The Sonesta St. George Nile Cruise sails between Luxor and Aswan on 3, 4 and 7-night itineraries aboard the MS Sonesta St. George I, a five-star ship carrying just 57 cabins and suites. With Egypt Best Vacations, prices start from $1,500 per person and include full-board meals, every entrance fee on the itinerary, private air-conditioned transfers and a licensed Egyptologist guide throughout.
Launched in 2006 and styled after turn-of-the-century French interiors, the MS Sonesta St. George I is one of the more characterful ships on the river. The accommodation runs to 47 deluxe cabins, six Presidential Suites, three Elite Suites and a single Royal Suite, all with double-glazed panoramic French windows facing the Nile. Bathrooms are fitted with a spa unit offering steam bath, Jacuzzi and water massage, which is unusual at this size of vessel.
Onboard you will find an oversized sun-deck pool with a Jacuzzi and shallow-water extension, a full spa with sauna and massage rooms, a fitness gym, the Main Dining Room serving buffet breakfast and lunch with a la carte dinner, a Panoramic Lounge on Deck 4, and a piano bar under a handmade chandelier.
Every sailing is guided by a licensed Egyptologist. That matters more than it sounds. Egypt Best Vacations is run by a working Egyptologist based in Luxor, and the guides we assign read the walls rather than recite a script. At Karnak, Edfu and the Valley of the Kings, that is the difference between a photo stop and an afternoon you remember.
Our three-time consecutive TripAdvisor Travelers’ Choice recognition (2024, 2025 and 2026) comes from that approach, not from discounting.
One thing worth knowing before you compare quotes: if you travel over Christmas or New Year, the compulsory gala dinner is already inside our price. Most operators add it on board. With us, the price you see is the price you pay.
Book your Sonesta St. George Nile Cruise and let the river do the work.
Your Egyptologist guide meets you at Aswan Airport or railway station with a name board and drives you straight into the city’s headline sites.
Begin at the Aswan High Dam, the 1960s engineering project that ended the Nile’s annual flood and created Lake Nasser. Continue to the Temple of Philae on Agilkia Island, dedicated to Isis and rescued stone by stone from the rising water after the dam was built. Finish at the Unfinished Obelisk, still lying in its granite quarry, cracked and abandoned before it could be raised. It is the clearest surviving evidence anywhere in Egypt of how these monuments were actually cut.
Transfer to the MS Sonesta St. George I for embarkation, lunch and dinner on board. The evening is free for the Aswan souk if you have the energy.
Optional Tour: Visit a traditional Nubian Village in Aswan.
Meals Included: Lunch & Dinner
A slow morning on the sundeck as the ship sails north. Palm groves, sugar-cane fields, egrets and ferry boats. This is the part of the cruise people remember without expecting to.
Around midday the ship reaches Kom Ombo. The temple here is unique in Egypt: a perfectly symmetrical double sanctuary, the southern half for Sobek the crocodile god, the northern half for Haroeris. Two of everything, split down the axis. The adjoining Crocodile Museum holds the mummified crocodiles recovered from the site.
Back on board, continue sailing to Edfu. Overnight moored at Edfu.
Optional: Abu Simbel excursion by road from Aswan, available as a very early start.
Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner
An early horse-drawn carriage ride through Edfu to the Temple of Horus, the best-preserved temple in Egypt. The roof is intact, the falcon statues still stand at the gate, and the walls carry the full text of the annual drama in which Horus defeats Seth.
Return by carriage and sail on to Luxor, passing through the Esna Lock, a slow and oddly enjoyable piece of theatre involving small boats and thrown merchandise.
In Luxor, visit the Karnak Temple Complex, the largest religious building ever raised anywhere, developed over roughly two thousand years by successive pharaohs. Then Luxor Temple, connected to Karnak by the Avenue of Sphinxes and best seen as the light drops.
Final evening on board.
Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner
The Valley of the Kings holds more than sixty tombs cut into the Theban hills. Three open tombs are included, and your guide will choose based on what is open and least crowded on the day. Continue to the Temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahari, three terraces cut against the cliff for the woman who ruled Egypt as king. Finish at the Colossi of Memnon, all that survives above ground of what was once the largest mortuary temple in Egypt.
Transfer to Luxor Airport, Luxor railway station or your Luxor hotel.
Optional Experience: Sunrise Hot Air Balloon Ride over Luxor
Meals Included: Breakfast
Met at Luxor International Airport or railway station by your Egyptologist guide.
Start at the Karnak Temple Complex. The Great Hypostyle Hall alone covers 5,000 square metres and holds 134 columns, the tallest standing 21 metres. Continue to Luxor Temple, built largely by Amenhotep III and extended by Ramesses II, and still in religious use today: a mosque sits on top of one courtyard, and a Christian church once occupied another.
Transfer to the MS Sonesta St. George I for embarkation.
Optional Tour: Attend the spectacular Karnak Sound and Light Show in the evening
Meals Included: Lunch & Dinner
After breakfast, cross to the west bank for the Valley of the Kings and three open tombs, chosen by your guide on the day. The New Kingdom pharaohs abandoned pyramids for hidden rock-cut tombs here, hoping to defeat the robbers. It did not work, with one famous exception.
Continue to the Temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahari, then the Colossi of Memnon.
Return on board and sail toward Edfu via the Esna Lock. Overnight at Esna.
Optional Tour: Sunrise Hot Air Balloon Ride over Luxor
Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner
Horse-drawn carriage through Edfu to the Temple of Horus, then back on board and on to Kom Ombo for the double temple of Sobek and Haroeris and the Crocodile Museum.
Sail on to Aswan through the afternoon. Overnight in Aswan.
Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner
The Unfinished Obelisk first, then the Aswan High Dam, then the Temple of Philae on its island, dedicated to Isis, goddess of magic and love.
Afternoon free for the sundeck. Final evening on board.
Optional Tour: Visit a traditional Nubian Village in Aswan
Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner
Breakfast on board, then transfer to Aswan Airport, Aswan railway station or your Aswan hotel.
Optional Tour: Abu Simbel Temples Excursion
Meals Included: Breakfast Only
Valley of the Kings with three open tombs, Temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahari, and the Colossi of Memnon.
Sail toward Esna via the Esna Lock. Overnight at Esna.
Optional Tour: Sunrise Hot Air Balloon Ride over Luxor
Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner
Carriage ride to the Temple of Horus at Edfu, then Kom Ombo for the double temple and Crocodile Museum, then on to Aswan.
Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner
Start at the Unfinished Obelisk, abandoned in its quarry when a crack opened through the granite. Had it been raised it would have stood 42 metres — larger than any obelisk ever erected. Continue to the Aswan High Dam, 3,830 metres across and finished in 1970. Finish at the Temple of Philae, reached by motorboat. Dedicated to Isis, this was the last working temple of the ancient Egyptian religion. The temple was moved block by block to higher ground in the 1970s to escape the rising lake.
Afternoon free for the sundeck. Final evening on board.
Optional Tour: Visit a traditional Nubian Village in Aswan
Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner
The ship stays moored in Aswan all day. Use it however you like: the sundeck and pool, the spa, a felucca around Elephantine Island, or the Nubian Museum, which is genuinely one of the best museums in Egypt and consistently empty.
This is also the natural day for the full Abu Simbel excursion. Ramesses II’s rock-cut temples were sawn into blocks and lifted 65 metres up the cliff in the 1960s to escape Lake Nasser. Worth the early start.
Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner
The ship begins the return leg north. It pauses at Kom Ombo so newly boarded guests can visit the temple; you have already seen it, so the time is yours on deck.
Continue to Edfu. Overnight moored at Edfu.
Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner
Once the new guests return from the Temple of Horus, the ship sails for Luxor through the Esna Lock.
On arrival, visit the Karnak Temple Complex and Luxor Temple with your guide, ideally timed for late afternoon light.
Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner
Breakfast on board, then transfer to Luxor International Airport, Luxor railway station or your Luxor hotel.
Meals Included: Breakfast
