Combining a Rick Steves tour and a river cruise

The only real differences between a bus tour and a river cruise is cost and only having to unpack once on a river cruise. So if you are up for two tours back to back, then go for it. Just give yourself a few days in between. For sure you'll need to do laundry, and you might benefit from a vacation from your vacation before setting off again.

I guess you could do s RS tour that ended in Budapest then a boat down the Danube to the Black Sea.

We did a Viking river cruise “Chateaux, Rivers and Wine” that began and ended in Bordeaux. From there we took the TGV back to Paris, transferring to the train to Chartres and the RS “Loire to the South of France”. We arrived on a Saturday afternoon and the tour started Sunday evening. Because both tours were in France, we felt that was enough time, but would have added more time if the distances were farther apart.

You haven't seen Germany? Rick offers this tour:
https://www.ricksteves.com/tours/germany/best-germany-tour

The tour includes a token visit to the Rhine: Cologne and then St Goar for a brief 1-hr. Rhine cruise to Bacharach. That's not much river.

There are multi-day cruises that won't allow you to "see Europe from a river" but will certainly include the large part of Germany and the Netherlands that the Rhine River passes through.

That said, one of the finest river valleys to visit in Europe is a tributary of the Rhine. The Mosel River Valley is ripe with vineyards, old-world towns, castles, and outdoor options. Multi-day cruises which include the Mosel are one option. But it would also be possible to book a land-stay and spend 3-4 days just cruising different parts of the Mosel on smaller day boats. The Valley is well served by train and other means as well, so from most river towns you could catch a train to your cruise boarding point and cruise back, or use public transport on both ends of your cruise if the cruise segment is further away.

https://www.moselrundfahrten.de/en

And you could do the same for those scenic sections of the Rhine River which your RS tour overlooks; the Rhine between Cologne and Mainz has trains on both sides of the river and several riverboat companies offering casual half-day tours for the most scenic river segments. K-D is one of those:

https://www.k-d.com/en/

Koblenz, the city where both rivers meet, could be a good base town. Nearby are smaller, more atmospheric towns that also offer accommodations and nice scenery... like Boppard.

We have done several bus tours and river cruises.
We love river cruises. Be sure to compare several companies. Our last cruise was with Gate 1 Travel that has very reasonable rates (hard to beat). We did Egypt with Gate 1 Travel that had two river cruises and it was about 60% of the price of a comparable Viking Nile cruise.

Still, compare
Gate 1 Travel
Viking
AMA Waterways
Uniworld
Avalon
Croisi
Scenic

Our last one was last summer Regensburg to Budapest. It was great.

I believe the Rhine cruises between Amsterdam and Basel are the most popular for first time river cruisers. You could start at one end or the other and do a land tour at either end. Or both!

You could do the river cruise from Basel to Amsterdam and make your way to Hamburg and do the RS Best of Germany Tour. Timing would be everything, but Amsterdam and the surrounding area would be a nice link between tours.

Look at Gate 1 for river cruises. Less expensive and on sale now.

Depending on the cruise company you select, the type of clothes you need might be an issue. We combined a Mediterranean cruise and land travel, and had to take larger suitcases to accommodate cruise dress up days as well as land travel. So ideally you'd pick a more casual cruise so that your clothes will work for both RS and cruise, and you can take a small roller bag.

Our experience is that river cruises as a rule don't have the dress codes that are still found on some ocean cruise lines. Taking extra clothing just for the cruise shouldn't be a requirement.

This sounds like a great idea! You might try the RS Belguim-Holland tour that ends in Amsterdam. You could then board a Rhine River cruise from Amsterdam to Basel. We’ve done both the RS tour and (Viking) cruise but not consecutively.

I did an AmaWaterways cruise down the Rhone ending in Barcelona and then did a RS 8 day Barcelona and Madrid in 2017

It worked out great

Kim

I would suggest the Rick Steves tour of France that includes Chamonix and Burgandy and then a river cruise from Basel to Amsterdam. Last year we did something similar leaving our rental car in the French part of the Basel airport and flying home from Amsterdam after the river cruise.
This spring we are combining three different tours/cruises. We are taking a transatlantic cruise to Rotterdam allowing four days to see the tulip gardens and windmills, then a week in Berlin followed by a Gate One two week tour of Central Europe ending in Prague. We then have ten days to visit Nuremberg and the Mosel valley independently by train. We’ll finish this trip meeting up with family for a river cruise.
Several years ago we took a river cruise from Amsterdam to Budapest and we are now eager to visit some of those same places for longer periods of time. River cruises are so much fun and just make you want to see more!

I think you have a great idea. They are enough different that you will feel a bit of a refreshing change and still keep enjoying.

I did a 2 week tour of Turkey. The day it ended I boarded a cruise ship that went from Istanbul to Athens. It was a very successful approach and allowed me to see more with just one set of flights. I'm trying this approach in Japan this spring as well. Tour followed by cruise.