A group of 6 or 8 of us are planning a river cruise on the Danube in Sept. 2008. We would like recommendations on river cruises. We are considering CIE, Grand Circle, and Globus.

We have taken a Danube cruise with Grand Circle and it was outstanding. We have not cruised with CIE or Globus, so we can't comment on them. We have taken a land only tour with Cosmos, which is a Globus sister company and found the quality of the guides on that trip significantly below that of Grand Circle. Grand Circle requires that their program directors, trip leaders, be native to the countries being visited, which gives a much better feel of the local people and culture. In fact Grand Circle puts a great emphasis on this facet of the trip. We have taken 8 Grand Circle trips an have 2 currently booked with OAT, a Grand Circle sister company. Most of the people on Grand Circle trips are repeat customers, some with far more trips than us. Grand Circle's target audience is the over 50 crowd and the pace is more relaxed than some other companies.

We would be glad to answer any questions on the trip or company, either in this forum or via Email.

If you are booking your first Grand Circle trip, and use an existing customer as a referral, you will get a $100 discount per person, and the person referring you will get $100 per person credit toward future travel. If you would like, we will give you our information.

Jack and Ann

Thank you for your information. Did you use Grand Circle's air fares?

I'm also a big fan of GCT. I was on the 2006 Christmas Markets cruise and had a wonderful time. Up until then, with one exception, all my travel had been independently with my husband; so I didn't know what to expect. What I got was an excellent crew and fine tour guides, excellent food, a comfortable cabin, and a great atmosphere on board. I'd love to do it again--in fact, we're planning the Rhône cruise for December 2008.

I was able to upgrade to business class with GCT's air travel unit--that worked out very well, as the trip over was on the superb Austrian Airlines.

mbpike,

We have always used Grand Circle's air fares, except for one US trip where we used FF miles. Due to the volume that they do, the fares that they get are hard to beat. In fact, except for some domestic trips, they don't advertise their trips without air. I believe that you can work it out without air, but it is not standard.

Jack and Ann

4 of us went on the Danube River cruise from Passeau, Germany to Budapest and back with Viking River Cruises. There head office is California, I believe. Being our 1st river cruise we can't compare to others but they were wonderful! We did our own airfare as we are from Canada but had we known, we would have had them do it just for less worry about luggage, taxi's, ext. We are going in 2 weeks on another river cruise - Basel to Amsterdam and tried to go Viking again but they were all sold out for this time frame. We want to see the tulips in Holland so that is why we are going at this time of the year. We are using Globus this time and they look as wonderful as Viking. We have been told that Globus is top of the line. We shall see because as I said earlier, we loved Viking! I will post a write up when we come home at the end of April.