NILE RIVER CRUISE REVIEW

Cruise Select’s Rachel, and her husband, were looking for a trip that wasn’t long haul, offered guaranteed sunshine, and was interesting, and a Nile river cruise ticked all those boxes. So, they flew off on a Nile River cruise with a two-night extension in Cairo with  Discover Egypt. With a flight time of just over five hours and a two-hour time difference, it was just perfect.

Read what Rachel thought of her experiences on her Nile River Cruise Review.

Embarkation

Our early evening flight with Egyptair got us into Luxor just after 10pm and a pleasant 24 degrees. We were greeted by Ash, or Ramesses II as he jokingly liked to be known, and he pointed us in the right direction to purchase our Egyptian visas. They accept sterling or dollars and each visa is about £20 per person; any change will be given back in Egyptian pounds. The wait was short, and our luggage was already on the conveyor belt. Transfer was a 20-minute drive, and Ash gave a short briefing about the next day.

We were welcomed onboard the 5-star MS Mayfair which was berthed overnight in Luxor. As the dining room was closed there were sandwiches waiting for us in our suite, which was situated on the upper deck. Our suite was beautiful, clean, and spacious with generous wardrobe space as well as numerous drawers.

Valley of the Kings

Every day guests will get an automatic wake-up call one hour before tours depart. Today’s was at 6.30; the early bird in Egypt gets wonderful cultural treasures before the full heat of the midday sun!

Our tour this morning was the  Valley of the Kings , and includes three tomb visits: Ramesses IV, Ramesses IX, and Merenptah. One of the world’s most famous archaeological sites, the Valley of the Kings conjures up romantic images of Egyptologists uncovering ancient mysteries that had been long buried for millennia, and is perhaps best known for Howard Carter and, of course, the tomb of the boy King,  Tutankhamun .

We wanted to visit Tutankhamun’s tomb, which was an extra 100 Egyptian pounds (a princely £5.00). As Tutankhamun died at the early age of eighteen his tomb wasn’t finished, however we felt the visit was well worth it to see his mummified body, with some teeth and hair still intact. Amazing! Whilst we were there three experts were removing soot and silt from the walls to protect the wall paintings. The last tomb we visited was Merenptah, there were lots of steps down to the tomb, but well worth it. Our next stop was an alabaster factory show room, which had an array of vases and everything Egyptian made from alabaster, granite and onyx. This was a very quick stop before we headed to  Al Deir Al Bahrain Temple  (mortuary temple) where the tombs of noblemen can be found.

Back at the ship for lunch which, like breakfast, is buffet style, with ample choice of salad, hot and cold dishes, and – of course – desserts. At lunchtimes, your waiter will ask you to choose a starter and main course for dinner that evening. Most evenings it’s waiter service. Our fellow travellers were mainly European, with around twenty guests from the UK. Seating is assigned by language spoken and you keep the same table throughout for all meals, including breakfast.

After lunch, we relaxed on the top deck and watched the world go by and start to take in this exciting tranquil journey. This deck is well laid out offering plenty of tables and chairs, sunbeds with canopies, lovely comfy double loungers, two jacuzzis, a pool and pool bar.

A couple of local vendors bobbed around in their little boat selling their wares, which was very amusing. We didn’t indulge in afternoon tea, although it’s served daily at 5pm in the lounge and on the sun deck. Instead, we watched the sun setting behind the palm trees.

View our  Discover Egypt brochure  – opens as a PDF

Edfu Temple & Nile River cruising

Around 5am the boat set sail to Edfu, arriving at 9am. This morning’s transport was a fifteen-minute horse and cart ride to  Edfu Temple . The town was busy with horse and carts, cars, motorbikes and tuk-tuks. Our guide Aslam, known as Mashy Mashy (the Egyptian version of hokey dokey) has been our guide since we joined the ship. He is extremely knowledgeable with an enthusiastic sense of humour and excellent spoken English. Mashy Mashy had primed us about the traders who would pester tourists to buy from their shop, but we didn’t find them that bad at all compared to other parts of the world.

Edfu temple is a large site and very impressive. Built during the Ptolemaic period, the city was known in Greco-Roman times as Apollonopolis Magna, after the chief god Horus-Apollo (in both Egyptian and Greek mythologies, Horus and Apollo represent the sun). Dedicated to the falcon god Horus, the temple itself remains one of the best-preserved shrines in Egypt, and offers fascinating and significant insights into language, myth, and religion during the Greco-Roman period in ancient Egypt, as well as detailing scenes related to the age-old conflict between the gods Horus and Seth. Mashy Mashy told us a story which was inscribed on the full length of an outer wall. He pointed out the Nile Steps, which measured the water level of the Nile via a tunnel; the higher the level, the better for farmers crops, and the higher the taxes!

Travelling in style on our horse and cart, we arrived back at late morning where we joined Mashy Mashy in the lounge where he explained the rest of the itinerary, including information about the optional extra tours which can be booked onboard or before embarkation.

We had chosen to pre-book our tours when we made our Nile River cruise booking, through Discover Egypt. A visit to Egypt, in my opinion must include visiting Abu Simbel. There were two options, coach or fly. I was advised to take the road option which in fact gives you a good two hours on site, as opposed to just one hour if you fly. The coach leaves at 0430, by air you would leave at 0700. Cost via coach is £85 or to fly is £225. We preferred an early start to enjoy more time in Abu Simbel. It’s well worth it! If you book these tours onboard you pay either by cash or card. The other tour we had opted for was a Nubian Village visit, and light shows in the Philae Temple and Karnak.

This afternoon was spent relaxing and soaking up the beauty and mystery of the Nile while we sailed to Kom Ombo, and a spot of shopping on board!

Tonight was the Galabia Party and guests are invited to  ‘Dress like an Egyptian’  (I’m sure they would probably ‘Walk like an Egyptian’ too if the mood took them, or if they were big fans of the Bangles). I must be honest these theme evenings are not our cup of tea in general. However, most passengers were going to dress up so my husband persuaded me to join in! If you haven’t already got your costume sorted before your cruise, the MS Mayfair has a small shop on board where you can purchase your Egyptian outfit. Prices ranged from around £12 upwards, and the sales assistant was helpful, and not pushy. Prices on the ship are fixed and they take sterling or credit cards.

Arriving at Kom Ombo, Mashy Mashy invited everyone to go ashore with him to a local Nubian bar/restaurant and sample their wonderful mint tea. This wasn’t in the itinerary, so it made for a pleasant surprise.

Aswan Dam & Philae Temple

A busy day today, as the first part of the tour is to the  high dam of Aswan , followed by a short boat ride across to  Philae Island  and the  Philae Temple complex . This site has many temples; however, the main temple is dedicated to the Goddess Isis. Isis Temple has huge pylons and beautiful painted scenes and is considered to be one of Egypt’s greatest temples, we certainly enjoyed our visit.

Our next stop was to a workshop called  ‘Essence of life al Fayed’  where they manufacture Oriental Perfumes, Oil of Flowers and Blends. We were given an interesting talk about how flower extracts can be used in many ways. They also produce a vast variety of perfumes too!

Our tour ended visiting a stone quarry and the famous  Unfinished Obelisk , what a site! Once erected it would have been 137 feet in height and weighing a mighty 1200 tons. This incredible monument was carved directly out of the bedrock, but sadly when cracks appeared on the Obelisk, construction was abandoned.

After a pleasant lunch, we relaxed for a while on our balcony to recharge our batteries. Later in the afternoon we went on a  felucca boat ride  for a sail around  Kitchener Island . In the distance, I could see a couple of young children paddling with their hands on what looked like a surfboard, in fact it was a large piece of polystyrene. They grabbed the ropes of our Felucca and sang their repertoire of songs, including ‘Row, row, row your boat’ and  Frère Jacques.

The views from the boat showed us a mix of activities including, sand boarding, galloping camels and colourful Nubian houses. Standing proudly on the hill top is the Mausoleum of the Agha Khan, it looked even more spectacular as the sun was setting behind it, whilst we headed slowly back to our floating hotel.

The restaurant tonight was candle lit, we had Hawaiian Chicken Salad, Mushroom soup and beef with blue cheese sauce. Tonight’s entertainment was a Nubian Show which was quite funny and included some audience participation, which certainly got all the passengers laughing.

Abu Simbel excursion & Nubian village

It was dark when we started our journey to  Abu Simbel  at 0430, so armed with a pillow was hoping to get some sleep, which I think most people did. The ship provided us all with a packed breakfast which consisted of cheese rolls, couple of pastries, apple, banana and a carton of mango juice. Mashy Mashy woke us up as we wanted to see the sun rise over the desert sands. What an amazing site and certainly worth the early morning start. Mashy Mashy explained about the Nile and how they moved the temple, which had to be moved due to the rising waters of Lake Nasser, at the same time the Aswan Dam was being constructed too. The temple and statues were cut out of rock, lifted above the flood plain and then rebuilt some 600 feet from its original site. Some of the larger blocks weighed in at 20-30 tons.

Before leaving the site, we went into the information centre where photos were displayed showing how they moved the temple. Simply incredible. As with most sites visitors walk past the trader stands trying to sell their wares, but I must say I found the vendors quite polite, and generally it only took a polite ‘no thank you’ for them to leave you alone. I would suggest having some Egyptian pound coins and small denominations of notes because items such as scarves were ridiculously cheap.

We arrived back at the ship, refuelled ourselves with a late lunch ready for our afternoon  bird watching tour  and visit to a  Nubian village  via a motorised boat this time. Our guide this afternoon was Nubian, very knowledgeable and spoke excellent English. In the court yard, there were two crocodiles which are fed daily by the family, when they are older they release them back into the Nile. In the house were two three-month-old crocs, which were about two feet in length and visitors were offered the chance to hold them… we passed on that one! Whilst we were enjoying our home made mint tea our guide explained how and why the Nubians were relocated by the Egyptian government and why he thinks it was a positive move. Nubians have their own spoken language but not a written one. Children are well educated and by the time they are 11 years old they can speak 3 languages, Arabic, Nubian and English. Nubians have large houses, with floors covered in sand for two reasons to keep the house cool and to check if scorpions have crawled around at night! When a couple marry they live with the wife’s family, hence the size of their homes.

In the evening, we returned to Philae Temple for the sound and light show, this was an optional tour. We were the only ones from the boat to take up this tour, I guess there were only about 30 people there to witness the show, so great for photos. TIP, take a torch to all the sound and light shows as it gets quite dark and walking is on very uneven stones.

Visit to Kom Ombo

This morning we visited  Kom Ombo  Temple, which is unique because it honours two gods. Mainly built during the Ptolemaic era, there’s still some later Roman additions which can be seen. This temple is symmetrical, with two entrances and two sanctuaries, honouring two gods: Haroeris (better known as Horus) and Sobek, the crocodile god. Sacred crocodiles were kept here, and then mummified and buried in this temple. Appropriately our next visit was to the Crocodile museum which is next door and full of mummified crocs of all sizes, many of which had been discovered in the vicinity.

This afternoon guests could take the opportunity to see a selection of cabins, the Bridge and Galley. Galley tours always fascinate me but this one was one of the smallest galleys I have seen and credit to the chef and his team for turning out a wonderful selection of dishes.

Karnak & Luxor Temples

No early morning wakeup call today, yippee! This morning we met Assam in the lounge to go through the disembarkation process. There are quite a few choices of  post cruise options , such as a week or two at the beach in Hurghada, or an extended stay in Cairo, Luxor or Jordan. As our time was limited we opted for a  two-night stay in Cairo  so we could visit the  Pyramids and Sphinx . I noted many guests had been to beach resorts in Egypt previously and had wanted to include a Nile cruise this time. There was a varied mix of passengers from young honeymooners to couples celebrating anniversaries, as well as single travellers, all of whom had been to Egypt on one or more occasions.

This afternoon we visited  Karnak Temple , a cult temple dedicated to Amun, Mut and Khonsu, the three gods (Father, Mother, and son) who became the most popular in Thebes from the 18 ^th  to the 25 ^th  Dynasty, and were known as the ‘Theban triad’. It’s the second largest religious building ever constructed and was built over a period of 2000 years. Very impressive indeed and we were looking forward to seeing this temple again in the evening for the sound and light show. Our next stop was a  Papyrus factory  where we were given a demonstration. The factory walls were covered floor to ceiling with beautiful pictures, we couldn’t resist buying a couple for the Select Travel Holidays shop. Our tour ended with a visit to  Luxor temple  whilst the sun was setting, stunning and a perfect time of day to visit.

In the evening, we went back to Karnak Temple to experience the  sound and light show ; we were not disappointed!

Disembarkation

Disembarkation was easy  and we were taken to Luxor airport for our fifty-minute flight to Cairo. We were met at Cairo airport and taken to Le Meridian hotel, which is the  nearest hotel to the Pyramids . There isn’t a great deal around the hotel so we chose to relax by the pool and enjoy an al fresco lunch. In the evening, we had pre-booked the  Sound & Light show at the Pyramids . This show was different to the others as you are sat down as opposed to walking around, but still very impressive.

Pyramids, Sphinx & Cairo Museum 

Today we had arranged for a  full day’s tour with a private guide  to visit the  Pyramids, Sphinx, Cairo Museum and bazaar . The last time I visited this site was forty years ago and the Sphinx was covered in scaffolding, this time to my delight it was scaffold free! We did the ‘touristy thing’ of riding camels, not very comfortable, but must be done even if it is just for the photos!

From here we drove into Cairo, the traffic is extremely heavy and it can easily take an hour to go from Giza to the city.  Cairo Museum  had changed somewhat from my last visit! We spent two hours here but – whilst not normally fans of museums – could easily have spent a lot longer. Our day finished with a walk around the bazaar and its many coffee shops, and colourful stands. A wonderful day to end a magical holiday.

A Nile river cruise is great for:

Rachel’s Nile river cruise top tips:

Rough cost of optional extra tours

Egypt’s always had an enviable treasure trove of historical gems, that are simply unrivalled. The number of visitors have dropped over the years, however numbers are on the increase now, so take advantage now!

The plus side of this for the tourist is hardly any queuing, so you are spending your time on the site as opposed to queuing. Uncrowded sites enabling fantastic photo opportunities. With the limitless choice of guides available, only the best guides are employed and this was clearly demonstrated by the high quality of guides we had. 

View our  Discover Egypt brochure  – opens as a PDF

View all Nile River cruises

Tried and tested, I can personally recommend booking your Nile Cruise now, just give my team a call  01234 326 758 or email  [email protected]