5-Day Akhnaton Dahabiya Nile Cruise from Esna to Aswan

The Elephantine is a dahabiya in the eighteenth-century manner — hand-built, timber-framed, and carrying only eleven suites, so there are never more than a couple of dozen people aboard. Panoramic windows run the length of the cabins and the wooden terraces are furnished with real Egyptian pieces rather than hotel fittings.

What the size buys you is access and quiet. The Elephantine moors at islands and villages the 150-cabin ships cannot reach, and where they raft up three deep in a working port, she ties to a bank. This five-day sailing runs Luxor to Aswan and covers the temples everyone comes for — Karnak, the Valley of the Kings, Edfu, Kom Ombo, Philae — at a pace that leaves room for a felucca ride and an afternoon in the spice market.

The Iris is a traditional Nile boat fitted out for comfort rather than volume: classic lines, modern cabins, and few enough guests that the crew learn your name on the first afternoon. She travels at the speed the wind and the current allow, which is the point — the temples are the same ones the big ships visit, but you arrive at them without a queue.

The route runs Luxor to Aswan over five days. Karnak and Luxor Temple on the first afternoon, the Valley of the Kings and Hatshepsut on the second, Edfu and Kom Ombo from the water, and Aswan with Philae and the High Dam at the end. Meals are cooked on board and eaten on deck.

The Queen Nefer is a small hand-built dahabiya with a handful of cabins and a crew who cook, sail and look after a dozen or so guests at a time. There is no schedule to keep beyond the wind, no announcements, and no queue at the gangway.

Because she is small she can tie up where the large ships cannot: at Gebel el-Silsila among the old quarries, off an island at Wadi El Shat, on the bank at Maniha where the crew light a fire after dinner. The route runs Esna to Aswan over five days and takes in El Kab, Edfu, Kom Ombo and the camel market at Daraw.

The Agatha is a dahabiya built for people who would rather look at the river than at a schedule. Comfortable cabins, personal service and a large open terrace, with none of the scale of the floating hotels that work the same stretch of water.

Six days from Esna to Aswan gives room for the things a four-day cruise has to cut: the Temple of Khnum sunk below the streets of Esna, the old capital at El Kab, the quarries of Gebel el-Silsila that no large ship can reach, and a full day with nothing scheduled at all except sailing, swimming and walking the bank.

The Meroe is one of the roomier dahabiyas on the river. Recently refitted, she has unusually large cabins and suites, a properly furnished saloon and a panoramic terrace big enough that you can sit apart from the other guests when you want to.

The cooking is done on board and the guiding is private, and the six-day run from Esna to Aswan is paced so that there is a whole day with nothing in it but the river. Along the way: the Temple of Khnum at Esna, the old capital at El Kab, Edfu, the rock temple and quarries at Gebel el-Silsila, and the double temple at Kom Ombo.

The Malouka was built in 2008 with ten cabins and a limit of twenty passengers, which puts her at the larger end of the dahabiya fleet without turning her into a ship. The difference shows in the cabins and in the outdoor space: there is room to spread out on deck rather than sit shoulder to shoulder.

She sails Esna to Aswan over six days, calling at the temples of Khnum, Nekhbet at El Kab, Horus at Edfu and the double sanctuary at Kom Ombo, and mooring at Gebel el-Silsila, which only small boats can reach. One full day is left open for sailing, swimming and a walk in the desert.