Nile felucca sailboats, Egypt

Above: Felucca on the Nile, Aswan, Egypt

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Several of our tours feature a  1 or 2-night felucca cruise on the Nile from Aswan downstream towards Komombo.

The Nubian boat crew will look after you, prepare your meals, and entertain you in the evenings, leaving you with many happy memories of your time on the Nile. After dinner on the first evening we can sometimes visit a Nubian House where you can see inside the rooms of a traditional Nubian home, after which blankets are laid out in the courtyard area where you can sit and enjoy drinks and shisha pipes while listening to Nubian music. The following day the felucca will continue sailing down the Nile giving you time to relax, read, chat or just watch the world drift by. The crew of the felucca will stop along the way for swimming in the safer parts of the Nile and to serve lunch. In the evening the crew will entertain you with traditional music and dance, which you are welcome to join in with.

Breakfast, lunch and dinner are included on the felucca and are cooked and served on board by the crew. The food is basic but varied and filling and in the afternoon they will also serve Egyptian tea and Nubian cake. Water, soft drinks and beer can be purchased onboard and these are kept in a cool box. You keep a tally of what you have had and then pay for them at the end of the trip.

You sleep on the mattresses on the deck of the boat and you will need a blanket or light sleeping bag in the winter months as it can get chilly late at night and very early in the morning. Canvas walls and a roof are erected at night if it is cold or windy and mosquito nets are also provided at night while you sleep. Mosquito repellent is recommended for the evenings and early mornings, and wearing long sleeves at night is a good idea. There are no toilet facilities on board the felucca but you are able to use the toilets at the sites visited during the day and if we visit the Nubian house on the first evening.  On most of our tours we also provide a second motorised boat that will join you several times each day and at night. This boat has toilets and a warm shower on board. At other times the captain will make regular stops en-route where you will need to find somewhere on shore and very occasionally when the support boat is not available the crew will dig a basic latrine surrounded by a canvas screen to give more privacy.

The 2-night cruise finishes after an early breakfast just outside Komombo, where you tour the temple before driving to Luxor, with another stop to visit the temple at Edfu en-route.

If you are travelling with your family, please check our family information page for more details about taking children on board feluccas (on our special Egyptian family tours the felucca cruise is shortened to 1 night on board).

Life-jackets are available on request for non-swimmers.

On all our feluccas we provide a full range of safety equipment including first aid kits, fire extinguishers, life jackets and throwlines. We also provide a range of child-sized life jacket for use when children are onboard. We actively encourage the use of life jackets whilst on board our feluccas, especially for any non-swimmers in the group. All our felucca captains and tour leaders are trained in the use of this safety equipment and our boats are properly licensed according to Egyptian health & safety laws.

Note: We offer a very special upgrade to a Dahabiya or to a luxury Nile cruise on all of these tours if you don't want to spend time on the felucca. This runs at the same time as the felucca cruise, but travels all the way to Luxor. You don't miss anything by choosing either option.

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