Are there any river cruises you can recommend? We have thought of including one perhaps in a future trip...Rhine, Danube, etc. Would like to do some beginning research and thought perhaps you might know of great itineraries/boat/barges or companies to avoid. Nothing fancy...packing light. :-)
Uniworld runs lots of river cruises. We traveled with them in China and absolutely loved the experience. I'm sure their river cruises would be of equal quality. Their website is www.uniworld.com
River cruises stop for only about eight hours each day. They work great for destinations that can be covered well in that time period.
I like the central Europe Danube cruises best because most of their stops are perfect for one day of touring.
Viking River Cruises
We went on the "Castles along the Rhine" Uniworld cruise last May from Amsterdam to Basel. I would highly recommend this cruise - great staff, great cities/towns visited and wonderful food! We traveled on Uniworld's River Ambassador. We packed light since this was just one week of 7 weeks spent in Europe.
Grand Circle Tours has been highly recommended to me by several people. I think the travelers are mainly 40 and above but they are small tours.
We took the 16 day river cruise from Amsterdam to Budapest with Viking.com. I can recommend that cruise line; they organize everything well and really look after passengers.