6-Day Agatha Dahabiya Nile Cruise from Esna to Aswan
Overview
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.
Included
- Meet and assist on arrival by a Best Egypt Tour representative.
- Transfers by private, modern, air-conditioned vehicle.
- 5 nights aboard the Agatha 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:
6 Days - Esna / Aswan
Embarkation at Esna and the Temple of Khnum
The trip starts at Esna, south of Luxor, where the Agatha's crew meet you at the dock and take you aboard. Before sailing there is time for a guided walk through the town's markets, which are working markets rather than tourist ones, and a look at the weaving the place is known for.
You visit the Temple of Khnum, which sits several metres below the modern street because the town has risen around it over two thousand years. Dinner is served on board.
Meals: lunch, dinner. Overnight: moored at Esna.
El Kab and Edfu — old capitals and standing temples
After a quiet morning under sail you reach El Kab, capital of Upper Egypt long before Thebes existed. You walk up through a fishing village to the temple of Nekhbet and the tombs cut into the cliff behind it.
The boat then carries on to Edfu for the Temple of Horus — pylon, court, hypostyle hall and sanctuary all still standing, which is why it is the temple Egyptologists send you to first.
Meals: breakfast, lunch, dinner. Overnight: moored near Edfu.
A day on the river: swimming and rock carvings
This day is given over to the Nile itself. Breakfast is served in the open air while the boat moves at walking pace between the banks. In the afternoon there is a stop at a quiet island where you can swim in the river or walk the shore.
Towards evening you can go ashore to look at the rock carvings above the water, some of them older than the temples you have been visiting.
Meals: breakfast, lunch, dinner. Overnight: moored at an island.
Gebel el-Silsila: quarries and sacred places
You wake at the narrowest point on the Nile, where the cliffs press in on both sides. Early in the morning — before the heat and long before any large ship could get here — you visit Gebel el-Silsila and walk the sandstone quarries that supplied Karnak, Luxor and Edfu.
The chapels cut into the rock face carry the names of Seti I, Ramses II, Merenptah and Horemheb. Very few visitors ever see them.
Meals: breakfast, lunch, dinner. Overnight: moored on the river.
Kom Ombo: the double temple and the crocodile museum
The Agatha sails on to Kom Ombo, where the temple stands on a bend of the river with the water almost at its steps. It is the only major Egyptian temple built for two gods at once: Sobek the crocodile on one side, Haroeris the falcon on the other, each with its own doorway and its own sanctuary.
Next door the crocodile museum holds the mummified animals recovered from the surrounding tombs.
Meals: breakfast, lunch, dinner. Overnight: moored at Kom Ombo.
Arrival and disembarkation at Aswan
On the last morning the desert closes in around the river as the boat comes up to Aswan. Breakfast is served on deck, and the journey ends at the Aswan bridge, where you disembark and are transferred to your hotel or onward connection.
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 Iris Dahabiya Nile Cruise from Luxor to Aswan
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.
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 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.