Hello. I have written a full Karma Karnak Review. I am sharing it here for you as well.
Karma Karnak Review
We went on the Karma Karnak Cruise in July and had a fantastic time!
We scored our trip on a hot deal. Your trip includes food (3 buffet meals) and unlimited water (you can go into the dining area anytime and refill your water bottle).
Now, to the review.
The staff go above and beyond to make your stay enjoyable. The housekeeping staff brought smiles to our faces everyday with their towel sculptures.
The bar staff is always available in the lounge area, but will send someone to the roof area to stay with you if you are up there and ordering drinks.
The rooms all have a nice window view and are an adequate size for people to stay comfortably. The air conditioning works better. The lounge room is very comfortable and sofa seating and a staffed bar. This is also the venue for the two shows you will see on board during the week: a traditional Nubian show and belly dancing/whirling dervish show. They were fantastic. The shows were interactive and very entertaining.
The deck is where we spent most of our time. There is comfortable seating under shade tarps and loungers surrounding the pool and half the deck. We moved some of the loungers into the shaded area for most of our journey. The deck also has a bar that they will staff when people are up there. This is also where high tea will be held. Sometimes high tea coincides with something cool to see.
The food was delicious the entire trip. There is a wide variety of options including something for vegetarians. The buffet runs three times a day. Coffee and tea is included only at breakfast. You can purchase coffee at other times from the lounge bar. Water is always available in the dining room, even when the lights are out. Just pop in to refill your water bottles. This is in part due to the tours. It worked well for us because we really weren't all that hungry in the heat. If you are worried you might get hungry later, just grab some bread or snacks from the buffet to take to your room. Every room has a fridge.
They have a photographer come on board for one night. He takes pictures throughout the whole day and evening. I recommend asking the front desk when you arrive what day the photographer will be on board. If I had known I would have worn a more flattering outfit that day.
The tours were fantastic. Mohsen was our tour guide and he was excellent. I'm certain Karma Group will always hire excellent tour guides. The basic tour package includes at least one tour each day. They are all very good. You can choose to do the package or choose to book each tour separately. They also have other tours that are not part of the package. We did all of them except for the light show on the first night.
The extra tours we did included the Nubian village, Abu Simbel, and the hot air balloon. They were all excellent.
The Nubian village is about an hour speed boat ride on the Nile that takes you to the village. At the village you visit a traditional home and enjoy local breads and dips. It was very nice.
Abu Simbel is the temple you always see on the history channel. It has the 2 giant seated Ramses II statues out front. If you are super into history and archaeology like me, then it is worth a visit. It is about a 3 hour drive each way from Aswan. It makes for an early morning and a long day, but I felt it was well worth it.
The hot air balloon ride was stunning. You begin while it is still dark and enjoy the sunrise while looking over the Valley of the Kings, Hatshepsut temple and much more. They offer this tour on the first morning. I would recommend asking them if you can do it later in the week. You will be in Luxor both at the beginning and the end of your trip. The first tour you do is in Luxor where you visit all of the things you will later see from the sky. It is more satisfying to see it from a bird's eye after you have already been there on the ground. If you are not super into historical sites, you might not find this as amazing as I did.
You will be bombarded everywhere you go with people trying to sell you things. That being said there is some fabulous shopping to be had. My husband and I scored what we consider great deals on some outfits. Their dresses are definitely my style.
You are going to be brought into oil, spice, and tea shops. I found that Aswan is the best place for shopping because you are docked right by the market and it is cheaper than Luxor. Our tour guide brought us to a place where we got spices for 1 pound a gram and tea for 2 pounds a gram. That was the cheapest we found anywhere. This was in Aswan. I recommend asking your tour guide about it. Oils… well I bought them by Giza instead. I found a place that sells them for 7 pounds a ml. Most place will sell them for about USD 60 for 100ml. Mine was 700 pound (about USD 25) for 100ml.
Overall the Karma Karnak cruise was amazing. It felt like the trip of a lifetime. I have no regrets on choosing to do all of the tours. It was busy, but worth it. Some of my family chose to stay back on the boat some days and enjoy the deck or ac in the lounge or their room. They have no regrets on that choice either.
When you are en route, be sure to enjoy the deck. You will also enjoy stunning views and brief looks into everyday life along the Nile.
I have an amazing visit to Egypt!! I can't wait for the new resort to open.