Has anyone tried a river cruise on those luxury river boats from Viking or Uniworld, etc. Did you think they were worth the money? I have a wife whose ankles get sore easily, and I thought a River Cruise might be a good idea, only walking for excursions not schlepping bags from train each stop, etc. I am finding them expensive even at 2 for 1 deals.
Posted by
New Hampshire
182 posts
Hi Todd
Two years ago in August we (my wife, myself and our 2 daughters who were 18 an 20 then) took the Uniworld Rhine River Cruise. Began in Amsterdam ending up in Basel Switzerland. We were skeptical about doing this initially. We heard the stories about everybody being over 80 and how boring this would be. This was particularly concerning with 2 girls looking for something to do beyond "shuffleboard". But it was highly recommended to us so we took the chance.
We were pleasantly surprised and had a truly wonderful time!! I can't say enough good from our experience and would definitely do it again.
We took this trip for many reasons including the idea of seeing alot while only unpacking once. You can do as much or as little as you want. There are plenty of land excursions to partake of and some include some climbing (a few castles - Marksburg, and some of the local towns along the river - Speyer, Koblenz, Cologne to name a few).
Everything is planned for you and all the transportation included. The food on board was excellent and the staff was extremely helpful (they are hoping for good tips at the end of the trip). Yes you take a chance on who else is on the trip - we had all ages including a few kids around 8-10 years old, a family with 2 boys the same age as our daughters, couples around our age, and some folks who were older, but you'd never know it as they did everything. But that's always the chance you take.
Cabins are small, but they are on all ships, and you really don't spent much time in them anyway.
We also stayed a few days in Amsterdam prior to the trip and ended up staying a few days in Zürich on the other end to make it a really special trip.
In my opinion I think the convenience was worth the cost. You're right, it's not cheap, but I think we would have spent similar money if we did a trip not cruising.
Best of luck deciding!
Posted by
Edmonton, AB, Canada
668 posts
We did this from Amsterdam to Basel in 2006 and really enjoyed it. We plan on doing teh Danube next year. We were (and hope to be) on a Canadian company which leases the whole ship for the season. Everything (including tipping) is included. We have also done ocean cruises and teh big difference we found was tha teh ship almost always docked at night and you could go for a walk after dinner, or opt (at your own expense) to have dinner ashore.
We did find we (in our early 60s) were amongst teh youngest on board, and soem of teh organized shore trips were on the slow side, but obviously we enjoyed it as we will be doing it again.
It is a relaxing way to see the countryside. Like teh other paster, we spent time in Amsterdam prior to teh cruise and a week in Lugano in southern Switzerland and a weekednd in Mainz prior to flying home.