Maps for river cruises

[misterjohnny]

I've only done ocean cruises, and my go-to website for research has great maps for every itinerary, showing the course of the ships, ports, and dotted lines showing when you were bussed from a port to a nearby city. Unfortunately it doesn't do that for river cruises, and that seems like an important bit. I'm a visual person and it really works for me.

Does anyone have a good website they can point me to that has good maps?

Thanks.

[pontac]

Google Maps will show the course of the river.

 

Whichever cruise you're on will say where it stops for excursions, and Google Maps will show if the city is on the river or distant from it.

 

Of course it depends on what excursions you book.

 

The cruise brochure and cruise website will also have a map showing stops (a jetty or river bank is more accurate than port) and have a line showing coaching elements, like this map on the Viking site for its Rhone cruise

 

The  dotted line represents a train journey between Paris and Lyon for those having an extension in Paris.

 

It doesn't show a journey between Avignon and airport because that depends on your travel arrangements, but Google Maps will show how far away it is from Marseille or Nice airport if you're using those.

 

This one from the Scenic site shows their Delightful Douro with Lisbon cruise

 

 

 

So it shows plane arriving at Lisbon, then after 3 nights the dashed line represents a coach journey, with a stop on the way at Coimbra, to the cruise start at Porto. There is a choice of excursions at stops. At Barca d'Alva one is to the Spanish city of Salamanca- that's a way away by coach. Again, you can look at the excursions that take your fancy and use Google Maps to see how far away they are.

 

And read the relevant trip reports posted here.

Edited October 11 by pontac

[Planning to cruise]

I check and make my own port exploration maps on plotaroute.

 

Close inspection on google maps can show docking points.

[notamermaid]

Have a look at marinetraffic.com and vesselfinder.com for following ships. When you zoom in you can you can make out docking locations that satellites have photographed.

 

Example for Bernkastel-Kues on the Moselle: https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/centerx:7.074/centery:49.916/zoom:16

 

notamermaid