6-Day Meroe Dahabiya Nile Cruise from Esna to Aswan
Overview
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.
Included
- Meet and assist on arrival by a Best Egypt Tour representative.
- Transfers by private, modern, air-conditioned vehicle.
- 5 nights aboard the Meroe 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
Esna: boarding and the Temple of Khnum
The journey begins at Esna, about fifty-three kilometres south of Luxor. You board the Meroe, meet the crew who will be with you all week, and settle into a cabin noticeably larger than the dahabiya average.
Esna is a market town first and a temple town second. You visit the Temple of Khnum, the ram-headed god who was said to have shaped humanity on a potter's wheel, now standing in a pit below the level of the modern streets.
Meals: lunch, dinner. Overnight: moored at Esna.
El Kab and Edfu
The boat sails on to El Kab, once the capital of Upper Egypt and still home to the temple of Nekhbet, the vulture goddess of the south. A walk through a fishing village brings you to the tombs cut into the cliffs, with their painted scenes of daily life.
In the afternoon you continue to Edfu and the Temple of Horus, the most complete temple anywhere in Egypt.
Meals: breakfast, lunch, dinner. Overnight: moored near Edfu.
Sailing, swimming and the desert light
A day with nothing to catch. An optional walk at sunrise, then a long unhurried breakfast while the boat moves south under sail. The Meroe stops at a quiet island where you can swim in the river or walk the shore.
The afternoon is spent on deck watching the desert come down to the water on one side and the cultivation run green on the other.
Meals: breakfast, lunch, dinner. Overnight: moored at an island.
Gebel el-Silsila: the hidden temple and the quarries
You wake in the narrowest stretch of the Nile, mountains on either side. Here you visit the little-known rock temple of Horemheb and walk through the sandstone quarries that supplied the stone for the great temples downstream — a place large cruise ships pass without stopping.
The Meroe sails on south in the afternoon.
Meals: breakfast, lunch, dinner. Overnight: moored on the river.
Kom Ombo: crocodile gods and mummies
The boat reaches Kom Ombo, set on a bend of the river with the temple almost in the water. The building is unique in Egypt for being split down the middle between two gods — Sobek, shown as a crocodile, and Haroeris, shown as a falcon — with matching halves and two sanctuaries.
The museum beside it displays the crocodile mummies found in the tombs nearby.
Meals: breakfast, lunch, dinner. Overnight: moored at Kom Ombo.
Aswan: arrival and disembarkation
The Meroe comes into Aswan through the desert landscape that frames the southern river. After breakfast you disembark and are transferred to your address in the city, or to the airport or station for the next leg of your trip.
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 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 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.