The Queen Nefer dahabiya sails from Esna to Aswan, stopping at El Kab, Gebel El Silsila, Edfu, Kom Ombo and the camel market at Daraw.
A 9:00 am pick-up from any address in Luxor and a drive of about 50 km south to Esna, where you board and meet the crew. The Temple of Khnum comes first — it sits 9 metres below the modern street level, so you descend to it — followed by a walk through Esna's markets. Then the boat sails, and the first stop is El Kab, the ancient city of Nekheb, for temple ruins and decorated tombs cut into the cliffs. At sunset the dahabiya anchors near a small island at Quessia, and dinner is served on the sundeck or on the bank.
Sailing on towards Edfu after breakfast, past desert on one side and palm groves on the other. In Edfu, a horse-drawn carriage takes you through the town to the Temple of Horus, one of the best-preserved temples in Egypt and once the site of the falcon rituals it was built for. The afternoon goes to Wadi El Shat, where you walk through the villages and the desert around them, and the evening is spent anchored by a quiet island.
Sailing to Gebel El Silsila, where the Nile narrows and the sandstone quarries once supplied the stone for Egypt's greatest temples. The rock-cut chapels here belong to Seti I, Ramesses II and Horemheb, and you walk through the quarries themselves. Lunch on the sun deck while sailing on to Kom Ombo and its double temple, built for Sobek and Haroeris on a bend of the river. The night is spent anchored at Maniha, with dinner around a campfire on the bank.
A morning at Daraw, which was the last stop for the camel caravans coming up out of Sudan after forty days crossing the desert. The camel market still runs, and the village around it is worth walking. Then on to El Koubania, a Nubian village near Aswan set among citrus and mango gardens. The last dinner is served on board as the river slows and the desert closes in.
Breakfast, then you leave the boat at Aswan and are transferred to any address in the city.