Egypt: Nile Cruise

Many cruises have a fancy dress party one evening to allow you to meet the other guests and make a fool of yourself, but where do you get fancy dress from? While waiting to go through a lock, queued up with many other cruise ships, suddenly you will find your ship surrounded by many small boats and you can haggle from the top deck for clothes. They throw them up for you to look at, and try on, then if you like them throw money down money to them.

The gym on the top-deck of a cruise ship.

The Nile has so many wonderful sights to see and the cruise ships stop at each of the major ones for small groups to disembark and be escorted by horse-drawn carriage, coach or small boat. Excursions include many archeological sites featuring ancient mummies and temples dedicated to many different gods. This really is a relaxing way to see the sights.

Aswan is the end of the cruise, because the enormous Aswan High Dam gets in the way, although you can take another cruise from here on to Abu Simbal. The best place to stay in Aswan is the Old Cateract Hotel, where Agatha Christie wrote The Death on The Nile. It retains the character of the era in which she wrote the novel and has wonderful views from the bar across the river to the botanical gardens.