Nour El Nil – An unforgettable journey of discovery
If I could press a button and rewind life back to 22 April when I boarded our dahabiya ‘Malouka’, I would.
The things I would give to relive those five nights and six days leisurely floating up the Nile, enveloped in Egyptian culture, with our incredible group of cosmopolitan travellers.
Simply a perfect sojourn in every way.
I’d been dreaming of sailing up the Nile on one of these dahabiyas – a traditional sailboat which has barely changed in design for some 4,000 years – ever since I first came across Nour El Nil when researching Egypt many years ago.
Nour El Nil is the brainchild of three – Eleanor Kamir, a French-born interior designer and Egyptian resident of many years, her Mexican-born husband Enrique Cansino, and local Egyptian boat-maker Memdou Sayed Khalifa – and they have crafted a special experience.
This is a Nile cruise with a difference, a chic adventure with a touch of French elegance along the way.
Boarding the Malouka in Esna, I immediately feel at ease with my decision to forgo a big, ‘luxury’ ship – the wooden boats have a homely bohemian feel with the expansive upper deck’s low-slung striped lounging areas and French chandeliers.
Below deck, the Gallic charm continues – 10 sleek white cabins with comfortable beds, crisp white linens and thoughtful, homely touches combine with shared lounging areas with comfortable striped sofas, more chandeliers and more eclectic decorations.
It’s an elite way to travel. And it requires one of the greatest luxuries in our fast-paced modern world – time. Nour El Nil has mastered the art of creating an environment which means guests can do a bit of something, or a lot of nothing – it is a supremely relaxing journey, paced to perfection.
Florence Nightingale wrote, “I would never go in a steamer on the Nile.” Her disdain of modern speed at the time still holds true today. Nour El Nil spends five nights sailing up the Nile from Esna to Aswan, a distance of a mere 150 km which you could drive in three hours.
The contrast of this is apparent as you watch from the striped daybeds as the large cruise boats (some billowing thick black smoke into the air behind them) race past you, completing their trip from Luxor to Aswan in as little as two nights – one of which is often spent in Luxor itself.
Every time one of these large cruisers went past, everyone on our dahabiya was thinking the same thing – we were all glad we’d chosen the slow way. Whilst some are luxurious (Oberoi or Sanctuary Retreats offerings come to mind), others are simply about moving a large number of people from point A(swan) to point Luxor, and vice versa.
The beauty about sailing on a small dahabiya is not only the intimacy and relaxed pace this style of travelling affords one, but also the smaller sites you visit and the life you see along the Nile.
Nour El Nil wants you to have a local experience. It especially shows when Enrique accompanies you to visit villages and you realise the relationships they have developed over many years. The small insights you get into how people live along the river are special, if at times leaving you feeling like an intruder – a ‘wealthy’ foreigner gawking at locals as a mere curiosity.
This desire of the Nour El Nil team to make you feel like you’re having a rich experience in the company of real Egyptians permeates through everything they do. The service on the boat was phenomenal – I honestly can’t fault the staff on board. They were so, so warm and friendly. Special mention to Ibrahim and Abdullah – thanks for chatting to us, laughing with us, playing football with us, swimming in the Nile with us, and making sure we had the best time possible.
Before I jump into a day-by-day playback of our experience, I’ll just mention that food is a huge part of the Nour El Nil experience. We enjoyed every meal on the boat; from breakfasts of Spanish omelettes and crepes, to tasty lunches (a particular favourite being the falafels), and dinners which were always a three course offering starting with delicious soups (recipes please!), meats and vegetables, and deserts.
I’ll admit that some meals could have been prepared a little better (one night the chicken was so dry), and the style can be repetitive, however, these are minor complaints. We were fortunate to have an amazing group on our boat so meal times were always looked forward to given the conversations which were to be had each day.
Oh and the Egyptian rosé was actually not too bad…
Day 1 – Meeting our fellow travellers, visiting locals, and the start of an incredible journey
Our first day started with a driver collecting us from the Sofitel Winter Palace Luxor which had been our home for four nights whilst we explored this amazing city and surrounds.
A key note here is that the larger cruise ships actually include a night or two in Luxor on the ship where you tour Luxor. So if you’re looking at an itinerary and thinking you will be sailing for a few days, stopping along the way to Aswan, think again. I didn’t want to do this as I wanted more time in Luxor given my interest in Ancient Egypt, but I also didn’t want to be on a large, impersonal ship.
We set off in the van to Esna, about 45 minutes south of Luxor. This was our first intro to people who were sailing with Nour El Nil – although at this point we didn’t know if any of them would be on boat, turns out none of them in the van would.
Arriving in Esna, you link up with other people traveling with Nour El Nil. On our voyage, there were three ships sailing (they have four), which meant roughly 50 people (up to 20 on each boat, however not each was full). You don’t notice this number really as they tend to stagger excursions quite well so you’re always a few minutes behind groups that you’re split into.
Esna is home to a well preserved section of what would have been a large temple dedicated to Khnum. Today, all that has been uncovered is the hypostyle hall which sits nine metres below the street level of the modern town.
The hypostyle hall and its exterior are well preserved. There are 24 columns which are elaborate and very well decorated, and the ceiling features some fine reliefs, including depictions of the Egyptian and Roman zodiacs.
Given this temple is one of the last built in Egypt (during the Ptolemaic and Roman periods), the change in architectural styles from those in visitors would have seen in Luxor makes this temple quite interesting. We found it similar to the Dendera Temple Complex, but of course smaller given you can only visit the hypostyle hall with the remaining 3/4 of the temple potentially lost forever underneath the modern town of Esna.
Following visiting the temple, you are invited to have a walk through the town of Esna. We opted out of this as we’d spent some time the previous days seeing local town life whilst horse riding on the West Bank or when our driver went rogue and took us through some random village on the way to Abydos.
We were the only ones who didn’t go on the town tour, so we just walked back along the river to where the unmissable Nour El Nil dahabiyas were waiting to set off on our journey. We spent some time exploring our boat whilst waiting for other sailing companions to join us – as I’ve mentioned above, it really is beautiful setup they have on board and we were excited for what was obviously going to be a very relaxing trip to come.
As other guests started to arrive back to our boat, we had our first and only moment where we wondered what we’d actually signed up for. Given the slow pace and communal nature of the boat, having a good group really will add to your experience.
Our boat, the Malouka, had 17 other guests. We had a large European family group consisting of an Austrian-Italian couple and their two children, the Austrian lady’s brother, his wife and their two kids, the Austrian’s older father (this trip was for his 80th birthday). Next up was a Pakistani-French couple and their two children. And finally two couples from Uruguay who I’m guessing would be in their mid to late 50s.
For context, I’m 34 and my boyfriend Travis is 42 so we were a bit younger than all the adults, obviously we’re in a relationship, have no kids. We had seen couple of other gay guys who were obviously on another boat and just some other younger couples in general. So, at first, we were a little confused why we’d been put with this group and initially thought we would have rather been on a different boat even if it was a downgrade. We just didn’t initially think we fit in with the demographic on board.
Well what a lesson this turned out to be in not judging a book by its cover, or the need to fight preconceptions or even unconscious biases! I’m sure we had the BEST boat in terms of fellow travellers (I know we did as we could see other boats with separate tables set up for meals…).
Meals are served communally and Eleanor actually asked us for our first lunch this day if we’d like to set up our own table away from the kids and families. I briefly thought about this for a moment, and then decided against it - it would look super weird to sit away from everyone and I wondered the tone it would set for the rest of the trip.
In any case, the kids (who turned out to be awesome kids and totally fine all trip) always ate lunch and dinner and a separate table anyway.
So we sat down for our first meal as a group, and I’ll tell you now, any hesitations we had about this being the right boat for us went straight out the window. Our group was incredible! Everyone was so diverse in backgrounds and life experiences that we had the most incredible and enriching conversations from this lunch, right through to the last breakfast when we said goodbye to new friends.
Obviously not everyone will be as lucky as we were to get a group where literally everyone just clicks together (I mean this is 13 adults - it’s difficult right?!), but I really encourage people to go into this experience with an open mind and see where it takes you!
We’re actually going to Vienna in September/October to spend a couple of days and catch up with one of the couples we had a really great connection with. Can’t wait to see Paolo and Stevie!
The rest of our first day was spent sailing, or being pulled by a tug boat when there was no wind, along the river to where we stopped for the night. One of the great things about these boats is that they have no engines – so being on board is very peaceful and smooth. If there is no wind, they simply call the tug boats which accompany the fleet to pull you along.
After mooring alongside the banks of the Nile, we were invited to go for a walk through the fields to see some local life. We decided to do this one as we were reasonably far from a major city now so would be seeing a different side to life for Egyptians along the Nile.
It was a nice walk through some farms and the village and we ended up at the house of some locals where they were celebrating a birthday that evening for a little girl. We stayed probably for 30 minutes or so (you could come and go) and during this time there was dancing, Egyptian sweets, and shisha if that’s your thing.
We made our way back to the boat after we’d indulged our curiosity and soon afterwards settled in for our first dinner (the soup this night was so, so good), and then a quiet night in our comfortable and cosy cabin.
Day 2 – There’s no crocodiles in this river, right?
Breakfast is an unannounced, informal affair on board. You simply wake and emerge from your cabin when ready, head upstairs, and one of the staff will get you started with some strong coffee. The chef prepares your eggs how you like them, and an array of breakfast treats are brought to wherever you’d like to sit that morning.
We set off from our overnight mooring during breakfast to make the short trip to our next site – the first of two we’d see on day two – the ancient tombs at El Kab which are reached by taking a short walk from the boat through a small local village and past the huge mudbrick walls of the ancient town of Nekhbet.
The rock cut tombs at El Kab are interesting, although they are not as well preserved or decorated as those of nobles and workers that we saw in in Luxor. There are five tombs open to view – we saw the Tomb of Paheri (a mayor of Nekhbet), the Tomb of Setau (a priest in Nekhbet), Tomb of Renni (another mayor of Nekhbet), and the Tomb of Ahmose (a warrior who played an important role in the liberation of Egypt from Hyksos rule).
The tombs have some nice reliefs and paintwork which depict scenes of daily life in Egypt. There are some beautiful scenes of husbands and wives – including one where a husband is returning home with a bouquet of flowers. I also enjoyed the mummification scenes in the tombs here, as well as having the Nour El Nil guide explain some of hieroglyphs – particularly how Ahmose mastered the chariot (you can see a little chariot hieroglyph).
After our visit, we headed back through the village (with an escort of friendly children trying to sell us stuff) to the boat for some downtime and lunch on board whilst we sailed to our next stop, the magnificent Temple of Horus at Edfu.
When we docked at Edfu, I spotted the Steam Ship Sudan – a historic boat which has been cruising the Nile for almost 100 years. It’s a beautiful ship and its nostalgia-inducing Belle Époque style gives it a unique edge against some of the other large luxury options.
Your visit to the Temple of Horus begins with a short caleche (horse and cart) ride from where the boats dock through the city of Edfu. Nour El Nil organises all of your sightseeing and you move pretty seamlessly around during the journey – it’s nice to not have to barter for things, although tipping is still expected, but is minimal.
The temple itself is spectacular. It was built in the Ptolemaic period and is one of the most well-preserved temples in all of Egypt, and actually the only one that we know of to have been completed. There is evidence of some early building during the New Kingdom by Seti I, Ramesses II and Ramesses III; however, the temple as we know it today was constructed from 237 BC to 57 BC.
You enter the temple complex by first passing the ‘birth-house’, which is a beautiful colonnaded building to celebrate the divine birth of the god. These structures are unique to Greco-Roman temples in Egypt and do not feature at temples built in previous eras (i.e. you won’t find these at Karnak or Luxor, but you will at the Dendera Temple Complex).
The Dendera Temple Complex is actually linked quite closely to Edfu – once you pass the massive first pylon at Edfu and the two statues of Horus flanking the entrance, you enter a colonnaded courtyard. Around this are images of the ‘Feast of the Beautiful Meeting’ which was an annual festival where the cult statue of Hathor was brought up the Nile from Dendera to meet her husband Horus at Edfu.
Continuing through the temple, you pass the beautiful granite statue of Horus wearing the double crown of Upper and Lower Egypt before proceeding into the hypostyle hall, the outer chamber with 18 massive columns, and the inner with 12 more slender columns.
Deeper into the temple, the holy of holies – the most sacred area of the temple accessible only by the high priest or the Pharaoh – contains the granite shrine which would have housed the cult statue of Horus. This is the oldest object in the temple. You can also see a reproduction of the barque of Horus – which would have carried the cult statue to and from the temple – in an adjacent chapel.
You should also take some time to explore the outer walls of the temple. There are beautiful reliefs of the mythology surrounding the cult of Horus and many hieroglyphic inscriptions which, due to their detail, have become so important to Egyptologists today, and their quest to understand the Ancient Egyptians.
Following the short caleche ride back to the boats, it was time to cast off from the banks of the Nile at Edfu and head to our next overnight stop. This turned out to be a network of tiny green islands in the middle of the Nile and honestly, being here as the sun started to set was just pure magic.
It was also time for our first swim in the Nile! It seemed to be getting hotter as we travelled further into Upper Egypt, so a swim sounded great.
The water was so cold!
We jumped in off the island and I was surprised how clear and deep the water was – you could dive straight off the grass and not worry about hitting the bottom. The water moves very quickly, so you walk a little along the banks and then just float back to the boat. And repeat.
Just a note on swimming in the Nile, some people say bilharzia (or schistosomiasis) is a risk in the Nile. I’m not saying it’s not, but the risk is mainly in areas of stagnant water. Where you swim with Nour El Nil is always where water is clean (so upstream from towns) and moving fast. Travis and I have both been tested by our doctors since returning and we’re all clear. Even if you did get it, a simple course of antibiotics will sort you out.
After swimming, we enjoyed another beautiful evening as the sun set with our fellow travellers. I think this was the night we stayed up until around 1 a.m. chatting with Abinta and Fabrice – our other favourite couple from the boat – over Egyptian rosé about anything and everything. The poor crew were so accommodating but we Fab did give them an extra tip for their (our?) trouble.
Day 3 – I have a tradition of being away from home for my birthday, and today was nothing short of perfect
My birthday! 34 years…
It was so great waking up on this day on the Nile. This has been my dream holiday for as long as I can remember, so to be here on a special day for me was a great moment. I’m always an early riser, so I popped upstairs to the main deck, ordered my coffee, and had a moment to myself enjoying the morning sun and the peaceful river.
Today was literally a do nothing day on the itinerary. Some of the group went for a morning walk to one of the other islands to see some farming, we just opted to relax and play backgammon or Monopoly Deal on the boat. After the walkers returned, we set off up the Nile, had another great lunch, stopped for a swim and then reached where we could go for a village and sunset desert walk.
We decided to do this one and it was a nice activity. We spent around 2 hours walking and visited a couple of local families (such beautiful people and it must be strange for them to welcome foreigners into their homes) and walked through the desert.
I loved these types of activities during the trip. As mentioned, I did feel like a bit of an intruder at times, but it was so interesting seeing how people live life so differently to how I live life. And the people are so beautiful – especially the kids – they really do remind me that there is so much happiness and contentment to be found in simplicity and appreciating what you have.
We walked through the desert and past the ancient site of Gebel el-Silsila where our little fleet had moored on the banks in front of the floodlit temple (which we would visit the next day) – providing the perfect backdrop for our evening.
Tonight was really special on our boat. As it was my birthday, I had a hunch that the staff would do something special for me. And of course, on every Nile cruise there is an Egyptian themed evening with music and dancing. Well tonight was the night!
After our dinner, we heard the drums start and the crew came up singing from the lower deck with an amazing birthday cake that the chef had prepared for me. It was a huge cake! Us guests only could manage half of it, so I gave the rest to the crew to have after their dinner.
I always dread these kinds of moments. Being the center of attention at a culture night usually means you get dragged up to dance. And usually I feel like the guests all just sit around awkwardly gawking and not really wanting to get involved, most people wishing they were suddenly shrinking away somewhere else.
Well this wasn’t our group! Everyone was so great and for literally 20 minutes, all 19 guests were dancing around the deck with all the crew, really getting into. It was super fun and everyone commented afterwards that it was one of the best moments of the trip. I loved the crew’s singing and music – they just created such an amazing atmosphere obviously not only for me to enjoy, but for all the guests. And we all made the most of it which I think they really appreciated.
I think our boat got into our night much more than the other groups – we heard it happening on subsequent evenings, but it seemed like the other crews only did one song for about 5 minutes…
Honestly, the day as a whole was probably one of the best birthdays I have had – it was such a relaxing day, I really enjoyed the afternoon walk with the crew who at this stage we’d become more friendly with a few of them, and then it was capped off with such a fun celebration in the evening.
Perfect moments. Something Nour El Nil really excels at.
Day 4 – A casual football game? Let’s just say Egyptians take football VERY seriously…
This morning started off with a visit to the site of Gebel el-Silsila. This was the location of a large quarry where vast quantities of sandstone were carved to be used to build temples all across Egypt. It was also an important religious centre with festivals and events throughout the year.
There are a number (over 30 in total) of shrines dotted all through the site dedicated to various gods and goddesses, mostly linked to the Nile, but also Amun-Re and the Triad of Elephantine (Khnum, Satet and Anuket) given we were now getting closer to Aswan.
The main structure here is the Temple of Horemheb which is a rock-cut temple largely dedicated to Amun-Re, but also other deities. The temple was not actually finished by Horemheb, and subsequent kings added to the reliefs inside, particularly Ramesses II.
There are some nice reliefs and some damaged figures in the temple and which depict the usual offering scenes to deities, as well as important depictions of the achievements of kings, such as Horemheb’s victory over the Nubians and the four Seb festivals (celebrations of kingship and rule) of Ramesses II.
From the main temple, we walked past a number of interesting small shrines and tombs to where the main quarries were located. It was pretty impressive to see how much of the rock they cut out from this area in order to construct many of the great monuments we’d already seen on our trip such as Luxor Temple, Karnak Temple, the Ramesseum and Medinet Habu.
Following our visit, we set off along the river again. This was a leisurely afternoon and we pulled up for some more swimming in the Nile before stopping on the riverbank to visit a local café for tea and shisha. We opted to skip this – I had a massage on board in my cabin instead which was fine and reasonably priced.
After the stop at the café, we continued along the river and stopped at our mooring point for the night. This was next to a large flat field which turned into a makeshift football (soccer if that’s your flavour) pitch, complete with some kids on donkeys as a welcome party.
Let me just start by saying that Egyptians take their football super seriously. Even though all the guests were invited to play (not many joined), I feel like it was more for the crew’s entertainment than ours. I have no idea what I’m doing when it comes to football, so the crew just seemed to use me – probably the biggest guy there – as a weapon to “kill him”, ‘him’ being anyone on the opposite team.
We probably played for about an hour or so – I honestly thought I was going to wake up with some kind of eye infection, it was so dusty. And my poor white (I’m stupid) Yung-1s will never be the same (well, they’re no longer with me). But it was so fun. And good to do a bit of exercise!
Another enjoyable dinner followed, closing out the day.
Day 5 – Can we turn around and start again? Please?!
Our last day on the boat!
This morning was especially beautiful on the Nile – I remember sitting on the deck, the water so glassy and calm, coffee in hand savouring the moment.
I was already dreading having to leave when we got to Aswan the next day…
After breakfast, we continued our journey up the Nile to our next and final ancient site we would visit, the Temple of Kom Ombo.
Kom Ombo is a really unique temple in Egypt as it is dedicated to two sets of triads – the northern half of the temple is dedicated to the falcon god Haroeris – Horus the Elder – along with his wife Tasenetnofret (a form of Hathor) and their son Panebtawy. The southern half of the temple is dedicated to the crocodile god Sobek, with Hathor (identified here as his wife) and their son Khonsu.
The design of the temple is essentially a mirror image so that each triad has the same layout and functional areas within which it is likely that two separate priesthoods maintained each cult.
The temple today is the result of building begun by Ptolemy VI Philometor on the site of an older New Kingdom temple, of which not a lot remains today. Construction took place from around 180 BC to 47 BC. Given the era it was built, its style is quite similar to other Ptolemaic temples in terms of layout.
The hypostyle halls with their ornate floral columns and surrounding walls are in reasonably good condition. There are some absolutely beautiful reliefs to observe the various offering scenes and scenes of the deities from each cult.
Continuing through the temple is much the same as what you would have seen at previous temples around Egypt, especially those from the Ptolemaic period. Unfortunately, most of the antechambers and sanctuaries at Kom Ombo have been destroyed over time so not a lot remains in any great form, although the alters where the barques of the gods would have been placed remain.
However, there are some really interesting things to see around parts of the temple. I really liked seeing the calendar – the Egyptians divided the year into three seasons or 120 days, then three months, then three periods of 10 days. There was also a five-day month to balance the calendar. This set up is displayed in detailed hieroglyphs in Kom Ombo.
It was also interesting to see a relief depicting what many believe to be surgical instruments used by physicians in ancient times. These are located on the walls of the outer corridor of the temple – similar to the detailed passageways at Edfu and Dendera. There is also a small chapel of Hathor with mummified remains of crocodiles and a deep well with a circular staircase and nileometer.
Back outside the temple area, there is a well presented crocodile museum. Within the museum they have on display a number of huge Nile crocodiles which were mummified and stored at the temple. It’s pretty impressive to see how large some of these were. Thankfully there are none left in the Nile north of the Aswan High Dam given we’d been jumping in and out of the river for the past few days!
After we’d finished our visit, we said farewell to the guide that we had for the trip. I recall that Eleanor said not to directly tip the staff employed by Nour El Nil, which I thought included guides. However, some of our group tipped our guide.
A few of us piled into a local taxi and went off in search of an ATM so that we could settle our bills on board. There was one super annoying person in the van which made me even more grateful to be with our group – seriously, I don’t know why some people leave their home countries only to complain about EVERYTHING… The van was too hot, the van was too crowded, could we just get two vans, it’s too squashy how will you fit, the ATM is not working, why is this happening to me, huff, puff, drama. We thought she was going to have an aneurysm.
Anyway, money in hand and back on board we made our way along the river to a sandy beach where we stopped for a swim. This was probably my favourite swimming spot – the water was super clear and there was actually a large family group from the village across the river that seemed to enjoy interacting with us.
The rest of the day is a long sailing afternoon to the outskirts of Aswan where you stop for the night and then disembark the next day. We had another nice final dinner with the group and got the obligatory group photo.
Day 6 – Farewell Nour El Nil
After our final breakfast (I miss the crepes!) we packed the last of our things and said our goodbyes to our new friends on board – both guests and crew and headed off towards Aswan in our taxi arranged by Nour El Nil.
We left after our five night trip a little sad, very relaxed, a lot more enriched, completely satisfied, and thoroughly enthralled by what was probably the most amazing experience of my travels to date.
We also left promising everyone that we’d be back. And I like to keep my promises.
Sojourn Summary
Thank you Nour El Nil!
This was a really special trip.
If you’ve made it this far, you’ve read all through the above about how much I loved the experience. I don’t really have a lot to say, other than that I cannot imagine doing the Nile any other way.
Sure, there are cheaper options of the same thing.
Sure, there are larger ships with every luxury and amenity imaginable.
Sure, there are faster options that you can do in a couple of days.
But we were here for an experience. And this is what we got each and every day in the most relaxing and carefully thought-out way possible.
I’ll never forget this trip and would really encourage all types of travellers to give it a go. Some will naturally gravitate towards this style of travelling, others will take a little more convincing, but for me, it met and exceeded every expectation I had.
Sojourn Essentials
My sojourn rating: ★★★★★
Experience’s own rating: N/A
Experience’s website: https://www.nourelnil.com/
My cabin type: Luxury Room (on Malouka)
My dates: 22 April 19 to 27 April 19 (five nights)
How I reserved: Direct