How to organise a Felucca ride in Luxor

A felucca ride on the river Nile is one of the experiences that I associate with Egypt. Aswan, Cairo and Luxor are all popular cities for experiencing this.

Many years ago as a solo traveller, Adam had done an overnight trip down the Nile from Aswan to Luxor. With three kids in tow we knew we couldn’t really do this (we also didn’t really have time in our itinerary).

So, a sunset felucca ride in Luxor was our best way to experience this. We booked on the spot and learnt some lessons in terms of what we should have done before setting off- making sure we had agreed where we would go and who was sailing us being the main things!

Despite a few hiccups, which I will come to, we did enjoy the experience and would totally recommend it if you’re in Luxor.

What are the felucca ride booking options?

So a felucca ride is definitely a great thing to do in Luxor. When trying to arrange this there are two main options.

One is to arrange it on the spot from the Nile corniche with a local sailor. The other is to pre-arrange a booked tour.

Booking a felucca on the spot (DIY)

We decided to just book our own felucca on the spot from the Nile corniche. Doing it this way gave us more flexibility regarding timings, we were also hoping it would save us some money.

Walking down the Nile corniche, we had been approached frequently by guys offering us felucca rides so we were confident it would be easy to arrange.

Our hotel, Villa Belzoni, was on the West Bank, but it’s possible to get a felucca from either side of the river depending on where you are staying or what other activities you have been doing.

Typically, as we started walking down the corniche (on the East bank) hoping for some felucca ride offers it took a while before we had any!

Eventually we did meet a felucca captain who offered us a ride. We negotiated a price that we were happy with and he pointed to the boat we would be sailing on.

We were slightly confused when we had to get on a motor boat first but this was to take us around the jetty to the felucca.

Onboard the felucca were two young boys, I would guess they were around 12 years old. We assumed they were there to help out.

What happened next was that the ‘captain’ who had organised the ride, stayed on the motor boat and our felucca was sailed by the two boys. Don’t get me wrong, they were perfectly capable of sailing but we got into the middle of the river and after around ten minutes they took the sail down and we just sat there!

When we tried to ask why they said we would shoot up the river too quickly, but at this point we now weren’t moving at all!

When we asked they did put the sail back up for a little while but not for long. This meant that throughout our sailing trip we didn’t really venture very far at all.

I was getting frustrated but realised it wasn’t really their fault and they probably weren’t allowed to go too far. We hadn’t agreed on where we would go before getting in the felucca.

The standard trip is to Banana island, but I had heard reports of mis-treated animals there so had said no to this. Lesson learnt was that we should have agreed where we were going before setting off.

Once we accepted that we weren’t going too far, we did manage to relax more and enjoy the experience. It was really beautiful experiencing the changing colours of sunset from the water.

The children enjoyed dangling their hands in the Nile and Benjamin even had a turn on the tiller.

So despite some frustrations, we did really enjoy our felucca ride, maybe not as much at the hot air balloon which was our Luxor highlight.

Tips for arranging a DIY felucca ride:

• Agree on a price before setting foot on the boat. As with almost everything in Egypt bartering is expected so don’t go with the first price offered. I think we paid around 800 EGP (around $15) for a private ride for the five of us.

• Agree on where you will be sailing to, and how long for. The standard ride is an hour but most captains will take you out for longer than this if you wanted. An hour was enough for us.

• Make sure you have confirmed who will be sailing the boat! Don’t make assumptions like we did that the person you negotiate the price with will be sailing the felucca!

Pre-booked tours

If you want to take the hassle our of bartering over prices and agreeing where you will go, a pre-booked felucca ride can be a great idea.

You are likely to pay a little more than you would if arranging directly on the corniche but for many this is worth it to for ease.

It also means that you can pre-book a place and time for your felucca ride. As well as a simple felucca ride, there are also pre-booked options to include a dinner onboard as well. We were on our way to a restaurant after our felucca ride so were happy without a meal.

Get your guide and Viator are both great websites with well reviewed felucca trips to choose from. Many also offer hotel pick-up, particularly useful if you’re not staying close to the river.

What to expect

Once you set sail on your felucca, the only thing to do usually is relax and take in the view.

Some felucca’s can provide lifejackets for children, ask about this before committing if it is important to you as not all do. Our children were old enough that we were happy for them not to wear them.

I found it fascinating watching the hoisting of the sails and navigating of the river (I’m sure this would have been even better if we had sailed further!).

At the end of our trip, the man that we had arranged the boat with drove the motor boat into the river to meet our felucca and we hopped aboard that to return to shore.

Some other tourists arrived from the motorboat onto the felucca to take our place. I’m sure not all feluccas do it this way, you may sail back to the river dock.

Whichever way it happens you will usually be returned to where you boarded the felucca, unless you arrange otherwise with the captain.

When is the best time for a felucca ride?

In my opinion, there is no question that sunset is the best time for a felucca ride. The heat of the day has subsided and the Nile is bathed in beautiful light of changing hues.

We were are able to marvel at the sky changing colours from blue to yellow to orange and bright crimson as the sun dipped over the West bank.

If a sunset felucca ride isn’t possible in your Luxor itinerary I still think it is worth taking a trip at another time of day. Just make sure you are well protected from the sun, particularly if in the middle of the day.

Some felucca’s do have sunshades so it’s worth looking for one of these boats.

Essential tips for your felucca ride in Luxor

• Unless you are on a felucca-ride with a pre-arranged meal, take drinks and snacks for the journey.
• If sailing in the heat of the day, make sure you are stocked up on sun cream and protected from the heat.
• Check the wind! If there is no wind you are unlikely to get very far so maybe save it for another day.

Our felucca ride may not have gone exactly as we had planned but it was still lots of fun, and we all really loved our time in Luxor. Check out our ‘things to do in Luxor‘ post for other ideas. Our other highlights in Luxor included Karnak temple, Valley of the kings, our hot air balloon ride and horse-riding on the West Bank.