Deluxe Nile Cruises Egypt

Our Deluxe Ships

They all sail the same stretch of river, visit the same sites, and run 3, 4 or 7 night itineraries. The differences that matter are cabin size, the standard of the food, and how recently the ship was refurbished — each ship page sets out its own specification.

Departure days are worth checking before you book flights. Between them our deluxe ships currently depart on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. There are no Sunday or Tuesday departures in deluxe class at present, so if you’re locked into arriving on one of those days, plan a night in Luxor or Aswan first — which is no hardship, and takes the pressure off a delayed flight.

Three, Four or Seven Nights

Three nights sails Aswan down to Luxor. You land in Aswan, tour the same afternoon, and disembark in Luxor having covered everything. It’s the efficient version and it works, but every day is doing a job.

Four nights runs the other way, Luxor up to Aswan, and it’s the one most people should book. The extra night buys a calm final morning in Aswan instead of a rushed arrival, for around $150 to $200 more depending on ship and season.

Seven nights is a round trip from Luxor: up to Aswan, three nights there including a completely free day, then back down. The return leg calls at Kom Ombo and Edfu to pick up guests joining the shorter sailings, which you’ll have already seen — so you stay on deck while everyone else walks up in the afternoon heat. If you want the river rather than a checklist, this is the one.

The direction matters less than the length. Both routes cover Karnak, Luxor Temple, the Valley of the Kings, Hatshepsut’s temple, the Colossi of Memnon, Edfu, Kom Ombo, the High Dam, Philae and the Unfinished Obelisk.

What’s Included

In every deluxe cruise price:

• Meet and greet by an Egypt Best Vacations representative inside the arrivals terminal, holding a signboard with your name, who assists with passport and visa formalities
• All transfers to and from the ship by air-conditioned private vehicle
• Cabin accommodation on a full-board basis — breakfast, lunch and dinner
• Every guided excursion on the itinerary
• Entrance fees to all sites listed
• A licensed English-speaking Egyptologist guide
• Service charges and local taxes

Not included:

• Drinks. Full board covers your meals, not what you drink with them. Soft drinks, water, wine, beer and spirits are charged to your cabin and settled before you disembark. No ship on this river includes an open bar in the base rate, whatever class it is.
• Gratuities — roughly $5 to $10 per person per night for the crew, and $15 to $20 per day for your guide
• Optional excursions: Abu Simbel, the Nubian village, the Luxor sunrise balloon, the Karnak sound and light show
• Travel insurance
• Your Egypt entry visa, currently $30 on arrival
• The separately ticketed tombs at the Valley of the Kings — Tutankhamun, Seti I and Ramses V/VI

On festive departures over Christmas and New Year, the compulsory gala dinner is already inside our quoted price. Most operators add it to your bill when you board.

What a Deluxe Nile Cruise Costs

Deluxe class starts at $690 per person and runs to roughly $800 for the entry-level three-night sailing, depending on which ship. A four-night is typically $150 to $200 more than a three-night on the same boat; a seven-night roughly doubles the three-night rate.

Four things move the number: the ship, the length, your cabin type and your dates.

Cabin type. Triple cabins are the cheapest per person, twin is the standard basis for comparison, and single occupancy carries a supplement of 70% over the twin rate across every ship we sell. That’s not a penalty — the cabin simply can’t be sold twice. Tell us your dates if you’re travelling alone and we can sometimes match solo travelers of the same gender on the same sailing.

Dates. Low season runs May to September and is roughly 20% below peak. High season is October to April. The Christmas and New Year window, from around 21 December to 10 January, is the most expensive fortnight of the year on the river.

Children under 6 sail free. Ages 6 to 11 pay 50% of the adult rate. From 12, the adult rate applies. Children share their parents’ cabin at these rates.

Full seasonal rate cards for all three cabin types are on each ship’s page. If you want a like-for-like comparison across the fleet, send us your dates and we’ll price them side by side.

Deluxe, or Something Else?

Below deluxe sits standard class, at roughly 3.5 stars. The temples are identical and the guiding is identical. You’re choosing a smaller cabin and plainer food to save a few hundred dollars, which is a perfectly rational trade if the monuments are why you came.

Above it sit ultra deluxe and luxury ships, at 4.5 and 5 stars. Bigger cabins, better kitchens, more staff. Browse the full range of Luxor to Aswan Nile cruises to compare classes.

Sideways is the interesting move. A Dahabiya is a small sailing boat with six to twelve cabins that moors where the large ships can’t and doesn’t run a generator through dinner. It costs more than deluxe and gives you fewer facilities — no pool, no gym — in exchange for a fundamentally quieter trip. A felucca strips it back further and costs less than any of them. And Lake Nasser cruises go somewhere else entirely, south to Abu Simbel from the water.

If your cruise is part of a longer trip, our Egypt tours with Nile cruise packages fold the sailing into Cairo and the Red Sea.