Felucca Ride Aswan: Around Elephantine and Kitchener's Islands

In the Price and Out of It

The listing includes hotel pickup and drop-off in Aswan, a private guide, the felucca sailing trip of roughly 1 hour, and bottled water. Everything else is on you: entrance to the Botanical Garden if you go inside, tipping, and any additional expenses not listed in the itinerary. Pickup from a hotel on Soheil Island, Hisa Island, Aswan airport or a Nubian hostel carries an extra cost, not stated as a fixed amount.

There is no mandatory checkout charge on this listing and no peak-season surcharge stated. The honest note here is the garden ticket: travelers say clearer information on whether the garden visit is included would help, so ask the operator before the day and carry cash in Egyptian pounds if you want to go in. For context on longer trips, a 3-night cruise that bundles temple tickets costs $600 per person on the same catalog (plus $200 per person for travel from December 20 to January 2), so the gap between a 2-hour sail and a full voyage is wide.

Pickup to the Riverbank

Your guide collects you at your Aswan hotel or Nile cruise and walks with you to the riverbank. No pickup window or meeting time is stated, so confirm the time when you check availability. The transfer and boarding sit inside the 2-hour total, which leaves about 1 hour on the water.

• Pickup from your hotel or Nile cruise in Aswan
• Guide accompanies you to the felucca

Sailing Past Elephantine Island

You step aboard a traditional wooden felucca and drift past Elephantine Island, one of the most historic islands in Aswan, with open views of the river and the banks on both sides. The island runs about 1.2 to 1.6 km long. If you want the background before you go, read the guide to Elephantine Island.

• About 1 hour of total sailing time
• Panoramic views of the river and the city

Kitchener's Island and the Botanical Gardens

The boat continues toward Kitchener's Island, transformed in 1899 by Lord Kitchener into a garden of rare and exotic plants collected from around the world. Going inside is your choice and your cost, since the entrance fee is excluded. One reviewer noted the far western end of the garden draws pied kingfishers, herons and water lilies.

Raise the garden stop with your guide at the start.

Return Transfer

After the sailing, a driver takes you back to your hotel or Nile cruise. A return time is not stated. The whole thing fits into 2 hours, which makes it easy to slot before lunch or before a later trip such as Philae Temple.

Who Should Book Something Else

If you want temples, cabins and meals, this is not it. There are no temple visits, no food beyond bottled water and no accommodation. The overnight felucca from Aswan sleeps up to 3 nights on deck with meals cooked by the crew from $25, and the luxury dahabiya cruise from Aswan to Luxor carries entrance fees, all meals and water and hot drinks from $1,100.

If your base is the capital, the Cairo felucca ride with lunch puts 2 hours of sailing around a meal from $55.

• No temple entrances included, so history-first travelers should look at a cruise
• Windless days run on a motor boat, so purists wanting sail only may be disappointed
• No group size, minimum age or accessibility limits beyond a wheelchair-accessible listing

Practical Limits

The listing marks the trip wheelchair accessible and sets no minimum age, though no detailed access description is given. Summer is the real constraint: Aswan's average summer highs stay above 40 C, so an open boat in the middle of the day can be hard going. Book a morning or late afternoon slot in the hot months, and note the free cancellation window of 24 hours gives you room to move the booking if the forecast turns.

Travelers staying on Soheil Island, Hisa Island, at the airport or in a Nubian hostel pay an extra pickup cost, which can eat into the low headline price.

Reaching Aswan and Leaving It

Pickup and drop-off at your hotel or Nile cruise are included, so no transfer planning is needed on the day itself. If you fly in, Aswan has an airport, and pickup from there carries an extra cost under this listing. From Cairo, Rome2Rio shows a flight of 3h48m door to door with about 1h25m in the air, or a train of about 14h15m, and Cairo to Aswan runs 753 km in a straight line.

From Luxor the train takes about 3h30m and driving about 3h05m over about 214 km by road, per Rome2Rio.

What to Add Before or After

The sail leaves out Aswan's big sights. Philae Temple, reached by boat near the old dam, costs EGP 550 for foreign adults and EGP 275 for students, open 7:00 to 16:00, and its Temple of Isis is the centrepiece. The Unfinished Obelisk would have measured about 41.75 m and weighed nearly 1,090 tonnes.

Abu Simbel sits on Lake Nasser south of Aswan, not on the river route, with foreign adult tickets at EGP 750 and hours of 6:00 to 17:00. For a wider shortlist, see things to do in Aswan, and for sailing options browse the Nile river cruise catalog. For more reading, the Elephantine Island and Philae Temple guides cover the two sights travelers pair with this sail most often.

• Philae Temple: EGP 550 foreign adult, 7:00 to 16:00
• Abu Simbel: EGP 750 foreign adult, 6:00 to 17:00
• Botanical Garden: entrance fee not stated in the sources, pay on site if you go in