The River Nile

 

Overview: 

Run­ning through the back­bone of Africa, the mighty Riv­er Nile is not only steeped in Ancient Egypt­ian ledged, his­to­ry and romance, but also brings valu­able life to not only the inhab­i­tants of Eleven African coun­tries and their incred­i­ble wildlife, but also to a series of majes­tic land­scapes and nat­ur­al won­ders, with the incred­i­ble and beau­ti­ful Riv­er Nile and a stun­ning and adven­tur­ous jour­ney across its waters – which is filled with the explo­ration of won­ders, inspi­ra­tion and the re-trac­ing of ancient his­to­ry – com­bin­ing to make the mighty Riv­er Nile a tru­ly majes­tic and beau­ti­ful won­der of the world.  

Stretch­ing some 4,160 miles from North­ern Ugan­da to South­ern Egypt – and pass­ing through Burun­di, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwan­da, Tan­za­nia, South Sudan, The Demo­c­ra­t­ic Repub­lic of the Con­go, and The Repub­lic of the Sudan on its way – the Riv­er Nile is fed by three main rivers which flow into it, the colour cod­ed While, Blue and Red Nile – all of which flow through the great lakes of Africa – includ­ing the beau­ti­ful lake Tana – before merg­ing into what we know as the Nile today that stands as a close sec­ond to the Ama­zon riv­er as the world’s longest Riv­er.  

How­ev­er, it is with­in Egypt where the Nile tru­ly comes to life, with the Nile being not only the life source and major trans­port route for the Ancient Egyp­tians, but being enshrined in Leg­end – with the ancient Egyp­tians believ­ing the Riv­er would come to life to bless them with rain – which in turn led the ancient Egyp­tians to build their most might­i­est of Temple’s along the riv­er banks — includ­ing the won­ders of the Pyra­mids, the beau­ti­ful Temple’s of Lux­or and the Tem­ple of Abu Sim­bel – mean­ing a cruise down the Nile in Egypt lets you not only take in the stun­ning cul­ture and beau­ty of the Nile but also cruise past and explore some of the won­ders of Ancient Egypt.  

Explorable by com­fort­able cruise – or by tra­di­tion­al and adven­tur­ous Feluc­ca  — a tra­di­tion­al wood­en Egypt­ian sail­ing boat – a cruise down the Nile will take you not only to the best and most famous won­ders of ancient Egypt, but also give you a chance to spot some of the aquat­ic res­i­dents of the Nile – includ­ing the famous Nile Croc­o­diles and Hippopotamus’s – take in the awe-inspir­ing sun­set as the orange and red African sun glows on the riv­er and relax under the bright evening Egypt­ian stars for a tru­ly mag­i­cal expe­ri­ence as you re-trace his­to­ry along the beau­ti­ful and incred­i­ble won­der of the world that is the Riv­er Nile. 

Where:

Flow­ing through the back­bone of Africa, the Riv­er Nile stretch­es more than 4,160 miles from Ugan­da to Egypt cross­ing through eleven African Coun­tries (Burun­di, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwan­da, Tan­za­nia, South Sudan, The Demo­c­ra­t­ic Repub­lic of the Con­go, The Repub­lic of the Sudan and Ugan­da) – how­ev­er you’ll find 80% of the worlds largest riv­er with­in both South Sudan and Egypt – with Egypt being the best place to explore this incred­i­ble won­der of the world on account of the acces­si­bil­i­ty, beau­ty spots and sto­ried his­to­ry of the Nile with­in Egypt.  

Getting There:

With our advice being to explore the Nile from the beau­ty of Egypt, there are three main spots where you can start a cruise down the Nile – Cairo, Lux­or, or the Nile town of Aswan – and set­ting of from one of these three towns will allow you to cruise down the Nile whilst also tak­ing in some of the incred­i­ble won­ders of Ancient Egypt – includ­ing the beau­ty of the Pyra­mids, the tem­ples of Lux­or and the beau­ty of Abu Sim­bel Tem­ple and it’s incred­i­ble illu­mi­na­tion.  

From Cairo:

Whilst our rec­om­mend­ed route is Aswan to Lux­or – or Lux­or to Aswan best on afford­abil­i­ty and as you’ll find your­self going against the Nile’s cur­rent for a much more enjoy­able trip ‑for those depart­ing from Cairo – home of the mighty pyra­mids – the eas­i­est option to get there is to book a flight direct into Cairo – which is eas­i­ly done from across Europe and Africa for as lit­tle as $20 and then book your­self onto a cruise down the Nile to Lux­or or Aswan.  

You can also reach Cairo from across Egypt from the major towns of Lux­or or Alexan­dria by coach or by self-dri­ve – but if you are plan­ning on start­ing your Nile Tour from Cairo we’d strong­ly advise head­ing to Aswan first and vis­it­ing it as part of a week long cruise.  

From Luxor: 

For those depart­ing from Lux­or then again get­ting there is very easy – as it’s a sim­ple mat­ter of either fly­ing in direct either inter­na­tion­al­ly or domes­ti­cal­ly into Luxor’s incred­i­ble inter­na­tion­al air­port and flag­ging down a cab to head to the port to board your cruise or Feluc­ca. For those already with­in Egypt you can also eas­i­ly reach Lux­or by Bus or overnight coach domes­ti­cal­ly – although we’d advise if head­ing this way to cut out a direct trip to Lux­or and head straight to Aswan before sail­ing back up the Nile to reach Lux­or – which makes for an incred­i­ble spot to fin­ish off your Nile Cruise.  

From Aswan:

Our pick to start your Nile Cruise and gen­tly sail up the Might Riv­er tak­ing in incred­i­ble sights of ancient Egypt, the town of Aswan fea­tures beau­ti­ful views of the Nile and Felucca’s a plen­ty for those who want an authen­tic expe­ri­ence down the Nile. A lit­tle tricky to reach there is an air­port at Aswan – but the prices are some­what over­priced mak­ing it expen­sive to fly into – so our advice would be to fly into Cairo – then hire a pri­vate car and dri­ver to take you in com­fort to Aswan or jump on a coach and bus to arrive at the city cen­tre – before mak­ing your way to the port and hag­gling for a good price on a cruise or Feluc­ca and set­ting off on an incred­i­ble jour­ney on the won­der of the world that is the Riv­er Nile.  

 

Best time to Visit: 

While the Nile is acces­si­ble all year round – you’ll want to account for the Egypt­ian weath­er to ensure your trip is as enjoy­able as pos­si­ble – with the Sum­mer weath­er between June and August being noto­ri­ous­ly hot and unpleas­ant and also being a time when sum­mer crowds flock to the Nile – occa­sion­al­ly result­ing in heavy traf­fic around the Nile which can real­ly take the edge off your trip.  

For this rea­son and com­bined with reli­gious Hol­i­days you’ll also find a flock of tourists – which results in price increas­es – flock­ing to the Nile dur­ing Christ­mas and East­er – so while the weath­er can be cool­er dur­ing this peri­od, we’d again giv­ing this time a miss if pos­si­ble as the crowds will build up.  

So with these two sea­sons ruled out, we’d rec­om­mend that the best time to trav­el being between Octo­ber – Novem­ber, dur­ing this peri­od the weath­er will be much more man­age­able, you’ll get treat­ed to some incred­i­ble sun­sets, you’ll find the var­i­ous sights much less crowd­ed and you’ll find the avail­abil­i­ty of cruis­es and Felucca’s being much more avail­able – mak­ing for an over­all much more enjoy­able expe­ri­ence on this incred­i­ble won­der.  

 Explore:

Found run­ning through the back­bone of Africa, the majes­tic Riv­er Nile stretch­es for more than 6,650 km and pass­es not only through the many beau­ti­ful land­scapes of Africa giv­ing life to cul­tures and the many beau­ti­ful ani­mals who fre­quent and inhab­it its shores, but also stands as a sto­ried won­der that calls back to the might of ancient Egypt­ian Empire and offers a direct route to many of the stun­ning land­marks and won­ders of ancient Egypt.  

Shroud­ed in mys­tery, leg­end and folk­lore, the mighty Nile is offi­cial­ly split into four colour cod­ed sec­tions;  

- The Red Nile – which rel­lies heav­i­ly on the Atbara Riv­er and the rain­fall in North­ern Africa and stretch­es some 500 miles into South Sudan dur­ing the sum­mer months before dry­ing out.  

- The Blue Nile – which com­bines with the White Nile to form the Major­i­ty of the Riv­er Nile. The Blue Nile is sourced from Ethiopia’s beau­ti­ful Lake Tana and stretch­es for some 1,450 km with rain­fall dur­ing the wet sea­son, com­bined with a well built Dam sys­tem, ensur­ing that water reg­u­lar­ly flows into the Nile.  

- The White Nile – the sis­ter of the Blue Nile and an equal­ly impor­tant source of water that makes up both the mighty Nile and the rivers of Bahr el Ghaz­al and Sobat, the White Nile sits a top a bank of soft clay – which gives the White Nile is pale colour – and flows through eight African Coun­tries (Sudan, South Sudan, Rwan­da, Tan­za­nia, Ugan­da, Demo­c­ra­t­ic Repub­lic of the Con­go, Ethiopia) for more than 3,500 Kilo­me­tres giv­ing life to a series of beau­ti­ful African Nat­ur­al Won­ders and inhab­i­tants.  

- Yel­low Nile – now known as the Wadi Howar, the Yel­low Nile has sad­ly run dry and sits instead as dry riverbed that once con­nect­ed and saw a source of water flow from Chad into the Riv­er Nile – and stands as a seri­ous reminder of the fragili­ty of the incred­i­ble won­der of the Riv­er Nile.  

With the four sec­tions com­bin­ing to breath life into Africa, and answer­ing the call of explor­ers and adven­tur­ists who fre­quent­ly explore the riv­er, the Nile is best known for it’s asso­ci­a­tion with Egypt and for it’s famous cruis­es – par­tic­u­lar­ly with­in Egypt – which rep­re­sents a great way to explore not only the many won­ders of Egypt, revis­it the mar­vels of ancient Egypt­ian his­to­ry but also is in our view the best way to explore this incred­i­ble won­der.  

Meth­ods for trav­el­ling the Nile:  

A method used to explore and tra­verse the Nile for thou­sands of years – and once con­sid­ered a only appro­pri­ate for Emper­ors and the very wealthy to par­take – a cruise down the Riv­er Nile in Egypt allow you to get lost in the rich his­to­ry, beau­ti­ful sights and leg­end of this won­der – and is also the eas­i­est, pop­u­lar and in some cas­es cheap­est way to explore this riv­er high­way as you head past the glo­ri­ous pyra­mids, the mighty tem­ple of Abu Sim­bel and to the won­der­ous city of Lux­or in lux­u­ry  

Re-trac­ing the steps of the Pharaohs, the most pop­u­lar route is to head from Cairo to Lux­or (or vice ver­sa) or Lux­or to Aswan, and while you won’t get the expe­ri­ence of tra­vers­ing the whole of the Nile through all 11 coun­tries, you’ll get to expe­ri­ence the absolute best of the Nile and the true lifeblood and leg­end of Egypt. 

Yet because of the sheer beau­ty and thrilling expe­ri­ence of a cruise on the Nile, it’s impor­tant to be pre­pared and well researched before you set sail – espe­cial­ly if you go dur­ing high sea­son when the Nile can be flood­ed with large cruise ships.  

Cruise Ship: For those who fan­cy a relaxed, lux­u­ry and typ­i­cal cruise, then hop­ping on a cruise ship is for you – and you can expect a com­fort­able expe­ri­ence with a cab­in, restau­rant, pool and TV – with a guar­an­tee of plen­ty of chil­dren and fam­i­lies on deck. 

While not tra­di­tion­al, a cruise ship is undoubt­ed­ly the eas­i­est and most com­fort­able option – and you’ll be guar­an­teed plen­ty of time at the star attrac­tions along the Nile – along­side plen­ty of onboard enter­tain­ment, plen­ti­ful meals and guar­an­teed safe­ty – and with cruise options to suit most bud­gets, tak­ing a cruise along the Nile makes for a great and prac­ti­cal way to explore this won­der.  

Feluc­ca: For those who want some­thing a lit­tle bit more Adven­tur­ous, then a Feluc­ca is for you – a Feluc­ca is a tra­di­tion­al wood­en Egypt­ian sail­ing boat that relies on wind pow­er and sails for speed and can give you a some­times slow but tru­ly authen­tic expe­ri­ence cruis­ing down the Nile as you trav­el down this vase won­der as so many peo­ple have done dur­ing the mighty Egypt­ian Empire. 

A unique but fun and authen­tic method, Felucca’s can be slow – very slow – and you’ll need to bud­get an extra day or two for your trav­el when trav­el­ling by Feluc­ca as they are depen­dent on wind and tide for how fast they cov­er the dis­tance – but they also have the advan­tage of being both high­ly afford­able, hire­able on the spot – and most cap­tains will allow you to inspect the boat before you go – so you know exact­ly what you’re sign­ing up for on your jour­ney down the Nile.  

You’ll also find that going by cruise of Feluc­ca gives you dif­fer­ing options for both routes and sched­ules – with the cruis­es known to stick to the high­lights and to strict timeta­bles – with most cruis­es last­ing up to a week – where as a Feluc­ca can give you the free­dom to go off road – and take in some of the unique spots on the Nile that often escape tourists eyes – as well as pro­vid­ing a serene night time expe­ri­ence, as you drift down the Nile tak­ing in the back­drop of the beau­ti­ful Egypt­ian night time sky sur­round­ed by shin­ing stars as the Felucca’s night time cur­few kicks in.  

While a true adven­tur­ous expe­ri­ence, a Feluc­ca trip is not with­out it’s short­com­ings – you’ll be with­out lux­u­ry for a while (includ­ing toi­lets, TV etc), meals will be on the boat – and you’ll like­ly sleep on deck (which can be chilly in the win­ter). You’ll also need to keep your wits about you – espe­cial­ly female solo trav­ellers as Felucca’s can some­time be a risky envi­ron­ment, but if you keep your safe­ty in mind you’ll be in for a tru­ly authen­tic expe­ri­ence as you tra­verse and explore the incred­i­ble won­der of the world that is the Might Riv­er Nile.  

Route: 

A fur­ther ele­ment to con­sid­er when plan­ning your explo­ration of the won­der of the Nile is the route to take, and you have your chose of the obvi­ous Lux­or to Cairo, or head­ing to the beau­ty of the Nile in Ash­wan: 

Luxor to Cairo / Cairo to Luxor 

While the most obvi­ous route to fol­low is that from either Cairo (home to the beau­ti­ful Pyra­mids) to the won­der of Lux­or – giv­ing you a direct route between two won­ders and mul­ti­ple high­lights of Egypt as you set sail.  

It is unfor­tu­nate­ly a route that’s only pos­si­ble dur­ing the hot sum­mer months and on a cruise ship – so you’ll lose the mag­ic of an explo­ration expe­ri­ence. You can also expect a cruise between these two won­ders to be expen­sive – as you’re trav­el­ling dur­ing peak tourist sea­son, a lit­tle uncom­fort­able with the heat, and per­haps wor­thy of fur­ther con­sid­er­a­tion is that it will be dur­ing the sum­mer months, so you can expect chil­dren, fam­i­lies and tourists to be crammed into your boat as well – all of which com­bined togeth­er can real­ly take the edge of your expe­ri­ence on the Nile.  

Luxor to Aswan / Aswan to Luxor. 

For a more unique and off the beat­en track expe­ri­ence, which is explorable almost all year round and which can you an authen­tic expe­ri­ence while tak­ing in one of the most stun­ning parts of the Nile, we’d rec­om­mend head­ing from Lux­or to Aswan – or vice ver­sa.  

Con­sid­ered both the most famous part and scenic part of the Nile, the route from Lux­or to Ash­wan is dot­ted with beau­ti­ful scenery, ani­mals galore and stun­ning mon­u­ments includ­ing the sto­ried tem­ples of Kom Ombo, Esna and Edfu – which are all vis­itable in one day for those who don’t fan­cy the idea of spend­ing the night on a boat.   

Along­side the high­lights, the scenery – and in par­tic­u­lar­ly the sun­set and night sky is tru­ly immense, with the banks of the Desert and the Tem­ple won­ders lin­ing the banks of the riv­er as you soft­ly cruise down the won­der of the world towards the incred­i­ble high­lights that dot the won­der of the world that is the Riv­er Nile: 

Highlights: 

While Cruis­ing on this incred­i­ble source of life and tak­ing in the stun­ning views of the beau­ti­ful riv­er, it’s beau­ti­ful desert banks and the glo­ri­ous sun­set and night-time is a true won­der, part of the thrill of cruis­ing the Nile is get­ting to expe­ri­ence and re-trace the same jour­ney made by pharaohs’, lead­ers and civil­i­sa­tions thou­sands of years ago – whilst also stop­ping to take in the many won­ders of Egypt.  

For our part in assist­ing in your explo­ration of the Nile, we’ve round­ed up our top high­lights, won­ders, and explo­ration high­lights that should not be missed as you cruise down and explore the immense won­der of the world that is the Riv­er Nile: 

Aswan  

The beau­ti­ful, sto­ried city of Aswan will no doubt be a high­light in itself, with the stun­ning sweep­ing views of the Nile – espe­cial­ly at sun­set and under the Egypt­ian stars at night – com­bined with the sto­ried his­to­ry and ancient mon­u­ments mak­ing Aswan a high­light of your trip along the Nile.  

Found in the south of Egypt you can expect almost every jour­ney down the Riv­er Nile to call as Aswan, espe­cial­ly as it’s home to the incred­i­ble 2,500 year old Phi­lae Tem­ple a true mar­vel of ancient Egypt and con­struct­ed to hon­our the great Egypt­ian God Isis, as well as the archi­tec­tur­al mar­vels of the Tombs of the Nobles – a fit­ting and last­ing trib­ute of some of ancient Egypt’s most revered Sons.  

Aswan is also a great spot to start a Nile trip north to Lux­or, and you’ll find Felucca’s a plen­ty in the town – with plen­ty of ‘invi­ta­tions’ to board boats and sail the Nile, while we’d high­ly encour­age you to board a trip from Ash­wan and take in many of the beau­ty spots of the Nile that Ash­wan affords, we’d again advise you to have your wits about you and be sure to check the boat con­di­tions, crew and route before set­ting sail – on what may be the jour­ney of a life­time.  

Discover that the Abu Simbel Temple 

Get­ting straight into the high­lights of ancient Egypt that open you up to as you cruise down the Nile, one of the grand­est and most exquis­ite is that of the Abu Sim­bel Tem­ple – a mighty and beau­ti­ful tem­ple that hon­ours the great Egypt­ian King Ram­ses II and his wife with  a series of 23 metre stat­ues which date back some 3,200 years.  

Immor­tal­ized in the Hol­ly­wood ‘The Mum­my’ films vis­i­tors to this stun­ning tem­ple will be greet­ed by four tow­er­ing stat­ues at the entrance of the Tem­ple and then have the true priv­i­lege of being able to walk with­in and amongst the main Tem­ple of Ram­ses II and exam­ine the scripts and carv­ings on the walls which tell tales of Ram­ses II’s mil­i­tary vic­to­ries and his per­son­al life. 

For an added bonus and for those who want to tru­ly unique spec­ta­cle of com­bin­ing their trip down the Nile with one of the great­est fes­ti­val on the plan­et, then we’d advise com­bin­ing your trip down the Nile with the bi-annu­al The Tem­ple of Abu Sim­bel Illu­mi­na­tion fes­ti­val which takes place on both the 22nd of Feb­ru­ary and the 22nd of Octo­ber – which are believed to alight to the birth­day and coro­na­tion of King Ram­ses II – and when you get the true priv­i­lege of watch­ing the main tem­ple Ram­ses II light up with the ear­ly morn­ing Egypt­ian Sun – a true spec­ta­cle. 

Cairo 

Depend­ing on your route – and the tides – you may get the priv­i­lege of start­ing or end­ing (and we’d rec­om­mend end­ing) you’re Nile jour­ney in Cairo – the Egypt­ian cap­i­tal and a tru­ly mag­nif­i­cent and sto­ried city. 

Although you’ll have to unfor­tu­nate­ly be on your guard, top­ping off your trip down the Nile explor­ing Cairo is a true priv­i­lege – if one that’s guar­an­teed to be loud and full of hus­tle and bus­tle, as you tour the ancient sights – includ­ing the famous Egypt­ian muse­um to take you on a jour­ney through the his­to­ry of ancient Egypt (includ­ing the mum­mies), the bustling Bazaar of Khan el-Khalili where you can pick up a bar­gain, and arguably the great­est won­der of the world and the best place to fin­ish your Nile Tow­er the mighty Pyra­mids of Giza.  

The Pyramids of Giza 

Found at the very North of the Egypt­ian Nile in Cairo, the mighty Pyra­mids stand as the last remain­ing won­der of the world and the embod­i­ment of the Ancient World and the glo­ry of the ancient Egypt­ian empire.  

The best known sym­bol of Egypt, cruis­ing down the Nile to view the nine Pyra­mids of Cairo – includ­ing the three main Pyra­mids — as emper­ors would have done thou­sands of years ago is an awe inspir­ing and true priv­i­lege and gives you the best pos­si­ble entrance to the main and Great Pyra­mid of Khu­fu – which once served as the great Pharos final rest­ing place – and the two main pyra­mids con­struct­ed for the Pharaoh Khafra (Khu­fu Son) and the Pharaoh Menkau­ra as well as the six less­er known  ‘queen’ pyra­mids that once housed the loved ones of the Pharaohs. 

A true colos­sal, beau­ti­ful and icon­ic won­der of the world in its own right that dates back hun­dreds of thou­sands of years – cruis­ing down the Nile to Cairo – when the water lev­els allow is a true priv­i­lege with a vis­it to the pyra­mids at either sun­rise or sun­set (when you get the best pho­tos) being an amaz­ing way to top of your cruise down the won­der of the world that is the Riv­er Nile.  

The Temple of Karnak  

Found on the trip up the Nile from Aswan to Lux­or (or vice verse) the god­ly tem­ple of Kar­nak stands proud as a last­ing reminder of the archi­tec­tur­al beau­ty and pow­er of ancient Egypt.  

Con­struct­ed between the between the 12th and 20th Dynas­ties and once a pow­er­house of reli­gious, eco­nom­ic, and pol­i­tics in Ancient Egypt the Tem­ple of Kar­nak is vast and com­plex, with tem­ples, prayer hous­es and struc­tures to be explored over a full day, includ­ing the great high­lights of the Tem­ple of Amun-Ra, the avenue of the avenue of the Sphin­x­es and the sacred Lake – the scene of many sac­ri­fices and cer­e­monies of ancient Egypt­ian Leg­end for a trip back through to the best of Ancient Egypt mythol­o­gy.  

Often the first stop on Nile Cruis­es that leave from Lux­or and con­ve­nient­ly sat close to the banks of the Riv­er Nile – the Tem­ple of Kar­nak is a tru­ly awe­some and awe-inspir­ing sight and one of the best spots as you head down the beau­ti­ful riv­er through ancient Egypt. For more on the Tem­ple of Kar­nak Click here.  

The Temples of Luxor 

Along­side the great Tem­ple of Kar­nak, stands the mighty Lux­or Tem­ple anoth­er beau­ti­ful Jew­el of ancient Egypt that sits upon the banks of the Riv­er Nile.  

Con­struct­ed dur­ing the New King­dom era around 1400 BC, the Lux­or Tem­ple is guard­ed by two over size stat­ues of Ramess­es II as well as the sad­ly decayed ruins of the once metre long avenue of Sphin­x­es and fea­tures an array of soar­ing columns, a series of great halls includ­ing that of Hypostyle, and the awe inspir­ing sanc­tu­ary of Amun — which hosts some of the world’s great­est and most famous hiero­glyph­ics – mak­ing the Lux­or Tem­ple one of the most sto­ried and inter­est­ing still stand­ing Tem­ples on the plan­et.  

Although con­di­tions at the Tem­ple are often swel­ter­ing – for those who leave from Lux­or we’d advise check­ing out the Tem­ple before­hand – so you can explore it at your own pace and catch the stun­ning light show – or for those whose trip down the Nile ends at Lux­or – you’re in for a real treat to cap off your incred­i­ble jour­ney down the won­der of the world that is the ancient Riv­er Nile.  

Wildlife on the Nile: 

Along with the stun­ning views and a trip down the his­to­ry and leg­ends of Ancient Egypt, a cruise down the Riv­er Nile offers you a unique chance to come face to face with some of Africa’s most famous and rare Wildlife – par­tic­u­lar­ly if you jour­ney down the won­der of the Nile in a Feluc­ca.  

While there are thou­sands of Aquat­ic and Amphib­ian life upon the Nile, we’ve round­ed up our four favourite, most pho­to­genic and inhab­i­tants to watch out for on your jour­ney – just be warned they do bite: 

Nile Croc­o­dile – The Famous Croc­o­diles of the Nile are not only stun­ning and majes­tic call-backs to the Dinosaur Era, but are also the sec­ond biggest Rep­tiles on the plan­et (after their salt­wa­ter Neigh­bours) and are the most feared and most dead­ly (for humans) occu­pants in the Nile – with the Nile Croc­o­dile known to be respon­si­ble for many human fatal­i­ties in the Nile every year.  

While dead­ly and well cam­ou­flaged, those Nile Croc­o­diles that spend their days bask­ing on the banks of the Nile make for stun­ning pho­to and view­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties – par­tic­u­lar­ly for those jour­ney­ing in Felucca’s just be sure not to get too close.  

Nile Hip­popota­mus – Found swamp­ing around in the waters of the Nile, the Nile Hip­popota­mus are found mouth opened splash­ing in the water of the Nile with their icon­ic tusks and large open mouths being reg­u­lar­ly spot­ted in the shal­lows of the Nile where they can be seen hunt­ing, birthing and relax­ing on the banks of the Nile in the gaps of Aswan.  

Mak­ing for great pho­tos, the Nile Hip­popota­mus live up to their rep­u­ta­tions as being mighty indige­nous res­i­dents of the Nile and being a lit­tle unpre­dictable so it’s best to keep your dis­tance and not antag­o­nise the Nile Hip­popota­mus if you’re for­tu­nate to come across one.  

Soft-shelled Tur­tle – Despite the murky coloured waters of the Nile – you can still find tur­tles in the Nile – with the great Soft-Shelled Tur­tle known to fre­quent both the deep waters of the Nile and the banks of the Nile. While tur­tle in them­selves are a true won­der to gaze upon as they make their way calm­ly and slow­ly through the water of the Nile – you’re also like­ly to see Tur­tles at the heart of any action in the Nile – with the Soft-Shelled Tur­tle often being fre­quent prey of the croc­o­diles, Hip­popota­mus and giant Nile Mon­i­tor Lizards that call the Nile Home.  

Nile Mon­i­tor Lizard – The giant lizards of the Nile – which are mighty enough to rival the great Komo­do Drag­ons in length are often seen slith­er­ing through the waters of the Nile – tak­ing advan­tage of their great cam­ou­flage to hunt. Beau­ti­ful­ly coloured and no doubt long in appear­ance the giant Nile Mon­i­tor Lizards are enough one to watch for – not just for their size and beau­ty but also as they can again by quite dead­ly, hav­ing been known to attack in packs against both croc­o­diles and humans. 

Night Time on the Nile. 

Final­ly – and arguably the high­light of any cruise down the Nile — is the chance to wit­ness the majes­tic and clear African night skies against the back­drop of the majes­tic Nile as the African sky is lit up as 28 stun­ning con­stel­la­tions – includ­ing that of the mighty Ori­on come into view.  

Best seen in our view on a Feluc­ca – where you’ll have not only the Nile to your­self at times but also get the enjoy the beau­ti­ful con­stel­la­tions in almost com­plete silence, stargaz­ing on the Nile – as no doubt Emper­ors and ancient Egypt­ian Kings have done before you – is an awe-inspir­ing and tru­ly breath-tak­ing plea­sure – and one that you’ll need a strong cam­era to catch as the beau­ti­ful stars lights up not only your cruise down the Nile but cre­ate a mem­o­ry that will stay with you for a life­time and rep­re­sent the mag­ic and beau­ty of the true won­der of the world that is the Riv­er Nile.  

How long to stay:

Luck­i­ly there are a range of Nile trips with­in Egypt to suit everyone’s bud­get and sched­ule – with day, 3 day, 4 day and 7 day trips all on offer.  

But we’d real­ly rec­om­mend tak­ing on a 4 day or 7 day cruise down the Nile – not only will you get to spend more time on this incred­i­ble and sto­ried won­der of the world and get the chance to go off route to hid­den gems of the Nile — but you’ll get more time in the won­ders of Lux­or, Cairo and Aswan along with more mag­i­cal nights under the great Egypt­ian stars that twin­kle in the reflec­tion of the Nile.  

Top Tip:

It’s incred­i­bly impor­tant to research your ves­sel well before you set off on a cruise down the Nile – espe­cial­ly if going by Fel­lu­ca.  

For those tak­ing on a cruise you can expect their to be ample reviews for the major cruise lin­ers that fre­quent the Nile and meals, cab­in and enter­tain­ment pro­vid­ed – with cruis­es pub­lish­ing itin­er­aries in advance – so you know which of the great sights along the Nile you’ll be stop­ping at – as well as how long you jour­ney down the Nile will be and how long you’ll have at each spot – allow­ing you to ensure you hit the main high­lights of each stop with enough time – and we’d real­ly rec­om­mend book­ing into a top deck cab­in you get the best views and it’s par­tic­u­lar­ly spe­cial at night time on the high­er decks.  

For those going by Feluc­ca – you’ll need to be a lot more cau­tious and inves­ti­ga­to­ry in your approach – but you’ll also get more free­dom and the chance to explore the Nile at your own pace.  

With flex­i­ble itin­er­aries and with Feluc­cas avail­able for hire at Aswan (and if you’re lucky Lux­or) the first top tip we’d rec­om­mend is to come with a defined plan for your trip – which you will present to the cap­tain of the Feluc­ca, which will ensure you’re get­ting to all of the high­lights and spots along the Nile you want to see – with a day or two built in for off the beat­en track dis­cov­ery and for things to go wrong.  

You’ll also want to be sure that you take a good look round the Feluc­ca before set­ting off – as you’ll like be onboard for a week or so and you want to be in tra­di­tion­al but com­fort­able con­di­tions – being sure to check out the toi­let con­di­tions as well, ensur­ing that food etc is includ­ed, who else is going to be trav­el­ling with you and ensur­ing that the cap­tain or crew speak your lan­guage.  

Along­side this it’s rec­om­mend­ed to not hand over your pass­port to the boat  — they will like­ly ask for them to keep the local police hap­py – instead bring a pho­to­copy of your pass­port – being sure to pro­tect your orig­i­nals and keep your valu­ables safe and close by at all times.  

As a most impor­tant top tip – it’s high­ly rec­om­mend­ed that Female trav­ellers trav­el with at least one male friend when trav­el­ling by Feluc­ca – it’s a sad but nec­es­sary fact of life on the Nile when trav­el­ling by Feluc­ca that Female’s trav­el­ling solo may encounter uncom­fort­able or aggres­sive sit­u­a­tion with the all-male crew – so for a more enjoy­able and safe expe­ri­ence it’s nec­es­sary to come with a group of friends for female trav­ellers.  

Fur­ther along­side mak­ing sure you’ve got your plans and researched your ves­sel down the Nile – it’s good to be pre­pared for the con­di­tions of the Nile – regard­less of the time you go you can expect intense heat dur­ing the day – espe­cial­ly when tour­ing the sights – so be sure to come pre­pared with sun­screen, a good sol­id hat and plen­ty of appro­pri­ate cloth­ing – and you can expect the night time to be the polar oppo­site with chilly nights (espe­cial­ly of trav­el­ling on a feluc­ca) so come pre­pared with warm cloth­ing, a decent sleep­ing bag and plen­ty of home com­forts to make those beau­ti­ful but chilly nights spec­tac­u­lar.  

Final­ly as a top tip – we’d strong­ly advise avoid­ing swim­ming in the Nile ! – while you can and do have the option to do so – aside from the fact it’s filled with some dan­ger­ous ani­mals – includ­ing the Nile Croc­o­dile and Hip­popota­mus – it’s far from the clean­est water on the plan­et and you’ll find waste and pol­lu­tion with­in it – giv­ing you the risk of catch­ing a series of nasty dis­eases that you won’t want to take back home with you – so while the Nile is beau­ti­ful is best observed from the safe­ty of your boat.  

Cost:

With their being a range of options to explore the Nile that can accom­mo­date for all bud­gets the cost of the Nile is more about the lev­el of lux­u­ry and how long you choose to spend explor­ing this incred­i­ble won­der.  

Hav­ing got­ten your­self to one of Cairo, Lux­or or Aswan you can expect a high-end cruise – includ­ing a cosy cab­in, food and stops at the main high­lights run­ning from Lux­or to Aswan to for 3–4 days to cost around $500 Usd for stan­dard accom­mo­da­tion and for that to dou­ble to $1000 Usd for high end accom­mo­da­tion.  

For a 7 day cruise from Lux­or to Aswan tak­ing in all the high­lights you can expect prices to dou­ble again for a stan­dard accom­mo­da­tion option – which tend to clock in at $1000Usd and increase to $1200 Usd for the high end lux­u­ry accom­mo­da­tion — a steep price but worth it for the incred­i­ble and com­fort expe­ri­ence of explor­ing the Riv­er Nile.  

For those trav­el­ling on Feluc­cas – the price will real­ly depend on your bar­gain­ing pow­er as well as the qual­i­ty of boat and how long you go for, for those tak­ing on  a 3 day trip on a bog stan­dard Feluc­ca you can expect a hell of an expe­ri­ence and prices start­ing at $100Usd after a good bit of hag­gling – with those who fan­cy a longer trip and a but more of an upmar­ket Feluc­ca expect­ing to pay $300 Usd for a 4–5 day expe­ri­ence.  

All in all, there’s a range of options to suit any bud­get or require­ment to explore the Nile so while there may be a bit of hag­gling involved at times and you’ll have to do your research the Nile is one of the most accom­mo­dat­ing won­ders on the plan­et with options to suit any bud­get.  

Fun Fact:

Along­side being steeped in Ancient Egypt­ian his­to­ry and the sight of both sac­ri­fices and leg­end – includ­ing the dis­cov­er of the famous Roset­ta Stone — the Nile is also still home to more than half of Egypt’s pop­u­la­tion who rely on the Riv­er for both eco­nom­ic and sus­tain­abil­i­ty. How­ev­er thank­ful­ly the con­struc­tion of the Nile Dam has gone a long way to ensure the orig­i­nal believes sur­round­ing the Nile riv­er – which was ded­i­cat­ed to the Egypt­ian God Hapi the bringer of flash floods —  are no more.  

Best photo spot:

Along­side the many won­ders of ancient Egypt that a cruise down the Nile will take you too, we’d advise mak­ing sure you bring a good qual­i­ty cam­era to grab those night time shots of the beau­ti­ful con­stel­la­tions that will no doubt light up both the Egypt­ian Sky and your expe­ri­ence along the Nile.  

For shots of the Nile itself – then there’s no doubt that Aswan is the place to be, with the city and the water sur­round­ing it being tru­ly stun­ning espe­cial­ly at sun­set where you can cap­ture the beau­ti­ful won­der bask­ing in the orange and red reflec­tion of the Egypt­ian Sun and catch the occa­sion­al Feluc­ca drift­ing peace­ful­ly down the waters for a tru­ly mag­i­cal shot.  

While pho­tos from Aswan on the banks of the Nile are spe­cial – for a tru­ly mag­i­cal shot you’ll want to get your­self ele­vat­ed and we’d advise com­bin­ing this with a night­cap as well to round off a stun­ning day – with the Suites and Bal­conies of the Bas­ma Hotel or the bar at the Möven­pick on Ele­phan­tine Island both found in the heart of Aswan being tru­ly spe­cial spots to cap­ture the Riv­er Nile in all its glo­ry and soak in the rich beau­ty and sto­ried his­to­ry of the incred­i­ble won­der of the world that is the Riv­er Nile.