My wife really want to do a river cruise in Europe. All I know about this subject has been garnered from the Viking ads. If anyone here has done this, please share your experiences. What are the best cruises? Alternatives to Viking? Best way to book with air fares included? We do have some experience traveling in Europe: Britain, France and Germany.However, we are not reLLY bi-lingual. Just from looking at the ads, its apparent that this going to be an expensive endeavor, so I'd really appreciate your input.

I corrected my post.I have no expenience in river cruises. In many of the central/eastern europe countries only higher educated people speaks english but you will have guides(Netherlands are usually good in english). Hurtigrutten Norway is a alternative most people in norway speaks english.

Try a Google using this (=River Cruises, if you desire to refine the search try "European River Cruises).

"flußkreuzfahrten"

.... anyway there's enough choices to sink a battleship; I'm sure you can find something to make the Mrs. happy without breaking the bank.

and, yes, we've done them they're a blast IMO.

You might like to look at the cruises on the Douro River in Portugal which I'm told are very good & if you time it right, you could fit in some good stag hunting as well.

Send your wife on the cruise and go on a hunting trip.

Nordic2
You're absolutely right, Eastern Europe and English just doesn't mesh.
MJines, couldn't agree more.
Mouflon rut is On and pig hunting is getting better and Better this time a year

My brother in law went on one of these cruises, and unfortunately there was not enough water in the river for them to continue their cruise upstream, so the company put on coaches, and that is how they spent the rest of their cruise "on a Bus"!

I've done the Danube river cruise on Viking from Budapest to Passau twice. It is an amazing experience and lots of great food and wine. The Danube can run low or high making river passage difficult if you time it wrong. If you do, as griff said, you can spend a day or two on a bus. No Bueno...

To make it more exciting, rent a Porsche or M5 BMW and drive from Passau to Munich to Rome. Awesome drive.

Last Novemeber my wife and I did the same Viking cruise from Budapest to Passau that Opus1 has done. We were pleased with the ship, the food, the service, and the scenery. No problem at all with being monolingual English as almost everyone you'll come in contact with is in the tourist industry and speaks English (as well as a number of other languages) fluently. Here's a map of English fluency across Europe:



The worst communication mix up I had was when I asked a street musician in Vienna for "Stranger on the Shore" and I got "Strangers in the Night". I can live with that.

I was fascinated by the number of hunting blinds I saw in Austria and Germany. You see them right up to the gates of the airport in Munich.

At every stop they want to show you the palace and cathedral of some or another 15th Century Catholic bigwig which is "completely originally restored" after being bombed to rubble in WW-II. That's why I liked visiting such places in Sweden better as everything there really is as old as it is represented to be. However, you are welcome to strike out on your own if you wish, so in Vienna I went to the Natural History Museum instead of seeing yet another cathedral. Wow! You talk about OLD. That museum is full of really old stuff, and quite fascinating to me. There is a Hunting Museum in downtown Munich that we also went to which is first class -- lots of taxidermy, ancient guns, art -- well worth stopping by.



I've heard the horror stories about low water and having to be bused from place to place. You might want to buy trip cancellation insurance and re-book if such circumstances arise.

By the way, there are numerous cruise lines on the Danube other than Viking, many of which may provide excellent service. However each line tends to market to a particular language/geographic group. Viking markets in the U.S., Canada, Great Britain, and Australia specifically to reach English-speaking travelers. If you look at other cruise lines make sure of where they draw their travelers from or you might find yourself linguistically isolated.

Stonecreek - I would point out one inaccuracy in your English Conversation map. The UK should be broken down by country and Scotland should show <5%.

The Scots can carry on a conversation in English with each other. You just can't understand what the hell they're saying. But the same thing applies in Southern Louisiana.

By the way, to my (gunfire damaged) ear, the English spoken by the Swedes and Danes is easier to understand than that spoken by the British. That's perhaps because of the large amounts of American media (movies, television, pop culture) the Swedes and Danes are exposed to.

You can begin to understand a Scotsman somewhere into the second bottle of Macallan I have found. Don't try it otherwise as it can hurt one's ears.

But I can understand coonass sober better than I can Scottish drunk.

quote:

Originally posted by Grenadier:
Stonecreek - I would point out one inaccuracy in your English Conversation map. The UK should be broken down by country and Scotland should show <5%.

......... that's quite rich coming from a septic ..........

Seriously though the Invernessian accent is supposed to be the most easily understood form of spoken English by several (apparently) eminent authorities in such things.

a septic?? OTOH, Ian's(Kuwinda) English is better than mine. of course that ain't saying much.

Brother in Law did the Rhine. Not him, but the boat apparently leaves on time and if you're not aboard, too bad. Couple of people waving and screaming, as they pulled out one place.

Grizz

We are doing budapest to amsterdam next June.

On a scenic tour.

Have parts of the trip before and will be a relaxing trip.

I guess our english is a mix between school british and american movies (all movies and tv show have swedish subtitles and the orignal language.


We do our best to influence american culture.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3TzP-o4vhs

(A crying Emmylou Harris next too the swedish king)

In Europe the two great rivers - the Rhine and the Danube. There was the Rhine cruises from Amsterdam to Basel and Vice versa. The most comfortable ship Alemannia (may be Britannia) company Nicko Tours. 8 days. the Tourists - mostly German pensioners, the staff on the ship - German-English language.

Ships there is a very "squat", because the very low bridges in some places on the ships, even the captain's cabin folds during the passage. Generally Rhine may seem a rather boring river. The scenic area is on the Middle Rhine from Cologne to Rudesheim, in my opinion, only about 100 km. In this report, many photos of those places.
http://riverforum.net/showthread.php?t=1498
In other places - smooth green Bank, dams, bushes and swans. As one Russian writer "journey on the Rhine will surely love the man who slept with a very old woman and found a lot about this". However, I do not like this writer.
I have never sailed on this route, our company considered this option, but eventually came down from Basel on the beach, on bicycles, to the Middle Rhine. In early may there is the season of asparagus, it is in all restaurants..

P.S. Only one problem - this operator is bancrupt in 2015
But there is company Croisi Europe with cruis from Antwerpen to Strasburg - Beethoven ship. 7 days, about 1400 euro per person. I think this variant is the same, only shorter, without Basel. And a lot others Europian cruises

Wat the f**k happend to Norway on the map?
Looks like we are a bunch of illiterate cave dwellers ??

By the way, the ultimo cruise in Europe is the Norwegian Coastal Express from Bergen to Kirkenes (Next to the Russian border)
One of the most stunning coastal regions in the whole wide world (a mix of Patagonia, British Columbia and Alaska )

Arild, Norway isn't EU member.
And Golfstream - is not a river

Arghhhh, see it now.
And thank`s heaven that we are not an EU member.

Anyway, the Golf Stream is a mighty river as any, but obviously not what Stoneybroke had in mind

Then, perhaps, to hell them, small and cold European rivers? Cruise on the Gulf Stream will be more interesting.

Norway was scotlands closest neibor to the 1600 century thats why the islands in scotland and Norways names ends with Ey/öy.

How can they possibly go wrong with Hurtigrutten?

quote:

Originally posted by Nordic2:
I guess our english is a mix between school british and american movies (all movies and tv show have swedish subtitles and the orignal language.


We do our best to influence american culture.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3TzP-o4vhs

(A crying Emmylou Harris next too the swedish king)

I wish music like that would go mainstream in the the USA! Europe has a lot of great music that never gets air play in the United States.

quote:

Originally posted by vashper:
In Europe the two great rivers - the Rhine and the Danube. There was the Rhine cruises from Amsterdam to Basel and Vice versa.

I really like these areas in Germany. It is very scenic in the Spring. The German rail runs along the river in many places and is a very scenic journey as well.

The "hostel" at the Deutsches Eck is really nice for an overnight stay for the "backpack" crowd.

The wife and I did a river cruise on the Rhine this year and our trip was from Basel, Switzerland to Amsterdam, Holland on the Rhine river. I initially agreed to this trip with some reluctance but after making the trip (we did it the first week of Sept)I must say that it was better than expected and was a lot more fun than the ocean cruise I did many years ago. We used Viking cruises for this. Our flights we arranged on our own (used Iceland air to/from Seattle) as we wanted to do some pre and post cruise stuff on our own, which included a short stay in Iceland on the return as Iceland air lets you break up your trip by up to week there without additional air fare costs. What I really like about the cruise was the smaller friendlier nature of not only the passengers (under 200) who you get to meet and see more than oncec on the smaller ships, but also the staff. Heck within the first few hours of being on board we got to meet and speak with captain of the ship and got a personal tour of the pilot house and how things worked and much info on the ship itself, propulsion, services, etc. (but then as a retired USN sailor, that sort of stuff interests me anyway). The food was great and lots of it, even special requests if one asked far enough in advance. We also bought their "drinks" package and while not huge drinkers (and this included sodas as well as beer, wine, hard drinks) it sure made life easier when getting drinks and not having to constantly sign purchase slips and then try and keep track that way of what was spent. Everything you buy is charged to your room account and you settle that bill on the departure day, generally with a credit card. We had a smaller room on the lower deck towards the back, but then the only time I spent in the room was to shower, sleep and change clothes. Yeah, maybe some of the tours are not for al people, but you don't have to take them if you don't want and would rather explore on your own, but I like doing some guided tours, often gets you to see things you otherwise couldn't ( like a tour we took to a Mercedes car factory in Germany, that to me was really interesting on how the car building process was done). While there was some delay on the first day of the cruise for the ship to get underway while waiting for passengers to arrive from the airport who booked their air thru Viking, generally the ship departed ON TIME from every stop after that and if you got back late, well better hope you remembered where the next stop was so you could catch up. Like this trip so much we bought discount vouchers for our next cruise with Viking, hopefully in late summer/early fall of 2017, but not sure which trip yet. We did have a good time and meet some interesting people. This by the way is NOT something to do with children, there is not onboard entertainment or activities for them, in fact I don't think we saw or met anyone under the age of 45-50 or so, definatley an "older" clientel for this. I'll admit, taking this cruise kept me from a hunt trip somewhere, but since I went with the wife, well she is happy and now I get to go to SA for hunting in May of 2016, so it all works out.

Booled the same cruise thar Bisonhunter took. We'll go in June. Booked through Costco and saved mucho dinero. Thanks to everyone for your input.

We did a similar Viking River cruise on the Danube week before Christmas (seven nights). Got a good deal as the boat wasn’t quite full (air fare included).

They are very well organized. When you leave the boat on a tour, you pick up a card with a number and letter. The bus and guide both carry this same designation. Food was good and the service was excellent. I swear they came in and cleaned the cabin in the middle of the night.


We got to meet some interesting passengers. One woman was telling us of her experiences as a 9 year old living in France when Germany invaded.

We did the Viking Budapest through Austria to Nuremberg last November. Very nice trip.