Nile Cruise 4-Day with Flights and Balloon from Cairo

Flying south and life on board the Nile ship

The flight from Cairo to Aswan takes about an hour and a quarter, and it replaces a long overland journey so that almost the whole four days are spent sightseeing or sailing. After hotel pickup in the small hours in Cairo, you reach Aswan in the morning and board your ship, with a cabin, restaurant, lounge and sundeck.

Life on a Nile cruise is easy: breakfast, lunch and dinner are served on board, the ship sails between temples while you watch palm groves, farmland and desert banks pass, and in the evening the sundeck is a quiet place to sit. Full board is included, but drinks including water are not. The ship category you choose changes the cabins and dining, not the programme.

Abu Simbel, the rock temples of Ramses II

Abu Simbel lies about 280 kilometres south of Aswan on the shore of Lake Nasser. The Great Temple, carved into a sandstone cliff in the thirteenth century BC, is fronted by four seated statues of Ramses II, each about twenty metres high, and a smaller temple beside it honours his wife Nefertari and the goddess Hathor.

When the High Dam raised the lake, both temples were cut into blocks and rebuilt on higher ground between 1964 and 1968 in a UNESCO rescue. Inside the Great Temple, reliefs show the king's battles and the sanctuary holds four seated gods. Your guide explains the monuments and how the programme fits the visit into your day.

Kom Ombo and the Temple of Horus at Edfu

Kom Ombo stands on a bend of the Nile and was built under the Ptolemies as a double temple with twin entrances for Sobek, the crocodile god, and Horus the Elder. Reliefs show medical instruments and a calendar, and a small museum nearby displays mummified crocodiles.

At Edfu, the Temple of Horus is the best-preserved major temple in Egypt, built between 237 and 57 BC. Visitors travel from the ship by horse-drawn carriage, a pleasant tradition included in this cruise, and arrive at a huge pylon about 36 metres high. Inside, the walls tell the story of Horus and Seth in carved scenes, and a sanctuary still holds the granite shrine of the god.

A sunrise hot air balloon over Luxor

The balloon flight is the unforgettable part of this cruise. You are collected before dawn and watch the balloon fill with warm air, then drift slowly above the West Bank as the sun rises, with the Nile, the farmland and the desert cliffs laid out below you.

From the air you can pick out the temples, villages and the green strip of the Nile valley, and the light is soft and golden, ideal for photographs. Flights depend on weather and wind, and the pilot decides on the day. If you are searching for a balloon ride in Luxor, this cruise includes one, with a peaceful hour in the air.

Valley of the Kings and Hatshepsut's Temple

The Valley of the Kings is the burial ground of New Kingdom pharaohs, with royal tombs cut into the limestone hills of the West Bank between about 1539 and 1075 BC. Inside, long corridors lead to burial chambers painted with scenes from the afterlife, and the colours remain vivid.

Nearby, the Temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahari rises in three terraces against a dramatic cliff, with long colonnades and carved reliefs of an expedition to Punt. It was built for one of the few women to rule Egypt as pharaoh. Both visits are guided, and entrance tickets are paid separately. Allow around three hours for the West Bank.

Karnak Temple in Luxor

Karnak is the largest religious complex in Egypt, built and expanded over about two thousand years in honour of Amun-Ra. It includes courts, pylons, obelisks, a sacred lake and the Great Hypostyle Hall, where 134 stone columns, some about twenty metres tall, stand in rows covered with carved scenes.

Your guide takes you along the processional route from the entrance, past the avenue of ram-headed sphinxes, to the inner sanctuaries. A visit usually takes about two hours. The morning is best for light and fewer groups, and the cruise programme is built to bring you there at a comfortable time. Karnak is the final highlight before the flight back to Cairo.