Ocean Realm

As for many travelers, the idea of a cruise vacations may automatically conjure images of equatorial islands and cocktails sipped on the deck from a big oceangoing vessel. While this is a big component of cruises, there is a little-known alternative that is bound to delight you: European river travel.

Regardless of whether you are new to cruising on ships or if it is an activity you have indulged in often, one advantage of European river travel is that it’s an activity that you can enjoy in every season, unlike tropical cruises.

With European river travel, you will avoid the constant hassles of car gridlocks, changing accommodation every other day, and having to take lots of flights. And you will see wonderful places that are inaccessible to a seagoing cruise across Europe’s coasts.

European river travel is available both in the highly urbanized areas of Europe and in its backwoods. You will be able to choose from an assortment of journeys to suit your specific interests. And you can also choose the degree of sumptuousness you want on your ship, from complete to more Spartan.

There are lots of options for European river travel, both for the busy traveler who just needs a relaxing add-on to an existing trip, and to the leisured voyager who can take off weeks at a time to cruise at a slow pace. While self-catering options with small boats are available most river cruise ships on Europe’s rivers are outright floating hotels.

If you want to go the full way, the best trip that you can go on is a one-month voyage across the continent’s main rivers, the Rhine and the Danube, which are connected by canals in southern Germany. With this kind of trip, European river travel will take you all the way from Holland to the Black Sea.

There will be plenty to see on such a trip, from the magical shores of the Black Forest to the enchanting frontier area between France and Germany, to splendid cities such as Vienna, the ancient capital of the Habsburg Empire that used to stretch across all of middle Europe.

The vessels used for European river travel are far smaller than their ocean-cruising counterparts, usually having space for less than two hundred travelers. So you will be treated with a far more bespoke service, and you will see sights that you couldn’t glimpse at from the decks of the ocean ship giants.

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.