This solo Christmas Nile cruise is our year-round singles cruise from Aswan to Luxor, sailed over the Christmas and New Year holidays. Everything about it is built for people travelling alone: every guest has a single cabin, the price is a single price with no supplement hidden in it, the group is capped at twelve, and everyone on board is a solo traveller too. You unpack once, and the Nile does the rest.
The route is the classic one. You board in Aswan after Philae and the High Dam, sail north past Kom Ombo and Edfu, and finish in Luxor with Karnak on the East Bank and the Valley of the Kings on the West. Your guide is an Egyptologist, and the sites come in the order the ancient Egyptians would have recognised: the southern frontier first, the Ptolemaic temples in the middle, and the great New Kingdom capital at the end.
Christmas is the reason to pick these dates. Egypt in late December is cool and clear, the ships dress for the season, and Christmas Eve and Christmas Day fall while you are sailing or in Luxor depending on the departure you choose. Coptic Christmas follows on 7 January, so a New Year departure catches Egypt’s own celebration too. The table below shows which day of the cruise each holiday lands on.
Because the cruise sails three times a week, you are never tied to one date. Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday departure over the holidays runs the same itinerary with the same inclusions, on your choice of four ship categories.
Every cruise is 4 days / 3 nights, Aswan to Luxor. Dates in the table are the day you arrive in Aswan and board.
Friday 18 December 2026 – ends Monday 21 December
Monday 21 December 2026 – ends Thursday 24 December
Wednesday 23 December 2026 – Christmas Eve on board at Edfu, Christmas Day in Luxor
Friday 25 December 2026 – board on Christmas Day in Aswan
Monday 28 December 2026 – ends Thursday 31 December
Wednesday 30 December 2026 – New Year’s Eve on board, New Year’s Day in Luxor
Friday 1 January 2027 – board on New Year’s Day
Monday 4 January 2027 – ends Thursday 7 January, Coptic Christmas Day
Wednesday 6 January 2027 – Coptic Christmas Eve on board
Your Egypt Best Vacations representative meets you outside the arrivals terminal at Aswan airport and takes you to your guide. Before boarding you see the High Dam, the 1960s wall that created Lake Nasser, and the Unfinished Obelisk, still lying in the granite quarry where a crack stopped the work. Then a short boat ride to Philae, the temple of Isis that was moved block by block to Agilkia Island when the dam flooded its original home. Board your cruise ship, settle into your single cabin, lunch on board. Overnight in Aswan.
In the afternoon there is time for an optional motorboat trip to a Nubian village.
Meals: lunch, dinner
A free morning aboard your Nile cruise ship or an early optional trip by road to Abu Simbel, Ramesses II’s two rock temples above Lake Nasser, back on board for lunch.
In the afternoon the ship sails north to Kom Ombo, the unusual double temple where one half belongs to Sobek the crocodile god and the other to Horus the falcon. The Crocodile Museum next door holds the mummified crocodiles found on the site. Sail on to Edfu for the night.
Meals: breakfast, lunch, dinner
A horse carriage takes you from the quay to the Temple of Horus at Edfu, the Ptolemaic temple begun in 237 BC and finished in 57 BC, and the most intact in Egypt: the roof, the great pylon and the inner sanctuary are all still standing. Back on board to sail through the Esna lock to Luxor. In the afternoon you visit Karnak, the largest religious complex ever built at around 100 hectares, with its Great Hypostyle Hall of 134 columns, and then Luxor Temple, best seen as the lights come on. Overnight in Luxor.
Meals: breakfast, lunch, dinner
An optional sunrise hot-air balloon flight over the West Bank before breakfast. Then disembark for the Valley of the Kings, where the New Kingdom pharaohs were buried in painted tombs cut into the cliff, and the Temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahari. Hatshepsut began as regent for Thutmose III and went on to rule as a crowned king in full pharaonic regalia, with his regnal years still running alongside hers. Finish at the Colossi of Memnon before your transfer to Luxor airport, station or hotel, and your solo Christmas Nile cruise ends.
Meals: breakfast
|
Ship Category |
Price |
|
Standard (Western 3.5 stars) |
$1,405 |
|
Deluxe (Western 4 stars) |
$2,030 |
|
Ultra Deluxe (Western 4.5 stars) |
$2,685 |
|
Luxury (Western 5 stars) |
$3,960 |
Standard Nile Cruise Ships: MS Nile Carnival. MS Semiramis I. MS Nile Shams. MS Nile Dolphin. MS Nile Story. MS Princess Sarah. H.S Radamis II. MS Zeina and more of the similar category.
Deluxe Nile Cruise Ships: MS Blue Shadow I. MS Blue Shadow II. MS Nile Paradise. H.S Radamis I. H.S Moon Dance. MS Concerto I. MS Nile Premium. MS Nile Style and more of the similar category.
Ultra Deluxe Nile Cruise Ships: MS Movenpick Royal Lily. MS Movenpick Royal Hamees. MS Movenpick Royal Lotus. MS Le Fayan. MS Mayfair. MS Mayflower. MS Esplanade. MS Acamar. MS Amwaj Livingstone. MS Esmeralda and more of the similar category.
Luxury Nile Cruise Ships: MS Farah. MS Sonesta Sun Goddess. MS Sonesta Saint George. MS Mazaj Tulip. MS Mazaj Tamr. MS Le Fayan II Suites. MS Movenpick Sun Ray. MS Vice Roy and more of the similar category.
Travelling alone outside the holidays? The same singles cruise runs year-round as our solo Nile cruise Aswan to Luxor, and in the other direction as the solo Nile cruise Luxor to Aswan (4 nights). At Easter it becomes the solo Easter Nile cruise. Travelling with a partner or friends at Christmas? Our 3 nights Christmas Nile cruise package from Aswan to Luxor is the same route with twin and double cabins. All our Egypt Christmas tours and Egypt solo tour packages are one click away.
