Nile Cruise

How to choose the best Nile Cruise? Easy Egypt

by Adventurer Atlasin Africa, Egypton Posted on

Guide on how to choose the best Nile Cruise for your Egypt trip

As you can read in our post “10 days itinerary in Egypt”, we chose to do a Nile cruise since we believe it is the most authentic way to discover all the temples and ancient cities that are built all along the Nile river.

A Nile cruise is a chance to see an Egypt that’s not on the itinerary: dusty settlements with playful kids, camels and cows cooling off in the shallows, farmers in long robes guiding donkey carts along the banks and a lot more. Every journey gives you a unique insight into life along the mightiest of rivers; since you wake up until you fall asleep you can appreciate the beautiful contrast of the three colors: the blue from the Nile, the green from the papyrus plants, and the eternal brown from the desert’s sand. 

Boats have sailed up and down the Nile RIver for thousands of years; not only for trade but also for pleasure. For example, Cleopatra and Julius Caesar sealed their storied union by cruising the Nile in opulent style, Victorian tourists piled onto traditional sailing barges and later on in time steam ships in search of Egypt’s ancient treasures. Today the context has changed a lot and tons of tourists spend some of their vacation days in the Nile river.

This post will help you to choose the Nile Cruise that best suits you and your trip giving you instructions and tips to better understand what each cruise offers you.

Which direction should my cruise go?

It is true that the most logical thing to do is to go with the Nile flow. This means that you will have to start your trip at Aswan and finish at Luxor, usually these cruises are 3 days long.

The reality is that probably the best option is to go against the current meaning that you will ship at Luxor and finish at Aswan. This way you will spend 4 days on the cruise having more time to enjoy the views.

It’s up to you to decide which direction suits you better. We decided to go against the currents because the prices were lower and because we thought that 3 days is just too little to be able to enjoy the Nile’s surroundings. We do not regret a thing and we would do it again just as we did.

For more information on the Nile River see the following post of National Geographic: Nile River (nationalgeographic.org).

Establish a budget

Egypt pyramid

There are prices for every pocket starting at around $350 up to $1700, and in between you have plenty of options to choose from. 

In this price you have to make sure to have included all the entry to all the sites that you are interested in visiting, a guide and transportation. If not, you should count at least $100 more for a tour package.

Theoretically, all cruises are 5 star accommodations, meaning guests are taken care of and all of their needs are covered. They also include all your meals on the boat, and often an afternoon snack with tea and coffee. Drinks are extra but to be fair, they do not make you pay much for them.

Cruises don’t usually have WIFI so if you want to have an internet connection you better pay for a card at the airport because at the boat the price is extremely excessive. 

Some of the boats include tipping in their price but most of them do not, so you should consider this in your budget since it is mandatory to pay tips, they are around $100 per person. 

Make a list with your basic limitations

Maybe you are young and you just want to travel cheap, if this is the case just enjoy the adventure and choose the cheapest one. 

However, if you need certain things to be able to enjoy your trip, you must be very careful. Above we said that “theoretically all cruises are 5 star accommodations”. The “theoretically” comes from a very easy thing to understand: the lowest range in a cruise is 4 stars, which makes these 4 stars a 1 star or even a 0 star if you are picky. 

The categories are: standard, deluxe, ultra deluxe and luxury. We recommend avoiding standard at all costs because all the boats we saw that were standard looked like they were built in the 19th century and people we were able to talk to that stayed on those cruises were horrified at the food and sanitary conditions. 

From here, most of the people can only afford deluxe and ultra deluxe because luxury goes up to too much money and is only for those who really travel with high standards. 

Because of the price difference, we ended up choosing an ultra deluxe and it was the best decision ever. The food was amazing, we had both Egyptian food and continental options. Two of the nights we had a tasting menu with high quality dishes. And the breakfast was incredibly complete.

Do all the Nile cruises stop at the same places?

Yes, all of the cruises stop at the same places regardless of the quality of the cruise, one thing that does change is the velocity. The cheapest ones are faster, which even though might seem better ends up meaning that you will spend most of the trip at the port with poor to non-views. Those boats with higher categories as ours, are slower (but you get everywhere at time) meaning that you can enjoy the views and you will not get dizzy at all.

Another thing is that not all the cruises have a pool. It is important to consider this because you will spend long periods of time at the cruise and having a pool makes it easier to relax and enjoy the views. Egypt is very hot!

And last but not least, consider a boat with as few rooms as possible. This is not only because of the experience at the cruise, which is more intimate and luxurious if the cruise is more like a yacht; but also it is important when it comes to the tours, it is best to be just 15 people rather than 50. I don’t think this needs further explanation but take it into account, we saw a lot of people suffering to hear the guide and traveling in huge buses with little to no A/C.

Egypt Museum

Our recommendation

We chose the Alexander The Great Nile Cruise and we would choose it again. It is an ultra deluxe cruise, quite little and new which makes it feel like you are in a yacht. The rooms are big and with amazing views. The people there are so good and the food, out of this world. 

Here are some of the things we would look after if we needed to chose again a cruise:

  • Only Deluxe and, preferably Ultra Deluxe category
  • Little boat
  • Swimming Pool
  • 4 nights minimum
  • Reviews from previous tourist

 

Explore other posts:

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *