Barge cruises

[sjde]

Has anyone taken a barge cruise? We’re thinking about CroisiEurope for next year in France and wondering if it’s worth it. Although I do see they have sales 3 to 6 months out when they have unsold cabins and some of them are as low as $320 /nt per person.

Also wondering if one destination stands out more than the others . They have Provence , Burgundy and Oise ( near Dijon). 

[Canal archive]

 

Barge Colibri exiting a lock on the Canal du Nivernais.

We hired a boat on the Canal du Nivernais and this is one of several barges we encountered over our two weeks holiday. Most only have room for 12 persons, wonderful for a laid back relaxed holiday.

 

 

Edited January 14 by Canal archive

[sjde]

Croisi Europe’s  4 barges each hold 22 people. Plus a 6 person crew. 

[Haqdeluxe]

The Barge Colibri carries 4 passengers in 2 cabins. I understand it to be very  upscale. 

[sjde]

And that's why it costs $5000 pp for 5 nights!

[Canal archive]

We were moored up one evening and then we were joined by a hotel barge those on board a mixture of United States Americans and Germans. It actually turned out to be a very friendly evening as we would say in the U.K. a towpath party. The guy in charge thanked us profusely for our collaboration- we did absolutely nothing apart from join in. Non of the guests on the barge had ever participated in river cruise only the barges and had never even thought of hiring one themselves, yes full tour given on our oh so much smaller vessel but it did appear to be appreciated.

[terry&mike]

We have done several barge cruises, and really enjoy them. We generally book through boatbiketours.com or tripsite.com, both have barge sailings in several countries. We prefer the ones that have the biking component with them. We have done the Burgundy region and loved it. We'll be doing the Netherlands Tulip Time sailing this April for the second time, this time bringing along a group of friends (there are 19 of us). 

We have also done river cruises with Scenic, AMA, Viking, Uniworld, and barge cruising is an entirely different animal. We enjoy them both, but they are very different. 

[Doh15]

We did this years ago and had a great trip-- it was just four of us on the boat with a captain (who was a wine expert) and his wife (who was an excellent chef).  I just looked and it seems like they have traded up in boats and it now costs $30-40k for a week (depending on how many of you there are-- it has 3 cabins so a max of 6 people), but I am sure it would be great if that's your budget.   https://www.charterbarge.com

[CielBleu]

I read the responses and don't see where anyone mentioned CroisiEurope specifically, so I will try to give some info. We have taken two barge cruises with Croisi. One was the Provence cruise (in 2018), and the other was the Alsace cruise (in 2021). Food was fantastic on both. If we chose one to do again, it would be the Alsace cruise because of the scenery. We thought about doing Burgundy this fall, but have booked a river cruise instead. The Oise cruise would not appeal to us, personally. On both cruises we ended up with 14 passengers. The Provence cruise had a good mixture of French, Americans, and Australians, while the Alsace cruise had 10 French and 4 Americans. The only thing that is a negative to us is the tiny rooms, but still, we plan to do another one. Let me know if you have more questions.

[notamermaid]

I was going to mention the Alsace cruise option but I am actually not sure that we mean the same thing. This is the one I find interesting: https://www.croisieuroperivercruises.com/cruise/marne-rhine-canal-lagarde-strasbourg-port-to-port-cruise-2-classic#plus

 

The Arzwiller Inclined Plane is fascinating, have been there.

 

Burgundy has been recommended to me for a holiday. Looks intriguing what they offer as a barge cruise. But I think I would prefer to see the town of Beaune.

 

notamermaid

 

 

[sjde]

I didn’t see the Alsace itinerary because the email I got I think was just for some of their sales and none of the Alsace destinations are on sale . They come out to $473 per person /night.

[notamermaid]

5 minutes ago, sjde said:

I didn’t see the Alsace itinerary because the email I got I think was just for some of their sales and none of the Alsace destinations are on sale . They come out to $473 per person /night.

Oh, that is a pity.

 

notamermaid

 

[sjde]

I was incorrect. The Alsace itinerary does have some spring and fall sale dates.

 

Does anyone know anything about Dutch Barge Cruises? 

[CielBleu]

3 hours ago, notamermaid said:

I was going to mention the Alsace cruise option but I am actually not sure that we mean the same thing. This is the one I find interesting: https://www.croisieuroperivercruises.com/cruise/marne-rhine-canal-lagarde-strasbourg-port-to-port-cruise-2-classic#plus

 

The Arzwiller Inclined Plane is fascinating, have been there.

 

Burgundy has been recommended to me for a holiday. Looks intriguing what they offer as a barge cruise. But I think I would prefer to see the town of Beaune.

 

notamermaid

 

 

This is the cruise we took, and it included the Arzviller Inclined Plane (boat lift).  It's usually done on the Madeleine barge; however, ours was on the Raymonde.

[sjde]

I see two Burgundy itineraries-

The Doubs valley and Burgundy -

BESANCON - RANCHOT - DOLE - SAINT-JEAN-DE-LOSNE - PETIT-OUGES - DIJON

 

and the Burgundy Canal-

from Saône-et-Loire to the Côte d'Or 

Dijon(2) - SAINT-LEGER-SUR-DHEUNE - SANTENAY - CHAGNY - CHALON - SAINT-JEAN-DE-LOSNE - PETIT-OUGE - DIJON

 

Is one preferable ? CielBleu-did you take one of these?

[sjde]

The Alsace 6 nt itinerary-

 

Cruise on the Marne-Rhine Canal from Strasbourg to Lagarde 

STRASBOURG - WALTENHEIM - SAVERNE - LUTZELBOURG - XOUAXANGE - LAGARDE - Strasbourg

[slidergirl]

I did the most wonderful and relaxing barge trip with CroisiEurope last Summer.  It was a fully-chartered barge with Adventure Women.  11 of us crazy old women.  It was the Anne Marie, from Arles to Sete.  The crew was so personable, yet professional.  The food was fantastic.  Sundowner drinks, drinkable wine.  The barge has bikes you could borrow to go out and about when we were docked.  Our excursions may be a little different from their usual since Adventure Women try to do excursions with a women-centric pitch (women-owned ranch in Carmague, women-run winery, women-owned oyster harvesting).  One day we docked next to a park and our Cruise Director took us out and taught us how to play Pentaque, complete with the required drinking of Pastis!  It was a hoot!   I'd do it again if I wanted a laid-back trip.