Which Rhine cruise?
We are taking our first river cruise, The Blue Danube in September and certain that we will enjoy it. We are currently in the process of researching and preparing to book a Rhine cruise for 2020. The difficult decision has been narrowed down to The Rhine, Swiss Alps and Amsterdam OR The Rhine and Moselle. We would appreciate input from anyone who has been on either or both. Thanks in advance.
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We took the Rhine/Moselle in Oct 2015 and just finished the Budapest/Amsterdam cruise which has several of the same stops on the Rhine as the other cruise you're interested in. I don't think you could go wrong with either cruise. Here's my thoughts on each:
Rhine/Moselle - The Moselle is a lovely little river with vineyards going almost vertically up the slopes on either side. The views from Reichsburg castle were great. We weren't given the chance to tour Cochem which we would have liked. Since it was Oct we had beautiful fall colors (but shorter, darker days so a trade off). We enjoyed the Kroller-Muller art museum and the park it's located in. Trier is interesting if you're into roman history. Luxemburg & Pattons burial plot we found a bit boring. Boppard is another cute german village. Highly recommend taking the chair lift to the top if you have time. Strasbourg & Heidelberg were favorites with us. Baden Baden a bit boring but we could only visit the spa if you paid extra. Not much to see in Basel but the Rhine Falls/Schaffhausen are on our list in part because my grandfather is from there. We've been to Amsterdam twice now and really enjoy the canal cruises - safest way to see the city and not be hit by a bike. You might consider extra days here as there is lots more to see.
Rhine/Swiss Alps/Amsterdam - You get the Kinderduk windmills on this one. After our most recent cruise we stayed on in Amsterdam and went to see the windmills at Zaans Schann (very easy bus ride from central station). Cologne cathedral is impressive. Was disappointed the roman museum was closed but should be open in 2020. Rudesheim was great. Really enjoyed Siegfrieds Mechanisches Musikkabinett. We were also given tickets to take the gondola up to the NIederwald monument. Lovely. We saw Lucerne on the Rhine/Moselle cruise before they changed it to Schaffhausen (irony of ironies) and it is a lovely town. More of Switzerland that I haven't seen but hopefully will next year on a land tour.
If it matters to you, the Rhine/Moselle is 3 days longer for only $300 more.
Other than comparing the two itineraries for which has more interest for you, also think about where you might want to begin/end a cruise and whether/where to add extra days. Some people only want to add days at the beginning. We've done both for a couple of trips. Yes it's a bit of a transition to go from the tour to on your own, but usually at that point I'm kind of "guided" out and ready for some exploring on our own.
Claudia, so much helpful information in your comments! Thank you. One of my concerns regarding the Rhine/Moselle tour was that the pace might be too slow for my husband and I and too much boat time. We like to get the most bang for our buck and are pretty active. Decisions, decisions.
As long as the scenery and weather are decent we like some cruising time during daylight hours. It's a hard one to predict until you get the actual daily schedules since Tauck so often adds stuff in once on tour. I will say looking at the two you're considering that you might see more bus time on the R/M than the other. Only a couple of times like in Cochem and Boppard were we very close to the tour sites.
Again I think both tours have a lot to offer.
More things to consider. Thanks for your input, Claudia.
Rhine/Swiss Alps/Amsterdam - You get the Kinderduk windmills on this one. After our most recent cruise we stayed on in Amsterdam and went to see the windmills at Zaans Schann (very easy bus ride from central station). Cologne cathedral is impressive. Was disappointed the roman museum was closed but should be open in 2020. Rudesheim was great. Really enjoyed Siegfrieds Mechanisches Musikkabinett. We were also given tickets to take the gondola up to the NIederwald monument. Lovely. We saw Lucerne on the Rhine/Moselle cruise before they changed it to Schaffhausen (irony of ironies) and it is a lovely town. More of Switzerland that I haven't seen but hopefully will next year on a land tour.
We took the Rhine, Swiss Alps etc tour 2 years ago and loved it. Ditto many of the comments above, but for us the most amazing part of this trip was the visit to the Jungfrau. We've done wineries and museums and good food on many other trips and this experiences were good as only Tauck can do them, but the Jungfrau was truly a standout.We took the Northbound round and started with 2 days in Zurich and 1 day in Bern on our own. The Tauck tour actually begins with a few days in Bern and then a bus ride through Lucerne to board the ship in Basel. We did extend for 3 days on our own in Amsterdam at the end and a sorry we didn't add an extra day. Tauck does provide a half day tour of Amsterdam but there is so much to see we are glad we extended our trip.
Good to hear your comments on Jungfrau. We've tentatively booked the Swiss land tour for next year because there is so much of the country we haven't seen.
We did 2 days in Amsterdam before our R/M but didn't have time to see much so added 3 at the end of our just finished cruise. Interesting place.
Thank you, Sherry for your comments and helpful information.