Suggestions for active river cruise for mom/daughter

[morgan5]

I have just started researching, and my head is spinning. My daughter (22yo) and I (50+yo) are looking at doing a river cruise next summer (2023). My daughter wants something active as she enjoys hiking and walking. I have read a bit about Avalon Active and Discovery cruises as well as U by Uniworld. We really are just looking at something that would appeal to both of us with lots of active excursions available but also cultural and history ones too, maybe geared to a slightly younger crowd than the typical 60's and 70's.

 

Are these the 2 cruise categories we should be looking at? Is there anything else that I should look into. Also, once we settle on the cruise line, is there a particular river or route that would be better for active travelers looking for beautiful scenery as well?

 

Thanks so much for any suggestions! Just as  a note, we will probably endcap the cruise with a diy hiking and scenery week by train in either Switzerland Germany or Austria.

[Host Jazzbeau]

If you throw in biking there are many river cruise lines that could keep your daughter active while offering alternative excursions for you.  AMA was a pioneer with bikes on board.  Scenic has them too.  Both lines offer several choices of excursion in most ports, including some hikes.

[familytravellers]

1 hour ago, morgan5 said:

I have just started researching, and my head is spinning. My daughter (22yo) and I (50+yo) are looking at doing a river cruise next summer (2023). My daughter wants something active as she enjoys hiking and walking. I have read a bit about Avalon Active and Discovery cruises as well as U by Uniworld. We really are just looking at something that would appeal to both of us with lots of active excursions available but also cultural and history ones too, maybe geared to a slightly younger crowd than the typical 60's and 70's.

 

Are these the 2 cruise categories we should be looking at? Is there anything else that I should look into. Also, once we settle on the cruise line, is there a particular river or route that would be better for active travelers looking for beautiful scenery as well?

 

Thanks so much for any suggestions! Just as  a note, we will probably endcap the cruise with a diy hiking and scenery week by train in either Switzerland Germany or Austria.

We just took the Danube Delights cruise with Emerald (Regensburg, Germany to Budapest, Hungary). It was a fantastic river cruise with lots of options for active excursions like hiking or biking. All of the towns/cities we visited were lovely. I'd suggest you stay an extra few days in Budapest as it's a larger city and you'll need extra time to fully explore it. If you have a chance to add Prague onto your itinerary, definitely consider it. It's a beautiful city and very walkable.

[CastleCritic]

Been thinking on this one for a little while. Ive done 4 cruises all with AMAwaterways and each certainly had days that were high walking and days that we're certainly less so. You're certainly going to get a LOT of time walking no matter what cruise you are on but it may be at a relaxed pace.

 

EACH day (pretty much) the main excursion will have an "active" group that covers more ground and takes less rest stops than the "normal groups", maybe does some part of the excursion on foot that everyone else does in a bus/van (conversely there is an "easy" group that walks less takes more breaks and sometimes has minibuses for long road friendly segments).  pretty much any AMAwaterways cruise that does Strasbourg France will have this (but this is also nearly an all day stop anyway where you can go to or from the ship to the city center via bus every hour on the hour and explore the area on your own).  There WILL be some days with an actual hike usually uphill to a castle or overlook or some kind but these are usually of the 90min-2 hour kind these are not going to be all day trips.  Some of the days will also have bike tours, often this is just local to the normal tour, but notably on the Main cruise I did last year they did a 30 mile ride between ...I want to say Rudesheim and Mainz (the ship relocating between the two while everyone was off on excursions)..but this is very much an exception.

 

Of the four cruises Ive done two with my mother (who has reduced mobility but can do a normal excursion) and Ive tended to stick with her unless there was a good reason to split up for the day.  The other two I did alone and will ALWAYS take the active option and sometime split off and do my own thing if the time allows

 

Things that stick out keep in mind Ive yet to do a bike tour which are offered on about half of the days.

cruise 1 Amsterdam-Basel Rhine and Moselle. (keep in mind this was 11 days)

Cochem, everyone did a town walk then the end destination was reichsburg castle...almost everyone got there in a van, the active group walked

Bernkastel hike up to castle ruins then through the woods back to town.

Rudesheim, hike through vineyards

Ludwisgshafen(just a port) I want to say the Heidelburg all day excursion had an active option that did more walking to/from the castle (though this is reached by an inclined railway/furnicular)

Strasbourg this time I did the normal tour and I can tell you from having done the "active" version.2 years later there were some major differences plus again this town is available all day for exploration on your own.

Breisach, didnt do it but there is a Black Forest hike listed. this is true for at least one other stop

 

Cruise2

Vilshofen->Budapest (danube)

Passau, hike up to the castle instead of doing the city tour

Linz (just where we docked). did the normal (active) walk in Salzburg then during free time hiked/furnicular'd up to the castle

Weissenkirchen/Durnstein was a hike scheduled up to castle ruins that was rained out...I still tried and didnt make it there before running out of time...this was not an easy climb...at least the way I was going.

Vienna we basically had all day though it would have been using city transit rather than AMA provided transport to get off the ship (we did a later afternoon trip to schonbrunn palace that has a LOT of area to walk around if you choose I made it back to the bus with about 30 seconds to spare)

Bratislava...lists a castle hike..didnt go because we didnt do this stop due to it being a changed/wine cruise itinerary

Budapest...we were on our feet all day hike up to the castle then walked around the city for the rest of the day then back to the ship..probably 3 or so miles in that last segment alone people gave up on more sightseeing in fact.

 

Cruise 3

Basel to Nuremburg (rhein and Main this one also looks a little different itinerary now)

This cruise had a lot of two things

1. the ship leaving us and repositioning and us having to catch up with it

2. the ship not staying in ports for long even when we were on it.

Strasbourg...this time I did the active walk and we spent nearly 2 hours covering area on foot I hadn't seen..I wont wont say this was all awesome ancient do not miss...no it wasnt..part of it was walking through residential areas but it was worth it.

Speyer...this was pretty much all walking tours leaving from the ship with no buses

Mainz...as said above this one was notable for the trip I didnt make which was a 20 mile bike ride from Rudesheim to Mainz looking at the list this was repeated the next day from Miltenberg to Wertheim

MiltenBerg/Wertheim..hike up to castles day..did one..got on a bus went to the next city and did it again..

Land extension to Prague...this one ended up being a bit personalized since I ended up being the only one who did the active tour (there were only 5 of us total though the other 4 took a van to the castle).  2 hour straight walk from the hotel to the Prague castle then free time for the next day and a half to do whatever we wanted.

 

cruise 4

seine Paris to Le Havre

This cruise...honestly did not have any notable active..activities in fact I DID and then complained about one 'hike' that has since been removed from the offerings because it was just..not a hike and not to see what it was billed at).  There were a few bike days but again I didnt do them.

Thats not to say this was a bad cruise...it might have been my favorite of the 4 but not for places I had to work to get to(the one Long walk that stands out was actually down hill in Normandy to get to the beach where the British built their artificial harbor in WWII for lunch effectively) , at least on the river segment.

where THAT started was again doing the land extension 

Land extension was to St. Malo which is a walled city where you have the better part of 3 days to walk around it and out on areas only accessible at low tide, and then there was Mont St. Michel literally a walled city/cathedral on an island that has to be seen to be belived...and that requires some fitness (though in the end all 26 of our group made it up...including the about a dozen who didn't think they could and split off from the "active...we'r doing this" group.

 

 

 

 

 

[morgan5]

Thanks all for the very thoughtful replies! I will definitely research more into AMA and Emerald.

[barbw427]

I would also look into Avalon.  They have Active and Discovery cruises with many great options.

 

[BashfulBeki]

My daughter 30 and me 63 with mobility issues at the time did 2 weeks up the Danube with Amawaterways. Everyday and sometimes twice a day, there were easy and active walking tours and active hikes and/or biking. Each day except Salzburg, we went our separate ways. We ate our meals together and regaled each other with what the other one didn’t get to see. One day, she hiked up to the fortress and I bussed there and we surprised each other in passing. We are definitely doing this again in the future. Being together but not on each other’s nerves was perfect. Good luck with your research. 

[Wings55]

On 6/21/2022 at 1:40 PM, morgan5 said:

Thanks all for the very thoughtful replies! I will definitely research more into AMA and Emerald.

One minor comment I would add.. the Aussies on the Emerald (and Scenic) cruises will add an extra measure of fun and activity. 😉

Seriously we've enjoyed lots of great, active excursions with Scenic, Uniworld and Ama. I know lots of folks love Viking and I know they offer a terrific product but those I mentioned would be better choices for 'active' excursion. 

ENJOY!!

Paul