Best Of

We took the Tauck river cruise “Budapest to the Black Sea” in late June and early July of 2024. Here are a few highlights and our thoughts about this tour compiled by myself and life long travel partner and wife SueMS.

I am doing a review of the food and accommodation in separate posts so please take a look at those if interested. Here are some links

Budapest to the Black Sea (the Food)
Budapest to the Black Sea (the Accommodations )

Our river cruise had 81 people so it was a fairly full ship. We had 3 Tauck tour directors and one Tauck cruise director. One of the tour directors was from Romania another from the Czech Republic and the other from Austria. Our Cruise director was from the Netherlands. Our tour guides from Czech Republic and Romania were able to give us much insight on growing up under a communist regime.

The weather on this trip was hot to very hot. In Budapest from the low to mid 90’s and ending in Bucharest in the triple digits. (102 on our last day). The heat made a few things challenging.

Day 0
We arrived at the Ritz-Carlton Budapest in the late afternoon one day prior to the start of the tour. Having a 10 hour time difference and jet lag we did not do anything that day except go to dinner at a Hungarian restaurant which you can read about in my food review.

Day 1
The tour officially started in the evening with a welcome dinner. During the day we were given the option of going to Dohány Street Synagogue. The largest Synagogue in Europe.

Day 2
Today we had a choice of Discovering Pest or doing a cycling excursion in Budapest. We chose the Pest tour. Temperatures today were in the mid 90’s and the cycling excursion didn’t have many takers.

Day 3
Today we had a tour of the Buda sights which included a visit to the Hungarian Parliament building. After touring today, it was off to our ship the MS Treasures.

Day 4
Today we arrived in Mohacs and traveled to Pécs for a walking tour.



Lunch at Polgar winery.

Day 5
Today the ship sailed the lower Danube into Croatia. We docked in the city of Vukovar. One of the excursions we opted for was a visit to a local family in a nearby village. The groups were broken up into smaller manageable groups. Having some reluctance about going into someone’s private home we were a bit hesitant about this but were pleasantly surprised.
We then went on to Novi Sad, Serbia and then on to Belgrade.


One of the amazing sites around Vukovar are the storks who nest on almost everybodys roof.

Day 6
Today we were in Belgrade and did a city tour. Dinner tonight was at the Royal White Palace of the Serbian Royal Family in Belgrade. (See our food review for more info)

Day 7
Today we were sailing into Romania and through the Kazan Narrows and the Iron Gate of the Danube, a two mile-long series of narrow gorges between the Carpathian and Balkan mountain ranges. We also sailed past the rock sculpture of King Decebalus. This is also referred to as the Mount Rushmore of Romania.



Today was July 4th.

Day 8
Today it was off to Bulgaria. We disembarked after lunch in Ruse and then had a walking tour of Basarabov rock church.

Day 9
Today it was off to Constanta Romania and the Black Sea coast. We did a tour of the Constanta area.

Day 10
Disembark the MS Treasures and off to the JW Marriott Bucharest Grand Hotel. A tour of Bucharest including the Old Town was part of today’s activities.

Day 11
Today we had a choice of three tours. We chose Transylvania, Brasov & Bran Castle. This was a significant journey being an early wake up and late return to the hotel (about 7:30 PM). Bran Castle is a very popular attraction in Romania. Tauck as able to get us in right at opening but by the time the castle tour was over it was packed with tourists. Our lunch in Bran was a scatter lunch and every one on the excursion was given 100 lei.

Day 12
The morning we had a tour of the Village museum in Bucharest The afternoon was at our leisure. With temperatures today in the triple digits in Bucharest it was back to the air conditioned hotel for us.
This evening we had our farewill dinner at the Bragadiru Palace. (See our food review for more information)

Day 13
An early flight (6:15 AM) required us to be in the lobby at 3:15 AM. Quite a few others had early wake ups as well.
We were on Lufthansa and could use the business class lounge which is a contracted lounge. I only have one word to describe this lounge. YIKES! Screaming children, few empty seats, hot, humid, loud. I was glad when we got in our Euro Business seat on Lufthansa.

Closing thoughts.
This was our 3rd European river cruise with Tauck. They have all been excellent. This one being no exception. Ship staff and tour directors were all excellent. We did have one local tour guide in Romania who did 2 of the group tours we were on. To put it mildly she was boring. I didn’t realize one could sleep standing up but it almost happened here. Most other local guides were very good.
We would definitely recommend this cruise however if this is a first river cruise in Europe then probably not. You will not see all the quaint villages and castles that are abundant on the Rhine, Mosel or upper Danube. Instead you will see farm land, forests and remnants of the communist rule in this area. For someone who has been to Europe and wants to see more, then this is a definite yes.

One of the top questions we are asked whenever we travel is “How was the food”. I thought I would give a brief overview of our food experience on this trip. This is not a blow by blow description of our dining but just a few examples.

I have done a review of the tour and the accommodations in seperate posts. Here are links if you are interested.

Budapest to the Black Sea review
Budapest to the Black Sea (the Accommodations )

If you have been on any Tauck trip it is very hard to go hungry. This was no exception. Sometimes toward the end of the tour eating becomes a somewhat painful experience. (not really).

We got into Budapest a day early and wanted some Hungarian food. The restaurant was called the Strudel HouseIt was one of the recommendations from the concierge and was also on the Tauck recommendation list. We would highly recommend this restaurant in Budapest.

Onboard the ship there were two dining options. The main dining room is called Compass Rose and a more casual option is Arthurs. Here are some sample menus from each.




Compass Rose Lunch Menu

Arthurs Menu

Our final dinner on the ship was a one seating for everyone on the ship. The menu was a bit more extensive than the normal dinners.

There were some off the ship dining events on this tour. Our welcome reception and dinner was at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Some traditional Hungarian dancers provided entertainment.

In Belgrade an off ship dinner was at the Royal Palace of Dedinje. This was originally supposed to be inside the palace but due to a storm several days earlier, some of the electricity was out. The dinner was moved to an outside patio area which turned out to be a blessing in disguise since the temperature was quite balmy.

Our farewell dinner was held at Bragadiru Palace (a.k.a the Palace of Culture). Food wise, this was at or near the bottom. Unfortunately, I only got a picture of the starter. The main dish was a beef tenderloin which I was trying to cut and chew with little success. Unless one put in a dietary request at the beginning of the tour, this was the choice. Based on the number of plates sent back partially eaten, I think this was not a popular meal. The starter course was visually appealing, but the taste was just so-so.

One highlight of the farewell dinner was entertainment by a violinist playing an actual Stradivarius violin. He was accompanied by someone playing the traditional electronic keyboard.