We are thinking of exploring 2 European river sections from 2 base cities, one on the Rhine, one on the Danube. And then take day cruise boats, up or down river to take in the scenery, get off at different locations and explore. So, not hotel boats like Viking. Where would be a good base on the Rhine- Koblenz? Where would be a good base on the Danube- Durnstein? We want to walk around, take in the feeling of the places, the scenery, people, not so much to spend lots of time touring castles, etc.

Many thanks

It would be more productive if you start from which portion of the rivers you plan to explore then look at which bases satisfy your goals and constraints.

There is a significant difference in choice of departure time, thus when you are hitting ports on the way, as well as travel time. For example, look at this KD Rhine Timetable Schedule Koblenz-Mainz going upstream is about 6 hours while it is about 4 hours going downstream Mainz-Koblenz. You need to compute these factors into your decision.

From the boats, all I have seen on both rivers were tourists, mostly the group tour type, on board and the naturists along the river banks.

Yes downstream boats best so on Rhine start cruise at Rudesheim or Bingen (from there to Mainz is not very scenic) and go to Koblenz or Boppard, etc and take trains back to where you started. Koblenz is a large pleasant city but most would prefer staying in a smaller Rhine town like St Goar, Boppard, etc. www.k-d.com does several day cruises in season -can get off and on at places of interest.

Danube boats likewise start from Melk (famous abbey there and nice town) and go downstream to Durnstein where many end cruise and to Krems where many end. Melk is a cute town but you could stay in Durnstein and go up stream too.

Sources for info on these boats www.seat61.com; BETS-European Rail Experts and www.ricksteves.com.

Regular boat traffic along the Rhine river (hop on - hop off):
Mainz - Ruedesheim - Koblenz - Remagen - Bonn - Cologne
Basel - Rheinfelden
Schaffhausen - Konstanz - Rorschach - Altenrhein

along the Danube river:
Melk - Krems
once weekly (or so) only: Passau - Linz - Melk - Krems

There are also Vienna-Melk services but the Durnstein-Vienna portion is not scenic much. Melk-Durnstein is the Wachau Valley in its glory.

According to the timetables published until now, the Vienna - Duernstein boat MS Admiral Tegethoff (DDSG) will run on Sundays only.

Danke!

Mais je vous en prie!
Si figura, non c'é bisogno ringraziarmi!
De nada!
Gaere gscheh!

The Wachau Valley is also a primo biking venue - some ships I think have bikes you can ride between boat docks or rent a bike at Melk or other place and ride the 20 miles or so (?) of Wachau Valley and take boat with it back.

In the meantime, I found a boat that goes from Passau up to Vienna
Fahrplan Passau - Wien - Passau

Most of the not-so Blue Danube is not really scenic on that portion except the Wachau Valley.

There are daily boats (except monday) from Passau to Linz from april, 27 till oct., 7, which pass through the extremly beautiful "Schlögener Schlinge". Passau dep. 9am, Linzb arr. 2pm. You can return to Passau by train or bus or continue to Vienna.

Passau is also a really neat city that few go to - ditto to Linz.