River cruise

You might want to check out the River Cruises forum on Cruise Critic

Lots of videos on You Tube showing pros and cons of different river cruise lines. You are currently looking at some of the more expensive options. Does budget matter or just shipboard experience?

Also look into Gate1.

We are taking into account budget but at the same time don't want to lack in ship or activity experience. The ones we've researched are all around the same price so far. I've viewed some blogs but will have to watch the videos too.

I have not personally gone on a river cruise. What I have read about is their itineraries and have heard from people who have been on river cruises is how short the excursions are in each port city. I would focus on what you want to see in each port city. Many of the excursions I have read about and heard described is they are very broad and basic. My suggestion is to be able to hit the ground running and do your own excursion to see exactly what you want to see at your own pace and get back on board at the required time.

My husband and I have taken one river cruise with Tauck Tours. While we normally always preferred staying in truly lovely hotels with Tauck, we chose a river cruise for that particular trip because it allowed us to see exactly what we wanted to see in a very efficient way, including the Floriade, which was being held in Venlo that year.

We loved the overall experience and the very, very special experiences Tauck included (like traveling on the river barge (or whatever they are called) the the head of Turkey had just been on the day prior. Having a special lunch in a castle with JUST our group, getting into Keukenhof (sp?) early before the huge crowds, and on and on.

I started to write a long explanation of some of the pros/cons of traveling by river ships (as Tauck calls them), but when I went to get the link to include for Tauck, I see they have a really good explanation of a lot of that. There can be floods that mess up a journey (not enabling a river ship to get under a bridge) or droughts (that mean there is not enough water in the river(s). Also, the rooms in a river ship do not have the lovely high ceilings that a lot of beautiful historic hotels do. But,one only has to unpack once. Here is the link...worth reading:

https://www.tauck.com/river-cruises/

Thank you for the info!

What are the water levels like in August? Do check. And do plan on spending at least 3 full days in Budapest, but four is better.

I second Mr. E in having extra days for Budapest. We did a that Viking River Cruise in July 2022 and had we not done 2 extra nights we would have missed so much. Lots of people were disappointed they only had a night and part of the next day to do Budapest. We really enjoyed our Viking Cruise and have since done a total of 3 more (Portugal, Rhine getaway and Lyon to Avignon). We have an 11 day Nuremberg to Basel with 2 extra days in Lucern in our own scheduled for April 2026. We always book our own flights since my husband has status on Delta.

Our first river cruise is in 2026. We've done ocean cruises and are prepared for the differences between the two. We picked Viking for the itinerary, and also because they specify No kids under 18.

We also like some of the other things that "Viking is not", per them:
- No casinos
- no charge for Wi-Fi
- no charge for beer and wine at lunch and dinner
- no photography sales
- no smoking
- no waiting in lines

I've heard good things about AMA too, and you must like kids if you're considering Disney. The main thing is to identify what you want/don't want most. Cruise Critic is a great resource.