Groups and charters

Which Nile boat fits your group

114 boats on the river carry 24 guests or fewer, and 112 of those are dahabiyas, which is the realistic list for a group that wants the boat to itself. A party of 12 has 34 boats to choose from at roughly US$4,440 a night for the whole hull; a party of 20 has 64 at around US$6,094. Above 40 guests you are chartering a cruise ship, which is done, and priced differently.

Capacity is the first question every group asks and the hardest to answer, because operators publish cabin counts rather than party sizes and no two fleets describe a boat the same way. We hold a capacity figure for 287 of the vessels we list, so this is the whole river sorted by how many people it takes. What the boat costs to take whole is worked out from published cabin rates, not quoted to us, and the charter page explains that arithmetic.

Medians. Read the two smallest bands with care: only 3boats carry eight guests or fewer and both sit at the premium end, so that row is not a trend, it is two boats. Capacity is the operator's published maximum where there is one (185 vessels) and cabins times two where there is not (102).

The classic whole-dahabiya party: one long table, one crew, nobody else aboard.

Taking the whole boat runs about US$4,440 a night at published cabin rates, around US$26,640 for six nights.

The largest dahabiyas and the smallest ships. A retreat or a wedding party sits here.

Taking the whole boat runs about US$11,908 a night at published cabin rates, around US$71,448 for six nights.

The large ships. At this size a group usually books a block of cabins rather than the hull.

Taking the whole boat runs about US$31,573 a night at published cabin rates, around US$189,438 for six nights.

Which Nile boat fits a group of 12?

34 boats in the fleet take 9 to 12 guests, and 32 of them are dahabiyas. Taking one whole works out at about US$4,440 a night from published cabin rates, so roughly US$26,640 for a six-night Esna to Aswan sailing. At this size a group fills the boat exactly, which is the cheapest way to have it to yourselves: you are not paying for cabins nobody sleeps in.

What is the largest group a dahabiya can take?

The biggest dahabiyas carry around 40 guests, though most of the fleet sits well below that. 64 boats take 13 to 20, which is where the dahabiya fleet is deepest, and 24 take 21 to 40. Above 40 you are into cruise ships, which is a different kind of week: more space and more facilities, but you no longer moor where the small boats can.

Can we take over a whole Nile cruise ship?

Yes, and it is done for weddings and company trips. 29 ships carry 41 to 80 guests and 133 carry more. It is a serious charter at that size, so the sensible route is to tell us the party and the dates and let us put it out to the operators rather than working from published cabin fares.

Is it cheaper to book cabins or take the whole boat?

Cabins, if your group does not fill the boat. Exclusive use means the same crew and the same fuel for fewer people, so the cost per head rises. What it buys is the itinerary: your own moorings, your own timings, your own table, nobody else aboard. A group that fills most of the cabins anyway is the case where charter wins outright on both counts.

How far ahead should a group book?

Ten to twelve months for a specific boat on specific dates, and longer for Christmas, New Year, and the first days of August 2027. The fleet is small: around a hundred dahabiyas exist in total, and the good ones in the sizes groups want are a much shorter list than that.

Related: what a whole boat costs, which boats sail which day, and the dahabiya fleet.