Last Updated on April 6, 2023 by PowersToTravel
Our trip in the suite of the Dahabiya Minya up the Nile River was hands-down my best decision in planning our trip to Egypt last fall. Indeed, our ability to secure the “suite” dictated all other logistic decisions on the twenty-three day trip to Israel, Jordan and Egypt.
I had researched the various ways of traveling from Luxor to Aswan
- by largish motorized cruise ship
- by dahabiya traditional-style sailing vessel
- by felucca sailing boat
- by rail
Large motorized cruise ships
Most travel agencies trying to sell an all-inclusive tour of Egypt will simply advertise a “cruise” and it will most likely be on the largish motorized cruise ship. These boats seem a dime-a-dozen and accommodate one hundred to two hundred passengers. They go powering up or down the Nile. If one if these boats is the best you can arrange, then I am sure you will enjoy it – after all, you are traveling on the Nile and probably eating good food and staying in a nice room.
However, you will be stopping at the temples along the way with all of the other large cruise ships and be seeing the temples in a crowd. At one anchorage as we left, we spotted at least 13 cruise ships, some triple-docked, all disgorging their 100-200 passengers at the same time.
We, on the other hand, on a different schedule, had already been to the temple and seen it with the other dahabiya passengers.
Dahabiya Traditional-styled Vessels
I quickly found that there was an alternative to the large cruises. The dahabiya boats accommodate approximately twenty passengers in ten cabins. Usually there are one or two “suites”, which are the cabins in the very back of the boat.
Suites are larger, and if there is only one on the boat, then it extends from side to side offering cross-ventilation. Suites more frequently offer king-sized beds, and rear-facing balconies.
Dahabiya cruises are longer, as the boats are slower. In fact, sometimes the boats go by sail, and other times they are pulled by tug. Our dahabiya unfurled all its sails several times during the trip. It also on one occasion unfurled its sail and they allowed passengers to transfer to the tug. The tug sailed around the dahabiya so we could get pictures of our own boat under sail.
Dahabiya cruises stop at more locations, and also at the same temples as the larger cruise ships, just on a different schedule.
Dahabiyas do not offer round-the-clock air-conditioning or electricity. That is an important consideration for the season in which you may be traveling. The boats may have electric generators, and ours had solar panels to generate electricity for use throughout the day. That meant that we were able to always charge our batteries and cellphones and run our laptops. The electric generators were run at various intervals during the day and that allowed for hot water and air-conditioning, but they did not run all night.
However, the staff were very accommodating, and one day upon hearing that my husband was awaiting an important medical cell phone call in the middle of the night they left the generators on to power the wifi.
Which brings me to the next type of transport between Luxor and Aswan – the Felucca:
Felucca Sailing boats
Feluccas also travel the Nile between Luxor and Aswan. They are the least numerous method of travel. A felucca accommodates one family. I did not choose a felucca because they don’t offer double beds, air-conditioning at all, guides to the temples, and certainly not refrigerators. I do need a refrigerator to keep my insulin cold.
By Rail
As we sailed down the Nile, we saw and heard many a train as it rode along its banks. I didn’t research a train because we were not pressed for time. A cruise, or sail, was highly preferable.
Why I chose Minya
It’s clear why I chose a dahabiya. But why did I choose Minya?
Minya’s suite is the full back of the boat
Some boats split the back of the boat into left and right sides, resulting in two smaller suites. The suite on Minya and her sister ship Abundance was HUGE, offered cross-ventilation and a full balcony.
A true king-sized bed
No questions here about twin mattresses being pushed together. The pictures clearly showed a king-sized bed, and that is important and special for us. It’s not that we have to have a king-sized bed, it’s that if we are splurging on something special, it had better offer special sleeping too!
There were other dahabiyas to investigate at the time, however their published prices were higher without seeming to add any more value, so I emailed Johanna at sail-the-nile.com at the first possible moment.
Why our experience on Minya was exceptional
From the beginning, our dialog with Johanna was direct and rapid. Yes, she had the suite available during the month and for the direction we desired. Yes, they would guarantee sailing even if we were the only passengers. I quickly sent our international wire transfer and booked. All subsequent questions and arrangements were quickly handled with email.
When we finally arrived at the boat, we found the boat exactly as pictured on the website. As I suspected, not only were we not the only passengers, the boat was full. With our suite, we were the envy of the entire group.
We easily fell into the daily rhythm of the ship. Town or temple visits in the morning, siestas in the afternoon, lounging in the balcony watching the life of the river, all-day-any-time-of-the-day sodas to drink, ahhhh, the life.
Did I say any-time-of-the-day-sodas? As a diabetic I only drink diet beverages, and get awfully tired of bottled water. I wrote to Johanna ahead of time requesting a large stash of diet soda, knowing that it can be hard to obtain in foreign countries. She assured us that she would attend to it. What a luxury! The fridge upstairs at the bar was half full of diet soda, and when it began to deplete, was filled again!
Our excellent guide Salah took us to temple after temple: Esna, Edfu, Kom Ombo. I must admit by this point in our Egyptian trip we were starting to get templed-out. However some of these temples were very interesting, especially Kom Ombo, the temple to the Crocodile god.
We visited with a camel-dealer and his camels, in Daraw.
We found the food less varietous on the dahabiya than on other similar small-boat cruises. We were generally offered one choice for each appetizer, vegetable, starch, meat. Unfortunately for me, I often did not appreciate the flavors and found myself hungry and often unable to fill myself up with alternatives. One of the staples of the menu was fruits and vegetables. Due to my total abstinence of uncooked fruits or vegetables (and indeed my lack of appreciation for vegetables), I couldn’t benefit from those item on the menu.
Even on such a lovely tour, in Egypt, I was unwilling to change my diabetic protocol of cooked foods only, especially in the land of Pharaoh’s Revenge.
The length of the trip was perfect. It was long enough to give us that total break with reality, that feeling of floating down a river unlike anywhere else in the world. For us, it was a needed breather between the rush of sightseeing in Cairo and Luxor, and the finale of Abu Simbel and Aswan.
Staying in the Minya suite was an expensive affair, but it was an expense that made our trip to Egypt.
