Europe River Cruises

I have taken two European river cruises...both on The River Danube.
The first was in April of 2017 - Avalon Waterways - beginning in Budapest and ending in Prague.
The second was in April of 2018 - Viking River Cruises - beginning in Bucharest and ending in Budapest.
Both were excellent and each company had merits. Airfare was included in each tour (from Portland, Oregon) and the cost of each was around $3200/person. The Viking tour was 11 days, the Avalon was 13.
In both experiences, I booked the least expensive staterooms.
I made the travel arrangements myself for the Avalon cruise and I booked the Viking cruise thru AAA, where I am a member.
These are, I believe, among the most popular European river cruises, although I suspect the most popular are on the Rhine River.
Comparing the two, I would state that Viking excelled in "included excursions", air travel arrangements and included "off boat" meals.
Avalon excelled in "included tour guides", diversity of "extra excursions", pre and post cruise hotels and personal attention to tour guests.

The Avalon cruise also benefited from another quality that was not under their control.....only 90 travelers were on the Avalon cruise compared with 178 on the Viking although both ships had a capacity of nearly 180.
The "upper Danube" is a much more popular cruise - and, I suspect, had I booked that cruise with Viking, the ship would have been fully inhabited.
I am not particularly interested in the Rhine, so my European cruise adventures may be over.
It is unlikely that I would re-do either cruise, although the locations along the river route are certainly interesting and some merit another visit.
I liked both "ends" of the Danube - although I found Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Croatia and Hungary more interesting than Slovakia, Austria, Germany and Czech Republic. Keep in mind.....that is probably a minority preference.
These tours are quite "all inclusive". Meals, drinks (wine, beer, coffee, tea, soft drinks, etc.) rooms etc. are all included. Gratuities are not, however. Expect to pay around 12-15 Euros per day (per person) for on-board service.

Although I've not traveled with them, Grand Circle offers a "Eastern Europe to the Black Sea" tour that looks interesting. Their ships are a little more basic than either Viking or Avalon (I walked thru one while in Belgrade as our ship was docked next to theirs) but I spoke with a handful of their travelers at that time and they seemed to endorse their experience.

We have been on both river and ocean cruises. Each is very different and don't compare well. River cruises are small because the boats need to be small. The max passengers in around 180 so much closer knit group. There is one public room that doubles as the lounge, dinning room, and evening bar. So everyone is pretty close. The onboard activities are very limited so you spend a lot of time talking with your shipmates. The whole boat is very casual. On Viking at each port each day there is an include half day tour -- could be walking or by bus. Afternoons are open and there may be some optional tours. Some ships will include most beverages with dinner and only the bar is paid. A couple of advantages is that ship will dock in almost the town center so it is very easy to explore on your own. And the ships normally stay late in port so you can have the evening ashore. You tend to see a lot of small river towns.

A potential problem with the river cruises is the river. If it is high because of spring run off or thunderstorms then you may not get to the next port because the boat cannot get under a bridge. And late fall can be a reverse problem because the water is too low to float the boat. And you can spend a lot of time in river locks going up and down.

We tend to use a river cruise or an cruise as our vacation from our vacation. We generally will book a cruise in the middle of one of our trip for the relaxing aspect.

My wife and I did an Avalon cruise from Budapest to Nuremberg in 2014. We enjoyed it quite a lot, added time on the front end in Budapest and on the back end in Nuremberg and Munich for two weeks total. We had been to Hungary-Austria-Germany before , and Germany since. This was a good itinerary, most lines make the same stops on this route. More expensive that ocean cruises that we have been on, but also more of a luxury experience (excursions included, wine at dinner included, better food, better service). Same downsides of an ocean cruise, you lose your evenings in the places you visit because you need to be on the boat. It can end up being a very expensive bus trip if the water levels are not right. I think the Danube might have better margin for error on water levels than some otters routes, but not sure about that. If anything, river cruises are less formal at dinner than ocean cruises. It's also a more affluent crowd as they tend to be expensive, compared to mainstream open cruise companies.

Recommend going to Cruise Critic to get all the good and bad information about the different companies, rivers, boats, etc. To take into consideration are the water levels of course. How would you be re-imbursed if the ship can't go through the locks, etc. Which direction do you want to go considering the direction of the current, Basel to Amsterdam or Amsterdam to Basel on the Rhine. The ships often travel at night if they have to go through locks or less scenic sections of a river. It is often a much older crowd, think 70's, 80's, and more.

One example for Frankfurt is that the ship docks here, and they go with buses to Heidelberg for the day or to Seligenstadt. The ship may reposition itself while you are on your tour, so you may get back on your ship in Aschaffenburg. (there are a lot of locks on the Main)

We have done four tours that included a river cruise. All were wonderful.

They were

Russian River Cruise
China with Yangzee River Cruise
Burgundy and Provence, France, with Rhone and Saone Rivers cruise
Douro River cruise from Porto, Portugal

All were fantastic, and we did three of these with Vantage World Travel. They are a high quality firm that always seems to beat Viking and the others in pricing.
The Douro River Valley was special, I hight recommend it.

We took an eleven day cruise starting and ending in Amsterdam, and it was great!! It was with Vantage Tours. We were there a bit early for the tulips but saw plenty at Keukenauf Gardens and the flower auction. We mostly cruised at night and took tours during the day. They took care of the airfare and when we got there the boat was not ready yet, so they took us downtown to the oldest hotel in town to relax for a few hours. We were close to the Anne Frank House so we went there early in the day and were the first ones inside. The cruise went all around Holland and Belgium. We went to the Van Gogh museum and went right pass a long line. They were having a Starry Night Expo so we went direct to it before the crowds did. There were paintings from around the world. After our cruise we took the train to Paris and also had a great time there. I really appreciate the information that Rick Steves provides. I would suggest going around the end of April for this boat tour.

We just took a cruise from Basel to Amsterdam in late March / early April on AMA Waterways. What we liked the most is the definite small ship feel; not a lot of crew or passengers. What disliked the most was the fact that this type of travel is not conducive to independent shore tours. You need to be prepared to make the most of the time you have when and where you are docked. Casual clothes are the norm; in fact you can wear jeans to dinner. There are usually scheduled tours included in your cruise price. You can also make use of free bicycles if want. If the weather was better we would have made use of them. Like Frank said above we will probably do another cruise, but it will be in conjunction with other travel on our own independent agenda. On this specific trip the cruise was sandwiched between a week and half in Switzerland and five days in the Amsterdam area. We would not take a trip to Europe just to take a river cruise and come home.

We took a weeklong Danube cruise from Budapest to Passau several years ago and enjoyed it. The boat was the Amadeus Diamond, operated by Lueftner Cruises. (Many Americans seem to think Viking is the only line, but it's just the one that advertises most heavily here.) Our experience was like those others have described -- mostly informal, traveling mostly at night except through especially scenic stretches, an included walking tour in each port plus free time, most meals onboard (including drinks at dinner). We had two days in Vienna but the boat was docked far from the center. A shuttle bus was provided and I made one trip by subway and tram. In the other ports (Budapest, Bratislava, Durnstein, Melk, Linz, Passau) the dock was more centrally located. We didn't have any water-level issues but I can understand how that would put a damper on the experience.

We liked the simplicity of unpacking once in a "hotel" that took us to our destinations and fed us, the enjoyment of being on a river, the quality of the walking tours, and the quality of food, lodging, and service. We disliked the time limitations in some ports, the overall cost (high compared to ocean cruising), and the inflexibility of itinerary. Since our cruise was part of an alumni tour, all the other passengers were Americans. We enjoyed many of them, but if we were to do it again we'd choose a cruise with a variety of nationalities. (This would be another reason to avoid Viking.)

Where to go? The Danube would be a good choice, so would the Rhine. Friends have cruised on the Rhone and liked it. We also did a Yangtze cruise in China which was especially memorable and a very good alternative to overland travel there.

I've taken four river cruises, all on Viking: Tulips & Windmills, the Seine, the upper Danube, and the Rhine. Casual clothes are fine. There is at least one excursion each day that is included in the price. You also have the opportunity to sign up for additional excursions that occur in your free time. A typical day involves waking up in a new destination, having breakfast, going on an excursion in the morning, coming back for lunch, having free time or another excursion in the afternoon, a briefing just before dinner, dinner, and then the evening with an entertainer (the same one) in the evening. Typically the boat sets off early in the evening and travels through the night to the next destination. There is always a day or two when you are cruising the whole time, usually through the most scenic part of the trip.

We liked the cruises just fine. It's nice to have a hotel that moves with you. You travel while you sleep, and so your waking time is available for having fun. The food is good, if not adventurous. The choices of stops and excursions are generally good.

The downside is that you are tied to someone else' schedule. You can skip the excursions and go off on your own, but you still have be back at the boat before it leaves. The excursions are necessarily group tours. If you have special interests, it may be hard to fit them in.

While we enjoyed all of our cruises, we may not take any more. As we get more practiced at organizing our own trips, we've begun to feel that we've "outgrown" them. The disadvantages seem to outweigh the advantages. Clearly, that is a judgement you have to make for yourself.