River Cruise or Ireland Tour Recommendation for Seniors in September

I have taken Danube River cruises with Viking (lower Danube - Bucharest to Budapest) and Avalon (upper Danube - Budapest to Prague). Both are recommended. It is my experience that river cruises cater to a more "senior" traveler than, for example, a Rick Steves' Tour.
I would suggest the upper Danube.....several major European city stops....Budapest, Vienna, Nuremberg, Prague....all of them wonderful.
Both can arrange air travel. If you are a AAA member, they can be very helpful.
There are many other companies offering this same river experience.
I should mention - river cruises are not a very popular topic on this forum.

Thank you for responding! And for the feedback that they are not popular on this forum! :)

A friend of mine has taken 7 Cruises with Vantage. She loves their service, food and off the ship tours.
Worth checking out.

I Hope your parents have a Great Trip and glad to hear your Dad didn't need treatment!

Yes, there is a modicum of snobbery on this forum regarding cruises by some contributors, but pay no attention to it. A cruise would be an excellent first time trip to Europe for your 75 year old parents. They would need to check out the shore excursions, usually included in the cruise fare, in case they are too strenuous for them, or else arrange their own trips ashore.

On the other hand, a nice, gentle tour of Ireland with a tour group would be nice, too. There is a tour company called Senior Discovery Tours which may be worth looking into.

Hi Sara,
A good friend of mine, who is a travel agent, highly recommends AmaWaterways for river cruises. I don't have any personal experience (yet) but everyone I know who has done a river cruise in Europe has raved about it.

I visited Ireland through Driftwood Tours several years ago and had a fantastic time; some friends of mine just went on one of their tours last month and really enjoyed it too.
Susan

You can research all the river cruise lines on Cruise Critic. https://www.cruisecritic.com/smart-deals/?lifestyle=21&source=86938&taparam=ECCGoogleUS_K232565746_A22160840649_NS&&supai=202479541430&supsn=g&supmbl=&suppos=1t1&supap1=&supap2=&supdev=t&suprnd=7416204234788147063&gclid=Cj0KCQjw3v3YBRCOARIsAPkLbK7U2_DfWuAOXU5oq3GlTgA10SvbCgeVN7c69YYUXX6VNV-dyeE4CGgaAiYgEALw_wcB

Just back from a Viking River cruise, Nuremburg to Budapest. Not really a river cruise person as I prefer more active travel but it was perfect this time as my 88 and 89 year old parents-in-law joined us. Viking seems to own the Danube River with a number of ships docked at every port. They do a fabulous job catering to their passengers, I don't have a single complaint about the level of services they offer although I do expect to taking our sixth RS tour next year.

Grand Circle Travel: it's the gentler-paced, mostly-seniors sibling company of Overseas Adventure Travel. Pretty sure there's
a Danube cruise that includes Budapest and Prague, & maybe they do Ireland, too. River-cruise groups are max 25 people, with excellent local guides. Extensive website, with honest reviews.

Hi Sara, concur that a Viking River cruise would be a great vacation for your parents. Beautiful ships, excellent food and customer service. We did our first one last fall and will probably do another at some point. They are a bit slower paced but we combined it with a week of hiking in Switzerland before embarking and several days in Amsterdam following the cruise. We enjoyed it very much.

I’ve also done 9 RS tours, including 8 Days in Ireland. The Ireland tour was not particularly active and might work for your parents. Have them review the itinerary and see if it interests them.

We have done 4 river cruises 17 Ocean cruses and lots of bus tour, rail trip, auto rental trips and more.

It is best to see Ireland renting a car. Some car rental companies may not rent to someone 75 years old. You can probably find a bus tour of Ireland, there are lots of British travel firms lake Trafalgar that are excellent.

For river cruises, I always look at 4-5 different companies.

Avalon is one of the higher priced firms that is excellent, but their price is just too much every time I look at them.
Uniworld is another higher priced firm that has prices over what I want to pay.

Viking is an excellent line and their prices a more competitive, but their ships tend to be a bit larger than others. Still Viking is one to compare.

AMA Waterways is excellent and more in a class with Avalon, but their prices have gone up in recent years. We did one cruise with them and loved it, but now find their prices to be not as competitive.

Vantage World Travel offers excellent river cruises and we have done three trips with them than included a river cruise. All were excellent and Vantage was the best price. I strongly recommend taking a look at Vantage.

Grand Circle is another company that offers river cruises. They tend to be close to Vantage in pricing.

If you want a budget river cruise Gate 1 is the real thing. They offer river cruise with more optional tours and their ships have more of a budget feel, but their prices are amazing. I have never picked them, because the would be the equivalent of a Motel 6 vs. a Marriott, Sheraton or Hilton.

We just took our first river cruise to Cambodia and Vietnam with Scenic USA. This is an Australian company so most of the passengers will be Australian with a few Americans and Canadians in the mix. All of the passengers were well educated and well traveled. The average age was late 60’s. There were a few (much) younger people on board. Scenic is an excellent company. I can’t say enough good things about them. We traveled with friends who had done a European cruise with Scenic and loved it. We went on this cruise based on our friends’ recommendation. Our cruise was all inclusive. We never paid for shore excursions, meals or alcohol on the ship. The ship itself was gorgeous. Our airfare was included in the price. You generally have a choice or shore excursions on these trips. We liked this company so much that we are doing a trip to Egypt and Jordan with them next spring.

Scenic is an excellent company, as Mary says, but their cruises are super expensive.

Norma,

I agree that Scenic is not inexpensive but it includes all your meals, drinks and shore excursions. Sometimes they throw in the airfare. They don’t nickel and dime you on the cruise and tips are included. Sara’s parents are in their 70’s and her dad had a recent health scare. If they can afford a bit of luxury at their age, they should go for it imho. :)

I had never heard of Scenic USA before reading Mary's post. I found this comparison of Viking and Scenic USA on Cruise Critic:

https://www.cruisecritic.com/articles.cfm?ID=2302

Sara, on the link provided by previous poster traylaparks, you will be able to compare various river cruise companies if you click on any of the articles to the right of the Scenic/Viking comparison. FWIW, Scenic also owns a lower cost river cruise option in Emerald Waterways - both Scenic and Emerald are widely advertised here in Canada and friends speak highly of their trips on Scenic. It pays to shop around and if you or your parents use a cruise specialist travel agent, your parents should be able to sort out what their preferences are.

Mary,
Vantage, Viking, Grand Circle and the others also include all meals and excursions, with the possible exception of one or two optional excursions.

Scenic got a bad name the way they handled the cruises during the river flooding a few years ago. Got companies cancelled and returned the money, bus Scenic's turned until bus tours.

I know that Scenic "sometimes" includes the airfare in the overall price of a cruise, but it has been my experience that a quote of "airfare included" from most travel companies often means the worst possible routing with sometimes two connections. Plus, the routing is not divulged until close to departure date, which is pretty sneaky.