Princess Farida
Dahabiya. Operated by Princess Farida (own operation).
Sailing, two sources checked 12 Sep 2026
Our view
A 2024 all suite hull with published rates and a genuinely complete inclusions list, which puts it ahead of most boats at this price. The problem is its own website, which contradicts itself on capacity, on medical cover and on availability, and gets the last one badly wrong. Ask for a real availability list and a written answer on the guest maximum, and ignore the sailing dates page entirely.
Who it suits
- Travellers who want published per person rates on a small boat
- Anyone who wants a three night trip rather than five
- Guests who want the guide, the entrance fees and the transfers inside one price
- Groups of up to 16 chartering the whole boat
Who it does not suit
- Anyone who trusts the sailing dates page, it is a script that prints every Monday and Friday of whichever year you choose and shows no real availability
- Guests who need onboard medical cover, the facilities page claims round the clock medical staff and the operator's own FAQ says there is basic first aid only
- Travellers who want a confirmed capacity, the operator says 16 to 18 on one page and prints a maximum of 20 on another
- Anyone who needs to know whether it sails or motors, the technical page lists two generators and no rig and the operator never says
- Guests who cannot manage stairs, nothing on the site addresses accessibility at all
- Service style
- Owner run all suite sailing boat with suites named for the Egyptian royal family, running three, four and seven nights with a licensed guide and all entrance fees included.
- The cabin we would book
- Any of the eight, and choose by name rather than by category. Every room here is a suite and the operator publishes nothing that distinguishes their sizes.
- Nearest alternative: Queen Farida
- Similar names, unrelated companies, and the difference is what you get for the money. Princess Farida includes the guide, the entrance fees and the transfers. Queen Farida excludes all three and sells the cabin and the meals. See its record →
Shown in the currency the operator published it in, on the basis the operator sells it on. We do not convert currencies and we do not divide a package total into a nightly rate, because both would produce a number nobody quoted. See how this compares on the rates page.
Identity · 3 of 4 on file
The vessel · 9 of 13 on file
How it operates · 7 of 9 on file
Price · 4 of 5 on file
Reputation · 0 of 3 on file
What we could not establish
Every empty cell above has a reason. These are the reasons for this vessel, written down at the time the record was made, including the places where published sources contradict each other.
No source we read links Princess Farida to a boat called Queen Farida. The operator's site never names a sister vessel and never names a parent company. The site does include a suite called the Queen Farida Suite, one of eight suites named for members of the Egyptian royal family, so a careless source could conflate the two boats on that word alone. The registered address is Al-Firdous Tower, Al-Fayrouz District, Luxor, with a single mobile reservations number. Nothing on ownership was published.
Propulsion is not listed. The operator's FAQ defines a dahabiya in general as a wooden traditional Egyptian sailing boat, but the site never states whether this hull carries working sails or is towed. The technical page lists two 145 KW generators and no rig. Describing it as sail or sail-assisted would be a guess.
The crew count is not listed. A search snippet referred to a 22-person crew from a guest review, and a TripAdvisor summary mentioned roughly 1.5 to 2 staff per guest, but neither could be traced to a quotable line in the source itself.
No refit year applies. The operator gives a year built of 2024, so the vessel is approximately two years old.
No charter rate is published. The charter page sells 3, 4 and 7-night bookings for the whole boat with a customisable route and asks the guest to call. No charter minimum cabin count is stated.
The guest capacity requires explanation. The operator states 16 to 18 on the home page and FAQ, prints a Max People 20 badge on the itinerary and charter pages, and its restaurant seats 16 to 18. Eight suites at double occupancy gives 16. The figure we publish comes from the operator, but the operator gives three different numbers across its own pages.
The sailing dates page resembles an availability calendar but is a JavaScript loop that prints every Monday or Friday of whichever year the visitor selects, across 2025, 2026 and 2027. It is evidence of a weekly departure pattern and no evidence of a bookable date.
The facilities page claims experienced onboard medical staff available around the clock. The FAQ on the same site states the boat is not staffed with medical professionals and carries basic first aid only. The FAQ is the more plausible of the two. A guest reading the facilities page is being told something the operator contradicts elsewhere.
Accessibility is not addressed anywhere on the site. The vessel is a two-deck wooden boat with shore landings at Gebel el-Silsila and a caleche ride at Edfu.
Recorded 12 September 2026. If you can settle any of these, tell us and we will correct the record in public.
Something here wrong? Say so and we will correct it in public, with the old value left visible. See the corrections log.