Budapest to the Black Sea review
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.
Comments
JohnS - Thanks for the review. We're doing this tour next year, starting in Budapest in late May, ending in Bucharest in mid-June.
We're hoping we get at least 10 degrees cooler weather than you experienced.
We have river toured the upper Danube and lower Rhine previously.
On days when there were excursion choices did you have any discussions with other travelers after the fact to see if an alternate excursion might have been a better choice or to confirm that your choice indeed had been the best for you.
Smiling Sam: I'll answer this one for JohnS. There were 3 days where there were excursion choices we had to make before the trip. Two of them were city tours or cycling tours. The last excursion in Bucharest there were 3 to choose from, all being different lengths of time, like JohnS said, we picked Bran castle as we have wanted to see the Transylvania region for some time.
On the last day there was a choice you could make on that day, either the Village Museum or Ceausescu Mansion. We picked the village because we have seen plenty of mansions, castles, etc.
While going thru the locks at the Iron Gate, there was another river boat going up river and I snapped a few pictures of the other ship and thought this one would be fun to share with our ship reflected in the other one.
so glad u all enjoyed. Wife and I have taken 4 RC's and were looking at this one. Thanks again.
I have to say I really enjoyed this river cruise.