- Published
- 18 July 2026
- Reading
- 6 min read
- Where
- Luxor and Aswan, Egypt
The same three temples, two entirely different weeks. The difference is not what you see but when you see it, and with how many people.
Between Luxor and Aswan lie three temples — Edfu, Kom Ombo and Philae — and two hundred kilometres of river. You can do it by boat over three or four nights, or by train and with a driver in a day and a half. The boat is more comfortable and dearer; the train is cheaper and gives one advantage the boat cannot — the freedom to enter a temple when nobody is in it.
What a cruise is
A floating hotel of three to five decks with a rooftop pool and full board, sailing at night and stopping at temples by day. The price per person for three or four nights runs from about 390 dollars on standard ships to 1,200 and up on luxury ones, including accommodation, food and the guided visits; entry tickets are usually separate. The boat solves all the logistics: you do not repack, you do not arrange transport, and between temples you sit on deck while the bank changes.
What the train and a driver give
The Luxor–Aswan train takes three to four hours and costs several times less than one night on a boat. Edfu and Kom Ombo are done with a driver on the way, an hour and a half per temple, and that is the whole point: the boats dock at the same hours and pour in several hundred people at once, so Edfu at noon is a queue. Arrive by car at three in the afternoon, when the fleet has moved on, and the temple is almost yours.
What each version costs
The felucca
A sailing boat without an engine, with a captain who cooks on deck and sleeping under blankets in the open. One to three days downstream from Aswan, at a price closer to the train than the cruise. No bathroom, no air conditioning and you do not reach every temple — but it is the only way to see the Nile from water level, without an engine and without a timetable. For anyone travelling in summer, it is an idea that looks better in March.
The recommendation without hedging: if this is a first time in Egypt and you travel with children or parents, take the boat. Everything is handled, the food is safe, and the temples come to you. If you travel as a couple and crowds bother you, the train and a driver give the same content for less money and in the hours when the temples are empty.
Egypt, in brief
What now
If this sounds like your trip, start here.
Aswan
→A town on the Nile where the river has granite islands and cataracts, the people are Nubian and the temples were moved from where they were drowned
Egypt
→Two countries under one name: the Nile with its temples, which needs a plan, and the Red Sea, which needs only a charter — few people do both in one trip
Egypt in 2026: the base tickets have held in euros, the extras have not
→Headlines about tickets that have tripled are counting in pounds. In euros the base tickets have barely moved…
Giza without the hassle: the plateau after the new gate and the electric buses
→What made Giza tiring was getting between the pyramids, and that had to be negotiated. Since the new gate and…
Hurghada or Sharm el-Sheikh: where the difference really lies
→Two resorts on the same sea that look identical in a brochure. There are four differences, and all four show…
Front row for the next trip
Leave your email and we'll let you know when a new destination or story goes up.