"Best" month for Blue Danube
Looking at taking our first river cruise, Tauck Blue Danube, in 2020. Some friends who have river cruised said September is a prime time to cruise. Our schedule is flexible. Is there a time of year considered better? Why?
Thanks in advance.
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PS: I did a search, and didn't find any relevant posts. Thanks.
We’re going on our first river cruise on the Danube September 1, 2019. Will have to let you know when we return😀.
Enjoy! I'm looking at the eastbound Sept 7 2020. Are you on the Joy or Savor?
In addition to being chilly or even cold, November can have lots of rain.
Any thoughts on September?
We did September/October of 2015 on Savor. The weather was good. I don’t remember any substantial rain, but the water level was low. We had to bus down the river from Budapest to join the ship. The water level on the Danube can be either too high or too low. I would research to find out when the average water level is most conducive to river cruising.
Water levels are the biggest concern the later in the year you go. We just returned from the longer Budapest to Amsterdam which we booked for end of May/June for that reason. The water level was high. Ironically we still had to make a ship swap halfway because a Viking ship had hit and damaged a lock on the canal that connects the Danube and Rhine. Can't plan for everything. Tauck did an OUTSTANDING job dealing with this unexpected change to the plan.
A secondary concern the later in the fall you get is shorter daylight hours. Sep ok, in Oct you start to eat breakfast and dinner in the dark. The colors are beautiful though.
We did Blue Danube 12 - 23 April 2018. I was concerned it might be a bit early and too cool, but the weather was perfect. Late April to late may should be even better.
I am about to take my first river cruise, but know Western Europe weather well, you really can’t beat June—- it doesn’t go dark until almost 11pm, the river levels should be fine, the kids should still be in school so it might be less busy with locals. The flowers and gardens should be at their peak.
We’re on the westbound Ms, Savor September 2.
Another question: We're thinking of adding a couple days to the trip. Better to do it first, or at the end? Starts in Prague, ends in Budapest.
We just returned from the west-bound cruise in mid-May. Temperatures were very pleasant, and I think the crowds a bit smaller than in summer, but we did have light rain many days. That was mostly no problem with just a raincoat, and we did luck out with no rain for the Wachau Valley section. But rain upstream caused high water and cut our cruise short at Englehartzell, which Tauck handled very well.