Romantic Capitals: Paris to Prague
in Rhine River
Are there any reviews of the newest Tauck trip: Romantic Capitals: Paris to Prague
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I think this is a relatively new river cruise. We’re doing this cruise the beginning of October, selecting excursions now. Would love to hear any feedback/reviews as well.
I have this tour on my list for future travel; as such, I hope you will provide a critique of your experiences when you return. Have a terrific journey.
I did this in June (sailing west from Prague to Paris) and absolutely loved it. The "1925 Party" was a blast, too!
If you're staying at the Fairmount Golden Prague, dinner on their 9th floor (iirc) restaurant is not to be missed - the food is great, but when you walk into the restaurant and see the view of the city spires thru the panoramic window, it blew me away (it isn't Tauck sponsored, so you'll need to make a reservation).
The special dinners (Lobkowicz Palace in Prague and Schlosshotel Kronberg in Frankfurt) were superb evenings.
We had 62 on our trip (checking Tauck's site, this was probably the smallest group this tour will have this year). The onboard entertainment was great, we had 3 WONDERFUL tour directors (Inken, Barbara and Ethan), and a great cruise director (Maggie).
Bayreuth's Margravial Opera House is another site not (imho) to be missed. One of the most incredible theatres I have ever been in. See below for a couple of pics. It is a UNESCO World Heritage site.
One thing not on the itinerary was a few hours stop in Koblenz, to see where 2 rivers meet. It was a lovely time. We also visited the WW2 American Cemetery in Luxembourg, which I don't recall being mentioned. Quite a moving experience. If anyone has specific questions, I can try to answer.
Thank you so much for sharing some of your experiences. And so few passengers!
We have found that some of our most memorable dinners have been at Tauck hotels—the Fairmont brand being our favorite.
Can you share the regional cuisine you had on the boat? Thanks in advance.
MarkH - nice pictures. Totally agree on the Opera house. We visited it on the Berlin, Danube, and Krakow tour.
I was wondering if you did the Nuremberg Underground tour/
Did you do the racetrack tour?
It’s on my list too, hopefully in 2027
Re: regional cuisine on board, I'm afraid I paid little attention - just selected what looked best to me on the menu. Probably too focused on conversation. OTOH, I can say I thought the meals were great and had no complaints.
We did have our fill of smoked beer, nicknamed Bacon Beer for it's taste. The bar did stock regional beers, but don't recall names. They were very good.
The one thing that took me by surprise was that there was quite a bit of wine tasting for those who cared to. In Germany I expected there to be a focus on beer, and there was plenty available. But there was also significant opportunity to try regional wines.
Nuremberg had an underground option, but we opted for overground (which we enjoyed very much).
The racetrack was closed for an event the day we were there.
Thank you for all your comments...loved the pictures...anybody know which night is the 1925 party and did most people dress up for it?
We are taking this tour in April ,Prague to Paris. Any excursion recommendations would be greatly appreciated.
We took this last summer (it was GREAT). For us, the Margravial Opera House in Bayreuth was not to be missed - I guess you've seen the pics, above. If you like ancient pianos, the excursion that goes to Wertheim takes you to the home of a gentleman who shows you his collection. He plays brief selections from classical works on each of them.
We skipped the last day's excursion in Paris (which was the Cluny Museum, and the ppl that went there said it was nice) in order to visit Notre Dame Cathedral, Sainte Chapelle, and the Paris Opera House. Hotel got us a taxi, and finding taxis to get from place to place was child's play. Actually, it is less than a 10-minute walk between Notre Dame and Sainte Chapelle.
Here's a pic I took of Sainte Chapelle in the incredible chapel:
Also, the restaurant at/near the top of the Fairmont Golden Prague hotel has a view that is not to be missed. Again, pic is above.
If you scroll on list of topics on the right to "Rhine River" and then go into "The Rhine and Moselle" you will find my two+ part review of my tour there in October. I enjoyed the trip very much. I suggest adding time in Paris and Prague.
We just booked this trip for April 24, 2027 thru May 7, 2027, westbound from Prague. It has two of my last bucket list destinations, Prague and Luxembourg. Really looking forward to it. I turned 80 in July of last year while in Africa on the Tauck Great Migration and Walk with the Gorillas tour. That was fantastic. As I get older, trips that require long flights are getting more difficult, even flying business class. For our upcoming trip to Prague, we will fly business class to Prague, and have booked a transatlantic trip on the Queen Mary 2 to avoid another long dreary flight home. Should be fun. We have done a lot of cruises, but none on a true ocean liner like the Queen Mary 2. Is anyone else booked on the particular tour for April of next year? We are looking forward to the two bike tours listed on the trip itinerary for this year. One states that e-bikes are included, but the other one in Trier does not specifically mention e-bikes. Does anyone who has done this particular tour know if e-bikes are available?
This cruise is on our bucket list so I can't answer your bike question. We did an ebike ride on a different cruise. I will offer that I was surprised how heavy ebikes are compared to regular. Fun ride but you need strength.
Yes Claudia, e-bikes are heavy, about twice the weight of a regular bike. We have two of them. Mine weighs about 60 lbs with the battery and her Trek weighs about 55 lbs. They are only heavy if you have to pick them up if you fall over or need to load them. The electric power more than makes up for the weight of the bike when you are peddling up a hill. I am 80 and my wife 78. We have biked together since we rode a Schwin bicycle built for two when we were married 57 years ago. Having e-bikes now has allowed us to continue to enjoy bicycling in our senior years. The area where we live is slightly hilly. We primarily use the power to get us up the hills that were becoming more difficult for us. While they are heavy, I am able to lift them onto a bike rack on the back of our car.
I enjoyed the experience and would do it again. I hadn't ridden any bike for a long while before that cruise and the CD was concerned so we took out a couple of the ship's regular bikes and spent time riding along the river at one of the ports. The first ebike they gave me was too tall for me to get my leg over while managing the weight and they switched me to a smaller ebike much easier to handle. The weight was a surprise. It's also why they didn't let the 2 young girls on our ride have an ebike. Of course being young they still set a brisk pace for us all.