The Watania sleeper — Cairo to Aswan overnight, the classic Nile overnight train.

What you are looking at

The Cairo-Aswan sleeper is the principal long-distance passenger train in Egypt and one of the few overnight services left in the wider Mediterranean region. Operated under the Watania brand (Egyptian National Sleeping Trains, a joint venture between ENR and a Belgian partner since the 1980s), the service runs two trains daily in each direction — train 84 and train 86 from Cairo to Aswan, train 85 and train 87 in the reverse direction. The route covers 879 kilometres along the Nile valley, calling at the major Upper Egyptian cities: Beni Suef, Minya, Asyut, Sohag, Luxor, and Aswan.

The rolling stock is a mix of original 1980s German-built sleeper carriages (Wagenbau-Wegmann) and newer Indonesian-built carriages from a 2008 capacity-expansion contract. The German carriages are visually distinctive — the brown wood-veneer interior, the brass fittings, the small wash-basin in each cabin — and are increasingly the desk's recommended rolling stock for visitors who care about the experience. The Indonesian carriages are more modern in finish but less characterful. ENR does not publish which rolling stock is allocated to which train on which day, and the allocation does rotate; subscribers receive our weekly rolling-stock log via the Library tier.

The standard cabin format is two berths (upper and lower bunk) with a small wash basin and a wardrobe. Sleeping bedding, towels and a small toiletry kit are provided. The cabin can be booked as a single occupancy at a small surcharge for travellers who want privacy; family bookings can combine two adjacent cabins through the inter-cabin door. The dining car — at the centre of the train — is open from 20:30 to 22:30 for evening service and from 06:30 to 09:00 for breakfast. The menu has been substantially the same since the 1990s: an Egyptian set menu with vegetarian options, alcoholic beverages not served.

On the ground

Fares (verified 30 May 2026): two-berth cabin Cairo-Aswan (one direction) USD 130 per person on a shared-cabin booking, USD 200 single-occupancy supplement, payable at the Watania office at Ramses Station in Cairo or at the Aswan station office. The fare is set in US dollars by historical convention and is collected in Egyptian pounds at the prevailing rate on the day. Foreign-passport-holder bookings require a passport copy at the time of booking; Egyptian-national bookings are at a different (lower) fare structure not covered here.

Booking procedure: walk-in at the Watania office at Ramses Station, weekdays 09:00–20:00, weekends 10:00–18:00. The office accepts cash, Visa and Mastercard. Booking up to 60 days in advance is possible; we recommend at least 14 days for the busy October–March tourist window. Online booking is available through the Watania website (English interface refreshed 2024); the subscriber walkthrough covers the seven steps required and the common error states.

What to bring: passport (required for foreign-passport bookings), a small overnight bag (full luggage fits in the cabin wardrobe but the carry-on is what you need at hand), a power-bank or wall charger (cabin outlets are EU two-pin in German carriages, Indonesian carriages have no outlets), and a light layer (the cabin air-conditioning is set conservatively for the Egyptian temperature range and is cold for European visitors in winter). A small headlamp or torch is useful for the wash basin in the German carriages.

Reading list

• Delacroix, M. Forty Years of the Watania Sleeper. Sikka Press subscriber monograph, 2023.
• Younis, M. The German and Indonesian Sleeper Rolling Stock. Sikka Press subscriber technical brief, 2024.
• ENR Watania Service. Operational Handbook. Bilingual annual edition.
• Sikka Press field notebooks 2016–2026, "WS" tag.