Nile Cruise - where to start?!

Ali25

My partner and I would love to go on a 14 day trip to Egypt next spring. We would like to spend 7 days cruising the Nile and another 7 days in Luxor perhaps with a couple of days in Cairo.

I really don't know where to start though - so many travel agents offer cruises, so a few questions!

1. Is it worth paying a little extra or are the low rated (and cheaper) boats okay?
2. Can anyone recommend particular travel agents?
3. Should we avoid the bigt cruise boats altogether and try and go on a felucca? If so how do you do this?

Any advice at all would be really apprecated. Thank you in advance :j

Alice

luxor4t

I have no idea about your ages, budget, travel experience, likes/ dislikes etc etc but may I just offer a few suggestions in answer to your questions:

1. there are an enormous number of boats on the Nile, ranging from huge silver and white scaled down 'liners' to old tubs. They are all floating hotels and like hotels, appearances can be deceptive. We have used the Presidential Nile cruisers several times, all booked through Thomsons. The boats are 3 or 4 star, and IMO the only real difference is the cabin size. Thomson also offer a number of dearer cruises on flashier boats. I would suggest food quality, cleanliness and cabin comfort are the bench marks. What the boat actually looks like is not so important.

2. it is possible to build your own holiday but flights can be expensive if you are limited to certain dates, this is the reason we buy a package and then tweak it ourselves. IMO Thomson and Thomas Cook (ordinary, not the fully escorted tours) are very similar. we are about to try Cosmos...

3. Feluccas ... well, lovely and atmospheric for a few hours but for 3 days? (that is between Luxor and Aswan) In 120 degree heat? if you are adventurous, well travelled , the keen, outdoors type, have a cast iron digestive system, are fond of sleeping with snakes/ insects and can barter for every tiny thing then you will enjoy it. The 'rough guide' / 'Lonely Planet' give some guidance, but you can be ripped off in so many ways, particularly as there are lots of rules (many invented as soon as the captain works out how much money you have) about where tourists can camp etc.

I would suggest the Trip Advisor web site, particularly the Luxor forum, as a useful source of information and answers. There are some useful cruise reviews on Holiday Watchdog.

I am sure you will have a wonderful time whatever you decide; Egypt never ceases to amaze and delight me. Only 9 more sleeps till we are back!

MissBehaving

Try Peltours. www.peltours.co.uk
IMO I would opt for something the equivilant of 4* plus.
We also went on one of the presidential ships.
I have to say it was a brilliant experience.

If I could redo my cruise, I would have chosen a ship with a pool! It gets extremely hot!!!!

luxor4t

I was under the impression that all the PNC boats had small pools, certainly was on the PNC Nile Commodore because I spent so long in it! I agree they are vital.

Saint_Chris

Oh you have to do it, we just booked a last min of teletext and we had a fab time on board.

Our room wasn't that big, but we didn't spend that much time in it.

Food was ok, nothing special but nice.

have a look on tripadvisor and there forums for lots of information.

poe.tuesday

The Nile cruises usually go from Luxor to Aswan and then back again, personally I would suggest that you fly to Cairo for a few days, then go to Luxor, staying in Luxor for a few days seeing all the sites etc, then go on the cruise for 3 to 4 days down to Aswan ending your holiday with some time in Aswan and the surrounding area, the reason I suggest this is that the 7 day cruises usually go from Luxor to Aswan and back again and you can see all the same sites such as Kom Obo, Esna, Edfu etc on the one way cruise.

Egypt has so much to offer and you can see most of it in your 14 days but to spend 7 days of it going up and down the Nile maybe a waste of your time, if you really want to have a cruise for 7 days then you could do the 3 night cruise from Luxor to Aswan then then do another 3/4 night cruise on Lake Nasser.

what ever you do, go for as good a boat that you can afford, get one with a pool as this is a must when it's hot.

As for the felucca, they are great fun for a short trip but they are just basically open sail boats, it personally not my idea of fun for any lenght of time but I do like my creature comforts

what ever you do you will have a fab time

SCOYA

Have done a weekNile cruise with the second week spent in El Qesir (Red Sea), we went with Thomson Holidays and the boat was Commodore Presidential Nile Cruises. It was a few years back, but had the best of times, and would go back in a heart beat, if it wasn't for the fact there are lots of other places I still want to visit. With Thompson, I recall that all trips from the boat were included in the price. GO ENJOY - YOU WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.