Northbound - Southbound on the NIle

A head's up to everyone booked on J&E.

For the Nile segment of your itinerary, on Day 5 you might fly from Aqaba, Jordan to Aswan, Egypt and cruise the Nile northbound from Aswan to Luxor, but you could also end up flying from Aqaba, Jordan to Luxor, Egypt and cruise the Nile southbound from Luxor to Aswan. This definitely applies to small group departures but could also apply to regular size group departures.

There are some subtle differences in timing, order of site visits, and flights (Luxor to Cairo vs Aswan to Cairo), etc. between the two versions, but it is hard to tell because the alternate (north to south) itinerary is not shown on the Tauck website. I'm sure both versions offer the same great experience.

There is no mention of this in the online itinerary nor at the bottom of the Pricing & Availability page where hotel and similar changes used to appear in years past. It should, but may not appear on your Summary of Purchase and it can be easy to miss. So, you may not know unless you ask a reservations sales agent or until you get your electronic green book 30 days before departure.

This is still an issue, because that is when a Taucktourian currently on this tour first became aware of the change.

There may also be a chance you'll be on a different boat. Normally small groups are on Philea and regular groups are on Zahra. Before it was cancelled, our small group tour was scheduled for the Zahra in 2020.