Two things separate this 7 night Nile cruise Christmas tour from every other festive cruise you will compare it against. The first is the shape of the trip: eight days round-trip from Luxor to Aswan and back, which means two full days moored at Aswan, one completely free day, and no packing between hotels. The second is how we price it: whatever your ship charges for its festive program is already inside the fare.
That second point needs saying carefully, because festive programs vary by vessel. Not every ship on the river holds a Christmas gala — some run one on the 24th, some only at New Year, some not at all — so tell us your dates and we will tell you exactly which ships in your chosen category are holding one. What we will not do is quote you a fare and add the gala to it afterwards. Most operators treat it as a compulsory supplement. Where your ship holds a gala, ours is already in the number on this page — and it is worth checking any cheaper-looking quote for exactly that line before you book.
The sightseeing is the full Upper Egypt program. The Valley of the Kings and Hatshepsut’s temple on the Theban west bank, Karnak and Luxor Temple on the east, the Temple of Horus at Edfu reached by horse-drawn carriage, Kom Ombo on its river bend, and in Aswan the High Dam, the Unfinished Obelisk and the island temple of Philae. Abu Simbel can be added on your free day without disturbing anything.
December is also the best month of the year to be on this river. Daytime temperatures in Luxor and Aswan sit in the low twenties Celsius, the humidity is gone, and the light on the west bank in the hour after sunrise is the reason photographers come in winter rather than summer.
Departures run every Monday, Thursday and Saturday through the festive season, from $1,570 per person, with a licensed Egyptologist throughout and a maximum of sixteen in the group.
Because the ship sails a fixed eight-day loop and departures fall on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays, the date you choose decides where you spend the 24th and 25th — moored at Aswan, tied up at Edfu, or sailing north through the Esna lock. It is the one decision on this booking that cannot be changed afterwards, so here it is laid out in full.
| Departure | Christmas Eve | Christmas Day | Disembark |
|---|---|---|---|
| Saturday 19 December | Night 6, sailing north through the Esna lock | Night 7, moored at Luxor | Sat 26 Dec |
| Monday 21 December | Night 4, moored at Aswan | Night 5, moored at Aswan | Mon 28 Dec |
| Thursday 24 December | Night 1, Luxor — you board on Christmas Eve | Night 2, moored at Edfu | Thu 31 Dec |
| Departure | Christmas Eve | Christmas Day | Disembark |
|---|---|---|---|
| Saturday 18 December | Night 7, moored at Luxor — your final night | Disembark that morning | Sat 25 Dec |
| Monday 20 December | Night 5, moored at Aswan | Night 6, sailing north | Mon 27 Dec |
| Thursday 23 December | Night 2, moored at Edfu | Night 3, arriving Aswan | Thu 30 Dec |
| Saturday 25 December | — | Night 1, Luxor — you board on Christmas Day | Sat 1 Jan |
Tell us which departure you want when you enquire and we will confirm cabin availability across all four ship categories — and which of those ships is running a festive programme on your dates.
Our representative meets you at Luxor International Airport or the railway station and drives you to your ship, moored on the east bank. Check in, leave your bags in the cabin, and take the afternoon at your own pace.
The sun deck and the Theban hills across the water are a reasonable way to spend a first afternoon, and Luxor Temple is a ten-minute walk from most moorings if you would rather stretch your legs before dinner.
Meals Plan: Lunch & Dinner
After breakfast on board you cross to the west bank, the side the ancient Egyptians reserved for the dead.
The Valley of the Kings lies in a limestone gorge beneath al-Qurn, a peak that rises in a natural pyramid shape — one reason the New Kingdom pharaohs abandoned pyramid building here and cut their tombs into the rock below it instead. More than sixty have been found. Your Egyptologist takes you into the three best of those open on the day, and in December the stone interiors are a comfortable temperature rather than an ordeal.
The temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahari comes next, three terraces set into the cliff face and aligned directly across the river toward Karnak, so that the annual festival procession could travel between the two in a straight line. The morning closes at the Colossi of Memnon, two quartzite figures of Amenhotep III that once flanked the entrance to a mortuary temple larger than Karnak itself, now largely gone.
Back aboard, the ship casts off and sails south through the Esna lock, reaching Edfu by evening.
Meals Plan: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner
A horse-drawn carriage collects you at the mooring for the ride to the Temple of Horus. Bring a jacket — December mornings in Edfu are genuinely cold before the sun clears the buildings, and the carriages are open.
Edfu is the most complete temple standing in Egypt. Its roof is intact, its pylon is intact, and its walls carry an unbroken account of the annual drama in which Horus defeats Seth. You can walk the full corridor between the temple and its enclosure wall, which almost nowhere else in Egypt allows.
The ship sails on to Kom Ombo, arriving in the late afternoon. The temple sits on a terrace directly above the river and is built as a perfect mirror image — two entrances, two halls, two sanctuaries, one side for Sobek the crocodile god and one for Horus the Elder. At this hour in December the light comes in low along the axis. The Crocodile Museum beside it holds mummified crocodiles recovered from the site.
Overnight sailing south toward Aswan.
Meals Plan: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner
Two days here, and Aswan in winter is the reason people come back to Egypt.
The morning tour opens at the High Dam, finished in 1970, which ended the annual flood and created a lake running 550 kilometres upstream into Sudan. A motorboat then carries you across to Philae, the temple of Isis, moved stone by stone to Agilkia Island in the 1970s to save it from the water. Trajan’s Kiosk stands at the water’s edge there — a Roman pavilion of fourteen columns, roofed in antiquity, never finished.
The tour ends in the granite quarries at the Unfinished Obelisk, abandoned mid-cut when a fissure opened in the stone. Had it been raised it would have been the largest ever attempted.
Back to the ship for lunch and a free afternoon.
Optional tour: Nubian Village Tour in Aswan
Meals Plan: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner
Nothing scheduled. If your departure is the Monday one in 2026, this is Christmas Day, and it is spent moored at Aswan with no bus and no timetable.
The optional excursion to Abu Simbel runs today for anyone who wants it — the two rock-cut temples of Ramses II and Nefertari near the Sudanese border, either by road before dawn or by short flight. Because today is otherwise empty, taking it costs you nothing from the main itinerary.
Everyone else has the sun deck, the felucca traffic between the islands, and the souk on the corniche, which is one of the better markets in Egypt and considerably calmer than Khan El-Khalili.
Meals Plan: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner
The ship turns for home. It calls briefly at Kom Ombo and Edfu to pick up guests joining for the shorter northbound itinerary, and you are free on board throughout.
This is the day the eight-day loop justifies its length. No coach, no entrance queue, nothing on the schedule but tea on deck while the bank goes past — sugar cane, water buffalo, kids waving from the mudflats, and the desert hills behind. The ship threads the Esna lock again in the evening on the way down to Luxor.
Meals Plan: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner
Your last day of sightseeing is on the east bank, the side of the living.
Upon arrival in Luxor, you will explore its eastern side. Karnak was built and rebuilt over roughly two thousand years and no king ever declared it finished. Its main axis was laid out to face the midwinter sunrise, which is a strange thing to stand in during the last week of December and know. You enter along the avenue of ram-headed sphinxes into the great hypostyle hall.
Luxor Temple follows. In December the sun is down by about five, and the temple is lit after dark — the colonnade of Amenhotep III under floodlight is the single best photograph most guests take all week. The processional avenue running the three kilometres back to Karnak reopened in 2021 after decades of excavation, and you can see its full length from the temple forecourt.
Back to the ship for your final night aboard.
Meals Plan: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner
Breakfast on board, then disembark at Luxor and transfer to the airport or railway station.
If you are travelling on to Cairo, Hurghada or Jordan, tell us before you travel and we will build it onto the end of this cruise rather than sell it to you as a separate trip. And if your flight is late in the day, ask about a final west bank stop or a Luxor Museum visit before you go.
Meals Plan: Breakfast Only
