excavators are uncovering the workers areas outside the temple to include multiple workshops of the local craftsmen of the day. Outside the temple, the impact of low tourism, the pandemic, and the heat was apparent – no other tourists (a few big boats do come in the morning hours), and all of the little trinket shops closed while we were there.
That night, our crew treated us to a BBQ dinner on the beach with BBQ chicken served with tahini, a dish that resembled large artichoke hearts, roasted carrots, pasta, spicy meatballs, and soup. We savored the coolness of the evening while the crew set off fireworks for Ramadan.
Day 3: Stone Quarries
After a short morning sail during breakfast, we docked to visit the stone quarries on the West Bank. I made the mistake of wearing sandals – it was very hot walking through sand. We started out with a visit to the temples of the workers – they built tombs into the cliff side. We then walked along a portion of the quarries. You could see holes carved through rock where boats were able to tie to when the Nile flooded, to more easily load the enormous rock. The rock walls were dotted with pre-dynasty petroglyphs of animals, likely dating about 4000 years back.
Back on board, lunch was fried whole fresh-caught tilapia as well as a tomato based fish stew served over rice, and hummus – our favorite lunch yet. In the afternoon we stopped on an island so the crew could swim (with the thought of shistosomiasis looming, we avoided the water, tempting as it looked). The beauty of the day was watching all of the activity on the shores of the Nile. Countless farms, tiny donkeys carting giant loads of crops, and fisherman in small boats. At one point I zoomed in my camera to see a family with a camel tied in their yard and a little boy trying unsuccessfully to swing himself onto the camel. Our pulse slowed to a crawl. A few naps later, we were still digesting lunch when dinner was served.
Day 4: Koh Ombu Temple
We visited the temple of Koh Ombu in the morning. Only one other dahabiya was docked here, and the trinket shops were closed, so once again, we had the place to ourselves. Koh Ombu is a temple to the crocodile god. Crocodiles were very feared by the ancient Egyptians, and the thought was, if they worshiped them and treated them as gods, perhaps they wouldn’t kill humans. Crocodiles were given the royal treatment here: upon their death, they were mummified and buried in coffins, no different than a human. Thousands of mummified crocodiles are buried here. Among the beautiful depictions and heiroglyphics here was a calendar that depicted the entire year; in ancient times, each week was 10 days, there were 3 weeks per month, and 12 months per year. New Years was on July 22 with coincided with the flood of the Nile. A “nilometer” outside the temple measured water levels – the height of the flood determined weather taxes would be high or low (high waters meant better crops, and hence higher taxes). Another interesting piece was on the back wall, where a depiction showed the various medical tools used back in those times.
Back on board, our lunch was a spinach stew heavily seasoned with dill, a white bean and tomato stew, roasted beef, fried pita chunks drizzled with tahini, and a salad of peppers, artichoke heart, and onion. That afternoon, the wind cooperated and we finally got to see the crew open the sails and ditch the tug boat for a bit.
The cruise ends in Aswan, and the boats will actually dock in Aswan for the final night. We spent the final night on board docked near a large lawn where families were having picnics. I took a shower when we arrived (I was so pleasantly surprised at how nice the shower on our boat was), and unfortunately I opened the window of the bathroom for just a little bit….and of course, this was the one night the mosquitoes were terrible. They got into our bedroom and made for a pretty miserable night. The boat did come with mosquito repellent, but they were persistent. By morning, I was really wishing we could have gotten a hotel for our last night, but partly it was my fault for leaving the window open – we didn’t have any mosquitoes in our room until that last night. Be forewarned!
Day 5: Aswan
One last breakfast of crepes and it was time to disembark for a full day of sightseeing in Aswan. We saw the unfinished obelisk (it is so impressive how they would carve these huge obelisks out of a single stone and float them down the Nile) and drove up to the high dam, an engineering marvel. Next, we took a boat to Philae temple, which is just beautiful. I then subjected my poor husband to a camel ride up to the Saint Simon monastery. I really wanted to ride a camel in Egypt, but did not want to be subjected to the haggling of the camel owners at the Great Pyramids, so this looked like a good option. It was a family owned operation, with 5 camels, and a fixed price. The ride up was awesome, but fairly steep; this meant the ride down was also equally steep, and incredibly challenging for us novice camel riders – if you have ever ridden a horse up or down a steep hill, you know how you have to balance yourself carefully and it can almost feel like you are going to slide right down the horse’s neck going downhill – well, try a camel, where the “saddle” just has a tiny stick to hold on to, and the camel lurches side to side, and all I could see were giant rocks on either side of us as we lumbered down the hill. We all made it safely, but perhaps staying on flat ground would be best for a first camel ride…. it was still a pretty fun experience.
The major sites in Aswan could be crammed into one very full day after the end of your cruise, but I would recommend spending at least two days here to enjoy Elephantine island, take in some felucca rides, and just chill. Aswan is charming and picturesque, and worth lingering a bit. We stayed at the Sofitel Old Cataract hotel, another old luxurious British hotel but this one was more updated and modern than the Sofitel in Luxor, and had an unparalleled view of sunset (if not staying at the Old Cataract, I would absolutely take a taxi or felucca here for a sunset drink on the terrace).
Abu Simbel: A day trip from Aswan
Another reason to linger in Aswan a few more days after your cruise ends is to take a day trip to Abu Simbel. You can either take a short flight (recommended, if possible) or a long 3-4 hour drive each way. I wanted to fly, but the flights were limited due to the pandemic, so we drove. Abu Simbel is near the Sudan border, and the highway to get there is part of the major trucking highway connecting Africa. To know: as a tourist, you must register with the government at least 1 day in advance before traveling on this road, you must have a driver, you can only travel during daylight hours (5 am was the earliest we could depart), and you should have Dramamine on board if you get motion sick. The drive is not for the faint of heart – it is the same chaos as Cairo (i.e. the lane markers on the road are merely for decoration) but at high speed, with most driving between 60-100 mph, and smaller vehicles weaving in and out of semi trucks with reckless abandonment. I was hoping to be able to sleep on the drive since we departed so early, but instead found myself too anxious and instead tried to distract myself with books (hah!) from the near collisions happening ahead (our driver was reasonably safe, but the drivers ahead of us were not – and all I could think was, if one of them collided with a truck at 80 mph, they were taking us down with them). After accumulating a few more grey hairs on it, we arrived at Abu Simbel.
The temple of Abu Simbel is spectacular for two reasons: one, the beautiful and massive temples of Ramses II and Queen Nefertari carved into the side of a hill, with spectacular sculptures and decorations, and two, the fact that the entire thing had to be moved when the high dam was built. Abu Simbel was carved into a cliff and would have been completely submerged if not for being rescued by a coalition of multiple countries who put forth time and effort to painstakingly dismantle, transport, and reassemble the site onto dry land. Videos and pictures in the visitor’s center document the efforts that took place in moving this monument. Abu Simbel was also the first place where we had to contend with some crowds – wealthy Europeans dressed to the nines, as well as several influencers traveling solo with their photographers at hand. The two temples were some of our favorite memories of our trip, and absolutely worth the effort to see. In the Ramses II temple, the size and craftsmanship of the enormous statues outside the temple and the giant wall depicting a war scene on the inside (which is reportedly the largest work of art in the world depicting a battle). In Nefertari’s temple, it was the beautiful feminine cream-colored interior of the temple covered in gorgeous paintings and artwork that was the draw. We spent several hours taking it all in.
Bottom Line:
I thoroughly enjoyed the dahabiya cruise through Real Egypt. It was a great digital detox and a vacation from the vacation. The food was excellent, our crew was outstanding, and I enjoyed being able to stop at the smaller ports and sites along the way. It is also a wonderful way to get a feel of what life is like on the Nile, and I enjoyed being able to spend more time on the Nile as opposed to spending much of the cruise docked in Luxor as is the case on many of the larger ships. If you have trouble with navigating tiny steep stairs or are less physically fit, the I would probably opt for a larger cruise ship with fewer port stops. Two full days in Aswan/Abu Simbel was enough time to see everything we had wanted to see, but if we had the luxury of time, I would have loved to have spent more time in Aswan. I also might have looked into flying to Aswan and spending a night there to avoid the long drive.