What It’s Really Like on a Nile Dinner Cruise in Cairo

What It’s Really Like on a Nile Dinner Cruise in Cairo

If you have found yourself browsing travel videos about Egypt at some point in time, you will most likely have watched videos about large, multi-leveled floating restaurants with flashing neon lights cruising down the historical darkness of the Nile. This is one of those iconic travel experiences that are featured everywhere and for everyone.

Booking a Nile dinner cruise in Cairo is considered to be a must-do activity for many tourists visiting this place. So, is the experience a dreamy romantic night out under the stars of Egypt, or another annoying overpriced tourist attraction?

Let's peel back the layers, leave all marketing brochures aside, and describe your experience during the Nile cruise in Cairo from the moment you step onto the gangplank until the end of your adventure.

1. The Buildup: Leaving Cairo’s Chaos Behind

Traffic in Cairo is notorious, chaotic and noisy. Regardless whether you are departing from your hotel in Giza, downtown or Zamalek, getting to the river to board your cruise ship would be quite an experience. Usually, cruise tickets come with the pick-up service at your hotel and once your driver successfully reaches the destination, which would probably be somewhere around Kasr El Nil Bridge or Zamalek corniche, you will feel that the change of atmosphere is immediate.

After getting off the car and approaching the pier, the never-ending sound of car horns and street noise becomes fainter. Instead of it, there comes the nice breeze blowing directly from the water. Huge cruise ships such as the Nile Maxim, Nile Crystal and alike stand lighted on the black water, soft music playing from the top decks.

Your ticket is handed over to the pier manager, your luggage is checked by security and now, you are on the gangplank heading towards the ship.

2. Stepping Onboard and Settling In

The inside of these boats always amazes new customers. Rather than a small, poorly-equipped floating hut, you step into something quite resembling a lounge from a floating hotel or a traditional banquet hall. Everything is decked out in plush wall-to-wall carpets, soft low lights, brass decorations, and rows of tables laid with immaculate white tablecloths.

A friendly waiter greets you right upon entry, checks your booking and leads you through the restaurant to your table. If you booked the cruise far in advance, you may be fortunate enough to land a table near the huge panoramic glass windows with a great view of the river banks.

There is an important insider hint that needs to be remembered here: Right upon your seating and getting settled, your waiter approaches you to ask what you'd like to drink. It is essential to know that even though a bottle of water or a basic soda may be provided for free according to your ticket price, anything alcoholic, special juices, cocktails, and other canned drinks will almost definitely have an additional charge.

3. The Food: What’s Actually on the Buffet?

An open buffet is the only way that dinner during the Nile cruise will be served. In most cases, this happens about 30 to 45 minutes after the boat has left the shore and sailed into the current of the river.

If your table number is called to form a line, expect to see a large array of international cuisine along with Egyptian food, which should suit all palates. These include:

Warmed-up, fresh-baked bread baskets served with such popular dips as tahini, baba ganoush, and hummus

Fresh salads, pickles, and cold mezze dishes

Popular Egyptian meals such as moussaka, seasoned rice, buttered vegetables, and grilled kofta or marinated chicken shawarma

Large dessert buffet full of small-sized cakes, pastries, and puddings, along with Middle-Eastern desserts like basbousa and konafa

How does this food taste? Be absolutely honest here and let's have realistic expectations: it is mass catering food, prepared to satisfy the hunger of many hundred guests of various nationalities simultaneously. This food is definitely hot, filling, and quite delicious, but you will surely not come to this place to enjoy fine culinary art. You will come for the atmosphere, companionship, and magnificent scenery outside.

4. The Night Comes Alive: Music, Dance, and Shows

As you are finishing up clearing your plates from your main dish and the room starts getting settled, the light in the dining room turns low and then comes the real fun of the night! A live band plays in the small stage at the front of the room, with the performance consisting of popular Arabic songs along with international ones, accompanied by the beats of the oud and the darbuka.

And after this, comes the formal entertainment program which normally has two segments:

The Tanoura Show: An artist comes and starts spinning on the stage wearing a heavy skirt that opens up into a circle that rotates with him as he continues spinning without stopping. This show is taken from the traditional Sufi culture and is hypnotizing, colorful and very entertaining.

The Belly Dance Performance: After the Tanoura Show, a belly dancer comes in with her shiny, beaded and sequined costume, dancing energetically. Towards the end of her show, the belly dancers are notorious for making their audience stand up and dance with them.

5. Escaping to the Open-Air Upper Deck

The music and show down below might be entertaining, noisy, and lively, but nothing compares to what follows next when you get out of the bustling crowd and go upstairs.

Before or after the dinner entertainment, get up from your table, put on your jacket, and climb upstairs onto the roof deck. Up there, the music coming from the speakers is much less loud, the air is fresh from the wind of the night, and the whole atmosphere of Cairo changes completely. Leaning on the elegant wooden or bronze railings with a cocktail in your hand, you will have a chance to observe the skyline of Egypt's capital slowly passing by in front of your eyes. The glowing Cairo Tower, the old bridges spanning the riverbanks, and the silhouettes of minarets towering in the dark sky are just some of the landmarks that you will spot from up there. All the hustle and bustle of the busy city will seem distant enough up there, and all you will hear instead will be the eternal flow of the Nile.

The Verdict: Is a Nile Dinner Cruise Worth It?

So, should you do one? A Nile dinner cruise is not a quiet, personal, authentic experience—you are going to have a lot of fun that night on the river. Sure, you will feel a bit like a tourist and, yes, there might be the attempt to sell you something from the professional photos of yourself to the additional beverages.

But, if you see it as a celebration, an event, where you will listen to some nice music, watch the river view, and simply enjoy the evening in Egypt, then it will definitely be worth it.

Have you been on a floating dinner cruise in any other city before or this would be your very first time on the Nile?