Nile Cruise — Aswan to Luxor

The stretch of river between Luxor and Aswan is the classic Nile cruise: roughly 200 kilometres, three or four nights, and the only way to see the temples in the order and by the means they were built for. Boats tie up at Esna, Edfu and Kom Ombo, so the sites arrive at you rather than the other way round.

What the days look like

• Luxor — Karnak and Luxor Temple on the east bank, the Valley of the Kings and Hatshepsut on the west
• Esna — the lock, usually at night, and the sunken temple of Khnum in the middle of the town
• Edfu — the best-preserved temple in Egypt, reached by calèche from the mooring
• Kom Ombo — the double temple right on the bank, best at dusk
• Aswan — Philae, the High Dam, the Unfinished Obelisk, and feluccas around Elephantine

Choosing a direction

Sailing south to north runs with the current and tends to be slightly quicker; north to south gives you Aswan at the end, which most people prefer as a finish. Either way the best hours are the long stretches between stops, on the sun deck, watching the bank go by.

Practical

Take a jacket for the evenings — the river cools fast once the sun drops, even in summer. Sailings are quietest in the shoulder months; between June and August the afternoons on deck are genuinely severe.

This is the return leg: three nights sailing north from Aswan to Luxor, mooring at Kom Ombo and Edfu on the way. The same boats run it, in the other direction, and it is the shorter and usually cheaper half of the route.