B2b river to ocean cruise

[ea6b5]

I was thinking about doing a Rhine River cruise from Basel to Amsterdam, catch a train from Amsterdam to London, then take a Ocean cruise to Norway from Southhampton.

Has anyone every done this? Looking for some ideas.

[Ine]

There are no trains from Amsterdam to London, you need to change trains at least 1 x, most likely in Brussels Midi. In London you arrive in St. Pancras station, to get to Southampton you need to go to a different station.

Are you aware there are 1 or 2 direct flights Amsterdam- Southampton at the end of the afternoon? Or maybe check cruises to Norway from either Amsterdam or Rotterdam.

[ea6b5]

There are no trains from Amsterdam to London, you need to change trains at least 1 x, most likely in Brussels Midi. In London you arrive in St. Pancras station, to get to Southampton you need to go to a different station.

Are you aware there are 1 or 2 direct flights Amsterdam- Southampton at the end of the afternoon? Or maybe check cruises to Norway from either Amsterdam or Rotterdam.

 

I have checked trains and yes I would have to change in Brussels. I am aware of flights but thought I would like to try something a little different. Thought the train ride would be a experience not to forget!

As for arriving in London, thought I would spend a couple days there then travel down to Southampton.

Thanks for the info.

[Barrheadlass]

I did the reverse a few months ago. Took a 2 week cruise in Norway on Hurtigruten then flew to Amsterdam and took a Rhine Christmas market cruise, ending in Basel. Only complication was our flight from Bergen to Amsterdam was cancelled, and we had to wait around the Bergen airport all day until a 5:10 pm flight. Didn't get to our River cruise ship until after 8 pm but it all worked out. All in all, 25 days in Europe so made that awful airfare not so bad.

[Got2Cruise]

There's a HAL cruise itinerary that sails from Amsterdam. We met a couple on our Basel to Amsterdam cruise who was doing that after.

[cruzzzinma]

We are cruising from Budapest to Amsterdam in Oct 2015, staying a couple of days in each, then flying to Rome for a few days followed by a transatlantic from Civitavecchia to Ft Lauderdale in Nov.

[sammiedawg]

We've combined land tours with ocean cruises. I would suggest looking into budget airlines like Easy Jet or Ryan Air for one way flights. Air fares from the US to Europe are so high and we try to combine a variety of experiences.

We once looked Into a land tour of Switzwrland combined with a river cruise from Basel but the dates didn't work for us, check into that.

[Host Jazzbeau]

Azamara has a great Norwegian Fjords itinerary rt from Amsterdam Aug. 11-26, 2016. That would link up easily with a Rhine or Danube river cruise. You could always go to London at the end and fly home from there. Of course, this all adds up to a lot of days...

[notamermaid]

Hello ea6b5,

 

I am a train enthusiast, so love the idea of seeing the landscape. However, it does whizz by on the high speed trains! :D

 

As you need to change in Brussels, perhaps you can get a short stop in to see the famous architecture of the town and stock up on chocolate. You need to allow for about an hour in Brussels station any way because of customs and check-in. The Eurostar is comfortable, First Class is best, of course. You can book three months in advance. Arriving at St. Pancras is great, I love the concourse and the sandwich place there. If you like impressive architecture, this is just wow!

 

For seeing London and going to Southampton it might be an idea to check out overseas rail passes and similar offers. They can only be bought outside of the UK (special tourist offers). Simple rail tickets and offers available to all train users you can look up here:

 

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/

 

By the way, if you are not so bothered about going to Amsterdam you can shorten the trip by a day by booking one of the few cruises that stop in Cologne.

 

Have fun planning.

 

notamermaid

[ea6b5]

Hello ea6b5,

 

I am a train enthusiast, so love the idea of seeing the landscape. However, it does whizz by on the high speed trains! :D

 

As you need to change in Brussels, perhaps you can get a short stop in to see the famous architecture of the town and stock up on chocolate. You need to allow for about an hour in Brussels station any way because of customs and check-in. The Eurostar is comfortable, First Class is best, of course. You can book three months in advance. Arriving at St. Pancras is great, I love the concourse and the sandwich place there. If you like impressive architecture, this is just wow!

 

For seeing London and going to Southampton it might be an idea to check out overseas rail passes and similar offers. They can only be bought outside of the UK (special tourist offers). Simple rail tickets and offers available to all train users you can look up here:

 

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/

 

By the way, if you are not so bothered about going to Amsterdam you can shorten the trip by a day by booking one of the few cruises that stop in Cologne.

 

Have fun planning.

 

notamermaid

 

Might have to look into Cologne vrs Amsterdam. Been to Amsterdam a few times and I think I have seen enough there. Thanks for the info about overseas rail passes.

[Talisker92]

We did exactly the same thing. We cruised Budapest to Amsterdam then flew to Copenhagen.

The story and pictures are here:

http://stevekathytravels.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/europe2010.pdf

The only glitch was an excess baggage charge because the inter Europe fares allow only one bag free.

I strongly suggest you pick a cruise that goes to Oslo. To miss Frogner Park with the sculptures would be a shame.

In another instance, we spent a week in Switzerland then took trains all the way to Nice. We loved the train rides.

We aare happy to answer any questions.

[pinotlover]

Airfares shouldn't be a problem. Oceania gives one free air. If you work them them, with a deviation, they will fly you into another city as far ahead of time as you like. I have done my own European trips with different arrival and departure cities, not a big deal, as long as one stays on the same alliance/group.

 

I've had fellow travelers that have done Elbe and Russian River tours combined with ocean tours in the Baltic. Plus a good friend has done the Danube to Bucharest, train to Istanbul with about 3 free days there, then ocean tour out of Istanbul. I likewise have meet people that have done the Duoro, with an ocean cruise out of Lisbon. I think all will say put an extra day in the plans, if possible, in case of problems.

 

The train ride out of Amsterdam to Brussels also takes one through Ghent and (the diamond trading center town, mind burp) a very pretty trip.

[Wingtips56]

We did a trip a couple of years ago, with a Danube cruise being the primary reason. But since it takes so long to get to Europe from small-town northern California, just going for the week's cruise is hard to justify. So I looked for a trans-Atlantic cruise to come back Stateside on. The AmaWaterways river cruise from Budapest finished in late October, with the add-on to Prague. That late in the season, the T-A schedule was limited and other than a cruise from Southampton leaving on the same day we finished in Prague (with only one flight to make it in time, if all went well...) the next one I could find with an itinerary I liked didn't depart (Rome/Civitavecchia) for another 6 days.

Figuring it would be cold, we decided to redeem some frequent flyer miles and flew to Dubrovnik, Croatia to enjoy it and warm back up. It was actually snowing when we took-off from Prague, so the sunny Adriatic was very nice, though we had some rain. It turned out the Dubrovnik season pretty much ended a day or two after we arrived, so there were no flights to get us to Rome. We ended up taking the coastal bus ... 6 hours and no restroom, but beautiful scenery... north to Split, spending the night there for a flight the next afternoon. Split turned out to be very interesting as well. After landing in Rome, we got a ride to Civitavecchia for night in a good hotel overlooking the waterfront, and caught our ship the next day, sailing 16 nights to Galveston.

So do combine trips, and don't be bound into thinking you have to go immediately from one ship to another. And the benefit to the T-A cruise is only needing a high-mileage Business Class award one-way, using a low-mileage one-way coach award for the return from the U.S. port.

[ea6b5]

Would like to thank everyone for their different takes and experience on this. I think flying to London would be better for us and at least I could take in a couple days there also.