Tauck, Viking or (?) - which one is the better for Amsterdam to Budapest?

We have been on Viking River Cruises twice and AMA Waterways once. AMA Waterways was of a much higher level in all aspects.

Did a Tauck river cruise thru Belgium and Holland a few years ago, and I do not recall paying anything other than our base price. Another advantage of Tauck is that transportation to/from the airport is included, even if you arrive a day early or leave a day late. All on-land touring was included. I have no experience with Viking. Guides were fabulous. We have been on several Tauck tours, as have family members (based on our recommendations). Tauck tends to book loyaln repeat customers who have heard about them thru other loyal, repeat customers.

I have taken 1 Gate one river cruise and was very happy with all aspects. However we did have to pay separately for alcoholic drinks and tipping, but they kept a running tab which was easy for us. I recommend.

Tauck is the creme de la creme of any tour you may go on, river cruise or not. Viking can only dream of being in the same class of service.
Have you looked on Cruise Critic?

Thanks for the comments.

We have been to Cruise Critic and the reviews (in general and in my opinion) are all over from superior service to very poor; regardless of the company.

That said I don’t put too much weight in those reviews since to me one small mistake by a crew member ruins the entire trip. The reviews also appear aimed to seek revenge rather than provide an honest review

That is what led us to RC.

In what I read so far, river cruising provides a glimpse of a city/town - rather than a full day or two of actually seeing and experiencing the culture.

What I have read at RC is these tours regardless of the marketing material are geared towards an older traveler that seeks out the worry free aspects of traveling (packing / unpacking, transfers, tours, meals, etc.). Which is great if that is what you want in a tour.
The tours are not for going out on your own

Is their a river tour that spends more than a few hours docked? We really would rather spend quality time vs quantity of cities/towns visited.

Read the fine print. My cousin went on a Viking cruise last August. The was level was too low so instead of cancelling, the company took them to all their cities by bus. It was awful she told me. One day they were on the bus for over 10 hours. She had even called the week before cause a friend was going on another line the same week and theirs was cancelled, full refund, due to the water levels. Just letting you know.

Low river would affect all cruise lines, regardless of how much you pay.

We did a Viking Rhine last year. Your description is pretty accurate. The short shore excursions (back at the boat in time for lunch, and dinner) was what most people were happy with. The boat may be docked all day, and you dont have to do the included or optional excursions. You could always go out on your own, but note that the boat might not be docked close to the downtown area. Of course you will have to pay for extras. As it is, the river cruise is a "Europe Light" experience and for most of the older crowd on board our cruise, it was all about the food and wine on the boat.

I think you can use cost as an indicator of quality.

Although you mentioned that you checked the Cruise Critic website, here's another site specifically for river cruises that you might find useful. Tauck is also included in their comparisons, as well as other companies.

https://www.rivercruiseadvisor.com/cruise-companies/viking-river-cruises-vs-uniworld-river-cruises/

I've not yet been on a river cruise, however, I've been doing research for several years.

BTW, all river cruise companies do not handle low river levels the same way. On the same site above, note the water level update.

"The short shore excursions (back at the boat in time for lunch, and dinner) was what most people were happy with."

I did the Rick Steves Belgium and Holland trip in April. We had a guide-in-training with us who has been a Viking guide for 30 years. As we were doing our walk thru Bruges of course we came across a number of Viking groups and of course Nico knew all the other guides. He indicated they were all headed back to the ship for lunch. I was just so shocked (and slightly dismayed) that people would return to the boat for a meal instead of eating in town and continuing to sightsee. Yikes!

I think Stan's description of "Europe Light" is probably correct.

Disclaimer - I'm not a cruise person. I do understand that many enjoy them.

On a river cruise, no one forces you to go back to the ship for lunch or dinner, yes, all meals are included, but that doesn't mean you can't eat in town if you prefer. On the Christmas markets cruise I took with my daughter, we were told that as long as you are back on the ship before it sails, you are free to do whatever you want while the ship is in port. We usually went on the included tour in the morning and then went off on our own for the afternoon. Our cruise went from Passau to Budapest, other than Melk and Bratislava we usually had a full day in port. In Vienna we left the ship at 8 am and didn't return until just before midnight, the ship sailed shortly afterwards.

I liked the river cruise, because we were able to see lots of places without having to schlep luggage from place to place and sleep in a different bed every night. Most of the places we visited were small enough that you didn't need more than a day. For Vienna a day is not enough of course but it was enough to give us a taste of it and I've since gone back for a longer visit. We had already been to Budapest previously for a week, so a day for the Christmas markets was fine.

There are pros/cons to river cruising. Yes, generally an older crowd by probably 75-80% of the passengers.

The one river cruise we took (with Tauck) provide the perfect itinerary for us to see several cities/villages that we wanted to see and then to see exactly what we wanted to see within those cities/villages. The travel between places was for the most part done at night, so we would walk up in a lovely new place and enjoy the bulk of the day touring. Tauck arranged a fabulous lunch at a castle, we had a chocolate-making demonstration, tour of a cheese-making facility, etc.

That year was the Floriade in Venlo, and that was high on my list, too. We enjoyed the spring flowers at Keukenhoff (with early admission), but it quickly became crowded, and when it was time to leave, I really could have stayed another 2-4 hours.

Unpack once, enjoy fellow passengers with similar interests...easy, very few logistics to deal with, etc.

The downside of river cruising, regardless of which brand you choose, you can wake up expecting a fabulous view in the morning, but another river ship can be stacked right up next to your window (as in your could reach out and shake hands with people in the next river ship, if they opened their window or door). WHY? Because the docks only have so much room, and as other river ships arrive some have to stack. When you go to leave your river ship for the day, you will walk on ramps from one river ship to the next, thru the lobbies ( which gives you a chance to check out the competition just a bit). This only happened to us once, but it was really weird waking up to a very chatty old river ship filled with people from a foreign continent who had all sorts of laundry hanging in their windows......granted it was colorful and interesting, but not what we expected. So, now you will not be shocked if that happens to you.

Also, in order to fit under every low bridge, river ships are not tall, so you will likely not have really tall airy ceilings in your stateroom.......that I noticed and missed.

I would not hesitate to go on a Tauck river cruise, in fact I came really, really close to booking a Christmas markets trip with them this year, but I decided I really did not want to be traveling in really cold climates along the river. But, unless the itinerary is bang-on-perfect, between a river cruise and a land-based tour with Tauck, I would definitely go with the land-based options to enjoy the variety of truly fabulous hotels they book..........but, that's me. Others like to repeat river cruises, because they do not want to unpack more than once.

I have not personally experienced low river water issues, or really high-water issues, but 3 of our friends (all on separate trips) experienced that with Viking and they were bussed between locations (and I am almost positive, though not 100% positive) their overnights were spent on other stranded river ships at the locations to which they otherwise would have arrived at in their original river ship. Things happen...NO provider can predict or guarantee river levels.

re: the meals with our Tauck river cruise, seems at least 1/3, maybe 1/2 were on land. Also, we had a fabulous Amsterdam excursion on a barge (or whatever they are called) that had just been used for a visit by the president of Turkey the evening or two before. They served some sort of sweets, one that had been made for the visit of a queen, and seems champagne, too. It was a fabulous, incredibly restored vessel. It's that kind of stuff that really sets Tauck apart. They are a step above in my opinion.........so I guess that's why we have traveled with them several times.