Egypt Nile Cruise Tours 2025/2026

For most of Egyptian history the Nile was the road. Travelling it still makes sense: you sleep in one bed, wake somewhere new, and reach several major temples without a single transfer. What shapes the experience most is not the itinerary but the boat you choose.

Cruise ships

The larger vessels — among them the Alyssa Nile Cruise and the Blue Shadow Nile Cruise — are floating hotels with cabins, decks and dining rooms, available in standard and deluxe grades. They keep to a fixed schedule between the moorings of Upper Egypt, and their size makes for a steady, level sail even when the wind gets up. If this is a first visit to Egypt and you would rather not think about logistics, this is the straightforward choice.

A dahabiya instead

A dahabiya is something else entirely: a small sailing boat carrying a handful of guests, moved by wind rather than engine. It can tie up at villages and sandbanks the big ships pass by, and evenings are quiet because there are so few of you aboard. We run the Luxury 4-night Dahabiya cruise from Luxor to Aswan and the Luxury Dahabiya Journey, a 3-night sailing from Aswan. Choose it if the point of the trip is the river itself rather than covering ground.

Which to book, and what it costs

We work with a dozen ships on this stretch of river. A four-night sailing runs from $700 per person on the Alyssa, through $750 on boats such as the Nile Dolphin, Nile Story and Princess Sarah, up to $950 on the Blue Shadow, Salima, Al Hambra and Jaz Crown Jubilee. A dahabiya costs more because there are so few guests to share it: $1,700 for the three-night sailing from Aswan and $2,330 for four nights from Luxor.

So the choice is genuinely between two things, not two price tags. A ship gives you comfort and a predictable rhythm; a dahabiya gives you quiet and a slower pace for roughly twice the money. We have been arranging both for around twenty years and hold 55 five-star reviews on TripAdvisor — ask us plainly which would suit you: ez_guide25@yahoo.com or +20 11 50014393.