 | Aswan Transportation | Tips 11 - 20 of 51 |  |
Popular Transportation | Other Transportation Tips | All Tips (51) If you have time and like to visit places at the islands or the riverbanks, you can hire a felucca, the traditinal sailing boat. It's fun and relaxing.
You can hire a felucca for just being on the water. Tolook from the water at the shores is even more relaxing. If you want only to visit Elephantine Island, Kitchener Island or the westbank you can take the ferry as well. Leave a Comment Theme: Ship/Boat
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In case you like to visit the westbank, cameldrivers are waiting at the boatlanding for customers.
If you don't want to walk, the camels can bring you uphill to the Monastery of St Simeon.
I don't know the prices, because we prefered to walk. Leave a Comment Theme: Other
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A brilliant way to cover the long distance between Cairo and Aswan- move while you sleep. The seats were comfortable but it was unfortunate the lights didn't go off. I wore a top with a hood which shielded some of the light.
Try to sit on the right side of the train( if you face the way you're going!)
This side you get all the views of the NIle. I woke at around 6ish an hour above Luxor. The Nile quite often disappeared but then you are parallel to an irrigation canal as wide as a river. Loads of date palms, mud houses covered with morning glory, white herons in the fields. Although it was only 6 there was lots going on. School children in their pristine uniforms, men and women in the fields cutting sugar cane. There's oxen in yokes turning the irrigation wheels. There's roads running alongside the track but with rarely more than a donkey and cart on it.
Hot drinks are on offer throughout the day. A cup of Lipton's tea cost 15pence. Leave a Comment Theme: Train
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From Cairo, I took the sleeper train to Aswan, which took around 12 hours (train 84 leaves Giza at 2000H and arrives in Aswan around 0815H). Besides the sleeper trains, foreigners are only allowed to take two other trains, which were less comfortable, i.e. no sleeping cars. For a single cabin, I paid USD 80, one-way, inclusive of dinner and breakfast.
Reservations could be made at the Sleeping Train reservation office at Ramses Station in Cairo (to your left upon entering the station). I did the reservation two days prior to departure, but during peak season (around winter), I was told reservations have to be made days in advance. As of May 2007, there are no more departures from Ramses station, but only from Giza station. From downtown, Giza station could be reached by: (a) taxi - costs about EGP 15 from Midan Tahrir; or (b) Metro - take the Metro going towards Giza, where you get off. The train station is right below the Giza Metro station - costs EGP 1. You board the train on the platform on the station side.
One interesting fact about taking this train, is the amount of security the government has provided for tourists' safety. The train is accompanied by a group of heavily-armed Army personnel - still can't make up my mind if this is a safer strategy or only attracts more attention. Leave a Comment
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We went for a felucca ride one afternoon...it was fantastic!!! I would definitely recommend all visitors to Egypt to have a felucca ride along the Nile... We hired a felucca with a mattress rather than seats so we could all lay back and relax a bit...it was definitely worth the extra money! We paid 40 LE (A$1 = 4.5 LE) each for the hour ride and it was really worth it.
We saw some gorgeous scenery along the way and we could have easily spent a lot more time on the felucca!!! Leave a Comment Theme: Ship/Boat
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On the other side of the railroad tracks, in the heart of the less touristy part of Aswan, there is a mini-van station where vans depart periodically for various destinations down the river ribbon highway. The prices are fixed, and the driver's won't charge more than they're supposed to unless you have a huge amount of baggage or give them a hard time. The vans line-up and as soon as one is full, it goes. If the wait is too long, one can pay for an extra seat or two, but expect the van to stop and pick up passengers on the roadside as it goes. These vans run full. We used the vans for an excursionary trip to Kom Ombo (Kawm Umbu, see my page and tip for this temple) as this is much faster than the cruise ship. In fact, we saw a cruise ship load and depart, and then we walked across town, waited for the van to fill up, and then arrived at Kawm Umbu before the tourist cruise ship did. Then, that group left before we did, effectively limiting their time at a great temple, and we beat them back to Aswan in time for drinks. We also used this mini-van system to temple hop our way to Luxor, stopping at Edfu (Idfu, see my page and tips for this temple and town), before picking up another van to finish the trip to Luxor. The ribbon highway that follows the Nile River is very scenic, and I like sharing rides with the bedouin and Nubian passengers that make up the majority of people using this system. It's a lot cheaper than the cruise ship and really much less of a time waster. But, you do have to brave the grimey streets of Aswan with the baggage. We were able to drag our wheeled luggage just fine though. Leave a Comment Theme: Bus
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Feluccas are typical Egyptian sailing boats.
The Felucca ride is a real pleasure.
It’s actually the perfect way to spend a relaxing afternoon.
We sailed around Elephantine Island and stopped to the Botanical Garden.
We did the ride before our departure on the Nile cruise and because there was no wind we were close to miss the embarkation time.
At the certain point two little boys in a boat full of water came near our felucca and started to sing in different languages for some money.
It’s so strange to hear these two boys, which were not more than 6-7 years old, in German, English or Spanish. Theme: Ship/Boat
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As part of our Geckos tour, we had a cruise boat for three nights of our trip, we travelled from Aswan up to Luxor... Our boat was named the "MS Rosetta". It was a really nice boat (although a little old in the decor area...hehe...) and it was one of the highlights of our trip. The rooms were very comfortable, clean and everyone had a window. They have a small pool on the top deck, a bar and restaurant etc. Leave a Comment Theme: Ship/Boat
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The city is small enough to be visited on foot.
It is easy to find your way in Aswan because there are only three main streets.
One of the streets run parallel with the Nile river.
Parallel to this street there is the market street: shari as-souq. and next to this street, there is sharia abtal at-tahrir. Leave a Comment Theme: Other
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The Cairo-Aswan Train stops in Aswan, but one line actually goes all the way to the High Dam. This is typically used by workers, but tourists also take it, and it's very cheap. It's also the way to go for trips to Kalabsha and Island Temple of Philae, as well as for the dam and Lake Nasser boatrides in general. The train runs at regular intervals during the day and costs about one American dollar, as I recall. Leave a Comment Theme: Train
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