Clothing for River Cruises

donnacolb

My husband and I are going on the The Rhine and Moselle - Northbound on August 5th. We were reading the information provided by Tauck and it mentions that there will be two nights where men are requested to wear a jacket and tie and women a dress, etc. For those of you who have already done this trip, is this really necessary? I hate to have to take up room for dressy clothing if it is not needed. Thank you Donna and Roger

Kathy18

I have not done this riverboat but have done two others. The "dressy" evenings are usually the welcome and farewell dinners. On the two previous tours, some of the men wore jackets but usually they wore a nice pair of slacks and possibly a tie with a collared shirt. I have always worn a nice pair of slacks, usually black, with a nice shirt. Some of the women might wear a dress, but on the whole it is not necessary.

Claudia Sails

We did this cruise southbound last Oct and totally agree with what Kathy18 says. It was our second cruise. My husband didn't bring a jacket (just dress shirt, tie, nice slacks and a pullover sweater). I wore black dress slacks and had a couple of tops and scarves to chose from. In addition to the welcome and farewell dinner there is one dinner at a castle but the one we went to it wasn't a particularly dressy evening. One nice outfit for you and your husband is sufficient.

During the day you can dress very casually in jeans, tshirts, sneakers, etc. However, the best way I've found to cut down on how much to bring is to dress a little nicer during the day then you can go directly from the days touring to happy hour and dinner. If I wore very casual shoes like sneakers I usually changed to a pair of leather flats. They gave my feet a bit of a change.

For Aug I imagine most men will wear collared knit golf shirts and slacks. Women in slacks/capris/skirt with a nice but casual top. Bring a sweater or wrap for evening wear on the sundeck as it can be cool and breezy even in the summer. I also make sure we both have a couple of tops that are a lightweight blend that I can hand wash and will dry overnight in the hanging rod in the shower.