Nile Cruise Food: What You Will Actually Eat

Three buffet meals a day, mixing Egyptian and international dishes, included in your fare — but drinks are not. Breakfast has eggs cooked to order, lunch is served while sailing, dinner is a buffet on most ships and table service on luxury ones. The food is better than people expect and more repetitive than they hope. Flag dietary requirements when you book, not at the buffet.

Nobody writes about this honestly because the honest version is “it’s fine, and by day four you’ve seen it all”. Which is true, and there is more to say.

The meal pattern

On early-start days the kitchen puts out a reduced breakfast before the excursion and a full one when you get back. In summer, when you leave at 5:30, ask reception the night before for a boxed breakfast. Every ship does it and almost none advertise it.

What is actually on the buffet

Breakfast is the most consistent meal and often the best. Eggs cooked to order, Egyptian flatbread, fuul (slow-cooked fava beans, the national breakfast), feta and white cheeses, olives, tomatoes and cucumber, fresh fruit, pastries, yoghurt, juices. Coffee is usually instant unless you pay for espresso.

Lunch leans international with Egyptian dishes alongside. Salads, grilled chicken or fish, rice, pasta, a stew or two, bread, and a dessert table.

Dinner is the same structure with more of it — a soup, a carving station on better ships, three or four hot mains, and a larger dessert spread.

The Egyptian dishes worth trying rather than defaulting to pasta: koshari (rice, lentils, macaroni, fried onions, spiced tomato sauce), molokhia (a green leaf soup that divides people sharply), mahshi (stuffed vine leaves, peppers or courgettes), tagine stews, and om ali for dessert — a bread-and-milk pudding with nuts and raisins that is the one everyone asks for the recipe to.

How good is it, really?

Competent hotel-buffet standard on a deluxe ship. Good ingredients, cooked in volume, held in trays.

Where it is genuinely strong: the bread, the fresh vegetables and salads, the fruit, and the grill or carving stations where things are cooked in front of you. Where it is weakest: anything that has been sitting in a bain-marie, and the coffee.

Four nights is fine. Seven is where the rotation shows. Kitchens work a menu cycle of roughly four to five days, so on the 7-night round trip you meet the same dishes twice. It is one of several arguments for four nights over seven.

On luxury ships and dahabiyas the difference is real. A dahabiya with twelve guests cooks to order rather than to a buffet, and the food is one of the clearest things you are paying for.

Drinks are not included

The single biggest surprise on the final bill, so we will be blunt about it.

Full board covers food. Water is poured at meals. Everything else is charged to your cabin account, and on most ships that includes the bottled water in your cabin fridge.

A couple drinking moderately over four nights runs up $80 to $140. Buy water ashore if you want to control it — a 1.5-litre bottle costs a fraction of the onboard price and nobody minds you bringing it aboard.

Some luxury ships and most dahabiyas do include soft drinks; a few include local beer and wine. If yours does, it will say so explicitly. Full detail in what’s included in a Nile cruise.

Vegetarian, vegan and special diets

Vegetarian is easy. A large part of Egyptian cooking is naturally meat-free — fuul, koshari, hummus, baba ghanoush, lentil soup, stuffed vegetables, and the salad and mezze tables. You will not go hungry and you will not be eating side dishes.

Vegan takes notice. Doable, but ghee, yoghurt and egg turn up in places you would not expect. Tell your operator at booking.

Gluten-free, nut allergies and other medical diets must be flagged at the time of booking. This matters more on a river ship than at a hotel: these kitchens provision fully before departure and cannot restock mid-river. A chef told three days ahead can plan; a chef told at Wednesday’s buffet cannot.

Halal is the default across the fleet. Pork is rare and clearly labelled where it exists.

Eating safely

Stomach upsets are the most common complaint on any Egypt trip, and they are largely avoidable.

• Bottled water only, including for brushing teeth. Check the seal is intact.
• Ice on reputable ships is made from filtered water and is fine. Ashore, be more careful.
• Salads and unpeeled fruit are the usual culprits. Ships wash produce properly; roadside stalls are a different proposition.
• Eat from the busy trays. High turnover means it has not been sitting.
• Bring stomach medication from home. You want it in your cabin at 2am.

The pattern we see is that people are careful on board and casual ashore, and it is the ashore part that catches them.

How it differs by ship class

The gap between standard and deluxe is real but not dramatic — more choice rather than better cooking. The gap between deluxe and a small boat cooking for twelve people is much larger, and it is one of the clearest things the price difference actually buys.

Practical notes on the dining room

Seating is usually open rather than assigned, though some ships allocate tables for the first dinner so the waiters can learn who you are. If you would rather not share a table with strangers, say so at the first meal and it is arranged without fuss.

Meal times are fixed and tight, because they work around excursions. Turning up at 21:15 for dinner means the hot food has gone. If you are coming back late from an excursion, tell reception and they will hold something.

Room service exists on most deluxe ships and is often charged. It is rarely worth it on a boat this size — the restaurant is two flights away.

Dress is smart-casual for dinner across the fleet: a collared shirt or a blouse. Nobody wears formal wear. Details in what to wear on a Nile cruise.

Eating off the ship

Worth doing at least once, and easy to fit in.

In Aswan, the Nubian restaurants on Elephantine Island and the west bank serve tagines and grilled fish, and tea on one of the riverside terraces is worth it for the view alone. In Luxor, the restaurants along the corniche near the temple do decent grills, and the local koshari places are excellent and cost almost nothing.

Tell reception if you plan to eat ashore so the kitchen is not holding a table. Nobody minds, and you are not charged less for a meal you skip.

Frequently asked questions

Is food included on a Nile cruise?

Yes — breakfast, lunch and dinner every day, plus afternoon tea on most ships. Drinks other than water at meals are not included.

What is the food like on a Nile cruise?

Buffet-style, mixing Egyptian and international dishes, at competent hotel standard on a deluxe ship. Strong on bread, salads and grilled items; weaker on anything held in a warming tray.

Are drinks included?

Rarely. Water is poured at meals; soft drinks, beer, wine and even cabin water are usually charged. Expect $80 to $140 for a couple over four nights.

Is there vegetarian food on Nile cruises?

Plenty. Much of Egyptian cooking is naturally vegetarian — koshari, fuul, hummus, lentil soup, stuffed vegetables. Vegan needs advance notice as ghee and yoghurt are common.

Can they handle gluten-free or allergies?

Yes, if you tell them when you book. Ships provision before departure and cannot restock mid-river, so notice at booking matters more than at a hotel.

Is the food safe to eat?

On reputable ships, yes. Stick to bottled water, be sensible with salads ashore, and bring stomach medication as a precaution.

Is the food halal?

Yes, by default across the fleet. Pork is rare and clearly labelled where served.

Does the menu repeat?

Kitchens run a four to five day cycle, so on a 4-night cruise you rarely see a repeat. On a 7-night round trip you will.

Written by Magdy Fattouh 38 guides published on this site Magdy Fattouh is a Cairo University history graduate and the writer behind the guides on this site. Over 13 years he has researched and written about Egypt's history, its monuments and how to travel to them — from the pharaohs and the temples to month-by-month planning, ship comparisons and day-by-day itineraries. He speaks English and Arabic, and reviews every guide here for accuracy before it is published. Read more by Magdy Fattouh →