Excellent video. Watched this after returning from a Danube Cruise to see IF I agree...and I absolutely do. We love ocean/sea big ship cruising, but now also love river cruising. Every point you make is accurate. We enjoyed our ship, the crew, the food, the ease, and the itinerary.
Thanks for this video and many others on river cruising. Hubby and I going on one for our 30th anniversary this summer and we are really excited! I’ve been on an ocean cruise and it really wasn’t for me. We aren’t partiers and I get seasick and don’t like being around loads of people so sadly we think even a Mediterranean cruise is probably out for us.
Well your right on the money again. Wife an I have 8 river cruises under our belt with Grand Circle Travel, including Egypt, when it was safe. Would do again if possible. Love your videos, excellent work.
We're doing the Viking Grand European Tour next fall, and even though they have free excursions, additional excursions add up quickly and are costing us nearly $1800 more which was a little surprising.
I'm taking a cruise in Europe in September, but that one's on Holland America, a more "normal" style cruise. After seeing this video, I'm thinking that the river cruise style is probably not for me, but it took watching this video for me to be more certain. So thanks!
My wife and I have traveled a lot in Europe, but never taken a river cruise. One of my biggest concerns is that we love to explore and find our own out-of-the-way restaurants. If you're on a cruise you've already paid for three meals a day. If you choose to have dinner off of the ship, then you're purchasing dinner twice. That seems like a waste to us.
I do understand Bill's point though. I haven't done a river cruise yet, but I have the same concern on ocean cruises. If I have the meals already included, it doesn't feel right to buy yet another meal. That's the same reason I don't care to do the specialty restaurants on cruises if there is a surcharge.
We did Amsterdam to Budapest a few years ago, we loved it, my liver didn't. We are treating it as a recon run. To learn we liked and didn't like about different parts of Europe.
could you do reasons to do escorted bus train tour vs travel packages flight hotel train or rental car museum tickets, river cruise , vs ocean cruise excursions?
danube, elbe, main are my favourite european rivers. many bus tours only or land only destination mean no cruise can reach pesaro, Bergamo, madrid, toledo, cremona, leipzig, eisenach, halle, zwickau. river cruises are excellent, truly all inclusive, many bus tours reach many more sites but rushed, yet can be excellent value just admissions are not included nor meals. grocery shopping or cafeteria can be better value than gourmet dining. berlin, paris, brussels, seville, cordoba, milano, florence, rome, while offered as ocean excursions are more efficient by land tour. scandinavia and especially st petersburg russia, turkey allow ocean excursions to skip visa, not sure if this is true for india,mvietnam, cambodia. yes river cruises mean no seasickness, nor bus motion sickness. love unpack once for river cruises.
of all travel methods: independent rental car, independent train, package train flights hotels museums but unguided, regular bus tour, rail tour, river cruise, barge, ocean cruises, .... could you do a video explaining which destinations are ideal or efficient, and which people would benefit most from each method of travel, please feel free to add other methods of travel i have not thought of. on right bus tours such as faith journeys, classical music specialized tours bonus is operas, concerts, recitals, dance shows, ballet, choral performances, theatre plays are built in the itinerary, down side is these admission tickets tend to at a premium cost. there should be a classical music lovers europe travel company for budget or low income travellers. very few organized bus tours visit bergamo, busseto, cremona, eisenach, halle, zwickau, leipzig for various composers homes, and few if any offer affordable musical, dance, theatre performances for budget travellers. river cruises are limited to cities, towns on river or short drive away? ocean cruises are even more limited, and excursions make a lot of time wasted each day. not to mention extremely marked up, even riding all day taxi for group of three or more is less expensive than each of us taking shore excursion but for the fact of long distances between port and destination, guarantee ship will wait. river cruises and bus tours should offer more free time, explain all the options, good map, on booking website suggest which attractions you need to buy tickets for in advance for which time. too many bus tours become photo safaris with barely enough time to take pictures get off get back on bus go to toilet buy snack, or lunch, shop for tour managers kickback, with almost no time alloted for museum, art gallery, other normal expectations. river cruises should offer more free options with cities right near ship or easy public transport ride.
Wonderful video and extremely informative. We are taking our first river cruise at Christmastime on Vantage's Voyager through Germany. We are a gay couple in our early 50's and are concerned that group will be much older than us and that they may not feel comfortable with us.
Not to worry. The level of sophistication of the travelers on the four river cruises (3 Viking, 1 UniWorld) I’ve been on, has been, as noted in this video very adult, and sophisticated for the most part. On each of the cruises there were gay couples and they were simply passengers, not gay passengers. A friend (not gay) and I met up with a married gay couple on a Viking Cruise in France last June and had a great time, but gay wasn’t a factor! And NO fifties is Not too young. In my experience, that’s about the median age. There were older, as well as younger, but note, this is NOT a sedentary experience. You get out and move
All your points sound excellent and I realize the title is Reasons "to do" European Cruises. Many other of your videos present a more balanced view, will you being doing another video perhaps outlining more good points, and a few not so good points? Thanks for this and your other videos.
Perhaps comment re chances of going by bus because the water is too high/too low and cost vs Ocean cruising. We haven't done river cruising (yet) because of the risk of getting a bus tour. We understand why it costs more because it is a smaller ship and more inclusive of various costs. (We have over 400 days on ocean cruising, mainly HAL) Again thanks for your videos and info.
You take a River Cruise and stop at a small city or town, take an exclusion, on the average what do you generally see, their older churches, a museum or what?
The classic tours tend to focus on the historic and so will focus on buildings, churches and museums but increasingly there are now options offered and a choice to do more active tour like cycling and hiking through countryside and / or culinary and wine visits to farms etc
Do the boats have single cabins, or does a single traveler have to pay for 2 people? If there are single cabins, do they come with a view, or are they inside? Thank you for an informative video.
Bob Hepburn I took an Emerald Waterways cruise down the Rhine in August. They had 2 single rooms. All rooms have windows, but the lower rooms just have small windows close to the waterline. Loved the cruise.
Excellent video. Watched this after returning from a Danube Cruise to see IF I agree...and I absolutely do. We love ocean/sea big ship cruising, but now also love river cruising. Every point you make is accurate. We enjoyed our ship, the crew, the food, the ease, and the itinerary.
Someone who never considered doing a European River cruise will surely start considering it after this video. Great video, very detailed.
Thanks for this video and many others on river cruising. Hubby and I going on one for our 30th anniversary this summer and we are really excited!
I’ve been on an ocean cruise and it really wasn’t for me. We aren’t partiers and I get seasick and don’t like being around loads of people so sadly we think even a Mediterranean cruise is probably out for us.
Booked our first river cruise for August 2023 with Emerald🤞hoping it will be as good as your videos show it to be
Thank you Gary. You always share the best tips & info. Much appreciated.
Another great video, Gary. Well done!
Well your right on the money again. Wife an I have 8 river cruises under our belt with Grand Circle Travel, including Egypt, when it was safe. Would do again if possible. Love your videos, excellent work.
Thanks as always for watching and commenting!
It is always great to hear your thoughts and feedback. Egypt I want to do as only done land tour there long time ago
Nice one Gary, very reliable and detailed information. My wife and I are very keen to try one on our first trip to Europe in 2020.
I recently subscribed and have been watching old videos very informative thank you
We're doing the Viking Grand European Tour next fall, and even though they have free excursions, additional excursions add up quickly and are costing us nearly $1800 more which was a little surprising.
I'm taking a cruise in Europe in September, but that one's on Holland America, a more "normal" style cruise. After seeing this video, I'm thinking that the river cruise style is probably not for me, but it took watching this video for me to be more certain. So thanks!
Have you been on a river cruise and got any other good reasons to do one to add??
great news I can't wait to go on a river cruise
Great to hear! They are great
My wife and I have traveled a lot in Europe, but never taken a river cruise. One of my biggest concerns is that we love to explore and find our own out-of-the-way restaurants. If you're on a cruise you've already paid for three meals a day. If you choose to have dinner off of the ship, then you're purchasing dinner twice. That seems like a waste to us.
I do understand Bill's point though. I haven't done a river cruise yet, but I have the same concern on ocean cruises. If I have the meals already included, it doesn't feel right to buy yet another meal. That's the same reason I don't care to do the specialty restaurants on cruises if there is a surcharge.
Sounds like something i may want to do.
Sounds good, I like it!
We did Amsterdam to Budapest a few years ago, we loved it, my liver didn't. We are treating it as a recon run. To learn we liked and didn't like about different parts of Europe.
could you do reasons to do escorted bus train tour vs travel packages flight hotel train or rental car museum tickets, river cruise , vs ocean cruise excursions?
danube, elbe, main are my favourite european rivers. many bus tours only or land only destination mean no cruise can reach pesaro, Bergamo, madrid, toledo, cremona, leipzig, eisenach, halle, zwickau. river cruises are excellent, truly all inclusive, many bus tours reach many more sites but rushed, yet can be excellent value just admissions are not included nor meals. grocery shopping or cafeteria can be better value than gourmet dining. berlin, paris, brussels, seville, cordoba, milano, florence, rome, while offered as ocean excursions are more efficient by land tour. scandinavia and especially st petersburg russia, turkey allow ocean excursions to skip visa, not sure if this is true for india,mvietnam, cambodia. yes river cruises mean no seasickness, nor bus motion sickness. love unpack once for river cruises.
Thank you subscribed..
of all travel methods: independent rental car, independent train, package train flights hotels museums but unguided, regular bus tour, rail tour, river cruise, barge, ocean cruises, .... could you do a video explaining which destinations are ideal or efficient, and which people would benefit most from each method of travel, please feel free to add other methods of travel i have not thought of. on right bus tours such as faith journeys, classical music specialized tours bonus is operas, concerts, recitals, dance shows, ballet, choral performances, theatre plays are built in the itinerary, down side is these admission tickets tend to at a premium cost. there should be a classical music lovers europe travel company for budget or low income travellers. very few organized bus tours visit bergamo, busseto, cremona, eisenach, halle, zwickau, leipzig for various composers homes, and few if any offer affordable musical, dance, theatre performances for budget travellers. river cruises are limited to cities, towns on river or short drive away? ocean cruises are even more limited, and excursions make a lot of time wasted each day. not to mention extremely marked up, even riding all day taxi for group of three or more is less expensive than each of us taking shore excursion but for the fact of long distances between port and destination, guarantee ship will wait. river cruises and bus tours should offer more free time, explain all the options, good map, on booking website suggest which attractions you need to buy tickets for in advance for which time. too many bus tours become photo safaris with barely enough time to take pictures get off get back on bus go to toilet buy snack, or lunch, shop for tour managers kickback, with almost no time alloted for museum, art gallery, other normal expectations. river cruises should offer more free options with cities right near ship or easy public transport ride.
like one other poster said river cruises are like bus tours, ocean cruises are like going to a resort. no real comparison
Great video Gary. I'm already to go on a river cruise--if only I had the money.
What is the best river cruise to go on for beginners?
Either the Rhine or Danube (such as Nuremberg or Passau to or from Budapest).
Wonderful video and extremely informative. We are taking our first river cruise at Christmastime on Vantage's Voyager through Germany. We are a gay couple in our early 50's and are concerned that group will be much older than us and that they may not feel comfortable with us.
Not to worry. The level of sophistication of the travelers on the four river cruises (3 Viking, 1 UniWorld) I’ve been on, has been, as noted in this video very adult, and sophisticated for the most part. On each of the cruises there were gay couples and they were simply passengers, not gay passengers. A friend (not gay) and I met up with a married gay couple on a Viking Cruise in France last June and had a great time, but gay wasn’t a factor! And NO fifties is Not too young. In my experience, that’s about the median age. There were older, as well as younger, but note, this is NOT a sedentary experience. You get out and move
I am sure you will be fine.
All your points sound excellent and I realize the title is Reasons "to do" European Cruises. Many other of your videos present a more balanced view, will you being doing another video perhaps outlining more good points, and a few not so good points? Thanks for this and your other videos.
Thanks! Yes I was thinking of doing one about watch outs and things to check before going on one and with different lines
Perhaps comment re chances of going by bus because the water is too high/too low and cost vs Ocean cruising. We haven't done river cruising (yet) because of the risk of getting a bus tour. We understand why it costs more because it is a smaller ship and more inclusive of various costs. (We have over 400 days on ocean cruising, mainly HAL) Again thanks for your videos and info.
You take a River Cruise and stop at a small city or town, take an exclusion, on the average what do you generally see, their older churches, a museum or what?
The classic tours tend to focus on the historic and so will focus on buildings, churches and museums but increasingly there are now options offered and a choice to do more active tour like cycling and hiking through countryside and / or culinary and wine visits to farms etc
Do the boats have single cabins, or does a single traveler have to pay for 2 people? If there are single cabins, do they come with a view, or are they inside? Thank you for an informative video.
Bob Hepburn I took an Emerald Waterways cruise down the Rhine in August. They had 2 single rooms. All rooms have windows, but the lower rooms just have small windows close to the waterline. Loved the cruise.
Thank you for your prompt reply!
Awful question to some. But I'm wondering if there's anywhere I can smoke on a river cruise.
Yes. Usually on a section at the back or at the rear of the top deck
There was on mine.
Are there casinos and smoking allowed on river cruises? I love your videos
No casinos as ships too small and would be lots of regulatory challenges. There are smoking areas, usually on top sun deck
I don't see any pool/party decks or rock climbing walls. Looks super lame.
Not for you, for sure.
European river cruise is where you go to die.... of boredom.
Horses for courses