Rhine Cruises
 

I am debating between taking a 3 night Rhine Cruise on KD cruise lines, or driving around the area, staying at hotels and just taking a day cruise. Has anyone been on a multi-day Rhine cruise? Any opinions?

Never been on the multi-day. Sounds boring. You can see the most dramatic part of the Rhine, between Bingen Koblenz, in a few hours. 2-3 hours on the boat was plenty for me. It's very pretty, but you get the idea very quickly. The area has such a multitude of things to see and do that it seems a shame to spend the time on a boat. Tour Marksburg Castle in Braubach. Hike along the cliffs. Take the chairlift ride in Boppard, and see the Roman ruins there. Ride a bike on the nifty bike path right along the river. But don't waste much time on that boat.

We did the 3-day cruise about 10 years ago, acually on the Mosel(sp?), but I imagine it would be similar. Everything on board was very nice, however I didn't find it to be a very good way to see things. It was very fustrating to just pass things and not be able to stop and sight-see. The 1 stop we were scheduled to have was cut very short because "we are running late". I didn't feel it was worth the money.

A few years ago we did the KD Rhine Cruise all the way from Rotterdam up to Basle in Switzerland. The accomodations, catering and customer care were really excellent, and I would recommend KD to anybody. <BR>However like Liz it was often frustrating to simply pass places, rather than explore them, particularly on the stretch between Cologne and Mainz. The boats do stop overnight - we stopped at Dusseldorf, Koblenz, Speyer and Strasbourg (which was a really pleasant surprise) and KD do stop once or twice per day for short tours, i.e., an optional tour to Heidelberg, a chairlift ride south of Bonn, etc. <BR>The cruise was great, but we have been back since to explore the best bits by train, half day cruises, and walking. <BR>I hope this reply does'nt confuse you even further.

Some of us have never understood what might be the appeal of a Rhine cruise for three hours, let alone three days. <BR> <BR>Maybe some day - - when they lay a stripe of asphalt right down the center of that sucker... <BR> <BR>Just kidding. No rotten tomatoes, please... <BR>

If you decide on the KD Rhine Cruise, check the weather there before you leave the US. We "tried" one about 8 years ago, spent two nights in a hotel in Amsterdam and then were to be bussed to boat. We were bussed to the boat all right but the Rhine was flooded and the boats couldn't go under the bridges. We had one night in dock to decide whether we would stay or not(they planned to bus us from stranded ship to stranded ship every night. It was the only time I didn't pack any country information with me because we were supposed to be taken care of. <BR> <BR>It actually turned out fine. We took a train to Basle and made that our base for the four days. We met a lot of others from our boat and had a wonderful adventure! KD did refund our money, but I fault them for not getting in touch with us about the situation before we left the US.

Thanks for the feedback everyone. I think I'll skip the multi-day.