River Boat Cruise
 

We are wanting to take a River Boat Cruise next year, and would like to have some opinions on which River cruise to take between the Danube and The Rhine. We would be taking a few couples with us, and we are currently looking at Tauck River Cruises, which have great reviews. We were especially looking at the Danube going into Prague to Budapest. Any suggestions? If anyone has any good airline information to share from Kansas City, MO to one of these places, that would be great information for us as well.

I'd take the Danube over the Rhine because the cities of the Danube and tributaries (Prague is not on the Danube I believe) are more awesome - scenery also IME a bit better - especially the Wachau Valley near Vienna.

There are cruises I think that do both, using a canal that now makes it possible to go from the Rhine (via the Main River) to the Danube on the Rhine-Danube Canal.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhine%...93Danube_Canal

Madge 1949
Check out the Cruise Forum on this site for varied opinions. I personally recommend Tauck (the priciest), then Uniworld, lastly Avalon, having taken cruises on those lines only. IMO, you get what you pay for but I based my choices firstly on itinerary.

If you are unable to get a direct flight from your nearest hub, definitely avoid going through Heathrow. Almost any other airport would be preferable when a connection is necessary.

Happy travels!

Yes -- do look at the Cruise forum -- there are several current threads about river cruising.

We have cruised both the Danube and the Rhine and I strongly recommend the Danube. Loved the scenery and cities and towns along the Danube. We were on Uniworld and were very happy with this cruise line. We started in Prague with a pre-cruise stay and absolutely loved Prague. We ended in Budapest and also stayed there several days. It is also a beautiful and interesting city. We haven't traveled on Tauck but have heard good things about them also.

Thank you all so much for your suggestions. I'm ready to book with Tauck for the Blue Danube cruise for May, 2017, and we have several friends going as well. We are all from Kansas City, MO, so if anyone has any good suggestions for air to Prague, and then home from Budapest, it would be very helpful. Thanks again!

Madge,
you can use the industry travel site
matrix.itasoftware.com
to explore air choices.
You will need to learn airport codes, ex: Kansas City Miss Intern'l is MCI,
Minneapolis St.Paul is MSP,
Des Moines is DSM, etc.

These codes can be found with a quick google search.
To start you off, Prague is 'PRG' and Budapest is 'BUD'.
Next, enter your dates and choose the MULTICITY option at the top left.
From Kansas City, it looks like all trips TO Prague include TWO stops and all trips home FROM Budapest also require TWO stops (sorry if true).

Combinations on the way OVER include: Newark NJ/Munich,
Chicago/Munich, Toronto/Frankfurt, Washington(Dulles)/Frankfurt, Chicago/Frankfurt and Minneapolis(St.Paul)/Amsterdam.

Coming HOME from Budapest means stops in Brussels/Chicago, Brussels/Washington, Munich/Chicago, Vienna/Chicago, Frankfurt/Chicago or Frankfurt/Toronto to name a few available options.

Is there another International Airport driveable from Kansas City worth exploring as your departure site?
The not so bad news is that dummy dates for May 2016 finds most airfare prices at $1200-$1300 per person.
United, AirCanada, Delta, American and KLM all provide service.

Unless you are absolutely sold on Tauck (which is a good company....I'm a former travel agent so have direct knowledge of them and others)...you might check out the itineraries of AMA Waterways. I had a group of 22 people (not in a working capacity, these were all friends of ours)on the Romantic Danube last May with AMA Waterways and they were spectacular!! Far exceeded everyone's expectations and the itinerary that we were on was wonderful. It began in Prague ( a beautiful, most interesting city) with a 3 day extension, then we were all bused to Vilshofen for the start of the river cruise. We visited many villages and cities along the way, all lovely in their own way. The cruise ended in Budapest, which I fell in love with!! We extended (on our own) for 5 days there. Tauck is very good, as is Avalon, and Uniworld, but AMA should be considered, as well. Excellent staff, service, accomodations, all perfect!!! (and, no, I get no cut from them!!)

Thanks so much for all of your suggestions. I will definitely look at the different airports, maybe St. Louis may be a better option which is a 4 hour drive from our house.

Consider looking at cheapertravel.com and you will get a discount, we did.

It was 5%.

You may also get a credit for recommending another couple as we did.

Just a thought.