River Cruises

For most tourists the phrase "cruise vacation" conjures images of indolent time spent on deck chairs sipping tropical drinks while being transported across warm seas to the next sun-drenched tropical islet. But there is a different sort of cruise, which can bring an entirely new experience to the excitement of cruising: European river cruises.

Regardless of whether you are new to cruising on ships or if it is an activity you have indulged in often, one advantage of European river travel is that it's an activity that you can enjoy in every season, unlike tropical cruises.

European river cruises will let you observe parts of Europe which are simply unreachable to ocean class cruise ships. You'll get a close look at some of Europe's most momentous historical sites.

European river travel is available both in the highly urbanized areas of Europe and in its backwoods. You will be able to choose from an assortment of journeys to suit your specific interests. And you can also choose the degree of sumptuousness you want on your ship, from complete to more Spartan.

There are lots of options for European river cruises, both for the busy traveler who just needs a relaxing add-on to an existing trip, and to the leisured voyager who can take off weeks at a time to cruise at a slow pace. While self-catering options with small boats are available, most river cruise ships on Europe's rivers are outright floating hotels.

If you want to go the full way, the best trip that you can go on is a one-month voyage across the continent's main rivers, the Rhine and the Danube, which are connected by canals in southern Germany. With this kind of boat cruises, European river travel will take you all the way from Holland to the Black Sea.

This kind of European river cruise will allow you to explore the charming lowlands of the Netherlands, the forested areas between Germany and France, with the incredible backdrop of the Rhine in this area, and then to cruise through Bavaria and Austria, Hungary, and finally to the well-preserved Danube delta in Romania.

If you are already accustomed to cruises on big liners, you will be pleasantly surprised by the pace and also at the level of personal attention that the ship crew will be able to give you on European river travel. As the groups of passengers are smaller, much more will be done to make sure that each passenger is well taken care off.

You may be so overcome by the slower, more graceful experience of European river cruises, in fact, that you permanently trade in all your tropical apparel for something a bit warmer!