River Cruises

In addition to waiting for answers here, you might try checking on www.cruisecritic.com. They are the resource for cruising.

We took a one-week cruise up the Danube, from Budapest to Passau, in 2012. Pluses included unpacking just once, excellent meals, introductory walking tours of the cities where we stopped, and the river scenery. Minuses included an inflexible schedule (though there was free time in each city), lack of chance to try different restaurants and food types (though there was good variety), being surrounded by scores of other Americans (though they were nice enough and some cruises would give you a chance to meet more Europeans). If you're interested I'd say try one. We're glad we did though we might not do it again. We spent several days in Budapest before the cruise started, and about a week in Czech Republic and Poland after it ended, so we got to experience more than just the cruise. But I love boats and water, so I'll take about any boat ride that floats by!

I have done 3 river cruises with Grand Circle Travel and enjoyed them all - Vienna to Amsterdam, Budapest to the Black Sea, and Rhine-Mosel. The Rhine-Mosel was the most recent, which my 85-yo mother and I took in October 2012. We find GCT a good value, with fine food, excellent program directors and local guides, a reasonable choice of optional excursions, and good staff. I've only done one land tour, the RS Germany-Austria-Switz tour in 2006; it too was great but the cruises work a lot better with my mother. I've also done my own trip planning, including 2 weeks in Sicily, Paris, and southern France in summer 2013; every time I swear it's the last time I do my own planning! I find that it is really nice to turn the responsibility of choosing over to someone else.

A river cruise is more expensive than doing it on your own, and probably more expensive than most land tours. But it is wonderful to settle in to your cabin and not have to keep packing up and moving every few days.

Feel free to PM me if you'd like more information - or rather opinions...

My parents (early sixties) love the Viking River cruises. They go every year and find that by holding out for the sales, they get reasonable prices. Send me a pm if you are interested in more details.

We've done one RS and one Viking cruise ( Rhone from Chalon-sur-Soane to Avignon). We liked both travel styles, but will continue to do RS tours as long as we're able. As far as the cruise, it was
nice to unpack once, the rooms were surprisingly spacious, staff was wonderful and food was plentiful and delicious. The tours were fine and we liked the fact we were split into smaller groups for walking tours. Most one the guides were good and the audio equipment was good quality. Additional tours were well-worth the price. Most of the river cruises seem to carry about 150 people. Some seem to be more formal than others. We had a 2-for-1 rate, so the price for value seemed fair.

Did you have any specific questions you were hoping to answer?

We've done one RS and one Viking cruise ( Rhone from Chalon-sur-Soane to Avignon). We liked both travel styles, but will continue to do RS tours as long as we're able. As far as the cruise, it was
nice to unpack once, the rooms were surprisingly spacious, staff was wonderful and food was plentiful and delicious. The tours were fine and we liked the fact we were split into smaller groups for walking tours. Most one the guides were good and the audio equipment was good quality. Additional tours were well-worth the price. Most of the river cruises seem to carry about 150 people. Some seem to be more formal than others. We had a 2-for-1 rate, so the price for value seemed fair.

Did you have any specific questions you were hoping to answer?