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Egypt Nile Cruises:

A first time visitor to Egypt who wants a classical ( pharaonic antiquities ) experience would do well to book a Nile cruise. Of course modern airlines shuttle tourists to the southern region of Egypt, but historically the Nile cruise was really the only way to visit the temples and tombs located along this stretch of the river. It is still a popular means of visiting upper Egypt and has many advantages to other means of travel.

First of all, it is very nice to unpack and once and have your hotel travel with you, rather then the hectic routine that accompanies the stop and go itineraries of air and land tours. But besides the more relaxed mode of travel, there are other significant advantages. Nile cruises often visit a wider variety of antiquities along the banks of the river. But equally important, they also allow the tourist to gain a prospective of the rural Egypt, where people live much the same way they did even thousands of years ago, in mudbrick homes, tending their fields with wooden plows and moving produce via donkey. It is a wonderful experience to sit on a shaded deck of a floating hotel, sipping an iced beverage while watching 5,000 years of culture slowly drift by.

Nile cruises may very considerably, but typical Nile cruises are either three, four or seven nights. The shorter tours usually operate between Luxor and Aswan , while the longer cruises travel further north to Dendera , often offering day tours overland to more remote locations. Therefore, a fairly complete 14 day tour of Egypt might include several days around Cairo , seeing the pyramids, museums and other antiquities, a short flight to Abu Simbel in the very southern part of Egypt surrounding a seven day Nile Cruise.

The usual cruise is aboard a Nile cruiser, often referred to as a floating hotel. Indeed, the better boats have most the accommodations of a land based hotel, including small swimming pools, hot tubs, exercise rooms, nightclubs, good restaurants, stores and even small libraries. Depending on what one is willing to pay, rooms may be very utilitarian and small, or larger then some land based hotel rooms. Some boats even have suites available. Better boats will always have private baths, air conditioning, and TVs. It is common for there to be video movies each night, and some boats are equipped with cameras allowing passengers to view the countryside from their TV. Floating hotels also offer various entertainment. Many of the boats have dance areas with disco or even live entertainment, and most offer a variety of nightly shows. These might include cocktail parties, Nubian shows, belly dancers and whirling dervish, plays and even dress up parties where guests don traditional apparel. Like land hotels, meals onboard most Nile cruisers are usually buffet style and include hot and cold food along with a variety of international and local cuisine. Most all boats have good modern water filtration, which is fine for showering, but it is still recommended to drink bottled water, which the boat will have aboard.

A much more adventurous style of Nile cruise, very different from the floating hotels can be arranged aboard feluccas, Egypt's traditional Nile sailboat. Most falucca trips are short, enjoyable trips of several hours, but multi-day felucca cruises can be arranged aboard larger vessels traveling between Aswan and Luxor. There is really no comparison between cruising the Nile on a floating hotel and a falucca. The accommodations on a falucca are primitive. Tourist sleep in the open on deck and the sailors double as cooks.

Around the middle of April, locks on the Nile river are closed due to water levels, ultimate time for a Nile cruise is between October and mid April, when the weather is fairly cool, but the locks are all open. However, most cruise boats operate all year. If the locks are closed, cruise operators will arrange boats on either side of the locks, and a transfer must be made between boats.

Finally, pricing, as with land hotels will also have a large range, based on both the boat and the accommodations.  Expect decent boats to range in price between about $100.00 USD to almost $300.00 USD per night, with seasonal increases of between 25% to 50% during Christmas and Easter.

 

A good Nile cruise is one of the best ways to visit the main antiquity sites in Egypt, and is especially attractive to first time visitors. These modern, floating hotels have a number of advantages, not the least of which is the concept of having your hotel go on the tour with you, thus avoiding packing and unpacking, hassling with airports or other transport, and being able to do the required traveling in complete comfort. 

Another advantage is that these ships are often more intimate then large hotels, allowing passengers to get to know each other. In fact, entertainment directors aboard work to accomplish that exactly.

Furthermore, there is no better way then to leisurely view the countryside, watching many of the farmers go about their work still using ancient traditions and tools and seeing the small village that are not so unlike those of millenniums ago, perhaps while you laze about in a top deck pool with a cool drink in your hand.

However, we should also provide a few notes about Nile cruises.  First, Cruises do not originate from Cairo , and one must almost always spend at least one night in that city prior to the cruise.  The cruise ships are usually boarded in either Aswan or Luxor , and the shorter cruises travel between those two cities, while the longer cruises extend a bit north of Luxor to key temples. No cruises go as far as Cairo, and it is impossible to travel south from Aswan. To get to the cruise ships, one must either fly, or take the train to Upper Egypt (buses are an unusual choice).  In order to travel south to the Nubian temples such as Abu Simbel , one must either fly, take a bus in some instances, or transfer to a Lake Nasser Ship.

  

If you thought that a trip to Egypt meant only a visit to the Pyramids, then think again, as going to Egypt and missing out on the Nile River Cruises is indeed regrettable! This beautiful African nation has a lot to offer and if you are looking to enjoy a true blend of luxury and adventure then do avail the Nile River Cruises.

The Nile River Cruises give the tourists a peek into the Egyptian village life. The countryside, still very ancient in the way that people live in clay huts, plough fields manually and use animal pulled carts as vehicles, can be viewed first hand by the passengers while sunbathing on the deck of a cozy ship.

Depending on your choice, you can avail of cruises of short or long duration. The shorter trips, lasting for a three or four days usually Nile River Cruise Ship between Luxor and Aswan. The longer cruises, lasting maybe a couple of week or even more journey further north to Dendera. So if you chose a long Nile River cruise, the attractions would include:

• Trips to Cairo, home to the pyramids
• Museums and other historical places
• A brief voyage to Abu Simbel, the most southern part of Egypt

A Nile River Cruise holiday on the river Nile can be a memorable experience. If you are looking for a relaxing vacation in Egypt, surrounded by the luxuries of comfort, avail the big ships that substitute as floating hotels (Nile River Cruises Ships). Spacious rooms, modern amenities and lip smacking gourmet.it will indeed be a trip to remember. However if the adventurous spirit in you calls out, you can try traveling on the Nile feluccas. These narrow boats will not be as luxurious as the big ships, but sleeping on the deck and having sailors double as cooks has its own charm, and if this kind of a holiday calls out to you, you will have a great time!

The Nile River Cruises are available all year round, but in mid April, locks on the Nile are shut because of water levels. The best time to go on a cruise on the Nile is October to March when all the locks are open and the weather is nice and cool.

So plan a cruise holiday on the River Nile and get set to experience the land of the pyramids closely.

History of the Nile River:

The Nile River, longest river in the world, located in northeastern Africa. From its principal source, Lake Victoria, in east central Africa, the Nile flows north through Uganda, Sudan, and Egypt to the Mediterranean Sea, a distance of 5584 kilometers (3470 miles). From its remotest headstream in Burundi, the river is 6,695 kilometers (4,160 miles) long. A traditional Nile river cruise start and end in either Aswan or Luxor (embarkation points) covering a distance of 200 kilometers. To view a map of the Nile cruise route

The river basin covers an area of more than 3,349,000 sq kilometers (more than 1,293,000 square miles). In pre-historic times, primeval forests covered the river banks when the river was a vast swamp composed of rushes, papyrus, and weeds. However, due to thousands of years of human intervention, the Nile throughout Egypt flows peacefully through green fields - looking much like a rich, well cultivated European plain. The Delta, an area of about 10,000 square miles, is a broad swamp intersected by canals. The Mediterranean Sea influences this region bringing a regular winter rainy season. The Upper Nile valley is one great waterway, with insignificantly small irrigation canals scattered along its length. It is much drier than the Delta, with little to no rain. The lack of seasons makes it much easier to cultivate the land in the Upper Nile. Thus it was cultivated first and is much less swampy than the Delta, which is still being converted into arable land.

In Luxor cross the West Bank to the Necropolis of Thebes and Osiris, God of the underworld. Venture into the tomb of the Boy King Tut-Ankh-Amun. En-route at Esna, visit the recently excavated temple of god Khnum and then stop over at the Temple of Horus built in commemoration of the battle between Horus and his brother Set. Further down the river the Temple of Kom Ombo is dedicated to the crocodile and healer gods. At Aswan wrap up the journey with a ride in a lateen-sailed Nile Felucca and a visit to the Temple of Philae dedicated to the Goddess Isis.

 

Nile Riverboats

The following riverboats are some of the Nile Cruises operating now on the Nile River. Click any name for details.

Company Riverboat Built Passengers

	Riverboat	Year Built	Passengers
	Sun Boat III	1993	36
	Sun Boat IV	1996	80
	Moon Goddess	2000	260
	Royal Lotus	2005	124
	MS Medea	1999	118
	Royal Lotus	2005	124
	King of Thebes	2000	130
	Queen of the Nile	2000	130
	Ramses King of the Nile	2000	130
	Radamis II	2000	160
	Sun Goddess	1993	260
	MS Giselle	1996	120
	MS Medea	1999	118
	MS Miriam	1997	110
	MS Nile Sapphire	1993	132
	Oberoi Philae	1996	116
	Radamis II	2000	160
	MS Ti Yi	2003	124
	MS Medea	1999	118
	Nile Adventurer	1990	68
	MS Giselle	1996	120
	MS Medea	1999	118
	Royal Lotus	2005	124