New Year Nile Cruise Tours – Celebrate 2027 on Egypt’s Nile

Midday: boarding in Luxor

Our representative meets you at Luxor airport, the railway station or your Luxor hotel and drives you to the ship, which is moored on the East Bank. Boarding is usually around noon. You check in, the luggage goes to your room, and lunch is served on board soon after.

Afternoon: Karnak

Your Egyptologist meets you on the ship in the afternoon for the short drive to Karnak, the temple of the god Amun. It was built, enlarged and rebuilt by pharaohs over some 2,000 years, so a walk from the entrance to the sanctuary is a walk through Egyptian history. The Great Hypostyle Hall has 134 columns, the tallest about 21 metres high, and the obelisks of Thutmose I and Queen Hatshepsut still stand in the heart of the complex. The visit takes about two hours.

Evening

Back on board there is time for tea on the sun deck as the light goes. Dinner is served on the ship, and you spend the night moored in Luxor.

Good to know

Lunch and dinner are included today. If you arrive in Luxor in the morning, ask us when you book about leaving your luggage or adding a morning visit to Luxor Temple, which is not part of this programme.

Early morning: the Valley of the Kings

Breakfast is served around 5:00 so that you cross to the West Bank as the valley opens; in the holiday weeks this is the best way to avoid the queues. The Valley of the Kings holds more than 60 tombs cut into the limestone hills for the pharaohs of the New Kingdom. The standard ticket opens three of the tombs open on the day, and your guide chooses them with you; the tomb of Tutankhamun and some others need a separate ticket bought at the site. Inside, the painted corridors show the king's night journey through the underworld. See our notes on the best tombs to visit.

Mid-morning: the Colossi of Memnon and Deir el-Medina

The Colossi of Memnon are two seated statues of Amenhotep III, each about 18 metres tall, which once guarded the entrance of his mortuary temple. In Roman times one of them was said to sing at dawn, which drew visitors from across the empire. Deir el-Medina, in a fold of the hills nearby, was the village of the craftsmen who cut and decorated the royal tombs. The houses survive as low walls, and the small family tombs above them are painted with the same skill as the king's, on a domestic scale.

Late morning: Medinet Habu

The last stop is Medinet Habu, the mortuary temple of Ramses III, one of the best-preserved temples on the West Bank. Its outer walls show the king's wars, including the sea battle against the "Sea Peoples", and the colours in the inner courts are still bright.

Afternoon: sailing to Esna

You are back on board by about midday, and the ship casts off while lunch is served. In the afternoon it reaches the lock at Esna, where boats wait their turn to be raised to the level of the river upstream; traders often row alongside to sell scarves and tablecloths by throwing them up to the deck. Afternoon tea is served in the lounge.

Evening

Dinner is on board, and the ship spends the night near Esna or sails on towards Edfu, depending on the queue at the lock.

Morning: the Temple of Horus at Edfu

After breakfast you go ashore at Edfu, usually by horse carriage from the river to the temple. The Temple of Horus was built between 237 and 57 BC, under the Ptolemies, and it is the most complete temple in Egypt: the pylon, the roofed halls and the granite shrine stand much as they were finished. The walls tell the story of the struggle between Horus and his uncle Seth, and two granite falcons of Horus guard the entrance.

Midday: sailing south

Back on board, lunch is served while the ship sails on to Kom Ombo, past fields of sugar cane, palm groves and villages that run down to the water.

Late afternoon: Kom Ombo

The ship moors next to the temple in the late afternoon, and the visit is often at dusk, when the columns are lit. Kom Ombo is a double temple, with two entrances and two sanctuaries side by side: one for Sobek, the crocodile god, and one for Haroeris, Horus the Elder. Your guide shows you a relief often read as a set of surgical instruments, and the temple's Nilometer. The small Crocodile Museum beside it displays mummified crocodiles found in a nearby cemetery.

Evening

Dinner is on board, and the ship sails or moors overnight on the way to Aswan.

Early morning: arrival in Aswan

The ship reaches Aswan early, and breakfast is served on board around 7:00, with the granite islands and the feluccas of Aswan around you.

Morning: the High Dam and Philae

The High Dam, completed in 1970, ended the yearly Nile flood and created Lake Nasser, which stretches about 500 km south into Sudan. From the top you see the lake on one side and the river on the other. You then take a short motorboat ride to Philae Temple, dedicated to the goddess Isis. When the old Aswan dam left Philae under water for much of the year, the temple was taken apart and rebuilt, stone by stone, on the higher island of Agilkia in a UNESCO campaign completed in 1980. Read more about visiting Philae Temple.

Afternoon: the Nubian Museum

After lunch on board and some time to rest, you visit the Nubian Museum, opened in 1997. It tells the story of Nubia from prehistory to the present day, including the villages and monuments moved or lost when Lake Nasser filled, and it is one of the best-presented museums in Egypt.

Evening

Dinner is on board, with the ship moored in Aswan for your last night.

Breakfast is your last meal on board. Check-out from the ship is usually by about 8:00 to 9:00. Our representative takes you to Aswan airport, the railway station or a hotel in Aswan, and the tour ends there.

If your flight leaves late, Abu Simbel can be added this morning as an optional trip, about three and a half hours each way by road, or by air; ask us when you book, as it decides the time of your onward flight. A felucca ride around Elephantine Island is a shorter option. Onward flights from Aswan are not included in the cruise price, and we can book them for you.