This 2 day felucca cruise from Aswan is the shortest way to spend a night on the Nile on a traditional sailing boat. You see the main sights of Aswan in the morning, sail through the afternoon, sleep on deck, and visit Kom Ombo Temple before returning to Aswan the next day.
A felucca is a wooden boat with a single triangular sail and no engine. There are no cabins. You sit and sleep on cushioned mattresses on deck, the crew cooks on board, and the only sounds are the wind and the water. It is the opposite of a large cruise ship, and that is why people choose it.
The trip is private. The boat, the crew and the guide are for your party only, and you can start on any day of the week.
| When | What you do |
|---|---|
| Day 1, morning | Pickup in Aswan, then the High Dam, Philae Temple and the Unfinished Obelisk |
| Day 1, afternoon | Board the felucca, lunch on board, sail north with the current |
| Day 1, evening | Moor on the riverbank, dinner on board, sleep on deck |
| Day 2, morning | Breakfast on board, then by road to Kom Ombo Temple and the Crocodile Museum |
| Day 2, afternoon | Return to your Aswan hotel or Aswan Airport |
If one night is not enough, the 3 day felucca cruise from Aswan to Kom Ombo adds a second night on the river, and the 4 day felucca trip to Gabal El-Silsilah sails further north. To combine a felucca night with Cairo and Luxor, see our 6 day Egypt budget tour with felucca cruise. Every route is listed on the felucca cruises page.
Your guide meets you at Aswan Airport or Aswan railway station. You begin at the High Dam, completed in 1970, which created Lake Nasser. You then cross by motorboat to the Temple of Isis at Philae, which was moved stone by stone to Agilkia Island to save it from the rising water. The last stop is the Unfinished Obelisk, still lying in the granite quarry where the ancient stonecutters left it.
You then board your felucca. Lunch is served as the crew raises the sail and the boat drifts north with the current past palm groves, sandbanks and Nubian villages. Before sunset the boat moors on the riverbank. Dinner is cooked on board, and you sleep on deck.
Meals: Lunch and dinner
After breakfast on board you leave the felucca and continue by road. If it is a Saturday or Sunday you stop at the Daraw camel market, where traders bring camels up from Sudan.
You then visit Kom Ombo Temple, a Ptolemaic temple unusual for its double plan: one half belongs to the crocodile god Sobek and the other to Horus the Elder. The Crocodile Museum beside it displays mummified crocodiles found nearby. Your driver then takes you back to your Aswan hotel or to Aswan Airport.
Meals: Breakfast
The price depends on how many people are in your party and when you travel. All prices are in US dollars per person.
| Travel dates | 1 person | 2 people | 3 to 7 people | 8 to 16 people |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 May to 30 September | $400 | $220 | $200 | $180 |
| 1 October to 15 December | $450 | $240 | $220 | $200 |
| 16 December to 4 January | $600 | $330 | $300 | $270 |
| 5 January to 25 March | $450 | $240 | $220 | $200 |
| 26 March to 10 April | $550 | $300 | $275 | $250 |
| 11 April to 30 April | $450 | $240 | $220 | $200 |
Children under 6 travel free. Children aged 6 to 11 pay 50%. From 12 years the adult price applies.
