Posts from — November 2009

For most tourists the phrase “cruise vacation” conjures images of indolent time spent on deck chairs sipping tropical drinks while being transported across warm seas to the next sun-drenched tropical islet. But there is a different sort of cruise, which can bring an entirely new experience to the excitement of cruising: European river travel.

You may be organizing your first cruise trip, or maybe you have spent a holiday aboard a ship every year for some time. In both cases, European river travel has a lot to offer, allowing you to discover not only the joys of cruising but also the pleasure of an unconventional visit to Europe.

European river travel will let you observe parts of Europe which are simply unreachable to ocean class cruise ships. You’ll get a close look at some of Europe’s most momentous historical sites.

While many trips involving around European river travel center on the visit of urban areas, there are valid alternatives if you prefer to visit more laidback areas, or even unspoiled nature in natural parks and sparsely settled areas. You can even combine urban and rural sights.

Indeed there are plenty of options, and most of them are easily explorable from the comfort of your computer screen, where thanks to dedicated online travel agents you can select from wealth of different options, as well as packages that include tailor-made parts or wholly bespoke trips.

One of the most fantastic European river travel that you can take goes all the way from Amsterdam, in Holland, to the Black Sea, in Romania. On such a trip, you will travel on three of the continent’s mayor waterways, the Rhine, the Main and the Danube, as well as on connecting canals.

You’ll visit Vienna, the origin of the waltz, and the thirteenth-century cathedral at Cologne. You’ll visit the overwhelming Danube Gorge and the Stone Bridge at Regensburg, which has been bearing traffic safely over the Danube for more than a thousand years.

If you are already accustomed to cruises on big liners, you will be pleasantly surprised by the pace and also at the level of personal attention that the ship crew will be able to give you on European river travel. As the groups of passengers are smaller, much more will be done to make sure that you will feel individually well cared for.

The region truly has a lot to offer to the discerning traveler who likes to enjoy refined culture, entertainment, and cuisine at a pleasant pace. And in fact, maybe after such a momentous trip you may even decide to come back for more European river travel on the continent’s other rivers.

EuroRiverTravel.com is the premier resource for European river travel on the Net, with updates on topics such as booking a cruise, as well as on cruising through several countries, preparing for the trip, making the most out of the cruise - click the links above to find out more!

categories: European River Travel,European Cruises,European Rivers,Europe Cruise,European Trips,Adventure Cruising,Houseboats,Live Aboard,Cruising Tips,Cruising Advice,Travel,Tourism,Cruises,Cruising