Trafalgar MS Miriam

My wife and I recently took a Nile Cruise on the M/S Miriam. It is marketed by Trafalgar and Insight Tours with operation by Spring Tours of Egypt. The boat is like an old third rate hotel. The bathtubs are too small to be of use to most. You have no control of the air conditioning and will be frozen at 5 AM and sweltering at 5 PM. One deck chair actually fell apart on one couple but fortuntely no one was hurt. The boat has five stories so you will be going up and down stairs all day. It was tough some of the older people. A modern boat would have an elevator or escalator.

You are not allowed to bring food or drinks on board. Budget an extra couple hundred dollars for booze. There is no good wine.

Be careful of the extra cost options. Everyone on the boat felt ripped off by the wrap up dinner. The flight to Abu Simbal did not return for lunch until almost 4PM. No boxed lunch was provided. The falluca ride is scheduled late in the day when there's no wind. When it took too long a motor launch is called to take people back to the ship or optional Nubian villiage tour. If you don't sign up for the tour you miss the botanic gardens. Most on our boat agreed the sound and light shows are boring.

The food is good, but eating on the boat three times a day for a week is dull. There is no free time scheduled to see how the locals live in contemporary Upper Egypt. A few meals off the boat in town would be great.

There are five mandatory stops for shopping not advertised: alabaster, parchment, purfume, cotton and rugs. You can stay in the bus.

Watching life along the Nile is one of the truly great tours. Too bad about the boats. Be very careful with the options.