5-Day Iris Dahabiya Nile Cruise from Luxor to Aswan
Overview
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.
Included
- Meet and assist on arrival by a Best Egypt Tour representative.
- Transfers by private, modern, air-conditioned vehicle.
- 4 nights aboard the Iris Dahabiya on a full-board basis.
- All the sightseeing listed in the itinerary, privately guided.
- A qualified English-speaking Egyptologist throughout.
- Entrance fees to every site named in the itinerary.
- Bottled water during the excursions.
- All service charges and taxes.
Excluded
- International and domestic flights.
- Your Egyptian entry visa.
- Optional excursions not named in the itinerary.
- Personal expenses.
- Tipping for the guide, driver and crew.
Itinerary:
5 Days - Luxor / Aswan
Boarding at Luxor and the East Bank
You are welcomed aboard the Iris at Luxor and shown to a cabin with the river filling the window. Lunch is cooked on board and served before you go ashore.
The afternoon covers the East Bank: Karnak, two thousand years of building by successive pharaohs, and Luxor Temple, which is best seen late in the day when the light drops behind the colonnade and the avenue of sphinxes throws long shadows.
Meals: lunch, dinner. Overnight: moored at Luxor.
The West Bank of Luxor, then sailing towards Edfu
After breakfast you cross to the West Bank and the Valley of the Kings, where the tombs run deep into the hillside and the wall paintings are as sharp as the day they were sealed. You continue to the temple of Hatshepsut, built in terraces against the cliff at Deir el-Bahari, and stop at the Colossi of Memnon on the way back to the river.
The Iris then casts off and sails south towards Edfu, mooring for the night on the way.
Meals: breakfast, lunch, dinner. Overnight: moored on the river.
The temples of Edfu and Kom Ombo
The morning is given to the Temple of Edfu, raised for Horus and the best preserved temple in the country — the one place where you can walk the full sequence from pylon to sanctuary exactly as a priest would have.
Back aboard for lunch as the boat sails on to Kom Ombo, where the temple stands right at the water's edge and is split between two gods, Sobek and Haroeris. The crocodile museum beside it holds the mummified animals taken from the tombs nearby.
Meals: breakfast, lunch, dinner. Overnight: moored at Kom Ombo.
Aswan and the Nubian shore
Breakfast on deck, then into Aswan. You visit the High Dam, which holds back Lake Nasser and remade the whole southern reach of the river, and cross by motorboat to the temple of Philae, rescued from the rising water and rebuilt on the island of Agilkia.
You return to the Iris for the last dinner on board as the sun goes down behind the Nubian bank.
Meals: breakfast, lunch, dinner. Overnight: moored at Aswan.
Disembarkation in Aswan
After breakfast it is time to leave the Iris. Our representative meets you at the mooring and transfers you onward. If you have time before your next flight or train, an excursion to the rock-cut temples of Abu Simbel can be arranged.
Meals: breakfast.
End of services.
Notes:
5-Day Akhnaton Dahabiya Nile Cruise from Esna to Aswan
A dahabiya is the slow way to see the Nile, and the Akhnaton is one of the most comfortable of them. Built in the old style from timber and local materials, with hand-finished cabins and fine cotton bedding, she carries only a handful of guests, which is what makes the difference: she can moor at islands and quarry sites the large cruise ships sail straight past.
This five-day sailing runs from Esna up to Aswan. You visit Edfu and Kom Ombo like every Nile cruise does, but you also stop at El-Kab, at the rock chapels of Gebel el-Silsila, and at the camel market town of Daraw — and you spend the nights anchored off quiet islands rather than tied up in a busy port. Meals are cooked on board and served on deck, and the pace is set by the wind rather than a timetable.
5-Day Elephantine Dahabiya Nile Cruise from Luxor 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.
5-Day Queen Nefer Dahabiya Nile Cruise from Esna to Aswan
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.
6-Day Agatha Dahabiya Nile Cruise from Esna to Aswan
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.
6-Day Meroe Dahabiya Nile Cruise from Esna to Aswan
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.
6-Day Malouka Dahabiya Nile Cruise from Esna to Aswan
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.