Europe River Cruise

I haven't done this personally, but I have a friend who will be going on her second Avalon river cruise in September. She loves them and finds them much better than ocean cruises. That's all I know.

I would suggest going to www.cruisecritic.com. Check ou their boards on the top left of the home page. The website covers all types of cruising and all the cruising companies including river cruises. You should be able to find Avalon on there and if you register with cruise critic, its free by the way, you can post questions about the cruise line. Its a great resource for cruising. In fact I would say its the best one out there as all the newspapers seem to refer to it when writing their articles etc.
Hope this helps
Pete

Just curious...if you've never taken an ocean cruise, then how do you know it's not your type of travel? My husband and I are extremely independent travelers who choose not to participate in structured tours, yet we still immensely enjoy cruising.

I'm with Terry. Never thought I would enjoy a cruisem but wanted to see the tidewater glaciers in Alaska. Since then we have done several cruises and will be on another two this year. We have been on one river cruise and plan to do another one next year. They are quite different from ocean cruises, not better or worse, just different. You are not comppelled yo go on the tours, you can make your own arrangements and see what you want. The company we use seldom travels at night which has two advantages. You see all the countryside as you sail slowly along the river and when you dock at night you are free to go into the town for, or after dinner and enjoy the local atmosphere.

Don't knock it till you try it!

I think the river cruises do the same as the ocean cruises. They stop for a day and offer optional tours. If you like to travel independently, you make your own plans for the day.

I'm sure there are some river cruises that include guided tours at each stop (I've seen Burt Wolf advertise them on PBS). For your type of travel, you would be wasting money to skip included tours. You're better off picking a cruise where tours are optional and skipping those.

My sister did a river cruise last year from Prague to Paris and found the tours very interesting and fun, and though she is my sister I must tell you she is not easily pleased or shy to express her displeasure. The river cruise ships are small with under 200 passengers, I believe, and the shore trips were broken up into a lot of quite small groups, so that made it feel less "structured" and all of them were included in the overall cost of the cruise, except for one to Heidelberg. And there you have the sum total of my knowledge of river cruises. The End.