Seeking River Cruise co based in Ukraine, East Germany, Central Europe (non english speaking)

I hope you will be successful in finding what you want. I'm sure that there are companies who move Germans about.

I know that it may describe an area, but you do know that there is no country called East Germany?

The Danube isnt always passable in November. A couple of years ago i stood on the bank and saw water before lunch, after lunch it was half frozen over. By dinner a brave soul could have walked across. Two days later; water again. I dont think the river taxi up to Szentendre runs after the end of October .... but i could be wrong.

I can set you up with a guide in Kyiv that might be able to help you with somethng on the Dnieper? (at Ukraine rates as opposed to US rates). Just pm me.

Nigel- yes I do know. ☺️
James I’ll pm you

"...all the cruises...are based in the USA or England." Not so. This is a link for cruises in the Kiel area , ie Schleswig-Holstein.

www.adler-schiffe.de. I have their 2018 schedule (Fahrplan 2018) on "Nord-Ostsee-Kanal Elbe" cruises from the Tourist Office located directly opposite of Kiel Hbf (central station) on Raiffeiseneratraße 1. Here is the phone no. if you decide to call them up...

001-49- (0)46 51 /98 70 888. Don't hit the zero after 49.

I know going up north is not exactly what you want in terms of a river cruise given in only German, which was what I experienced twice in the harbor cruise. The schedule of 2018 only appears in German. Try also DER travel, also look under "Flusskreuzfahrten" such as for those on the Oder.

There are many river cruise lines, we have cruised on Vantage World Travel and AMA. Both were excellent. Compare them with Viking, Gate-1 (a budget line) and others.

We did a Russian River cruise that was excellent.

I know they have cruises on the Elbe, which runs through the old DDR. You might be interested in a lower Danube cruise.

Jette, my experience of living in a city frequented by river cruises is that there are different groups speaking different languages. It is not necessarily different companies, Viking I think has some boats with German speaking staff, and some with English speaking.

One Swiss company I know which does a number of cruises is Thurgau Travel: https://www.thurgautravel.ch/
That site is in German or French only, but you did ask for no English speakers!
You will find the tours have commentary in German or French only, are you OK with that?

I would also do a Google search for "Kreuzfahrt Donau" (German for "cruising Danube"). Gets lots of hits.
Even river names are different in different languages: Rhine/Rhein/Rhin/Rijn
Danube/Donau/Duna Volga/Wolga/Волга

@ Jette...."I like...learning languages, etc." My compliments on your attitude. Finding a river cruise with no English spoken, everything in the local language, ie just Hungarian or German, is easy; it can be done. You only have to decide where.

Jette, I was walking through town today (Saturday) and I passed no less than three tour groups with guides. One guide was talking in English, one in German and I didn't hear what the third was speaking. Plenty of different nationalities catered for on the river cruises.

I have no desire to go on a cruise with english speakers
I found travel agencies, but I cannot translate the language

What languages do you understand?
If you go on a cruise which is not catering for English speaking guests, and you do not speak the language that is spoken, you will have problems understanding the guided tours, and the menus, and a lot of other things. Hopefully you speak a bit of whichever language you want.

So, I went to Google Translate and popped in translations of river
cruise translated to German and Hungarian. I found travel agencies,
but I cannot translate the language ;)

1. Download and open Google Chrome
2. Open the website of the travel agency
3. Right-Click and select Translate

Chris,Fred, Martin, and Geova. this is awesome

Good point about understanding the walking tours. I took a few years of French and have done ok a few times in Paris. In Budapest last year for 3 weeks, I did fine without the language. I did learn to say "no gluten and soy" and had a special card to show to restaurants - still fine. I even ordered pizza in hungarian but they made me email them and I google translated LOL

But, honestly, getting the gluten free pizza delivered to my flat was one of the highlights. ;)
Jette

Hi,

Before deciding on a restaurant in Budapest for lunch one time, I checked out a few restaurants and noticed that these places had welcome greetings in German and English just as you entered so that they could not be missed. Places like you can expect the menus to be in 2-4 languages with German and English among them.

NOT wanting English will be tough. Even in Ukraine. In Hungary, in the cities, 75% of the population speaks English and it's used as a universal language with most visitors. In Odessa I got on a Russian language tour and the guide kept me close and whispered to me in English so I could follow what was going on. I've had no appreciable language issues anywhere in Eastern Europe.

Keep in mind that the folks who really devoted themselves to English studies are likely to seek/obtain jobs in major cities. If you get off the main tourist path (in Ukraine, that's probably anywhere except L'viv, Kyiv and Odesa), you will certainly encounter many people who don't speak English well enough to help you. Even in major cities you will encounter people who speak relatively fluently but misunderstand what you're asking--something that may become clear only much later, when the bus you are expecting doesn't show up, etc. I've spent a lot of time beating my head against the wall in language classes, am well aware that I don't speak other languages well, and love the adventure of trying to communicate, but I suspect many folks would get frustrated rather fast.

Although in most countries you can get a lot of questions answered at the local tourist office if your hotel cannot help you, tourist offices are rare in Ukraine. There's one in L'viv. That's the only one I encountered during my 3-week stay in six cities (including Kyiv).

One example of what you can run into: The Lonsky Prison Museum in L'viv doesn't have English translations of its posted material. There was supposed to be a way to take an English-language tour. The doorkeeper spoke no English. I have some very rusty Russian and was able to ask about an English tour. He sent me away without trying to explain that there was an English-speaking employee (or volunteer?) who would be there later. I probably had arrived during her lunch break. I went to the tourist office and arranged for a paid guide of my own. Although I asked specifically about the prison museum, I got a regular city guide. She was very nice and spoke good English but knew nothing about the museum. Fortunately, the museum's on-site English-speaking guide showed up a few minutes later. Unfortunately, the tourist office didn't realize that there is usually an English-speaker at the museum. There's just no obvious way to learn exactly when she will be there.

@ Jette...If you want to know of museums/exhibitions in Germany which don't feature English written materials, (yes, they still do exist), eg, brochures and topic pamphlets, I can refer you to four which I have visited quite recently...all very interesting. .

These museums focus on history, esoteric modern Germany history, (a)) Albstadt Lautlingen (between Hechingen and Meßstetten),

b) Küstrin an der Oder, which does have bi-lingual materials, Polish and German,

c) The Resistance Museum in Berlin where all the written materials in pamphlets are all in German.

d). The Preußen Museum in Wustrau/Brandenburg too since its basic museum brochure explaining the scope of the topics covered in the museum is only in German.

acraven is probably correct. Generally speaking among those under 30 they either speak some english or the person standing next to them does. I did notice that the institutions, like museums, were a bit behind the curve though. But i am a spoiled traveler, especially in countries like Ukraine where 90 euro will buy you an a very, very good English speaking guide for the day. I also love to have the local to talk to about thing, life, politics, etc. The last one we had in Kyiv brought a basket of wine or food every morning. In return we took her fishing in the Black Sea, only to watch her toss her cookies... :-) We still write and will look her up on the return trip in a few weeks...

She didn't like fish?

Hi,

You're most likely back from the planned Nov 2018 trip. Here is further information on German only tours, if you are still interested.

It is: www.dertour.de This might help in planning the next trip for you.

Nigel, the seas were a bit rough; but it was a lot of fun. Ive taken guides fishing in 3 countries now...... I guess it should be the other way around. But the chance to have a local to talk about politics, food, life, education, family, trends, culture, and on and on; is priceless. As for the "guiding" oddly enough I dont really need that. I usually plan it out and tell them where we are going.....