Has anyone been on a Nile Cruise?

[cori]

I am thinking about this as possibilty for our 10th wedding aniversary in January. I will 25 weeks pregnant by then so a cruise is starting to sound quite good.

Most of the Nile cruises tend to be done to take in lots of temples/tombs/sights, so they're not the idle, lap-of-luxury holiday that some cruises can be! Certainly the one that I did (and most of the others that I've seen itineraries for) are jam packed with trips and excursions to the sights. It can get a bit relentless!

I loved it - but I have to be honest with you and say that I wouldn't have wanted to do it at 25 weeks pregnant. You'll be taken by bus to the sites, but you'll need to do a lot of walking around many of them, some of them you need to walk a little way to get to, some of them you need to climb to get to or to get into.

The Nile isn't always the prettiest of places just to travel along - if you're going to do it, you really need to do the visits as well.

Abercrombie & Kent are rather special, and experts at Nile cruises.

I think even at 25 weeks I will still want to see the sights. I dont think I would mind walking, but climbing etc am not so sure.
I have been to egypt before and loved it but never got as far as Luxor.

If i ended up in a luxury resort somewhere else in Egypt it would probably mean long bus rides to the tombs etc. Just thought that a cruise would get me closer but in comfort.

I grew up in Egypt and just wanted to add that the climate in January is perfect - similar to our late spring/early summer.

Luxor is wonderful, you'll walk your legs off! If you want to go into the tombs some of them have steep, narrow, low entrances which you might want to avoid when pregnant - depends on how you feel at the time. The temples at Karnak and Luxor are very special.

We went on a Nile cruise a few years ago - it was wonderful, even in mid August (hot hot hot). IIRC, the trips were an additional cost, so you could pick and choose what you did, which would be helpful if you are 6 months pregnant! It's a good time of year to go as far as heat is concerned. I really enjoyed sitting watching the world go by on the Nile. I know we had to get up very early for the trips, but this may have been because of the time of year/heat.

How do you think a four year old would handle it.?
DS is well travelled, and we have been on trips other people wouldnt consider with small children.
Went to Australia when he was one, last year went to Tunsia, and went on a 12 hour bus ride to the sararah desert, he coped well with that. Is there much for small ones to do on board.

I dont know if i would be going into to many tombs with steep narrow ,low entrances anyway as am pretty claustophobic. I didnt go inside the Pyramids at Giza for this reason, ( actually they were closed because of a bomb attempt, but was quite pleased to have excuse.

The cruise that I did had absolutely nothing for small children apart from the use of the swimming pool on deck. Their advice was not to take children under 7, but I suspect that was because the boat was set up for adults and had no facilities for young children. Your travel agent would probably be able to advise whether there are other companies who do things better for kids.

I have a sneaking suspicion that my own 4 year old would adore the temples and tombs, and if your son is used to travel he'll probably be fine.

Our boat was similar to wwb's - not child orientated at all (we went pre kids). I do know quite a few people who have been to Egypt and taken 4/5 year olds, but they tended to stay in hotels, and book trips from there.