This was our second river cruise experience with Viking and it was the perfect way to explore parts of Egypt! The luxuries of a river cruise and the history of Egypt while sailing along the Nile made this a once in a lifetime adventure that we feel so lucky to have been able to experience.

The ship

Let’s get right into it and start with the ship. We love river cruising with Viking because how comfortable it is. For this trip we were on the Osiris, which is their newest ship and it was beautiful. It is set up for 80 passengers. There were a few cancellations so in the end there were only 55 guests on board and about 40 staff.

While most of the time you are exploring ancient sites and experiencing history, you do have ship time. There is not a gym, casino, arcade or the 24 hour food amenities of a cruise ship. They do have a walking track, top deck to relax, lunch with amazing views, high tea, a cooking class and egyptology classes during the day. Then local performers and music while you enjoy a drink at night. This truly is a cultural experience, focused on exploring each port.

One of the things that stick out to me with Viking is the service impeccable. They remember your name, what you like to drink and eat and how you like your eggs in the morning. We got spoiled with the fresh squeezed orange juice every morning.

The rooms are all spacious and have at least a large window. No cave/closet rooms like ocean cruises. There was a minor problem with our stateroom, so we were upgraded to a balcony room. It was amazing!

*In our first experience on the Danube, I wrote about motion sickness and how amazing it was that I didn’t get motion sickness once, nor did I feel the onset. They cruise a bit faster on the Nile, so I could slightly feel it in the staterooms. As soon as we were moved to the Balcony room, I was just fine and fine on the rest of the ship. Including the dining room.

During the cruising you get to go through one Lock and it is always fun to watch.

Happy Birthday to my mom on her 80th~! We spent it in the dining room, along with my mom’s friend of 60+years (!), new friends and a chocolate cake!

Viking Nile River Cruise Itinerary

Cairo (Overnight)

Luxor (Overnight)

Qena

Esna

Aswan (Overnight)

Kom Ombo

Edfu

Cairo (Overnight)

Exploring Each of the Cities

Experience the Nile as we did!

Cairo (Overnight)

The first journey in your river cruise is exploring Cairo!

Some of the most famous sites in Egypt are here. We wrote separately about Cairo. Plus we added some information you will want/need before traveling to Cairo. It also applies to Egypt as a whole.

Read about it HERE

Luxor (Overnight)

Luxor is where you embark on the river cruise. You will fly from Cairo to Luxor in a chartered flight for just the Viking passengers.

This is an amazing area. Home to Karnak Temple, Avenue of the Sphinx and Luxor Temple. It is kind of funny to me that the Luxor in Vegas is a Pyramid, but there are no Pyramids in Luxor. Anyways, Karnak Temple was one of my absolute favorite temples we visited. Maybe because it was our first, I don’t know, but I was mesmerized by the statues and columns throughout the temple.

The Avenue of the Sphinx connects Karnak and Luxor and is 1.7 miles long. It just opened in 2021 to tourism after decades of restoration. It was an incredible thing to see. Knowing that Pharaohs and Kings were carried from one temple to the next. I wish we would have had time to run along it but we got to see each end and the middle.

Luxor Temple (not a pyramid) at the other end was beautiful to see in the evening. Considered an Ancient Egyptian temple complex it was constructed back when Luxor was Thebes in 1400 BCE. This is one of the few temples not dedicated to a god or pharaoh but instead to the living kings. Many kings were crowed at Luxor, so it was the celebration of that reign. Archeologists believe that there is underground tunnels and chambers but there is currently a hotel over part of it. This hotel is over 100 years old so it can not be torn down. A law in Egypt to save buildings. So they will have to excavate from underneath.

Luxor day 2 had us at the Valley of the Kings!

This was what Kevin was most looking forward to. When raiders started looting and breaking into pyramids, the kings needed a new and safer place to build their resting places. Pyramids were a bit too obvious. So the Valley of the Kings was created. As you walk the valley, you will pass multiple entrances to tombs. Some more elaborate than others since kings had their families buried there too. We were on a mission to see King Tut’s tomb and actual mummy! This was absolutely crazy to see. King Tut’s tomb and mummy were in incredible condition, considering he ruled over 3,300 years ago until the young age of 19.

Our next stop was Sety I’s tomb. Only 120 people are allowed to visit this tomb each day. Viking had a representative sleep overnight to purchase the tickets first thing in the morning! Sety I’s tomb goes 446 feet into the mountain with multiple chambers, halls and columns. Hieroglyphics cover the walls and columns. Some with the original color! When the tomb was found in 1817 his body was not there but in a mummy cache which is now held at the Egyptian Museum.

Remember Thuya from the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, the last picture is the entrance to his and Yuya’s tomb! Buried together and now on display together at the Egypt Museum.

Hatshepsut Temple

We then drove to Hatshepsut Temple. While incredible to see, Egyptologists are not all in agreement about the restoration of this temple. Modern day rocks have been used so it looks newer than it should. At the entrance of the walk to the temple sit two Persea trees that are 3,500 years old. Only stumps now, unfortunately stupid tourists use them as ashtrays.

It was a grand walk up to the statues and then into an open area and then into the mountain. You couldn’t go to far back but were able to walk the grounds and some of the hallways.

Qena

A little trip north. We sailed north of Luxor to visit Qena. A small town along the nile home to Dendera Temple Complex. Built in the Greco Roman Style, you could see the difference in the architecture. It still had tall columns and hieroglyphics throughout and some beautiful blue used on the ceilings. We also found our favorite statue of Bes. The god of entertainment and merriment.

This was also quite amazing because there was a column found underground, which they believe is another temple. With time and a temple not being used it was completely covered and this new temple was built right on top.

Security

We had a tourism police escort and a security guard on our bus. This has been the way since the 90s. Each government has a procedure in place for their citizens. Because of this tourism police are everywhere. It has created a lot of jobs and security. We did not feel as though we needed it but was interesting to have.

Esna

At this stop on the river cruise you had the choice of going to the sunken temple or going to a market. We were a bit templed out and so we decided to do the market, hoping that it was a local market. We were so wrong. It was a market, but a market set up for tourists only. Which if you know me at all, I hate them. Plus with this market there was no place to escape, you walked a street with stalls on both sides and no exits until the end. At the end, you can see the temple and get a few seconds reprieve from the vendors. A few of the locals had to tell them to leave us alone at this spot. But to get back to the boat, guess what you had to do, walk right back down the same street and they are just as relentless as before.

Vendors – This is also the location that it was not fun to have a balcony. When you got up and went to open the drapes there were vendors on boats surrounding our boat trying to sell you stuff. Literally yelling, “hello,” “excuse me,” “buy my shirts.” This was the entire time that we were at Port and when we started slowing down for the Lock.

Aswan (Overnight)

Aswan is the turn around point of the river cruise. Since this is an overnight spot, we had two days and day 1 was going to be a major highlight. The first stop was The High Dam or The Aswan Dam. It was constructed to keep the Nile river consistent with its flow. Instead of devastating floods or droughts, it would stay consistent for the locals. Military guard both ends of the dam. You are not allowed to take pictures and believe me they are watching. We were stopped to get permission to go through and a woman on the bus lifted her phone. Now, this bus has tinted windows and about 15 seconds later a guard came on the bus demanding to have the woman’s phone. She didn’t end up taking any pictures but the guard requested to see the phone before we were allowed to go forward.

It was also a resting place for a group of dogs. They were not interested in the tourists, just basking in the sun.

Abu Simbel

We then took a 45 minute flight to Abu Simbel! This is definitely a must see location, along with an amazing history to boot! Because of the dam being constructed, it created a lake, Lake Nasser. This meant that Abu Simbel would either be under water or they had to move it. So in 1968 they cut, dismantled, moved and reconstructed two temples 65 meters higher and 200 meters back from where the water would be. You can see from the bottom right picture where it was and where it was moved.

Abu Simbel is comprised of two rock cut temples built by Ramesses II. The first was dedicated to himself and the second to his wife Nefertari. Nefertari was just as popular in history as Queens who ruled in their own right like Cleopatra and Nefertiti. She was the favorite of Ramesses’ wives as she was the first of the Great Royal Wives. He had a total of 6 and it is thought that he had over 100 children.

You will have to walk down to the area but there are golf carts that will bring you back up to the visitor center. You can watch a video on the relocation of Abu Simbel and get a snack while you wait to leave.

Back then there were very few people who could enter temples. High priests and royals may be the only ones allowed and they still had to go through a cleansing process.

Aswan day 2 had us going on a smaller boat to visit a Nubian home, a temple and a papyrus store.

The Nubian home was quite disappointing. Set up for tourism, the tour guides said that they use it as a business. Great, but not great because it isn’t traditional. With caged crocodiles it was really an odd experience. Then women were waiting for us to try and sell us things. The boat ride was pleasant most of the time until kids would latch onto our boats and sing until someone would tip them (they still wouldn’t leave) or until the boat driver would tell them to leave. Sometimes they still wouldn’t listen.

You then get off the boat, to get onto the bus to go to yet another boat ride to another temple. I enjoyed the Philae temple complex as it was all outside and with beautiful views of the river since it was on an island.

After about an hour you get back on the boat to go back to the bus where you visit a papyrus shop. The first few minutes are really interesting. They show you how papyrus paper is made and how you can tell if it is a fake since a lot of people will use sugar cane. Then came the small issues of if you were not going to buy anything you had about 60 minutes allotted to be there. You couldn’t leave because there was no where to go and the buses left and the Vendors – they were incredibly intense here. Once you could leave to get back on the bus they stood outside the buses yelling. The bus driver eventually had to shut the doors so they wouldn’t get on or sit in the doorway yelling. A friend of ours got surrounded by about 20 kids and women selling and two of our bus mates almost got knocked over by being swarmed. If possible, skip the Papyrus shop.

Hookah – The great thing about Aswan, is that down the pier from our boat was a hookah lounge! We finally got out! We didn’t have to walk on the main street so it was a pleasant and casual walk. Not a single vendor! We used to own a hookah years ago and we learned that they are everywhere in Egypt. Because it was Ramadan when we were there it didn’t open until 6pm. It was so relaxing. When we asked for the bill they asked for $2.50 USD. Our concierge on the boat said that was expensive. WHAT? We left $4.00 and the guy who changed our coals was so surprised and happy. No alcohol because of Ramadan. Water or tea.

There are a few companies that do 3-5 night river cruises from Luxor to Aswan. They are much smaller boats but there is that option if that is a bit more interesting. Flying from Cairo to Luxor was very easy. Unfortunately, we wouldn’t have minded that schedule as we felt the rest of the journey wasn’t necessary.

Kom Ombo

We skipped this excursion because it was a walk to the temple. Through yet another market and it seemed now to be a bit redundant. We also watched the vendors and this is where we saw a grown man hit a kid in the face multiple times.

Edfu

We skipped this excursion too because it was a horse carriage ride to another temple. The carriages were ragged and the drivers were not sympathetic to their horses. My mom came back visibly upset about it, which did not make me happy. We heard multiple stories of drivers hitting the horses for no reason and in the face or on the nose. I hope that Viking thinks about skipping this next time or making some revisions to it.

Cairo (Overnight)

Our last night in Cairo before we flew to Jordan! There were a few excursions that you could pay to attend but we didn’t do either. We felt exhausted and hung out at the hotel. Plus wake up was 3:30 am!

Must Pack Items For a Viking River Cruise

Packing for a river cruise is like packing for any vacation, but there are a few things you might not think of. Here are a few items that we always have on a river cruise.

A jacket that can hold up to wind, really good walking shoes (we use Brooks), walking stick(s), a snack that you are used to having at home, day pack, slippers for the room, mints and any medication that is over the counter that you are used to (specifically anything to acid reflux, dayquil/nyquil, diarrhea, sinus, muscle pain or itch cream).

One of the things we love about Viking river cruises is that there are no formal nights. Smart casual for the dining room, which still includes jeans. Then upstairs in the aquavit it is pretty much whatever you want. It is casual and comfortable and we love that. You don’t have to pack two ball gowns and shoes for that, so there is more rooms for comfy pants and other shoes!

Flying in Egypt

There is a lot of security to go through in Egypt. Since you will be flying quite a bit, especially if you go to Abu Simbel, you will want to pack efficiently. You first go through an entrance security. This includes everything you want to bring with you, checked and carry on bags. You are usually allowed to bring water or beverages through which was weird for us. Then you can go to the ticketing counter to check bags and get your printed ticket. Then with your carry on you go to yet another security area. Men and women are separated. Everything goes through scanning (shoes, electronics, watches, hats, canes, etc.) and then you walk through. The alarm goes off each time but they wave you through and they still pat you down. That is the reason for the separation. It was a bit more than what we are used to but seemed a bit more relaxed.

Final Words

Through all of my posts, I try to be as honest as possible. Just because I am on vacation doesn’t mean that it is all great and perfect. I want you to know how I felt and what we went through so if you go you will be better prepared. This vacation was one of the most amazing vacations as well as one of the most eye opening vacations. We have traveled to many places throughout the world and this one provided an experience like we have never been through. We travel because we want to experience other cultures and be out of our comfort zone and this one did it for us. If I could go back and know what I know now, would I do it again? Yes. Would I recommend it to others? Yes, if you know what you are getting yourself into and you properly plan. This isn’t backpacking through Europe or a road trip in the US. I would highly suggest doing it through a tour company but maybe have it more customized to what you want. We felt a few of the stops were unnecessary. Not a waste, but not needed and they were more like a filler because they had to have something to do. I would suggest 2-3 full days in Cairo, 2 full days in Luxor and two full days in Aswan.

Did we ever feel unsafe? No, not in the sense that most think about. But everyone should travel at their own comfort threshold. We went on the trip because we trusted Viking.

You will experience some of the most incredible sites in the world and witness a new culture. It should have you appreciating everything you have and your ability to be on vacation in this amazing country.

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