The Oberoi Zahra, Luxury Nile Cruise

Oberoi is an Indian hotel group with a long record in Egypt, and the Zahra is run as one of its hotels would be. Cabins are large by the standards of the river, with wide windows set low enough to watch the banks from bed, and the ship has a full spa and a pool on the upper deck.

The route between Luxor and Aswan takes in the temples of Karnak, Edfu, Kom Ombo and Philae and the tombs of the Valley of the Kings. The Zahra covers it at an unhurried pace, with visits in small groups led by Egyptologists and long stretches of cruising past palm groves, mud-brick villages and fields worked much as they have been for centuries.