4-day Luxor to Aswan Nile Cruise Review| What to Expect

4-day Luxor to Aswan Nile Cruise Review| What to Expect

Travelling to Egypt soon and looking at the best ways to explore the country? Sailing down the Nile on an Egyptian Nile cruise, will truly be like unlike any other cruise out there. Earlier this year in February, we embarked on the trip of a lifetime – a cruise on the Nile, sailing from Luxor all the way to Aswan. We chose to call the MS Blue Shadow Egyptian Nile cruise ship our home for the next 3 nights it would take to get us to Aswan.

A Nile Cruise is truly a unique experience not to be missed in Egypt. It’s one of 30+ bucket list worthy activities to do in Egypt. If you’re looking to travel to Luxor and Aswan, by boat is the way to do it!

I’ll go through what you can expect to visit on your cruise, what’s worth it and what isn’t as well as dive into how to chose the best Nile cruise for you!

Tips for booking your Nile river cruise

Nile starting point: Should you start in Luxor or Aswan? This will be up to your personal preference, and depending on the timing and availability of tours and how they align with your travel calendar. We chose to finish in Aswan as we wanted to spend more time there, but in hindsight we wish we had also accounted for some extra time before our cruise and at least gone for a hot air balloon ride in Luxor.

Time of the year: We went in late February and the weather could not have been more perfect. I seriously could not imagine doing all that walking around in the 40+ celsius heat. Research and choose carefully! The sites take your breathe away, you don’t need the heat to do it as well 😉

Trip duration: You can choose Egyptian Nile cruise trip lengths anywhere from 3 to 10 days. For us 4 days was the ideal amount for sightseeing and cruising.

4-day Egyptian Nile cruise itinerary

Day 1: Arrive in Luxor and kick off your journey by visiting the Luxor temple. Then move to see the Karnak temple before going back to the cruise. Lunch and dinner are included.

Day 2: Another day near Luxor where you’ll make your way to visit the Colossi of Menom before setting sights on the Valley of the Kings and Valley of the Queens. Here you’ll find Queen Hatshepshut’s temple. All daily meals are included.

Day 3: Begin the day by taking a horse and carriage ride to Edfu temple. Then as you sail, visit the Kom Ombo temple after lunch. Finish the day sailing on the Aswan. All daily meals are included.

Day 4: Arrive in Aswan and visit the Aswan High Dam, also stopping by a perfumery. After lunch visit the Elephantine island to see the Philae temple. Our group paid extra to the guide (not included in the tour) and we were also taken to the Nubian village and botanical gardens. Only breakfast and lunch included.

Day 1: Luxor and Karnak Temples

We arrived in Luxor where we had lunch and then went out to explore both Luxor and Karnak temple. The day started in complete and utter awe. Karnak is an extremely vast and large temple, with many of the massive pillars still in amazing condition (built over 2,000 years ago!). You can’t help but feel small next to this grand site.

Karnak Temple - Egyptian Nile Cruise

Day 2 & 3: Valleys of Kings and Queens and Two temples

This day was jam packed and exhausting (but still amazing). I’ve seen just about every movie on Ancient Egypt and when I pictured the valley of the kings, I imagined these grand pillars with pharaoh’s faces carved into the rocks (turns out I imagined Abu Simbel, which is a real place, but a few hours outside of Aswan).

What you see when you arrive is just as the name suggests, a valley. After all, it is the burial grounds of many of the major royal figures (and some nobles as well) of the Egyptian Kingdom. This is where the tomb of Tutankhamun was discovered, which you can visit yourself (for an additional fee). We visited one of the other tombs, and it was everything I imagined it would be – unlike the tombs at the Pyramids. Beautifully preserved colourful hieroglyphs line the walls depicting stories of ancient times and the life of the person buried therein.

Egyptian Tomb - Egyptian Nile Cruise

From there we went to visit the temple of who is considered by many to be the most successful Pharaoh – Queen Hatshepsut. We reached here as the mid day sun began to hit, so it became quite hot, hence the scarf, ultra fashionable I know. I detail out some of my other tips on what to wear in Egypt that will help to beat the heat, but feel comfortable and stylish at the same time. The temple nonetheless was unlike any of the others; a unique and beautiful site, just like the Queen’s story.

Queen Hatshepshut - Egyptian Nile Cruise

The last two temples of the day were Edfu and Kom Ombo, which to be honest, were identical (especially to the uneducated Egyptologist). That does not mean however that they were not impressive. The giant carvings on the facade and the sheer size of the temple, were genuinely incredible. Edfu however was not as pleasant a visit. For one, after getting off the boat we were put onto horse carriages, which no one wanted to take after looking at the condition of the poor horses. However left with no options, we took the horse ride down to the temple. If you have the option to choose between Edfu and Kom Ombo, I’d choose Kom Ombo, spare yourselves the unnecessary trip.

Edfu Temple - Egyptian Nile Cruise

Day 4: Aswan

The cruise ended here, with visits to see the High Dam (and on the way a Perfumerie), the Philae Temple and a Felucca ride to the Botanical Gardens and the Nubian Village. The views from the Botanical gardens were stunning and it was beautiful to see so much greenery in an otherwise desert landscape.

Aswan Botanical Gardens - Egyptian Nile Cruise

The traditional and colourful Nubian village was probably one of the highlights. We had a miscommunication with our guide who was supposed to take us to AnaKato (a beautiful Nubian Hotel) for some tea and snacks, but we ended up going elsewhere which was just as well. It was wonderful to get a break, sit in the shade and just take in the serene sounds of Mohamed Mounir’s voice (a local musical King). I seriously don’t know if I’ve been to a more colourful place. For my top 7 sights to see in Aswan, check out this post!

All in all, I’d be hard pressed to say which site was my favourite, they were each unique in their own way. Aswan as a city though, was a head turner! We ended up staying an extra day and stayed at the gorgeous Movenpick Resort Aswan, located on Elephantine Island (that you get to take a felucca to get to, yay, something you should also do if you consider to visit Cairo!).

Message to my husband: don’t forget you promised to take me back to Aswan, so we could go visit the famous Old Cataract Hotel. Let’s throw in Abu Simbel too while we are at it, that spot looks incredible! 🙂

Movenpick Aswan - Egyptian Nile Cruise

Review of our Nile river cruise

The ship star rating: The ship we chose was marketed as a 5-star, and after having walked through some of the other boats at the port, was really more of a 4-star. It was clean and the staff was friendly, so we have no complaints, but the accommodations are not what you would expect in a 5-star.

The food: Not sure if you have much option here, but I wish every night would’ve been Egyptian themed food night! I understand that oftentimes the cuisine is made more ‘international’ to suit different tastes from people from many parts of the world. But me – I’m in Egypt, I want to eat Egyptian food, call me crazy! I could seriously eat koshary every day though.

Entertainment: It could have been our luck that we had other passengers aboard that were, how do I put it nicely… boring :D! Part of creating a fun atmosphere and particularly at night is the entertainment crew, which we found a bit lacking.

Overall: If you’re looking to travel between these two cities, the best way to see them is by cruise, without question.

What are some of the sites you dream of seeing in Egypt, I’d love to hear about it! If you need added inspiration, check out these 10 photos that will make you want to travel to Egypt TODAY!

Video from our Cruise on the Nile

This place was seriously too beautiful not to capture it by video! If you’d like to see footage from our cruise and see what you can expect when you embark on your own Nile Cruise adventure, check out the below!


Some additional guides that may help with your trip planning:

Like this post about the Luxor to Aswan Nile cruise? Pin it for later!

Share: