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Favorite River Cruise?

Wan

It might be time for me to think about European river cruises. I'd like to incorporate Budapest and/or Prague, since I have not yet been to either city. (A separate journey on our own either pre or post cruise would work.)
Appreciate your thoughts, especially those of you who have taken several.
Specific itineraries not too important (yet).
Thank you!

Comments

inlanikai

Rendezvous on the Seine and The Blue Danube. Both had shore excursions that we enjoyed very much and found informative and new to us. We took others as well and they were all good but those were our favorites.

British

Wan, I’d like to encourage you to take the land Warsaw Vienna, Budapest Prague tour which we took some time ago. I don’t remember it being particularly taxing and even our tour director mentioned you see more than on the river cruise. Unless there is a reason you are leaning towards river cruises, I highly recommend that.
Poland was a big surprise , I’d always wanted to visit since I have been friends with a girl of Polish heritage for fifty years and she loved it, was always talking about it’s beauty such as the Tatra mountains. We would go to see her do Polish dancing and eat all Polish foods. We admired how her children were bilingual and yet they always just knew to speak English when we were around out of politeness. We loved Warsaw and Krakow, we took a great cookery class and Vodka tasting in Warsaw before the tour began. It was so funny, that night at the Welcome dinner was a Vodka tasting. We went straight for the one we knew was the best…the waiter said we chose the best, yes we know, we had some earlier today! We dared not have any more, we did not want to be drunk when meeting our tour group for the first time 😂
Budapest and Prague you mention were wonderful. Our tour director Mark, was one of the most experienced Tauck people who also told us a lot about Jewish history even though it was not the special Jewish Tauck journey and he was the one who put the idea into our heads to visit Israel which we did just before the war started.
If you take the river cruise, then I suggest going on to Prague yourselves and staying several days.
Having said all this, we are taking a Danube cruise in March which has opera type entertainment each night. It’s a short cruise and funnily enough almost identical to the short river cruises that Tauck are just introducing slightly off season. We visit Budapest but also Salzburg which we haven’t been to. A Sound of Music tour if i remember correctly. We would love to visit Prague again, but maybe another time as we can’t be away too long at that time of year.
Probably not all that helpful to you, but might make you think about alternatives.

mfrancis

Amsterdam to Budapest was our first and still our favorite. We’re waitlisted to repeat it with friends who are going next year. We’ve done 5 since then and have 2 more booked. You could add a trip to Prague before or after Budapest, depending on which direction you sail.

Claudia Sails

Our first was the Rhone. Savoring France is the closest itinerary to the one we took. Part of why is because it was our first and I believe if you end up enjoying river cruising your first will always be your favorite. But also because so many of the stops you walk right off the ship to see the sights. Our second was the Rhine and Moselle where it was the opposite and almost all sights required coach time so you are tied to whatever the shuttle schedule might be. The Danube would be our second favorite mostly for the same reason and the sights are lovely. The highlights of the Seine are Paris, Giverny and the Dday beaches. The Douro we enjoyed but its a very different vibe from the others. Small river, lovely scenery, very little industrial traffic but it doesn't have all the castles, historic landmarks, etc that the other rivers have. Mostly wineries. It's also nice that there is no night time ship travel (it's forbidden on that river) so sleeping is very quiet.

Read the itineraries carefully and chose one that has sights you are most interested in. The ships are lovely. The crew wonderful. The food and drink excellent. In fact I've found I often get to experience local specialties more on river cruises than the land versions where most meals are at the hotels. The hotels seem to focus more on gourmet offerings vs local cuisine.

SandyFeet

I loved my cruise on the Rhine, the Main and the Danube, but I went with another company. We added and extra three days in Prague at the end, and it was a great experience. In my view, Budapest illuminated at night is prettier than Paris.
This photo of the Chain Bridge was taken from inside a cab in a rainy night. Unfortunately, the Gellert Baths in Budapest are closed for renovation now.

kfnknfzk

I have enjoyed all five (5) river cruises taken but for very different reasons.

The Douro with Madrid and Lisbon as bookends was taken when the world slowly reopened after the pandemic. It was relaxing with beautiful scenery—the vineyards were ablaze in fall colors.

Another favorite was Savoring France for its focus on culinary delights and enriching, immersive experiences.

Yuletide Spirit was fun and festive. We chose it because it was not focused on Christmas markets but, rather, on experiences in cities during the holiday season.

gladysorlando984

My first river cruise was Xmas Markets on the Rhine, I loved it but Blue Danube, Royal Danube, Rhine Enchantment, French Waterways, Cruising the Seine plus London and Paris.

Gosh I can't chose, love them all.

Wan

Thank you all for your thoughts, especially during this busy time of year, and also to British for pointing me to an alternative which is definitely worth considering. Never hurts to plan ahead especially seeing that these river cruises are so popular. We have 2 small ship cruises planned this year, and I am thinking we might end up liking the "unpack once" aspect of the trip.

Sealord

We have loved all our Tauck river cruises. I think the Blue Danube was the best, and it is Tauck’s most favored river cruise … I think for good reason. The Douro and the Rhone were also exceptional. We are doing ‘Cruising the Seine Plus Paris and London’ in April.

Ben

Wan, my wife and I love river cruising for a variety of reasons but we still do take land tours as well. We are both in our early 60's and are very active and have never been disappointed with the activity levels on river cruises. We just booked our 6th cruise, Romantic Capitals. Prague is one of the few cities I could go back to more than twice. The Blue Danube hits both Prague and Budapest. This has a great blend of history, culture, activities and food. Give yourself a couple of extra days in Prague either to see the city or day trip into the surrounding area. You could even included take the train to Dresden and Berlin if you haven't been there yet. If you need a guide recommendation in Prague, use Prague Walkers.

Wan

All great comments! My only hesitation about the Danube cruise is that we have already been to Vienna and Salzburg twice. I am currently leaning towards the land tour that British mentioned (there will be some repetition in Vienna) plus one of the Seine cruises. Considering a back to back of both, if it can be managed, but getting that cleared with the Reluctant Traveler will be difficult.

British

😂 Wan! We recently booked our first back to back tour!

Wan

We've combined 2 one-weekers, but this would be longer. There seems to be an 8-day Seine cruise "Impressions from the Seine) with more limited departures. I would have preferred that one being that it is a little shorter for a combo but I'm not sure I can make it work. I'll see if Tauck can help. Thanks and Happy Holidays everyone!

Sealord

We frequently booked back to back Windstar cruises that had different itineraries but on the same ship. As something of a ‘coincidence’ Windstar now markets those cruises in that manner. They call them Star Collectors. Actually, it might be a coincidence, but it’s possible someone at Windstar figured out what we were doing and thought it was a good idea. They now market the Star Collectors at a lower price than two individual cruises. We sail next in forty two days. The boat sails with passengers for the first time on December 28.

OurTravels34

I have also booked back-to-back one week trips with Tauck. It's a great way to utilize the gift of time days and Tauck's insurance. I’ve utilized two gift-of-time days that way. When I had trouble figuring out the actual start and end days of a trip, where one began and another started, Tauck helped me with their software figuring out which of my trips I was interested in would work back-to-back with a couple of days in between on our own. We did have to navigate on our own where one trip ended and the other began. That wasn’t a problem with the Italian trains and making train reservations on Trainline. This is when speaking with Tauck’s Journey Preparation Department helps. They had to straighten out a little error that a Tauck reservationist made which was that there are only a certain amount of times that Tauck's complimentary transportation service would pick us up, and transport us to our Tauck hotels. On 2 back-to-back trips, it’s 4 times and we had more. We were able to train or taxi wherever needed to be at any given time where Tauck wouldn’t pick us up.

On another note: I am exploring a "barge" trip that I just received a catalog from (not Tauck). Has anyone taken a "barge" river experience. Some of these barges only hold a maximum of 8 - 12 people. I suppose they are very slow paced but what a way to relax and unwind before any longer journey starts. I'm just wondering if it would be just too slow for me. Comments appreciated.

Wan

Sealord, I sort of had a similar thought when I saw that a few of these river cruises depart and/or end in Paris. Would be pretty easy to do back to back, if the timing lines up. If only someone (ahem) could tolerate being away from home that long.

British

😂😂Tell him there will soon be a time when you will no longer be able to travel and you will be totally fed up of being at home…. Just like Covid times!

Wan

British: That won't work! He is never tired of being at home! And now that football is on TV almost year round, well...
But I am nothing if not persistent.

Sealord

Our travels; Barge trips can be a little bit like , “Murder on the Orient Express”. I had friends who did a barge trip with one other couple who were good friends before the trip. After the trip they never spoke to each other again. In my view you want to do a trip that is large enough to allow you to escape from people who annoy the stuff out of you. I have only had a problem on one Tauck trip, but it was a couple we could not get away from … from Malibu. I think the proper size for a tour is one that is just large enough to allow you to avoid people that are having a negative impact on your experience.

OurTravels34

Sealord: you made me almost fall off my chair. That is hysterical and oh so true. Too much togetherness is not good even with HH (my handsome hubby). I need time with friends, etc and other interests.
Wan: both of our husbands are brothers from different mothers. My husband does like getting away. However, he loves checking the computer for his adopted second career much too often that, in my humble opinion, interferes with life during the day, telemedicine. He has 30 medical licenses that I know of. Who does that?

British

I try to not pick small groups for Tauck tours, yes, a variety of people to hang out with is so much better.

Ben

I am sure there is a thesis paper on how, where and who we travel with in the works by someone. One set of couples we met had husbands that "needed" to be back home after 14 days and therefore the wives did the second of back to back cruises with each other.
Two years ago we met a three widows in their late 70's that always travel together. They would schedule back to back tours and had the philosophy that the tours didn't need to end and start in the same city as long as they could get there in 4 or 5 hours by high speed train.

Claudia Sails

We've done back-to-back Tauck tours 3 times and none of them involved the same city. One ended in London where we took a train to Edinburgh to start the next. After Switzerland Crown jewels we flew from Zurich to Paris/Versailles for the Normandy land tour. Last summer was a river cruise ending in Amsterdam and then we caught a flight to Stockholm to start the Scandinavia tour. The trickier aspect is what to do if one tour ends more than a day or two before the other starts. You need to figure out where to stay and maybe how to get to the airport/train station. Always easiest to stay in the Tauck hotel but might not be the most economical.

gladysorlando984

I have never done back to back tours, that is something to look for in the future. When I was working there was no way that I could do back to back and after I retired I guess never gave it a thought.

MikeHenderson

We did the 14 day tour of the UK and then went immediately to the 14 day tour of Ireland. It was a longer total trip than we normally take.

We also did an 11 day Tauck tour of Sicily, the Amfali coast and Rome, and then went to a 12 day tour of Egypt with another provider.

I want to go back to Egypt now to see the GEM.

For several reasons we have a limit to how long we can be gone . A month is about the maximum.

Alina

We have booked back to back trips for next year. The Rhone River cruise ends in Geneva and the Week in Switzerland starts in Geneva two days later. It just seemed that it was meant to be.

mfrancis

We did back to back Christmas Markets trips in 2022. Started in Vienna on the Danube, then flew from Nuremberg to Amsterdam to begin the Yuletide trip the same day. Great way to enjoy the holiday season.

Goddess

I've done 3 different back to back Tauck trips, with another in the planning stages. It's great when the scheduling works.

Wan

Has anyone out there ever combined a Pace level 3 land tour with a river cruise? I find that I can handle about 2 maybe 3 weeks of a typical Tauck land tour. For example, by the end of the Australia/NZ trip, I felt tired, due to the lack of sleep. For me, a pace level of 3 comes down to about 6 hours of sleep per night, which is not enough for me. Yes, I could skip activities to get more rest but I never want to! It seems to me that a 2-week land tour followed by a river cruise would not be so bad. We have toured Europe on our own, and that is not nearly as taxing as a Tauck itinerary, even though we are generally getting in 15-20,000 steps per day on our own. I think it is especially the early morning departures that are taxing. Appreciate your experiences.

Claudia Sails

We have but we did it the other way around - cruise first and land tour after. Doing it first can give you the chance to adjust to jetlag before the land tour where you might have early starts.

One thing that makes the river cruise easier is you can just skip the excursion and stay on the ship or do some self guided touring if the ship is docked near walkable sights. I also find the dinners on board the ship give me more flexibility for a lighter/shorter meal and early bedtime. The Tauck hotel dinners I'm getting less and less fond of.