River cruising has become exceedingly popular and seems to be the ‘in’ thing to do these days vs. just ocean cruising when it comes to water-based vacationing…
There are so many rivers to explore internationally including all the wonderful European waterways such as the famous Rhine, Danube, Seine, Rhone, Douro, not to mention all the exotic ones including the Mekong, Irrawaddy, Amazon, Volga in Russia, & Yangtze to name some of the most popular ones.
Many of the River Cruise companies are coming up with wonderfully themed cruises such as wine & beer options, Christmas Markets, & Jewish Heritage as examples.
River cruising offers some favorable differences to ocean cruising including the following:
1. The vessels are smaller & much more intimate with less than 200 passengers so that getting to know your fellow guests is so much easier.
2. There’s never an issue or concern with embarking or disembarking – no worries of line-ups or crowds or feeling like you’re being herded.
3. When you do disembark to head ashore, there’s no need for venturing too far since the destination is usually right next to where the river boat docks.
4. If you have any issues with motion sickness, river cruising is unlikely to cause you any grief whatsoever since there are no waves.
5. There’s usually some great local entertainment offered on board the vessels & the experience of going through the lock systems is always interesting.
6. Much of the time, there’s so much included with the river cruise that you need not worry about being nickel and dime as can sometime occur with other vacation options.
I would recommend that you may want to deal with someone who has both done some river cruising and has great connections with many wonderful river cruise companies to help you decide which river and which cruise line would best suit you for your first or next river cruise! I can play that role for you!
You may also want to consider creating a group with friends, family, work associates, or whomever as it’s such a great way to travel with a group! 96% of first time River Cruisers say they would recommend the experience to a friend!