Cruising through time on the River Nile

If there’s one word that comes to mind when I think about Egypt, it’s timeless. I recently had the privilege of embarking on a luxury river cruise along the Nile with AmaWaterways and it was everything I dreamed of and more. With ancient temples, bustling bazaars and beautiful Nile sunsets, this journey was pure magic. Here’s a day-by-day account of my unforgettable adventure…

The moment I landed in Luxor, I felt so excited for what was to come over the next week. An AmaWaterways rep greeted us at the airport and took us straight to the beautiful ship, AmaDahlia. The service from the moment we stepped on board was incredible, everyone was so warm and welcoming and it was great to meet so many like-minded people who just wanted to travel and experience this amazing destination.

After a sunset cocktail with our fellow guests, we enjoyed an evening of great food before getting an early night’s sleep before the real adventures began the next day.

Luxor

Luxor took my breath away! We started in the Valley of the Queens before moving on to the legendary Valley of the Kings. We stood inside King Tut’s tomb which just felt so surreal, like I was in another world! Hatshepsut’s Temple looked like it had grown right out of the cliffs and the Colossi of Memnon were bigger than the photos can give it justice.

Edfu, Abu Simbel and Aswan

Next up was a visit to Edfu where we explored the Temple of Horus. Another totally magical place with so much history to learn from our fantastic guides! I was so impressed with how AmaWaterways curated such amazing tours and excursions. They covered absolutely everything and you could tell that the guides were just so passionate about sharing their history and culture.

I also opted for the optional excursion to Abu Simbel which I highly recommend! The enormous cliff-carved temples dedicated to Ramses II and Queen Nefertari were incredible, something I had only ever seen in movies. Back in Aswan, we watched the feluccas sail peacefully along the Nile before AmaWaterways treated us to some local entertainment and local food.

Karnak and Dendera

After a few days of sailing along the Nile, stopping at incredible temples and ancient historic sites along the way, we arrived back in Luxor. We were taken on an excursion to Karnak Temple, the Temple of Luxor and the Temple of Hathor, all beautiful well-preserved temples with hieroglyphs all over the pillars and columns. We also learned a bit about making papyrus which was so interesting. You would think we would be ‘templed out’ by this point but we really weren’t at all. Every single place had such an interesting story and I could easily visit them all again and still feel the same sense of awe and wonder.

This trip really was more than just a holiday. It was pure magic from start to finish. Thank you so much to AmaWaterways for being such brilliant hosts for my week on the Nile, it was a dream come true!