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River Boat Cruise Recommendation

Sandman

Hi, we have done a bunch of Tauck land tours and have traveled throuh most of Europe independently. We are looking to do our first river cruise in 2026 and was looking for recommendations on which cruise to choose. Hoping an experienced river cruiser can provide guidance. Thanks.

Comments

kfnknfzk

We have enjoyed all of our river cruises but loved the Douro with Madrid and Lisbon anchor cities and Savoring France. The former was very relaxing while the latter offered some of the best excursions we have ever experienced. We also loved the Yuletide Holiday cruise for all the festivities and cultural activities. I don’t think you can go wrong with any of them. Do you wish to return to a country you have been to or try something new?

Claudia Sails

We're coming up on our 7th river cruise so we've done all Tauck's rivers except the Soane. They were all good. The ships are pretty much the same - same decor, same cabin types to chose from, same excellent service and food. It sort of depends on what you're looking for. The Danube I think is the most scenic especially in terms of castles, quaint towns, docking close or in the action, etc. The Rhone (our first) has France especially Provence going for it. Lots of Van Gogh sights. The Seine includes Paris and iconic locations like the Dday beaches and Giverny's wonderful house/garden. The Douro is lovely but some don't care for it because it's a lovely, sleepy river full of vineyards but doesn't have excursions to major sights compared to other rivers. We did the longer version with Lisbon and Madrid plus added some time on our own in Barcelona so it didn't bother us that the river portion was kind of sleepy. The Rhine isn't very scenic except for the upper middle Rhine with a slew of castles to cruise by. The Moselle was similar to the Douro (small and lots of vineyards) but does have more interesting stops.

If you are looking for pleasant sundeck cruising opt for a summer cruise (June is ideal) as it can be chilly as the ship moves. If you want some relaxing daytime cruising, you'll see more of that on the longer cruises. We prefer longer cruises to maximize our airfare expense. For a first cruise, I'd recommend either Amsterdam to Budapest (Rhine, Main & Danube) or one of the longer Rhone cruises. But it really depends on what sights you want to see and what cities you want to start/end the cruise in.