Nour el Nil dahabiyas

A company of three partners

Nour El Nil ("light of the Nile" in Arabic) grew out of a partnership between three people: Mexican-born Enrique Cansino, his wife Eléonore Kamir, a French decorator, and Memdouh Sayed Khalifa, an Egyptian sailor who has sailed the Nile for more than thirty years. Memdouh built the company's boats; Eléonore designed all the interiors, which gives the fleet a single hand despite the boats' different sizes.

The dahabiya is the sailing boat on which travellers journeyed up the Nile in the 19th century: a flat-bottomed hull, two masts and, at Nour El Nil, red-and-white striped sails. The company employs more than a hundred Egyptians, hired and trained by the owners, and many crew members are from the same family. Enrique Cansino often joins the cruises.

In Luxor the company also runs a guesthouse, Beit Sabée: a three-storey mudbrick house with fifteen en suite bedrooms, among the fields near Medinet Habu on the West Bank, with a roof terrace facing the desert and the temple. It is a good address for the night before or after the cruise.

Under sail

The company claims the longest sailing time between Luxor and Aswan. The trip covers about 250 km in six days. A tug follows the boat throughout: it pulls it away from the dock, casts off once the sails catch the wind, and takes it back in tow when the wind drops or the current pushes it too close to the bank.

The programme leaves plenty of room for the river itself:

• Day 1, Esna. Boarding, then a visit to the Temple of Khnum, which lies 9 m below street level, and a walk through the merchant streets.
• Day 2, El Kab and Edfu. In the morning, a walk through a fishing village to the decorated tombs cut into the mountainside and the temple of Nekhbet. In the afternoon, a horse and carriage to the Temple of Horus at Edfu. The night is spent moored near an island.
• Day 3, the Nile. An almost full day of sailing: a stop on a secluded bank to walk or swim, then, at dusk, a walk through a valley of large boulders at the edge of the desert. In the evening the boat moors at the foot of floodlit Gebel Silsileh.
• Day 4, Gebel Silsileh. The small Temple of Horemheb and the sandstone quarries, where the river narrows between two ranges of hills; sailing in the afternoon, with lunch and a swim on a riverbank.
• Day 5, Kom Ombo. The double temple of Sobek and Haroeris, then the Crocodile Museum and its mummified crocodiles.
• Day 6, Aswan. Waking up facing the Aswan bridge, where dahabiyas must spend the last night at a dock, then disembarkation in the morning.

The itinerary may change with river levels and the rules of the Nile authorities. The kitchen uses produce bought daily from farmers and fishermen along the river: Nile perch, handmade falafel, a family-style lunch and a three-course dinner.

Choosing your boat

The nine boats are 43 to 60 m long. They fall into two families.

• The large recent boats, Najafa, Poppee and Roman (60 m) and Adelaïde (55 m), have two Panoramic Suites, two Deluxe Suites and six Luxury Rooms. The Deluxe Suites, 29.5 to 34.7 m², can be set up as a suite with a lounge or as two bedrooms and sleep up to four: the answer for a family or two couples travelling together.
• Dendera, the newest boat in the fleet, Agatha and Meroe (52 m) have two Panoramic Suites and eight Luxury Rooms of about 15 to 16 m².
• Malouka and El Nil, the smallest, have smaller cabins, from 11.4 to 21 m². The company describes El Nil as its most traditional dahabiya.

Across the fleet, the Panoramic Suites have floor-to-ceiling windows onto the river; on Dendera the view opens to 180 degrees. Apart from the Deluxe Suites, each cabin takes two guests at most.

Our reading: for a couple, a Panoramic Suite on a recent boat is worth the extra, since the hot hours are spent watching the river from it; the cabins on Malouka and El Nil suit those who live on deck and want the feel of a small boat.

Sabaro's view

Who it's for: couples, friends and families who want the Nile under sail, with stops on foot in villages and a simple life on board.

Strengths: nine or ten cabins per boat; stops at El Kab and Gebel Silsileh, which large boats do not serve; swimming in the river; a 4.9/5 rating on Tripadvisor from 880 reviews.

Good to know: the boats do not sail from June to August because of the heat; the cruise runs in one direction only, from Esna to Aswan; boarding is at Esna, 53 km south of Luxor, which means a road transfer.