to river cruise or land trip

[sandybeachy]

After a Nile cruise last year we were all set to book a river cruise in Europe - would like to see Prague, Vienna, Budapest and maybe Bucharest. Received a dvd from Viking and now not so sure that cruising is for us. The dvd spent lots of time talking about dining and we saw people playing cards, etc and looking board "enjoying" the local dancers, singers.

 

Our focus is to enjoy the towns, sites and people of Europe and not the dinner, playing cards, etc. Did you get enough time on the tours to see the cities? Can you get off the boat after dinner for a walk, etc? Comments?

[sands28]

We have been on two river cruises (Uniworld-Seine River) and AMA (Danube). We are booked on Uniworld's River Tosca on the Nile (hopefully in October) and are planning on taking Uniworld's Lisbon and Duoro Trip next Spring.

 

We take river cruises based on the itinerary, not the food, gambling, entertainment, etc. River cruises have one land excusion in each port and provide additional free time to WALK into town and explore on your own. On the cruises we took we never saw anyone playing cards or games. These trips are port intensive. After spending the day on shore and prehaps an evening, one is pretty tired. The main evening entertainment are local performers who board the ship and do their thing after dinner.

 

We enjoy the evening orientation for the next day, the guided port tours, and the ability to spend time on our own exploring places we are especially interested in.

 

After several ocean cruises and two river cruises I highly doubt we will many more large ship, ocean trips!!!

[Kellie Poodle]

I think Viking might not have had the best advertising advice when they made that video;). They should have concentrated more on the advantages of river cruising, like the ability to really explore the towns along the way. See if you can get a video from one or two of the other lines. It might change your impression of river cruising.

 

We did a Budapest to Amsterdam cruise with Uniworld. We sailed mostly at night, spending all day in the wonderfully scenic towns along the route. We would awake just as the boat was tying onto the pier of a new town and think we'd traveled such a long distance, when in reality, we could have done the trip in less than an hour on the Autobahn, but we would not have seen all those beautiful sights from the boat. We would definitely have missed the magnificent sunsets, the reflections of the lights and the rising moon on the water as we passed by.

 

Doing a land tour is, to me, very tiring. I hate living out of a suit case, packing and unpacking all the time. I am not at all fond of riding on buses or trying to find my way around in places where I don't speak the language well or at all.

 

That's one of the great thing about river cruising, your hotel follows you wherever you go. The cruise lines employ wonderful people who are there to make your trip special for you. The cruise director will and other staff will always help you to plan things to do on your own after the sponsored tours.

[sk8teacher]

I have not seen the Viking video, but I can assure you that is not a good example of river cruising. I agree that they should have shown samples of a walking tour perhaps, a quick look at a typical cabin (including the cheap seats :D), and perhaps a tour of one of their ships. On most lines the cabins are all the same size, and you pay more the higher up you go. Personally, we usually get the lowest category depending on the ship. For example, Viking Europe cabins are all 150 sq ft, except for Cat E which is 135 sq ft, and has pullman beds which we hate.

 

Evening entertainment can be interesting when they bring aboard a local entertainer, but typically it is one of the crew playing a keyboard or something simiar. The attendance is usually slim as most are quite tired from a walking tour in the morning, and then a walkabout on their own in the afternoon. Remember that unlike ocean cruising, a river cruise is very port intensive. You will be in a port every day.

 

River cruisng is intense, and yet more relaxing than ocean cruising. Once you have done one, you will want to do another.

 

Cheers,

[kuldalai]

The marketing Whizkids at the various cruise lines think we are obsessed with food and grog, linen sheet counts, pillow menus and all sorts of other guff .(when of course most of us want a nice basic cabin with basic good food and service.)

 

The promotional DVD's for all cruise lines focus on the the ship and its facilities, and not on the locations visited .

 

I would take a European River cruise any time over a land tour .

* Unpack once your hotel travels with you.

* A lot of the cruising is done from late evening overnight to early am next morning.

* Daylight cruising of course over the really scenic bits.

* Typical day - Breakfast on board, then ships walking tour of the port of call. Return to ship for lunch if you want . Free time to explore afternoon or ships excursion. Dinner on board . Free time ashore in evening or entertainment by local artists on board .

* The river cruises visit all sorts of smaller cities that you would never see on a mainstream coach tour holiday.

* Most lines include a range of optional tours at no extra cost in each port.

[sandybeachy]

We have never been on a tour either except for Egypt were we had a private guide for our family trip and a few nights we did wander a little w/o our guide. In Europe we have taken trains and rented cars but sometimes did a day tour. I have always heard lots of positives of river cruising but perhaps I am just having difficulty giving up my control of the trip. Hoping that if we cruise we will still have a chance to "get lost" in the towns and sit in the pubs/coffee shops and meet the locals as not speaking the language has never been a deterant to us.

[MVPinBoynton]

We never saw any card playing on our AMA Danube cruise. I would much rather do a river cruise over a land tour to the same area. Like mentioned earlier, it is so nice not to have to pack and unpack every day or two. Riding along the river watching the towns pass by is much nicer than being on a bus also. Cabins on the AMA ships are 170 sq. ft. and very roomy for a ship. You can see what our experience was like in our review on our website www.thepreismans.com.

[Paulinda]

River crusing is a much more relaxing way to travel because of the reasons already given. Land cruises can be nice if you want to see more of the towns and villages but that usually comes with a more hectic pace and schedule. Pack-unpack-pack again. Move from one hotel to the next. Sit on a bus and look outside the window. etc ect.

 

I'm in favor of doing the river cruise and then renting a car to do some after cruising sightseeing on your own. Stay a few extra days and go to a town or two that interests you. Plan some day trips. As long as you are there make the most of it!

 

Have a great trip no matter what!

[giraffelt]

For us the answer to the question of cruise vs tour is, it depends. we enjoy cruising for all the reasons given in previous replies but we also do land tours. It all depends on the itinerary. What hasn't been mentioned in the posts, IMO, is that for cities like Prague, Budapest, Vienna you can't do them justice with just 1 day. We have been to all of them on a land tour and spent on average 3 days in each and could have spent more time.

 

When we cruise we also add on our own pre- and post- excursions.

We are doing a Rhone cruise in July but flying over 5 days earlier and renting a car to visit towns and villages you don't see from the river. Then at the end of cruise we are going to Paris for 5 days.

There are some places I just won't consider doing via cruise because spending 6-7 hours doesn't cut it.

Everyone has their own idea of what works best for them.

 

Larry

[caviargal]

We have never been on a tour either except for Egypt were we had a private guide for our family trip and a few nights we did wander a little w/o our guide. In Europe we have taken trains and rented cars but sometimes did a day tour. I have always heard lots of positives of river cruising but perhaps I am just having difficulty giving up my control of the trip. Hoping that if we cruise we will still have a chance to "get lost" in the towns and sit in the pubs/coffee shops and meet the locals as not speaking the language has never been a deterant to us.

 

This is my opinion after 25 or so land trips to Europe (no tours, I am an independent traveler) and two river cruises. There is quite a bit of dead time on river cruises. Be very careful to select an itinerary with lots of port time and overnight stays if this is a concern. We pay a lot of attention to this after two cruises with too much boat time when we would have much preferred being in town and exploring.

 

We personally prefer a land vacation in Europe. We like to be out and about enjoying local food, pubs, etc. and do not like deadlines and spending time on the boat just going from place to place.

 

We river cruise when we travel with my mother who is elderly and it works well. But for just my husband and I, we would rather the adventure and flexibility of a trip that uses the train systems and has us planning our own days and evenings.

[newlondon]

I think both points of view have merit. DW and I like to independent travel when we can manage the language and the driving; ie. France and the UK. The rest of Europe we prefer escorts and if we can find the right itinerary a cruise is wonderful because of the traveling hotel. We loved our Amsterdam-Budapest cruise with Tauck as well as our on-our-own tour of York and the Lake district in GB. Obviously there are many variables as well as preferences. That's what makes travelling so much fun as well as personal.

[suspaul]

Hello sandybeachy, we are also independent travelers, usually we rent a car, find an apartment or two to base from and do day trips to areas of interest however we have also done several river cruises and thoroughly enjoy them for different reasons. Like your family, we too did an independent tour of Egypt with 4 or 5 nights aboard Nile river cruise ship and loved it, earlier this year we did our first 'big ship' cruise in the US to ports in Mexico and enjoyed that OK but we much prefer the smaller ship river cruises. As stated, most but not all river cruising is at night thus leaving your days in port towns/cities, in each port you usually have a walking tour of the town and free time afterwards to do what you wish. Evening entertainment is very low key and I agree with the above posters, we find it a nice, relaxing time after dinner. If you are used to lots of excitement and activity while aboard ship then maybe this isn't the type of vacation for you. We are getting ready to do Imperial Jewels of China with Viking leaving the US 5.3.2011 and have just booked a Christmas market cruise on the Rhine for early December 2011, again with Viking. China will be our first go with Viking but we booked after a strong recommendation from friends who did the China/Tibet tour with them and raved about Viking. So, I wouldn't let the videos completely make up my mind unless there is something specific that does not interest you. We still do travel independently most of the time but it's very nice to unpack one time and 'leave the driving' or in this case mobility to someone else. Sorry to be so long winded.

Susan

[sandybeachy]

I should have reported this two years ago but we opted not to river cruise but used their itinerary as a basis for our 3 week trip. Wonderful decision. We started in Vienna and "cruised" for a day up to Bratislava. Then train to Melk where we spent the entire day at the Abbey changing our plan to do a little cruise here as well. Nice to have options. Then train to Salzburg - loved it. Then an 8 passenger van to Chesky Krumlov and vanned onto Prague. We did try out a land tour here - Rick Steve's 7 day Prague and Budapest. We use his books so we thought we'd try the real thing. It was a nice balance of morning tour and afternoons on your own - his book and a transit pass are included in the tour.

 

We made the right choice for us because we stretched out the same cities from a 10 day cruise to a 20 day trip. That was a big issue with me and the cruise. We stayed in all tyoes of inns and met people along the way. And one of the perks of the river cruise is the scenery from the river but we saw road and train scenery which is wonderful too.

[DrivesLikeMario]

If you enjoy packing and unpacking and could care less how much you're spending on food or drinks, then a land tour is for you. ;)

 

We're not the type that likes to be herded here, herded there, play follow the leader, and wait for the really slow people either. What we plan to do is do most of the free, included city tours, then branch out on our own. I already have plans to see a bunch of neat things in our port stops on our own.

Edited April 10, 2015 by DrivesLikeMario

[caviargal]

After a Nile cruise last year we were all set to book a river cruise in Europe - would like to see Prague, Vienna, Budapest and maybe Bucharest. Received a dvd from Viking and now not so sure that cruising is for us. The dvd spent lots of time talking about dining and we saw people playing cards, etc and looking board "enjoying" the local dancers, singers.

 

Our focus is to enjoy the towns, sites and people of Europe and not the dinner, playing cards, etc. Did you get enough time on the tours to see the cities? Can you get off the boat after dinner for a walk, etc? Comments?

 

 

IMO, I would do a DIY land trip. While we enjoy river cruises, they are our choice primarily when we travel with my mom (who is 83) as this allows us to take a vacation to Europe together without having to worry about her overdoing it.

 

We also like to immerse ourselves in the culture of the destination and on river cruises we maximize every minute we are in port. For us, a land trip is our #1 choice for Europe.

[orchestrapal]

After a Nile cruise last year we were all set to book a river cruise in Europe - would like to see Prague, Vienna, Budapest and maybe Bucharest. Received a dvd from Viking and now not so sure that cruising is for us. The dvd spent lots of time talking about dining and we saw people playing cards, etc and looking board "enjoying" the local dancers, singers.

 

Our focus is to enjoy the towns, sites and people of Europe and not the dinner, playing cards, etc. Did you get enough time on the tours to see the cities? Can you get off the boat after dinner for a walk, etc? Comments?

 

Prague,Vienna and Budapest are really early done by car or train. It sounds as what you want to do I will not be accomplished on a river cruise with only .6-12 hours in any port. You will certainly need several days to a week in each city.

So much to do that you never will be able to do on a RC.

[Fairfield Nana]

Very interesting replies and lots of great thoughts and ideas for both river and land travel. Whatever "floats yer boat". We discovered river cruising recently (only been on 4 ocean cruises) and totally loved it. A great way to travel and visit some fantastic sites. Really is like a "floating luxury hotel" someone referred to.

 

We also still enjoy the "DIY' land travel and last summer spent 2 weeks with our family touring Ireland. We rented two 4-person passenger cars and stayed at various B&Bs and a few of my wife's relatives homes. We had a ball and took each day as a new adventure with some ideas of possibilities to visit, but pretty much went with the flow. This was based on our style of travel when we lived in Germany for 3 years. Make max use of the backroads and quiet countryside roads instead of blitzing down the autobahn.

 

On the river cruises, we have really enjoyed a renting a car and booking a hotel in a nearby town to the cruise departure point to do some local exploring--well worth it!!

[caviargal]

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If you enjoy packing and unpacking and could care less how much you're spending on food or drinks, then a land tour is for you. ;)

 

We're not the type that likes to be herded here, herded there, play follow the leader, and wait for the really slow people either. What we plan to do is do most of the free, included city tours, then branch out on our own. I already have plans to see a bunch of neat things in our port stops on our own.>

 

Sounds awful and nothing like our DIY land vacations. We dine and drink wonderfully without breaking the bank; we book private guides or see what interests us on our own, at our pace and without concern about others; we can be totally flexible depending on weather, our mood, and without concern about missing a deadline to be back aboard.

 

Both are enjoyable for us and we choose based on our goals for that specific trip.

Edited April 10, 2015 by caviargal

[TravelinTexasGal]

After a Nile cruise last year we were all set to book a river cruise in Europe - would like to see Prague, Vienna, Budapest and maybe Bucharest. Received a dvd from Viking and now not so sure that cruising is for us. The dvd spent lots of time talking about dining and we saw people playing cards, etc and looking board "enjoying" the local dancers, singers.

 

Our focus is to enjoy the towns, sites and people of Europe and not the dinner, playing cards, etc. Did you get enough time on the tours to see the cities? Can you get off the boat after dinner for a walk, etc? Comments?

 

Just got back from the Viking Romantic Danube cruise. If you are an active person that likes to explore a lot of a town/city, take a land trip! I was so disappointed that we only had a few hours in each port and basically only about 45 minutes of exploring on our own before they would bus us back to the ship. We won't be doing this again.

 

We spent extra days in Prague and Budapest where we hired a private guide in each city. I was much happier in both cities doing it this way. I felt like we really got to experience the cities.

 

Too much time on the ship and not enough time exploring. I was really looking forward to visiting Vienna. Barely saw any of it and didn't even have time to spend in a coffee shop! We will need to go back to really experience it!

[Host Jazzbeau]

After a Nile cruise last year we were all set to book a river cruise in Europe - would like to see Prague, Vienna, Budapest and maybe Bucharest. Received a dvd from Viking and now not so sure that cruising is for us. The dvd spent lots of time talking about dining and we saw people playing cards, etc and looking board "enjoying" the local dancers, singers.

 

Our focus is to enjoy the towns, sites and people of Europe and not the dinner, playing cards, etc. Did you get enough time on the tours to see the cities? Can you get off the boat after dinner for a walk, etc? Comments?

 

I think the DVD is aimed at a certain type of traveler and gives a skewed impression of the options available on a river cruise. You should also explore the websites of some other river cruise lines to see if you get a different impression. On the other hand, the four cities you mention all deserve much more time than a river cruise would include. The other ports along the Danube are smaller towns and more suitable for the time allotted on the cruise. You can mix the two approaches in one trip: book an itinerary that picks you up in Prague and sails from e.g. Nuremberg to Budapest; fly into Prague early and DIY there; stay in Budapest afterward and DIY there -- and possibly take a train to Vienna and DIY there before flying home. A two-three week trip along those lines would provide a satisfying mix of immersion in the cities plus a scenic cruise with visits to the smaller towns.

[sharkster77]

One way to look at it is that the river cruise will give you a "taste" of various cities and towns, and one can decide which to return to for an in-depth look.

 

We took a national park bus tour in Western US, 11 days, 5 parks, then returned a few years later to spend 11days in just 2 parks.

 

You can treat a river cruise the same way.

[Got2Cruise]

There are plenty of other companies besides Viking even though in the USA nobody would know it. Look at the itineraries very closely. You don't want day cruising. Sandwich your River cruise between pre and post stays

[4774Papa]

After a Nile cruise last year we were all set to book a river cruise in Europe - would like to see Prague, Vienna, Budapest and maybe Bucharest. Received a dvd from Viking and now not so sure that cruising is for us. The dvd spent lots of time talking about dining and we saw people playing cards, etc and looking board "enjoying" the local dancers, singers.

 

Our focus is to enjoy the towns, sites and people of Europe and not the dinner, playing cards, etc. Did you get enough time on the tours to see the cities? Can you get off the boat after dinner for a walk, etc? Comments?

We have done three river cruises, all had a land trip included.

River cruises are great for visiting cities for one day. If you want to spend more than one day in the cities, take a land trip.

 

Advantage of river cruises are that we don't have to repack, head for the train station, airport or rental car.

 

Disadvantage is only one day in the cities. However, if the city is first or last on the cruise, you can plan more than one day.

 

Having been to most of the cities you mentioned except Bucharest, one day works pretty well. However, Vienna and Budapest are places that one could definitely spend more than one day.

 

PS

Nothing wrong with Viking, but Vantage delivers a fantastic product that I have found always beats Viking's prices.

[Hydrokitty]

We have done three river cruises, all had a land trip included.

 

River cruises are great for visiting cities for one day. If you want to spend more than one day in the cities, take a land trip.

 

Nothing wrong with Viking, but Vantage delivers a fantastic product that I have found always beats Viking's prices.

 

We've used Vantage (6x to date) too and always been satisfied. One thing I will point out is that on the Rhine (Bonn to Budapest) Vantage docked over-night in Vienna so we had 1 and 1/2 days to explore and visit cafe's, etc, on our own. Vantage always includes pre and/or post trip extensions, which are usually to cities that won't be on the tour because they're too far inland. For example: We did Prague, Brussels, Ghent, Kiev and Jordan as trip extensions and they were wonderful. If you're sailing from a city like Budapest (one of my most favorite cities) you could always go in a few days or a week (so much to see and do) early and join the ship when it docks. We did Greece and France on a Trafalgar bus tour, both of which were outstanding and we went everywhere with plenty of time to visit on our own, but we were younger then and the 6:30 a.m. bags out for 8:30 a.m. departure every other night wasn't such a big deal! Now it is. :D

[lahlah57]

I will not pack and unpack....pack and unpack and then repeat. Our best land educations was from river cruising! Yes....port intensive. But loved every minute of it ! Viking is our riverboat choice!