I note I’ve been overusing the adjective “iconic” in my blogs on Egypt. But it is hard to avoid when you’re trying to describe the famous structures, monuments, and tombs you’ve grown up seeing on television or reading about in text books. So I’ll describe our Nile Cruise as a quintessentially classic Egyptian tourist activity. We boarded ours at noon on day 4 and settled in for 4 days and nights.
Each morning we were greeted with hot coffee and a huge buffet breakfast, including a omelet station. Lunch and dinner were equally copious. There were always many salad choices, a couple of soups, and various pasta, rice, and vegetable dishes to choose from. And always chicken, beef, and fish dishes to choose from. For those with a sweet tooth, a generous selection of desserts was always on offer. And just in case one struggled to last from lunch to dinner, on sailing days the boat hosted coffee/tea and cake on the sun deck.
Each stop provided a new excursion. The Temple of Horus at Edfu, Kom Ombo temple at dusk, the Valley of the Kings in Luxor, and Philae Temple reconstructed on a tiny island behind the lower Aswan dam. I think what we enjoyed the most was the leisurely pace of the cruise. Easy morning excursions followed by lazy afternoon cruises were the norm. In Aswan we added an afternoon felucca (traditional sailing vessel) excursion and a visit to a Nubian tea house. It was a very relaxed way to tour upper Egypt from Luxor to Aswan.