While Cairo and Luxor are the big guns when it comes to travel to Egypt, visiting Aswan either by cruise or as a standalone is truly a hidden gem.

We personally found this out as we took our first River Nile Cruise, which conveniently started in Aswan.

What is Aswan

A southern city within Egypt it is big and important enough to have a good football team (top-tier), train station, airport and be the tarting point for cruises. Some reasons for it being said starting point are because of where it is, but it is also historically very important.

This is home to Nasserism inspired dam, the Nubian people of Egypt, as well as a number of Greek-Roman, as well as Egyptian historical sites.

This includes in both the town proper, as well as further afield.

What to do when visiting Aswan

When here you can stay in a hotel from $30, although there are also gems like the Movenpick which will set you back way north of this. I personally stayed on the Royal Beau Rivage a middle of the road ship.

There are numerous historical islands round and about which you can visit via the dock by negotiating yourself, or by joining a group. This is the kind of thing we would organize as part of a YPT Egypt Cruise.

Alas I did not get to sample the street food of Aswan, but there are numerous cool markets, as well as many spices of what the city is incredibly famous for. There was also a KFC, although whether it did the Wagyu Burger I alas did not get the chance to check.

There is no real bar scene within Aswan and it is much more Islamic than other parts of Egypt.

The overall scenery here though is stunning making it a great place to start your cruise and indeed enjoy the epic scenery as you float along.

Getting in and out of Aswan

Flights from Cairo take just over one hour, whilst a “fast train” will set you back about 14 hours and just about cost the same. Said train also goes through Luxor.

Another option of course is the River Nile, dearly if you can by cruise ship.

It is also possible to cruise down from Luxor for visiting Aswan from where you can train south and as per our current plans onto Bir Tawil and Sudan. At least when things finally do get better.

Therefore whatever you are doing in Egypt, visiting Aswan is pretty much a must.