A Nile cruise costs between $400 and $1,501 per person for three nights, sharing a double cabin, cruise only. The figures on this page are the rates we publish on our own 79 boat pages — not a guess at the market. We have put all of them side by side so you can see what actually moves the price, and why the same four days can cost three times more on one boat than another.
Across the 44 boats in our fleet that publish a full rate card:
Winter (Oct–Apr), 3 nights, per person sharing a double cabin: $450 – $1,501, median $899
Summer (May–Sep), same cabin, same trip: $400 – $1,076, median $699
Nile cruise prices by boat class
The fleet falls into three clear bands, with a real gap between them. These are winter rates per person for three nights in a double cabin — the most common way people travel.
| Class | Boats | Winter range | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|
| Deluxe / value | 11 | $450 – $675 | $575 |
| Premium 5-star | 25 | $769 – $999 | $900 |
| Luxury | 8 | $1,020 – $1,501 | $1,225 |
Deluxe / value — Royal Esadora, MS Zeina, A Sara, MS Miriam, MS Princess Sarah. Comfortable five-star river boats with outside cabins, private bathrooms, a sun deck and a pool. This is what most of our travellers book, and it is a perfectly good Nile cruise.
Premium — Semiramis, Royal La Terrasse, Salima, MS Le Fayan and twenty others. Bigger cabins, better fit-out, a stronger kitchen.
Luxury — Sonesta Moon Goddess, Movenpick Royal Lily, Movenpick Hamees, Historia. Suites, private balconies, hotel-grade service on the water.
Why does the same cruise cost $450 on one boat and $1,500 on another?
This is the question behind almost every search for Nile cruise prices, and the honest answer is that five things move the number. The itinerary is very often identical — Aswan, Kom Ombo, Edfu, Luxor, the same temples in the same order. What you are paying for is the boat and the season, not a different trip.
1. The boat
The single biggest factor, and worth roughly three times from bottom to top of our fleet. A deluxe boat and a luxury boat sail the same river to the same temples with the same guides. The difference is the cabin, the food and the service.
2. The season
Winter is high season on the Nile because the weather is comfortable. Across our fleet, the same cabin on the same boat costs a median of 29% more in winter than in summer — about $200 per person on a three-night cruise. Some boats swing much harder than that; the widest gap in our fleet is 78%.
3. How many people share the cabin
Cruise rates are quoted per person sharing. Travelling alone is expensive on the Nile: across our fleet a single cabin costs a median of 44% more per person than the same cabin shared — around $400 extra on a three-night cruise. Very few operators put that number in writing before you enquire.
Going the other way saves much less than people expect. A triple cabin is only about 5% cheaper per person than a double — roughly $67. If you were planning to squeeze three people into one cabin to save money, it is usually not worth the lost comfort.
4. How many nights
Four nights costs a median of 22% more than three — about $200 per person. The four-night sailing runs Luxor to Aswan, against the current; three nights runs Aswan to Luxor, with it. That is why the two directions have different lengths and different prices.
5. What is bundled in
This is where published prices stop being comparable at all. A cruise-only rate covers the boat. A package rate covers the boat plus the guide, the entrance tickets, the transfers, and sometimes Abu Simbel. A cheap headline price with everything charged as an extra can easily end up costing more than a higher price with the extras already inside it.
Summer and winter Nile cruise prices compared
Real rates from four boats across the three classes, per person for three nights in a double cabin.
| Boat | Summer | Winter | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| A Sara (deluxe) | $428 | $473 | +$45 |
| MS Le Fayan (premium) | $650 | $850 | +$200 |
| Sonesta Moon Goddess (luxury) | $820 | $1,020 | +$200 |
| Movenpick Hamees (luxury) | $675 | $1,200 | +$525 |
Notice that the seasonal swing gets wider as the boat gets grander. If your dates are flexible and your budget is not, sailing in May or September on a premium boat buys you more comfort than sailing in January on a deluxe one, for a similar amount of money.
Dahabiya Nile cruise prices
A dahabiya is a small sailing boat — usually eight to twelve cabins rather than sixty — that moors at villages the big boats sail past. We run ten of them, and they are priced differently from the fleet cruisers.
For three nights in a double cabin, the dahabiyas that publish a full rate card sit in a narrow band: $900 to $970 per person in winter, and $800 to $920 in summer. Four nights runs $1,099 to $1,200. A single cabin on a dahabiya is $1,231 to $1,350 — a steeper supplement than the fleet cruisers, because there are only ten cabins to sell.
That puts a dahabiya at roughly the price of a premium fleet cruiser, for a completely different kind of trip.
A dahabiya is not a cheaper Nile cruise, and anyone selling it as one is misdescribing it. It is a quieter one. There is no pool and no evening entertainment; there are ten guests, a sailing crew and a lot of silence. People who want that would not swap it for a five-star cruiser at twice the size.
Cruise only, or a package?
The rates above are cruise only — the cabin, the meals on board, and the boat. They do not include a guide, entrance tickets to the temples, airport transfers, or Abu Simbel.
For comparison, our own 3-night Aswan to Luxor package is $699 per person in winter for two to three people on a deluxe boat, and that figure includes the licensed Egyptologist guide at every site, every entrance fee on the itinerary, both airport transfers, and Abu Simbel with its transport and ticket.
Set against a cruise-only deluxe rate of $450 to $675, the package adds roughly $200 to $250 per person — and Abu Simbel alone is normally sold as a $110 optional extra. That is the arithmetic worth doing before comparing any two Nile cruise prices you find online.
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What is not in the price
Egyptian Nile cruises run on full board, not all-inclusive. That distinction costs people more money than any other on this page, because the two words look similar in a brochure and mean different things at the end of the week.
- Drinks are extra. Breakfast, lunch and dinner are included. Soft drinks, bottled water beyond the daily courtesy bottle, beer, wine and spirits are billed to your cabin and settled when you disembark. A couple having wine with dinner every night should budget for it.
- Tips for the crew and your guide.
- Domestic flights to Aswan and out of Luxor.
- International flights and the Egyptian entry visa.
- Optional excursions such as the Luxor hot-air balloon or the sound-and-light shows.
- Travel insurance and personal spending.
If a Nile cruise is advertised to you as all-inclusive, ask specifically what the bar arrangement is before you book. On the Nile it very rarely means what it means in the Red Sea.
Common questions about Nile cruise prices
What is the average cost of a Nile cruise?
Across the 44 boats in our fleet that publish full rates, the median three-night cruise costs $899 per person in winter and $699 in summer, sharing a double cabin, cruise only. The average is pulled upward by the luxury boats; if you are looking at deluxe boats the realistic figure is $450 to $675.
How much does a Nile cruise cost in Egypt?
For three nights between Aswan and Luxor, expect $450 to $675 per person on a deluxe boat, $769 to $999 on a premium boat, and $1,020 to $1,501 on a luxury boat, sharing a double cabin in winter. Summer is roughly 29% less. Add a guide, entrance fees and transfers on top of any cruise-only rate.
How much is a Nile cruise for one person?
Add about 44% to the shared rate. Across our fleet the median single cabin for three nights is $1,299 in winter and $999 in summer. Some boats charge a far gentler supplement than others, so if you are travelling alone it is worth asking us which ones — the difference between the best and worst single rate in our fleet is larger than the cost of the cruise itself.
Is a Nile cruise worth it?
The stretch between Aswan and Luxor holds Philae, Kom Ombo, Edfu, Karnak, Luxor Temple and the Valley of the Kings, and a boat puts you at the door of each one without a single hotel change or long drive. Edfu at six in the morning, before the coaches arrive, is the argument in a sentence. Whether the luxury tier is worth roughly three times the deluxe tier is a different question, and for most people the answer is no — the temples are the same.
How much does a 7-night Nile cruise cost?
Seven-night sailings run Luxor to Aswan and back, and only a handful of boats in our fleet operate them, so we quote those individually rather than publish a range that would be wrong for most of them. As a rule of thumb, a full week lands between two and two and a half times the three-night rate for the same boat. Tell us the dates and we will send the real figure.
When is the cheapest time for a Nile cruise?
May to September, which is our summer rate season, and the saving is real — a median of 29% against winter. The trade-off is heat: Upper Egypt in July and August regularly passes 40C, and sightseeing is done early in the morning and late in the afternoon. May and late September are the sweet spot, with most of the saving and much less of the heat.
Do Nile cruise prices include Abu Simbel?
Almost never on a cruise-only rate, and not by default on most packages either — it is usually offered as an optional extra costing around $110, sold to you on the morning it happens. Our 3-night package includes it in the headline price, with transport and entrance ticket. When you compare two Nile cruise prices, check this line first; it is the most common reason a cheaper-looking price is not actually cheaper.
Are these prices per person or per cabin?
Every figure on this page is per person. Double and triple rates assume you are sharing the cabin; single rates are for sole occupancy of a cabin. This is standard across the industry and it is worth checking on any quote you receive, because a price that looks half as much may simply be quoted the other way round.
Get a real number for your dates
Every figure on this page is a published rate, and published rates are a starting point rather than a quote. What you actually pay depends on your exact dates, how many of you there are, which cabin is left on which boat, and whether you want the temples guided or the boat on its own. Tell us those four things and we will send you a real price the same day — no deposit, no account, and no obligation to book.
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About these figures. Every price on this page is taken from the rate cards published on our own boat pages, covering the 44 boats that publish a full seasonal rate card out of the 79 we operate. They are cruise-only rates, per person, and they were last checked on 22 August 2026. Rates move; the enquiry form is always current.