Europe River Cruises
 

We are considering a river cruise in Europe to celebrate my husband's retirement. We are both 55 and love to travel. We have been on several Caribbean cruises, but never a river cruise. We are currently comparing Viking & Avalon cruises. We are looking at the Grand European tour from Amsterdam to Budapest along the Rhine, Main & Danube rivers. I love the idea of only unpacking a suitcase once and visiting so many different places. I would really appreciate your suggestions and advice on the cruises and tours offered.

Check the schedules carefully. The cruises we looked at allowed ridiculously short amounts of time at many of the stops. Keep in mind also that meals are usually included in the cruise, limiting your opportunties to try local dishes at the places you stop (unless you want to pay for your meals twice).

Thanks Paul...any other suggestions??

Hello Patri:

You may know that the premier European river cruise company, Peter Deilmann, has folded. This came as a shock to me because we were seriously considering the 14 day cruise that Deilmann is noted for.

This move obviously opens things for the competition and whatever consequences might flow. Gradyghost

My family and I were on an Avalon cruise last summer form Amsterdam to Basel Switzerland. The year prior we were on a river cruise with InTrav, (now folded at least the cruises are) from Amsterdam to Budapest. River cruises are more comparable to bus tours than to ocean cruises. (I've been on both). It is wonderful to only unpack once. You won't get in depth into any one place but you will get a good overview. In terms of variety I think the Amsterdam - Budapest offers more variety and Budapest itself is worth extra time once you get there. For me the towns along the Rhine and Mosel tend to run together; all beautiful but hard to keep straight. I called it the 'Burgs and "Heims tour, so many of the towns ended with those suffixes. The food is so-so, the rooms are the size of small cabins on ships and there is really on two places to congregate; the top deck (which isn't always possible) and the bar. Bottom line is that there are pluses and minuses. I thought the crew on the Avalon was wonderful.

You might look at Vacations to Go for info and prices. They are a local company here in Houston and have a good reputation as far as I know. I signed up for their newsletter a couple of years ago but haven't yet taken a cruise with them.

http://www.rivercruise.com/