We are considering a European river cruise next year and hope for some general advice. Which river cruise would you advise to be the most interesting and relaxing? I understand some rivers are loaded with commercial traffic and are badly polluted. What time of the year would be the best? Is there a line that exceeded your expectations - or you would advise against. We really don't know much about river cruising and would really appreciate any advice you can offer to get us started.

I'm by no means an expert, but we took a Christmas Market cruise from Budapest to Prague down the Danube. I had asked here and on several different boards about these cruises and got a lot of helpful feedback. We ended up taking the Amadagio from Amadeus Waterways.

We needed a quick get away, and booked this only a few weeks prior. It not only far exceded my expectations, but to date is one of the most relaxing trips I have been on.

The river was beautiful, with very little traffic that we noticed. We did shadow another cruise line on the same route, but it was at least a mile ahead of us.

I am going on a Uniworld Paris Normandy cruise in November www.uniworld.com but until then I don't know either

Do a search for "river cruise" on the European board. I remember reading several reports there.

Look into Intrav, Tauck or Uniworld for your river cruise. Start out with the Danube, the Rhein and you will get a beautiful introduction to river cruising. Be sure to book a stateroom on an upper deck because the lower decks can have obstructed views on the rivers and you may see only walking feet on the pier in port.

The ships stop in the center of town, so you can walk in for shopping, lunch and have easy access to each port. The shore excursions are often included in the price of the cruise and they are wonderful! You can take the shore excursion and then, have lunch on the ship or in town and explore on your own.

Best Regards,
Julia

You may want to look at cruisecritic.com in their river cruises forum. There was some interesting information on some of the companies yesterday.