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Partnering with AmaWaterways, Adventures by Disney offers cruises on the Seine, Rhine, and Danube Rivers, Disney style. Specially designed itineraries and Adventure Guides create experiences for parents, children, and teens, from active excursions to unique onboard activities. Adults-only dinners and wine tasting experiences along with teen programming, Disney movie nights, karaoke, trivia nights, and Junior Adventurer dinners provide entertainment for guests of all ages. Scenic offers both ocean and river cruises, all with emphasis on its fleet of "Space-Ships" and their meticulous design and spacious quarters. Ships offer a wellness area, massage services, gym, e-bikes, and onboard entertainment. German river cruise line A-Rosa has carved a niche for multigenerational river voyages after pioneering its kids club in 2014.
Danube Classics Vienna 2024 (8 destinations)
River Cruises Plan a River Cruise - Cruise Critic
River Cruises Plan a River Cruise.
Posted: Mon, 06 Nov 2023 21:36:09 GMT [source]
Balconies, floor-to-ceiling windows, and open-air viewing are features of most river cruise ships, and some offer pools, spas, fitness areas, and jogging tracks. Founded in 2017 with the goal of making European river cruises more economical and personalized, family-owned American company Teeming River Cruises developed a different river cruise model. Instead of pre-programmed group activities, guests create their own unique experiences with a complimentary city tour app for each destination. Avalon features wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling windows with beds facing the views for ultimate enjoyment from their suites and staterooms. Their deluxe beds and luxurious linens provide comfort in spacious, quiet quarters with ample closet space. Avalon offers "Active & Discovery" river cruises with activities for a variety of energy and fitness levels, from traditional sightseeing to action-packed experiences.
Best Overall European River Cruise: Viking Cruises, Viking Egdir
Some of my favorite cruise experiences include sailing the Rhine during fall or a transatlantic voyage on the Queen Mary 2 during summer. I adore my home city, London, the west coast of Ireland and New York, where I once spent a summer living in Brooklyn Heights on a work abroad program. Outside of travel, my passions are my veggie patch, my record collection and spending time with friends and family. Some lines, however, offer excellent value—especially when you compare the price to the overall cost of a land-based vacation in Europe. One cruise line that consistently offers great value is Emerald Cruises, a river cruise operator that gets travelers more bang for their buck—without compromising on quality or service. As standard, Emerald’s eight Europe-based “Star-Ships” offer a generous number of inclusions built into the cost of the cruise, with typically lower entry level fares.
The 10 Best River Cruise Lines in Europe for Every Traveler
Grand Circle generally draws travelers aged over 50 and is a popular line for Americans cruising the rivers of Europe. Grand Circle attracts a high number of repeat passengers, drawn by value-for-money fares that are often lower than other European river cruises. In addition to the main dining room, ships have smaller venues where every passenger can have a meal. There's also the exclusive Table La Rive fine dining experience for Diamond Deck suite guests. Daily activities feature a wide choice of included shore tours so you can personalize your cruise experience. With more itineraries than any other, Viking is the best cruise line in Europe for first-time river cruisers.
Tauck's ships carry fewer passengers than riverboats of a similar size, so it's easy for solo travelers to make new friends. You'll also find a high number of inclusions, such as all drinks from the bar and with meals, to create a stress-free sailing with no hidden extras. The eight-day "Traveling on the Elbe and Havel" cruise covers Germany's north on rivers and canals aboard the Frederick Chopin. A guided tour takes guests through Autostadt Wolfsburg, a park dedicated to the history of the automobile. In Hamburg, there's a city tour and harbor cruise before the cruise continues to the Baltic resort, Laboe, and ends in Kiel.
There's a walking tour of Chalon-Sur-Sâone and time to browse through St. Jean de Losne. This Austrian family business dates back more than 40 years and offers European river cruises on its fleet of 16 AMADEUS ships. Five-star service, facilities, and cuisine are their hallmarks, and their ships feature wide panoramic windows and a spacious sun deck. Uniworld's one-of-a-kind vessels are inspired by the locales they visit, making their luxurious ships a destination in themselves.
The guided tour also visits the somber Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial on Omaha Beach. The stellar 2022-built Viking Egdir, carrying 190 passengers, offers a ringside seat of bucolic vineyards and medieval castles on the Rhine, Main and Danube. It also takes passengers to some of Europe's blockbuster cities, including Budapest, Vienna, Cologne and Amsterdam. Passengers can sip on fine wines in the Wachau Valley, wander Regensburg's UNESCO-listed old town and marvel at Vienna's Habsburg-period architecture. Itineraries feature guided trips to revered museums, cathedrals, and palaces—complemented by slow days sailing these scenic waterways.
Best European River Cruise Line for Active Travelers: Avalon Waterways
AmaWaterways is the only cruise line on Europe's rivers to be a member of the prestigious international gastronomy organization Chaine des Rotisseurs. Additionally, the line's culinary director is a member of the French association Tables et Auberges de France. The one-week route doesn't take you far but does include the walled city of Padua, the charming fishing village of Chioggia, and the culinary mecca of Bologna. Due to fluctuating water levels and narrow passages, the Elbe is a challenging river that runs 680 miles between the Czech Republic and Germany.
The cruise line’s soothing Scandinavian aesthetic combines a chic design with spacious accommodations that include river views or private verandas, and sails also include drinks during mealtimes, shore excursions and Wi-Fi. Celebrating their 20th anniversary in 2022, this family-owned and operated cruise company focuses on excellent food and wine, tasteful décor, stateroom views, and innovation in their luxurious fleet. Fares include fitness classes, shore excursions, and all dining on board, including The Chef's Table specialty restaurant. New ships debut each year, and the spacious AmaMagna, launched in 2019, is nearly twice the width of traditional European cruise ships. Guests are kept busy (if they wish to be) with daily shore excursions, and most cruises offer several options depending on interests and activity levels.
Passengers can dine on fresh wood-fired pizza at Cielo's and sip Bellinis at Hari's Bar, all while taking in views of Venice's sparkling lagoon. For those looking for a longer experience, Uniworld cleverly combines a Po cruise with luxury rail journeys to places like Istanbul, Switzerland and beyond. You're in a small floating hotel, exploring calm inland waters, gliding past castles and vineyards and scenery that changes by the hour. The fleetwide reservation-only Vintage Room is set up for private dining, with an extravagant seven-course wine-pairing menu. CroisiEurope is the only line to sail on the Loire River in France, with a specially designed modern paddlewheeler to navigate low water levels. Similar vessels sail France's lesser-known Elbe River and CroisiEurope is also the only line to sail on Spain's Guadalquivir River and the Vltava River in the Czech Republic.
Airport transfers to and from the ship, drinks (non-alcoholic, beer and wine) with lunch and dinner, gratuities, Wi-Fi and a plethora of shore excursions are included. There are often excellent deals to be had, too, such as free flight credit when booking early, buy-one-get-one-free offers and reduced-single supplement for solo travelers. Emerald’s ships are unquestionably elegant, including the 180-guest Emerald Luna, which sails Europe’s Rhine, Main, Danube and Moselle rivers. Guests on board can enjoy a heated pool that transforms into a cinema, spacious suites and a dedicated wellness area. Emerald offers both yacht and river cruises, with a range of cruises on the rivers in Europe. Founded in 2013, Emerald now features a fleet of nine "Star-Ships," with stylish suites, first-class amenities, and room for 180 guests.
Each all-inclusive cruise holds just eight to 20 passengers and can also be chartered by families and groups. Fancy associations aside, these credentials translate into some truly awesome dining experiences. European ships have the cozy Chef's Table restaurant where all guests get to dine for free once every cruise. Belmond has another way to cruise some of Europe's rivers — on luxury barges with private chefs and excursions like truffle hunting, hot air ballooning, canoeing, and wine tasting. The elegant barges cruise the waterways of Burgundy, Provence, Alsace, Champagne, Languedoc, and Franche-Comté from April to October. The eight-day Danube River Cruise starts in Budapest where excursions include a horse show at an equestrian park and a goulash-making competition for Adventurers.
To help you out, we've taken a look at 10 lines, from the familiar to the lesser-known, so you can decide the best river cruise line in Europe for you. The six-day "Highlights of the Rhine" cruise begins in Cologne and cruises on to Rotterdam and then Amsterdam the following day. Options include a bus tour, canal tour, pedal boats, or private auto tour, each at an additional cost. The "Charming Castles & Vineyards of the Rhine & Moselle" begins with arrival in Frankfurt and transfer to Mainz for boarding. There's a private classical music concert and tour of Reichsburg Castle along the way, as well as optional visits to the Mercedes-Benz factory or a walking tour of Strasbourg and its magnificent cathedral. Bordeaux serves up the opportunity to sip Medoc, Margaux, Saint-Emilion, Pomerol and Sauternes wines as you expand your wine education.
From the Rhine to the Douro, from the Main to the Danube, we have cruises all through Europe, ranging from 1 days up to 31 days. The most popular month for these cruises is August, which has the most tour departures. Adventures by Disney is, unsurprisingly, one of the best river cruise lines for families in Europe. The line charters AmaWaterways and, while you shouldn't expect a bevy of Disney branding on the ship, Disney's Adventure Guides are trained to bring kids into the river cruise experience. European Waterways has 17 barges sailing along the less-visited waterways in the U.K., France, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Italy. Most European Waterways ships are old working barges, though the casual houseboat atmosphere includes beautiful modern interiors.
AmaWaterways ups its dedication to active cruisers with a bevy of wellness spaces as well, including massage rooms, a fitness center, open-air spin classes on the sun deck and a pool. However, despite being twice as wide as most river ships in Europe, there are only about 30% more travelers onboard (just shy of 200 passengers). Established in 1976, Croisi offers cruises on rivers, canals, and seas with a fleet of oceangoing ships, canal barges, and river cruise ships. The company's innovative approach allowed them to be pioneers on several rivers in Europe including the Gironde, Loire, Po, and Elbe, basing their ships' design on the characteristics of the waterways. For a lazy, dreamy, wonderful river cruise experience, nothing quite beats exploring the wine regions of Portugal on the Douro, one of the major rivers through the Iberian Peninsula. The home base for these river cruises is Porto, Portugal, with its historic city center, spectacular bridges and port houses.
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