Can You Charter a Private Dahabiya on the Nile? How It Works

Yes. A private dahabiya charter books the whole vessel for one group, where one is free for your dates, so the boat, its crew and the guided visits are for your party alone. The route between Esna and Aswan stays the same. Nour El Nil boats, with 10 rooms and suites each, can be chartered whole, according to travel agents, and do not sail from June to August.

What a private dahabiya charter is

A charter means one group takes the whole dahabiya: every cabin, the decks and the crew serve your party, with no other guests on board. A whole dahabiya can be chartered for one group where a vessel is free for the dates, and on this site the route between Esna and Aswan stays the same. Without a charter, a dahabiya is shared with its other guests, and on a Nile cruise ship the ship is always shared with other guests. On land nothing changes: the guide, the vehicle and the driver are for your group alone either way.

The boats are small to begin with. A typical dahabiya has between four and 10 cabins, while a typical Nile cruise ship carries 50 to 150 passengers, so a family or a group of friends can fill a dahabiya in a way it could never fill a ship. For the wider differences between the two kinds of boat, see dahabiya or Nile cruise ship.

Which boats can be chartered whole

Two names come up when travelers ask for a whole boat, and the evidence for each is different, so the table gives what each source states. It carries no prices: a charter is quoted in a written proposal.

Nour El Nil

Nour El Nil runs 9 dahabiyas: Dendera, Najafa, Poppee, Roman, Adelaide, Agatha, Meroe, Malouka and El Nil. Each has 10 rooms and suites. The boats are propelled by the wind and are towed by a tug when the wind is too light. The ultra-luxury level of this site uses six of them. That a whole boat can be chartered is stated by travel agents, so the written proposal confirms the charter terms for your dates.

Sanctuary Zein Nile Chateau

Abercrombie & Kent describes Sanctuary Zein Nile Chateau as a dahabiya, a traditional sailing boat, with two signature suites, four cabins and an Arabian-themed sun deck with a plunge pool, for a maximum of 12 guests. It is offered as an exclusive private charter, with bespoke itineraries between Luxor and Aswan in either direction, so its route is set by its operator rather than fixed at Esna to Aswan.

The route and how long a charter lasts

A charter on this site sails the same water as the cabin programs, from Esna to Aswan. The Nour El Nil program runs 5 nights and 6 days over 250 km, and the site's own Esna to Aswan dahabiya program has the same length. Dahabiyas sail with the wind and are towed by a small tug when the wind fails, so the days are slow by design. The 6-day Nour El Nil journey stops in this order:

1. Esna: boarding and the Temple of Khnum
2. El Kab's tombs, then Edfu by carriage
3. An island swim and rock inscriptions
4. Gebel el Silsileh and its sandstone quarries
5. Kom Ombo and the Crocodile Museum
6. Arrival in Aswan

In the longer journeys the dahabiya is one part of the trip: the 10- and 11-day dahabiya journeys spend 2 nights in Luxor, then 4 nights on board from Esna to Aswan, with Cairo before and after. The full days are on the Esna to Aswan dahabiya program and the Nour El Nil dahabiya journey.

Who a charter suits

• Families. Children, parents and grandparents can have every cabin, with no other guests to plan around. Each Nour El Nil boat has 10 rooms and suites. More on planning with children is in luxury Egypt with children.
• Groups of friends. A party that would fill most of the cabins anyway gains the whole boat. Sanctuary Zein Nile Chateau takes a maximum of 12 guests.
• A celebration. A birthday, an anniversary or a family reunion on a boat that carries no one else.
• Couples who want no other guests. A charter for two depends on a vessel being free for your dates, so ask in your request. The rest of the trip is covered in an Egypt honeymoon in luxury.

If you are happy to share, a cabin on a dahabiya already means few fellow guests, and the guided visits ashore are private on every tour of the Nour El Nil journey.

When to ask about a charter

A charter needs the whole vessel free for your dates, so ask before anything else is fixed. The boat's dates then decide the hotel nights around it and the domestic flights, which are booked and paid separately.

Winter, roughly October to April, is the peak season for Nile travel, with the busiest dates around Christmas, New Year and Easter, and Christmas and New Year drive higher Nile-cruise occupancy in Luxor and Aswan. Summer is the other limit: Nour El Nil does not operate from June to August, because of the extreme heat. Sources differ on how many months ahead to book a holiday-period sailing, so no figure is given here; the reasons are in how far ahead to book a luxury Egypt trip.

What is included, and what is not

The Nour El Nil journey on this site lists a cabin with full board, a guide who speaks English, Portuguese, German or Spanish, private guided visits on every tour, entrance fees for every site in the itinerary, bottled water on tours, transfers in a private air-conditioned vehicle, and service charges and taxes. It lists as not included: domestic flights to and from the dahabiya, optional tours, personal expenses and tips.

Domestic flights and tips are not included in any journey on this site. For a charter, the written proposal names what is included and what is not for your group. Customary amounts for guides and crews are in tipping in Egypt on a private trip.

How to ask for a charter

Send your dates, the number of guests and the boat you have in mind, if any. No prices are published: every journey is quoted in a written proposal that names the route, the hotels and room types, any Nile vessel, what is included and what is not, the full price and the terms. Sending a request costs nothing and is not a booking, no payment is taken with it, and nothing is booked until you accept the proposal and it is confirmed in writing.

Every journey is a starting point: its length, hotels and pace can be adjusted before you confirm, subject to availability. On the ultra-luxury level, one coordinator follows the journey from the first request to the departure. To start, use the contact page.