The stretch of river between Luxor and Aswan carries more standing temples than anywhere else in Egypt, and a ship is still the most sensible way to see them: you sleep where you stopped, and the next site is alongside in the morning.
Four nights full board on a five-star ship with a pool and a sun deck, and a private Egyptologist ashore at every site.
Three nights, from $760 per person in a double cabin. Aswan to Luxor, the short version, enough to see the main temples and not much more.
Four nights, from $1,040. Luxor to Aswan, the classic run and the one most people mean. Karnak and the West Bank at one end, Philae at the other, Edfu and Kom Ombo between.
Seven nights, from $1,620. The round trip, which adds Dendera and Abydos on the way back north — two of the best-preserved temples in the country and two that almost no short cruise reaches. If you have the week, this is the one we would take.
Choose the length when you book and we confirm the price for it.
The ship carries other passengers and the excursions are scheduled by the ship. Your Egyptologist, though, is yours: you walk into Karnak with one person who knows it, not in a block of forty behind a raised umbrella. You stop where you want. You ask the second question.
This is the popular route and in high season it is busy. Edfu and Kom Ombo receive the convoys at the same hours because the ships travel together, and there is no way around that on a large boat. What we can do is get you in at the beginning or the end of the window rather than the middle.
The mornings are early. The temples are visited before the heat, which is right for the temples and hard on people who wanted a holiday lie-in.
People who want comfort, a pool and a proper cabin, and who are content to share a boat with others. Anyone travelling in summer, when air conditioning stops being a luxury.
If silence matters more than space, look at a dahabeya instead — we set the two side by side here, and we will not talk you out of whichever you choose.
Slower, or differently — always possible. Tell us how you like to travel and we will rebuild the day around it.
Which tombs to pick in the Valley of the Kings, and when the Nile is at its best.
We sail every Saturday from Luxor. Every date below was open when we last checked on 14 September 2026. Your cabin is confirmed in writing before you pay anything.
Saturdays continue weekly through October 2027 — ask for any date that is not listed. For a family or a group of friends we also charter the whole boat privately, on almost any date you like.
Arrive in Luxor and transfer to your five-star ship for check-in. In the afternoon you visit the vast temple complex of Karnak, then the elegant Luxor Temple, especially atmospheric as it lights up at dusk. Return on board for dinner and your first night on the Nile.
After breakfast, cross to the West Bank for the Valley of the Kings, where pharaohs including Tutankhamun were buried in richly painted rock-cut tombs. Continue to the striking terraced Temple of Hatshepsut and the Colossi of Memnon. Back on board, the ship sails south through the Esna Lock towards Edfu.
This morning visit Edfu’s Temple of Horus, the best-preserved temple in Egypt, reached by a short horse-carriage ride. Sail on to Kom Ombo, whose unusual double temple honours the gods Sobek and Horus and sits right on the riverbank. Enjoy the changing scenery from the sun deck as you cruise towards Aswan.
Reach Aswan and take a short motorboat to the island Temple of Philae, dedicated to the goddess Isis and rescued from the rising waters of the High Dam. In the afternoon, sail around the islands aboard a traditional felucca, the classic white-sailed boat of the Nile. This evening you can add an optional excursion to Abu Simbel.
After breakfast, disembark in Aswan. Your guide assists with the transfer to Aswan airport or railway station for your onward journey — or the start of an extension to Abu Simbel or Cairo.
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