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August or October for Rhine?


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The best weather is going to be an individual opinion. I prefer cooler temps for touring, so I would choose October. In fact, I have a Basel to Amsterdam cruise booked for this coming October. The other advantage to October is you don't have the crowds you do in August. Most of Europe seems to go on vacation in August.

 

Roz

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I am looking at AMA Captiving Rhine cruise from Amsterdam to Zurich.

 

I am looking at August or October.

 

Which would be the best weather to go?

 

I would go with August if it is not a lot more money. The weather can be cool in October. Never river cruise in Europe in the spring as the rivers are high and the ship may be able to go anywhere.

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As Roz has said, weather is an individual opinion. For splendid photographs, ice cream parlours full of people and "t-shirt weather" go in August. Most school children in Germany are off school for the greater part of August, the whole of France is on holiday in August (all children, even some big companies have a holiday closure). August can be hot and busy, but if you go end of August into September you will find this a nice time, I should think. Also bear in mind that there is quite a difference in sunlight availability between August and October. October is sometimes mild and warm but the evenings are chilly. Mid-October is a great time for autumn foliage. October also has a slight risk of low water which could disrupt your journey (this does not happen every year). October is nicer for excursions in towns as there will be fewer crowds (but towns will sometimes still be busy) and hot and stuffy air will hardly ever bother you as it might in August. Daylight saving time ends on 28th October and 1 November is a public holiday in some of the countries that you will be going through.

 

In short: I would prefer early October to early August but late August to late October.

 

Just a note on the itinerary: it sounds nice, the oddity is the stop in Ludwigshafen which I find inferior to stopping in Speyer or Mannheim. The landing stage in Ludwigshafen that AmaWaterways will use, I suspect is the new one at the ECE shopping centre to be put into service this year (the landing stage, not the shopping centre, the latter has been there for some years). We will need to see how that fares with river cruise passengers.

 

Have fun planning.

 

notamermaid

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I'll put in my vote for October over August. Fewer crowds and cooler days and nights. Great fall color along the Rhine. Personal preference though. We are fall and winter travelers rather than summer travelers. We were in Prague in December a few years ago. It was very cold but the Christmas markets were wonderful!

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We were on the Rhine early October this year. It was cool, sometimes a bit rainy especially in Amsterdam, but very nice none the less. The low crowds made it worthwhile. We also had many bright, sunny days as we traveled towards Basel. I definitely do October again.

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  • 3 weeks later...

We've done April (AMS to Basel) and late October (VIE to AMS) April was very cold. October was mild with a few days that were pretty cool but not frigid. In April, the water was a little high but we had no problem. The wheelhouse was lowered a couple of times to get under a bridge but no other issues. In October of 2016 the rivers were very low. Most cruise lines had to bus their pax between ships because the ships couldn't make it up, or down, the river. Our Avalon ship sailed right on through with no issues. Avalon has newer ships with shallow drafts engineered specifically to deal with low water conditions.

 

We are doing our third Avalon in July. Water should be just right. I hope it's not too hot. We'll be trying to escape Texas heat at that time.

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