We took this tour Eastbound in June 2014 and loved it. Here are some things to consider.
- If you plan to arrive before the tour starts go Eastbound. If you plan to stay after the tour ends go Westbound. Budapest is a wonderful city to spend extra time in.
- The lower Danube is more industrial, the upper Danube is more scenic and more sophisticated. One transition may be more appealing to you than the other.
This is a great trip and would work well in either direction.
We took the Blue Danube cruise from Budapest to Prague in May 2019, and really enjoyed that. We found learning about the central European countries we knew so little about fascinating, and are intrigued by a cruise further east.
So we are about to make a deposit on this cruise in May 2021, and are leaning toward the eastbound direction. Main reasons:
No reasonable airline connections (currently) can get us to Bucharest before the welcome dinner, so we would have to come a day early, and as Wayside suggests we are not that hot on extra time there.
Small differences in the itineraries in both end cities look more attractive to us in the eastbound direction.
We want to see if the claims that downstream is faster (more time in ports) and quieter are true.
As far as I understand from taking my first river cruise this summer, the boats have schedules they have to keep to for getting thru locks and so on, so I doubt getting faster anywhere will not matter.
Terry, do you never arrive anywhere a day early, if you can manage it, it makes getting over jet lag that little bit easier.
British,
My point was that if we were to spend an extra day we'd prefer to do it in Budapest.
But the fact is we arrived in Budapest three hours before the welcome dinner on our cruise this spring and never recognized jet lag symptoms that seemed anything more than normal for the sleep deprivation on the flight.
Terry, how lucky you can miss our on jet lag. So you will take your free night in a hotel at the end of your tour? We always take it at the beginning Incase of delay getting to the destination and our jet lag problems, we usually take about three days to change our sleep habit. We do find that the 5 or 6 hour time change is worse than a twelve hour one. For some reason only our body clocks know. Now we are both retired, we have been taking some days extra at the end of tours when we want to see more of that location, and of course Tauck always gives you the higher priced hotel as the free one. Enjoy your next river cruise!
Comments
- If you plan to arrive before the tour starts go Eastbound. If you plan to stay after the tour ends go Westbound. Budapest is a wonderful city to spend extra time in.
- The lower Danube is more industrial, the upper Danube is more scenic and more sophisticated. One transition may be more appealing to you than the other.
This is a great trip and would work well in either direction.
We took the Blue Danube cruise from Budapest to Prague in May 2019, and really enjoyed that. We found learning about the central European countries we knew so little about fascinating, and are intrigued by a cruise further east.
So we are about to make a deposit on this cruise in May 2021, and are leaning toward the eastbound direction. Main reasons:
Any thoughts are welcome.
Terry
As far as I understand from taking my first river cruise this summer, the boats have schedules they have to keep to for getting thru locks and so on, so I doubt getting faster anywhere will not matter.
Terry, do you never arrive anywhere a day early, if you can manage it, it makes getting over jet lag that little bit easier.
British,
My point was that if we were to spend an extra day we'd prefer to do it in Budapest.
But the fact is we arrived in Budapest three hours before the welcome dinner on our cruise this spring and never recognized jet lag symptoms that seemed anything more than normal for the sleep deprivation on the flight.
Terry, how lucky you can miss our on jet lag. So you will take your free night in a hotel at the end of your tour? We always take it at the beginning Incase of delay getting to the destination and our jet lag problems, we usually take about three days to change our sleep habit. We do find that the 5 or 6 hour time change is worse than a twelve hour one. For some reason only our body clocks know. Now we are both retired, we have been taking some days extra at the end of tours when we want to see more of that location, and of course Tauck always gives you the higher priced hotel as the free one. Enjoy your next river cruise!