Europe's Top Boat Rides??
 

I love trains, i've biked thousands of miles in Europe and driven all over but i find Europe's many boat cruises to be the most delightful form of transport. Here's my favorite boat rides - what are yours?
(No especial order)

Norway in a Nutshell
Ok this is my favorite, the ride between Gudvagen and Flam along Norway's largest fjord.

Rhine
K-D boats thru the Rhine Gorge, between Bingen/Rudesheim and Boppard - not only are the cliffs and vineyards nice i love watching the many working boats chugging up and down the river. And when the boat passes the fabled Lorelei cliff, the highlight for Germans, even i get misty eyed when they play the famous song associated with the cliffs onto which sirens in myth once lured sailors to crash.

Mosel Valley
Germany's Mosel is far more scenic a river valley than the Rhine Gorge - could be Europe's most beautiful river as it plies a sinous course of many switchbacks through vineyard-carpeted slopes up to a 1000 feet high with neat wine towns every few miles along the way offering those great Mosel white wines. Best boat rides are between Cochem and Bernkastel.

Danube's Wachau Valley
The short stretch of the Danube between Melk and Krems is awesomely scenic - be sure to get off at Durnstein, an impossible cute wine town with the ruins above it that once gaoled Richard-the-Lion-Hearted, nabbed when returning or going to some Crusade.

Germany's Lubenau - An unheralded boat ride that gets little ink but which attracts droves of Germans is in Lubenau, about an hour's rail ride southeast of Berlin, near Cottbus. Here these are Cambridge-style punt boats pushed along by sticks - the ride goes through tiny canals and make crucial stops at canal-side beer gardens - most of the Germans aboard are Schnappzing it up on board and by the end of the cruise are apt to be singing. This is a weird boat ride but lots of fun.

Swiss Lakes
Boat rides on lakes Thun, Brienz, Luzern, Geneva and Lugano are lots of fun too and all offer stunning alpine scenery.

I've taken a lot of boat rides in Europe:

A tiny 2 person electric boat out of Hallstast, Austria
Seine river cruise in Paris, France
Cruise on the Nile in Cairo, Egypt
Boat ride to Herronchimsee in Bavaria
Cruise ship through the archipelago from Stockholm to Turku, Finland
Slow ferry from Athens to Santorini
Pontoon boat ride on the river through Orebro, Sweden
Ferry ride from Oslo to Bygdoy
Saône River cruise in Lyon, Francea

To this day one of my all time favorite boat rides was in Katwijk aan Zee in the Netherlands:

www.rederijtriton.nl

When it comes right down to it with river boat rides you're in a ditch. You're in a ditch and you're looking up trying to see things.

In Katwijk the boat sails in canals that are above much of the surrounding countryside. You actually look down into the fields to see cattle, homes, fields, greenhouses and farms. You're almost as high as a Dutch windmill. At one point I sailed serenely over an autobahn that tunneled under the canal. It's a weird feeling looking down on cars that are passing under your boat.

Can't wait to take one or some of those Swiss boats listed - thank you, PalQ! ~:> ((P))

The water taxi from Marco Polo airport into Venice!

Wow, PalQ, you offered a pretty great list. I'd agree with all of them. Loved the day in Lubenau (Spreewald) on a boat. And in Switzerland we normally have a Swiss Pass. There's nothing better after a long day of mountain hiking to hop on one of the lake steamers in the late afternoon or early evening and sail around the lake.

The Hurtigruten around the north coast of Norway was pretty spectacular, despite horrible weather, but made better by the final night's witnessing of the midnight sun just skimming the water and then rising again.

I also loved the trip (on a luxurious ferry for us) from Stockholm to Turku. I couldn't leave the deck for a minute.

Snorkeling off the back of an old sailing ship off the coast of Malta was wonderful too.

Or witnessing the spectacle of Stromboli erupting from a smallish boat after dark.

Or viewing the Calanques between Marseilles and Cassis.

How about that little boat to the small island with the church in the middle of Lake Bled?

Standing up in a traghetto crossing the Grand Canal in Venice.

Hi PalQ-

I'm proud to say that I've done 3 of your favorite boat rides (Rhine, Mosel & Swiss lakes).
Of the 3, my favorite is on Lake Thun.

As cheesy as they are, I do enjoy the 60-minute Seine boat rides in Paris.

Just want to add: the Lake Lugano boat rides are nice too!

Indytravel: thanks so much for the Katwijk Holland boat info - it piques me as i love Holland and am always looking for new things to do there - are these regular trips that i can just show up at in Katwijk or was it a charter boat? Again i'm salivating at the thought of a boat trip thru the Dutch countryside you describe. Thanks. Any more info would be appreciated.

Hey PalQ.

It's a tour boat that has regularly scheduled runs in the busy months. I took the longer 4 hour tour in early June of 2001.

It was only half full. I just showed up and bought tickets. In high season I'm sure it's busier.

One cool thing was how all the bench seats on the upper deck would fold down so the boat could pass under very low bridges.

I dug out a few pictures:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=...0&y=rn8o2y

All of the above and the ride on the Koenigsee near Berchtesgaden.

PalQ - Can you tell me which boat company you used for the Wachau Valley cruise? I will be in Vienna in September and would love to do this. Also, do you remember the cost?

Thanks

Another brief 60 minute ride is the one on the Dordogne in the replica of the old barges that sailed the river.

A cruise down the Grand Canal in Venice on vaporetto #1....from the train station all the way to San Marco. That's a pretty nice boat ride. :)

The Thames between Westminster and Greenwich. This stretch of river has seen as much history in the past 2,000 years as any I can think of. The commentary is always lively and interesting, as the captains seem to be selected as much for their skill at extemporizing as navigating.

Try to get a seat on the starboard side, as the commentary refers to the sights on the near bank going both ways.

I WAS going to refer you to the Calmac web site, but Then I remembered the Hebridean Princess. THAT would be a holiday and a half.

Cassis to the Calanques ?

Peter
www.the-languedoc-page.com

Shrimp dinner boats out of Stockholm ?

Peter

Patrick - Is there anyplace or thing in Europe you haven't seen? I'm always amazed to see you answer peoples'questions in such detail - in other words you don't just stop someplace for an hour or 2. Lucky you!!! :-)

well, for something more unusual give this okay if you are passing near Brno -

The Punkva Caves:-
Visitors walk through the labyrinth of mighty underground spaces and corridors as far as the bottom of the world-famous Macocha Abyss. The foot walk is followed by a motorboat ride along the Punkva underground river. The ride includes the visit to the Masaryk Dome, one of the most beautiful caves of the Moravian Karst.

How about the underground boat ride at Rocamadour, where the guides like to stop the boats at the deepest point and rock them like crazy to scare the passengers? Actually, as far as a boat ride goes, it's not that impressive.

I love the gabarres on the Dordogne. And I used to enjoy kayaking down it, too, until our unfortunate little escapade in August.

Years ago I took several Rhine and Danube boat excursions and loved them. Must get back there!

But my best boat excursion ever was crossing the Isthmus of Somethingorother between Ephesus and Samos at night on a small boat under a full moon. The captain caught octopus while we rode and grilled them on a hibachi, and we ate them and drank little glasses of raki - delicious!

In Ireland I enjoyed a boat ride to the Skellig Rock which is about 8 miles off the coast of Co. Kerry When you get off you climb 600 feet to where monastery buildings abandoned 1000 years ago still look good.This trip should only be done on a fine day as the boats are small.Interesting too was the trip along the base of the Cliffs of Moher from Doolin,a trip to see dolphins from Carrigaholt and the trip from Dingle along the coast.I really enjoyed the trip through the 3 Lakes of Killarney too.