7 Things To Know Before Taking A Nile Cruise in Egypt
1. Men Come Up to You On Small Boats and Throw Things on Deck to “Make a Sale”
This still makes me laugh every time I think about it. Egypt is basically hustle culture on steroids, and while you’re sailing down the Nile sheltered from the hassling salesmen, they still find a way! About 2x a day on our Nile Cruise we would hear shouting coming from the river, look down and there were some guys on a rowboat hawking t-shirts!
How do they sell, you might ask? WELL if you make eye contact with any of the guys on the rowboat they THROW the T-shirt up 2 stories to the deck of your cruise ship and then say “Now throw the money!!!!” 😆 If you don’t want to buy a T-shirt, you then need to throw the T-shirt (or blanket or whatever else they’re selling) back down to them – and hope your aim is good! If you miss, you owe them the cash!
2. Don’t Give To Begging Children! They’re Often Being Controlled and Used by Adults
I hate that I have to bring this up because it makes me feel so icky just to think about all the little kids with outstretched hands I saw in Egypt, but trust me – DO NOT give money, trinkets, food, whatever else to begging children you encounter in Egypt! REALLY! I know that sounds heartless, but it’s for the best.
This is because if you see a child begging or hustling and selling trinkets to foreigners outside of a temple in Egypt, they’ve most likely been recruited by an adult who will keep most of their profits. Gangs and other adult individuals recruit kids to beg from foreigners because they’re adorable, and they know most people would rather give money to a cute kid – But the begging kids don’t get to keep the money you give them, and the practice is keeping kids out of school.
While traveling Egypt I saw this time and time again, most shockingly with little babies, 3-5 years old, pretending to be injured (holding a handkerchief over their eye, faking a limp), being escorted by grown men from restaurant to restaurant to beg from tourists. Seeing children beg on the street was one of the major Egyptian culture shocks I had when visiting the country for the first time, but even though my gut reaction was to give them money, I now know it’s unethical.
👉 If you would like to give back to the community in Egypt I do recommend giving money directly to people begging on the street, but just not to kids or to anyone near tourist attractions.
3. “All-Inclusive” Cruise Doesn’t Include Water, But Does Include Tea???
I found this to be quite weird! When I first read our description of our Nile River Cruise it said “Drinks aren’t included” I assumed they meant alcoholic drinks, but nope – ALL DRINKS, including water, are not included on Nile River Cruises unless you’re on one of the more luxurious ones.
☕️ Tea: In typical Egyptian fashion, there was complimentary tea (you’ll get offered tea everywhere in Egypt) and coffee in the mornings… but no water.
💵 You Can Only Pay in Cash: You also need cash to pay for your drinks, our tour guide would take us on our excursions to buy large 2-liter water bottles since the ones they sold on the cruise ship were, in his opinion, overpriced. (The water bottles onboard the ship were still only like $2.50, so nothing crazy!).
4. Tipping in Egypt & the Tipping Kitty
Egypt has a tipping culture, so it’s recommended to tip your tour guides, porters, masseuses, bartenders, etc unless you really didn’t receive good service! At the beginning of your Nile Cruise, your guide might pass around a “Tipping Kitty” where everyone contributes an equal amount and the guide uses the funds to tip porters, drivers, and basically anyone who assists you during your multi-day tour.
5. X-Ray Machines Check for Cameras & Charge Steep Photography Fees
Okay, so I travel with a lot of camera equipment because I run this blog – and I had endless problems traveling with camera equipment in Egypt (my drone was actually confiscated at Cairo Airport!) so one of my Egypt travel tips is to limit how much you bring when traveling the country, if possible.
If you do have a large camera, tripod, etc, know that you’re allowed to bring these items into the temple complexes in Egypt, but that you have to pay a fee. Also, know that there are X-ray machines at the entrance to all of the temple complexes that check your bag for camera gear (because they want you to pay a fee).
These X-ray machines are only turned on around 50% of the time, but they still make you walk through them as if they’re working 100% of the time (that’s Egypt for you!). The camera fees can get quite high and it was annoying! The price to bring a camera in was 300 EGP ($15 at the time) for some of the sites.
My tripod was 20 EGP ($1), and at other times the camera was 100 EGP ($5 at the time – the conversion rates have been rapidly changing between USD and EGP in the past year so make sure to check before you go!).
Sometimes, like at the Valley of The Kings, if you had a camera outside of your bag you would have to pay 300 EGP, but they didn’t search bags. So, everyone was just keeping their camera in their bag and taking it out after passing the entrance to the tombs.
The guides stationed at the entrance knew people were doing this, but if they saw a camera outside of a bag at the entrance they wouldn’t allow that person to enter. Instead, they would make the tourist either leave their camera with them or take the shuttle all the way back to the main entrance of the complex to buy a “camera ticket”.
👉 Egypt Culture Shocks: The extremely frustrating way rules were simultaneously rigidly upheld and completely ignored was one of the many culture shocks I experienced on my first trip to Egypt, but long story short just make sure if you bring any camera gear keep it within your bag when entering any temple complexes.
💡 Tip! While cameras are strictly policed in Egypt, it’s pretty much always allowed to take photos with your phone at all times.
FYI: Some links on my site are affiliate links that help support my site at no additional cost to you. Read more on my privacy policy page.
6. The Cost of Taking a Nile River Cruise
Due to the extreme range of options and trip length, you could spend anywhere from $400 for a short 3-day Nile River Cruise (if you’re sharing a room or going on off-season!) to $20,000 for a luxurious private charter. For a standard Nile River Cruise like the one we took in Egypt, it came to around $550 per person including all entrance fees and drinks for our 5-day/4-night Nile River Cruise -Take into consideration in that price that we were 3 girls sharing one room, if you’re a solo traveler or a couple it will be more expensive!
💰 For Budget Travelers: For around $100-$300 per day (depending on how nice your boat is) for EVERYTHING including transportation, food, accommodation, an English-speaking tour guide, and excursions, I consider our Nile River Cruise one of the best budget travel hacks for Egypt!
👉 Note! These prices include entrance fees – most Nile Cruise tour packages don’t include entrance fees to the temples. For us, entrance fees came out to around $100 per person for our 5-day cruise.
✔️ BEST Nile Cruise Quick Guide
💸 Budget Nile Cruises
> Aswan > Luxor: 4-day / 3-night
> Luxor > Aswan: 5-day / 4-night (what we did!)
🛕 Nile Cruise Packages Including Cairo
> 8 Days / 7 Nights
> 9 Days / 8 Nights < Budget Option!
🍾 Luxury Nile Cruises
> 8-Day Package Including Four Seasons Hotel
7. You Need Egyptian Cash for Temple Entrance Fees
Not all Nile Cruises include entrance fees, in fact – most do not! This is because all the entrance fees for the temple complexes in Egypt are paid in cash. So, make sure to bring Egyptian cash on your Nile River Cruise! You can take out cash from any bank-affiliated ATM in Egypt, they have several once you exit customs at Cairo International Airport.
💸 The entrance tickets for all 5-days of our Nile River Cruise came out to around $100
