Six days on a Nour El Nil dahabiya from Esna to Aswan, visiting the Temple of Khnum, El Kab, Edfu, Gebel El Silsileh and Kom Ombo, with swimming stops.
You board at Esna, about 55 kilometres south of Luxor, and meet the crew. A short walk takes you to the Temple of Khnum, which lies 9 metres below the present street level — the town grew up over it, and the burial is why its carving is in such good condition. Then the local markets, full of handmade textiles, before you return to the boat and it starts south.
The boat docks at El Kab after breakfast, once the capital of Upper Egypt. You walk through a quiet fishing village to the temple of Nekhbet and the hillside tombs of the nobles, whose wall paintings are among the least visited of their quality in Egypt. In the afternoon, Edfu, and a horse-drawn carriage through the streets to the Temple of Horus. Afterwards the boat sails on to a quiet island for the night.
A day given to the river itself, with the sails up and the banks going slowly past. In the afternoon the boat anchors at a peaceful Nile island, where you can swim or simply sit. For anyone who would rather walk, there is a short trip into the desert to see prehistoric rock inscriptions cut into the boulders at the start of an ancient route west towards Libya.
Ashore after breakfast at Gebel El Silsileh, one of the least-visited sites on the Nile, where the river narrows between cliffs and the landscape changes character entirely. The small temple of Horemheb comes first, then the sandstone quarries that supplied the blocks for Karnak and Luxor. Afterwards the boat ties up at a quiet stretch of bank for an open-air lunch and a swim.
You wake approaching Kom Ombo, whose temple stands on a dramatic bend in the river and is dedicated to two gods at once, Sobek and Haroeris. After the temple, the Crocodile Museum beside it, with its collection of mummified crocodiles and related objects. The boat then continues towards Aswan.
Breakfast, then the journey ends at Aswan. Dahabiyas are required by regulation to dock beside the Aswan Bridge, which is a plainer setting than the moorings of the previous nights — worth knowing before you arrive. From there we transfer you to any address in the city.