English shore excursions from Rhine River cruise

You can pre-arrange city tours - usually on foot around the old town areas - with the local tourist offices; travel to cities of interest on your own using public transportation. Let's say you're in Mannheim and want a tour of Heidelberg. Contact the H'berg TI office to see if they can book you a tour: H'berg TI page Buy a Tageskarte daypass in Mannheim for two (19,50€) for your train ride to H'berg station and back (about 15 minutes each way.)

I'm surprised that tours of Mannheim even exist! Although the city does have it's attributes, it is not the type of place that people usually visit as tourists.

It seems that Mannheim is just the jump-off point for Heidelberg, where there is more to see.

Most everyone you encounter will speak at least some English so it's not like you're going to be in the middle of nowhere with no communication at all. You could just ride the ship's shore excursion transport and hop off and walk around on your own. Do a bit of research to find the highlights of each city and just use the ships transport and forget the "guided" tour. You can also go to www.toursbylocals.com and search for guides in the cities you are interested in seeing. I used this website to arrange a tour of the Normandy area D-Day beaches.

I don't want to make you nervous, but you should be clear when you leave the ship whether it might move to another nearby berth while you are on a non-cruise line excursion. Ports can be very busy (sometimes I've had to walk through the cabin of another river cruise ship to get to mine. And in once case, the new berth was on the other side of the river. There was no effort required on our part because the cruise director had arranged for the non-group opera tickets and cab involved - so the cab driver "represented" the cruise director.) Ideally, they would give you a phone number that you could have your cab driver call, if you don't have a phone of your own.

So much for the joys of cruising...

Thank you Russ for that web link. Will definitely plan to go on the funicular train up to the Heidelberg Castle. Tim, thanks too for the tip. Will make sure that we get clear instructions from the Cruise Director about the exact location of the berth. They will probably also help with our transfers to and from the city.
Does anyone know how far the town or city centers are from the berths of these river cruises?

The worst part is that you'll be paying for a guide for just two people. You will be paying a lot more than any of the larger cruise ship tours. The cruise line might be the best buy. They also would probably "guarantee" departure and arrival times with your guides so you don't get lost. Have you looked in Rick's books. He frequently lists local guides. Also, his books have lots of activities you could do on your own. Where he doesn't cover a city there are many other guidebooks to look at. US Libraries are good places to look over several for free but I doubt you have that type of resource in the Philippines, even in Manila. It's worth checking. I'm sure you already know this but there are many European river cruise lines that operate in English.

Considering Elizabeth is asking about tours in the various towns she is visiting, this forum IS the right place for her. Why tell her she should look for this info on Cruise Critics instead of here? She isn't asking about information about a river cruise, except where the docks are located. That should be easy to find by looking at a Google map of each town. If you email the Tourist Info in each of the towns, they should be able to find you a local guide. Price shouldn't be that much, and will probably be cheaper than anything the boat is offering. You might even be able to get a few of the other guests to come along and you can share the costs. Speyer, especially has a wonderful old Jewish section that is probably better seen with a guide that can explain it all. Rick has unfortunately forgot to mention Speyer in any of his books.

Elizabeth, don't misinterpret my reply as peremptory or rude, but this site is not primarily for cruise customers, and there are several sites that specialize in cruise postings. You really will get better information at one of those. There just is not a big depth of river or ocean cruise information here. One that I've heard of is Cruise Critic, but I'm not personally familiar with it.

Tim, no worries, and I am actually grateful to you for calling my attention to this.

Jo is absolutely correct about using TI for guides. You may even be able to get guides who will meet you at the boat and take you back through the Tourist Information Office of each town. On CruiseCritic you may find recommendations from others who have been in the same situation.