I'm thinking of booking a Nile Cruise for this month but want to avoid being stuck in Esna.
Does anyone know the exact dates?
Forgot to say - one tour operator say it starts 30 November and another says 25 November to 15 December.
Posted by ExptinCAI (Member # 1439) on :
It changes seasonally. I went when it was closed mid december, and I actually found it quite nice. Ok, it was the "we don't know" cruise (IE it was suppose to open 1 week before but when the boat took off, it was still closed).
The limitations: part of the "cruising" you will have to do by bus insted of the boat.
Less tourists = more hastle by locals trying to sell you stuff in certain places, like Luxor.
The pluses: you don't have hundreds of boats docked at the same place, where in order to go "ashore" you have to actually walk through 4/5 boats parallel "parked" to each other in order to get to land.
The cruise is fairly empty, making it feel more like a yacht with 10/20 of your friends than a packed 80+ boat.
Sites are emptier. ALL of them. Which outweights all the negs. Plus, you only "cruise" on the Nile hours at a time, and the locks are toward Luxor, so it's not like you're put out too much.