My husband and I would like to do a cruise/ no bike riding, but want to know if there are alternative ways of travelling along the rivers without booking with the larger expensive cruise companies?
Thank you, Marea

I don't know if that's possible all the way from Amsterdam to Budapest.

What's your budget for this? Not expensive?

http://www.bargeconnection.com/barge...-barge-cruises

Maybe also look into cruises on France's canal system? Maybe to Paris or all the way to the Mediterranean.

Thank you for your reply.
No we're not looking at budget travel. This will be part of a much longer holiday and we were wondering if there are alternatives to using the larger companies and perhaps cutting some costs. How do the locals travel the waterways?

Locals usually don't travel 1.500 kms of waterways unless they have their own boat.
There are short ferries/cruises on some stretches on the rivers but they do not interconnect, and there is no network of ferries that would allow jumping from one to the next to cover this whole distance.
Some cargo ships do take passengers but this will hardly be cheaper than a real river cruise.

From what I could google, it's all rather expensive. You can book smaller companies. In the Netherlands, it's at least possible to do 6 day stretches of barge travel. In France likewise. But the Rhine/Meuse area and the Danube are two different stretches. There won't be much cost cutting involved, I'm afraid.

Thank you everyone. That answers my question. I'm curios though about barge travel. What does that involve?

have a look at the links, then you know a good deal

Well any way you would want to do a land trip? You could easily do the same route by train and do some day sails on the rivers - like on the Rhine, Mosel, Danube. IMO it could be much cheaper - I think the river cruises really charge a premium. If you stayed several nights in different places along the way, it could still be "slow travel" and to me you get more of real feel of the country on a land trip.

However, if you really want to do something special, for instance

http://elizabeth.frisian-sailing.co....land/56?lang=2

Thanks, some great advice.
Marea

There are plenty of other sailing ships offering trips in the Netherlands btw. My son had his own ship for instance, part of the Historisch zeilvaart Harlingen co-operative.
http://www.historischezeilvaart.co.uk/

Others are available too, in different parts of the country.