What are the biggest pros and cons, the good and bad,
of European river cruising?
I'm Gary Bembridge, this is another
of my cruising tips for travellers.
I want to take another look at European river cruising,
and I want to talk about the five biggest pros,
the good things about it, and the five biggest cons,
perhaps the downsides of river cruising.
So let's start by taking a look at the positives, the pros.
Probably one of the biggest pros of European river cruising
is the amount of choice.
There is enormous amount of choice.
So first of all you have a choice of rivers.
There are loads and loads of rivers.
Pretty much any of the major rivers
within continental Europe, you can cruise on.
So you can cruise on the Rhine, the Rhone, the Danube,
the Loire, the Seine, the Elbe, the Douro,
just goes on and on and on.
And some cruise lines will give you the choice of cruising
on pretty much any of those rivers.
The second great thing is you have an enormous amount
of choice in cruise lines.
So certainly offhand, I could think of
at least 14 or 15 cruise lines and there are many, many more
that I've seen on the rivers that I just can't remember.
So you have names like A-ROSA, AmaWaterways,
Amadeus, Avalon, Crystal, CroisiEurope, Phoenix Reisen,
nicko, KD Cruises, Scenic, APT, Viking, Tauck
and just many, many more.
What's really important with that is
that you have a lot of choice.
So you have value lines at the one end,
so you might have like the Riviera or CroisiEurope,
which are more value for money,
right through to really plush and expensive
and five-, six-star cruise lines on the rivers
like Crystal or Uniworld.
So you have a huge amount of choice.
You also have a lot of choice
in terms of the type of experience that you want.
So you'll find some will create a very multilingual
European experience like CroisiEurope.
Some will even be more German-focused or Swiss-focused.
You'll find that some are even more targeting
the UK travellers like Riviera, or Fred Olsen or Saga.
They all offer cruises which are very UK-traveler-focused.
And then some have a more American feel to them,
so AmaWaterways, Avalon, those kind of lines.
And then you'll find some even have
a slightly more even Australian twinge to them,
like APT, Scenic, maybe even Emerald.
So you'll certainly find there's a huge amount of choice
of rivers, of different cruise lines
and of types of experience,
so choice is definitely a big pro.
You're going to find hopefully a river cruise line
and a river that meets what you're looking for.
I think the second biggest pro,
is it's a pretty immersive and in-depth way
of seeing a region.
So if you're cruising along the Danube, for example,
you're going to get to go
through a number of different countries,
you're going to be going through lots of beautiful scenery,
you're going to be seeing lots of big towns,
you're going to be seeing lots of little towns,
and you're going to get really, really close to the culture.
I think what's great about a river cruise is,
first of all, you normally will go to some big iconic town.
So again using the example of the Danube,
you're probably going to to go to things
like Bratislava, Budapest, Vienna.
On the Rhine, you're going through big major cities as well.
So you're going to go and see the big iconic cities.
You're also probably going to go and see therefore
some of the big iconic and famous sites.
But also because of the nature of the river
and cruising through, you're also going to stop
at very out-of-the-way little villages,
or perhaps places that were really big in the mediaeval times
and they have a historic castle there,
or you're going to stop
because there's some significant agricultural wine making,
or some chateaus.
So you definitely get a huge cross section of big, iconic,
big, bustling towns down to sleepy little villages.
So it's a very immersive way
of seeing a particular part of the world.
Also what the cruise lines try to do
to make it more immersive
is you'll find they cater the onboard experience
to give you a more immersive experience.
You'll find that the food, for example,
on a European river cruise, as you cruise
the different countries will serve traditional dishes.
They'll also have wine from that particular country.
They'll also bring onboard perhaps dancers or singers,
musicians or speakers to give you more of an immersion
into the culture and the history of that particular region.
So it's quite an immersive experience.
So I really like that, that you see a part of the world
in a pretty in-depth way.
That for me is a big pro.
Another big pro is, unlike ocean cruising
where often you have the fare
and you have lots and lots and lots of add-ons,
what's great about European river cruising is pretty much
all of the cruise lines on the European rivers
have largely all-inclusive fares.
So there's very little, or very few extras
that you're going to have once you're on the ship.
The key inclusions normally are, of course,
your accommodation, all your dining is included,
also your excursions are included.
So depending on the cruise line,
you'll either get one set excursion every place you stop,
or sometimes you'll have a choice of those.
Some of them might be more active,
some of them might be more cultural.
And you will normally then have, of course,
all your onboard entertainment.
Wi-Fi is normally included.
And most cruise lines will include some drinks.
So it might be just drinks with lunch and dinner,
some will include all of your drinks all of the time.
So very all-inclusive fares.
The extras that you have,
some cruise lines will have gratuities,
obviously they're optional,
as extras, some will include it.
Drinks depending on whether they've included it
all the time or not.
And depending on the cruise line and where you booked,
transfers, so flights obviously into Europe,
and getting to and from the ship.
Now many cruise lines will,
depending on where you're buying,
will sell the whole package.
Some of those you have to buy the cruise
and then work with your agent or do it yourself
to build the various packages.
Pre-stays, post-stays, transfers, that kind of thing,
that tends to be extra,
because you're obviously going to tailor that more.
So the fares are largely inclusive.
I found when I've been on river cruising,
I have had bills of almost nothing, and perhaps
there's been some cash I've given for gratuities.
The great thing is the fare is the fare.
You're not going to have lots and lots of extras.
Another great pro is river cruising
is incredibly hassle-free.
It's even more so, I think, more hassle-free,
less stress-free than ocean cruising.
On a river cruise,
everything is pretty much decided for you.
Once you've booked the cruise and the destination,
you have to worry about nothing
because you arrive, you unpack, of course,
it becomes your sailing hotel,
you then pack at the end.
But everything's decided for you.
So your meals are all set for you,
your excursions are set for you,
all your briefings are set for you,
your transportation, everything's arranged for you.
You literally decide the itinerary,
decide where you want to go, and you pitch up
and you have to make very, very few decisions,
so it's very hassle-free.
It's a great easy way of travelling through Europe.
So if you wanted to go through three or four countries,
which some of these river cruises do,
if you were having to get on trains or planes,
there's a lot of downtime, a lot of hassle,
a lot of stress, all of that's gone,
because it's really, really quite a curated
and you're kind of shepherded and looked after,
and all the decision making is done for you.
So that's definitely a big plus.
I think it's a very hassle-free, easy, simple way
of seeing Europe.
Another really great plus, a pro, is the fact
that it's a much smaller, intimate experience.
Obviously if you've gone on an ocean cruise ship,
you could have up to thousands of guests.
So if you're even if you're on some of the smaller,
you're going to have a couple of hundred guests.
River cruise ships in Europe are probably going to be
between about 150, 200 guests,
so it's quite a small experience.
Also that means that you're going to get to know
the crew very well.
You're going to find you have 30 or 40 crew on those ships
so you always get to know the crew incredibly well.
So it's a much more intimate, much more,
it's easier to meet people,
you get to know everybody on the ship,
and so it's definitely a very different experience.
Of course, if you want to be anonymous,
you're probably not going to find that on a river cruise,
because everyone's going to get to know you.
Those for me are the big pros,
the big pluses of river cruising.
So what are the downsides?
What are the cons of river cruising?
Probably one of the cons of river cruising in Europe
is just how popular it's becoming.
So as I already mentioned,
there are lots and lots of river cruise lines
and more and more people are coming onto the rivers
all the time, so the places are getting more and more busy,
because obviously there's only a certain amount of rivers.
They all tend to go to the same places
because that's what people want to see.
So you start to finding that some ports and some itineraries
are getting really busy.
So you may find, for example, that when you dock in a place
you have ships either side of you,
and you have to go through or over ships to get there.
Out in the places, particularly some of the smaller places,
you can find it gets really busy
because you've got lots of tour parties' excursions
heading out from all the different river cruise boats there.
So it's almost a victim of its own success.
It's getting really, really busy, and I think
one of the things that river cruising is starting to do
is to find ways of alleviating that,
so you're going to find there's more and more excursions
which take you further afield.
There's more active excursions, things like bicycles,
heading off on bicycles, and stuff like that,
to try and disperse people much more,
but I think that's one of the probably downsides,
it's getting really, really busy.
The second possible con for some people
is the ships are small and you're not going to have
lots of choice, so if you're used to ocean cruising,
you're used to lots of choice of dining venues,
gyms, big production shows, lots going on.
That's not the case on a river cruise ship.
They have to be a certain size and a certain height
to be able to navigate the rivers.
So you'll find on a typical European river cruise boat,
you're going to have one dining room,
which is where you're going to have all of your meals.
A few do have a second dining option,
but generally speaking, it's one dining room.
You can have one lounge and bar
where you have your briefings, drinks,
all that kind of stuff.
Up on the sun deck, you might have, depending on the ship,
you just might have places to sit.
Some of them might have a little crazy golf course
or they might have a plunge pool.
Some of them will have a small fitness centre
or a massage room, but it's very, very small,
so you don't have loads and loads of options.
You don't have lots of shops, that kind of stuff.
So certainly if you're the person
who likes lots of choice, lots of options,
then river cruising is probably a downside for you.
You do, of course, within those ships
have everything you need.
You've got a place to eat, you've got a place to relax.
You've got a place to sun yourself.
So there is, although there's not lots of choice,
you do have all of the key things that you need.
Also because the ships have to be a certain size,
you'll find generally speaking
the cabins are relatively small,
and will normally only have a shower room
and a pretty small shower room at that.
So the cabins do tend to be a little bit
on the smaller side, just because they have to be.
Another possible con of European river cruising,
particularly if you're the sort of traveller that likes
being incredibly independent and do your own thing,
is the whole river cruising process
is relatively regimented.
So I see it a lot similar to perhaps going
on an escorted tour,
because it has a lot of the same attributes to it.
So you'll find the days pretty laid out
with relatively few options.
Of course, you can just decide not to do some things,
but bear in mind, you will have already paid
for those things.
So you'll find you normally have some sort of announcement
getting up, because breakfast is at a certain time.
You'll then head off on your different excursions,
you might have to be back at a certain time,
because the ship's moving a little bit further
along the river to the next port.
On the excursions, you'll find they're pretty curated,
there are only walking tours,
there might be, as I said, some active tours.
You'll come back, you'll have lunch at the same time,
there'll be kind of a set time to have your meal.
They might have a briefing or whatever,
you'll head off on another excursion,
you might be sailing, you'll have the daily briefing
for the next day, where you're told what's going to happen,
the various options.
You'll have dinner which you have at a set time.
Again, not necessarily with lots of choices
of other places to eat.
And every day on a European river cruise
is relatively set, curated and there's not necessarily
lots of opportunity to flex that.
Of course, you could skip some of the excursions
and go and explore yourself.
On the plus side, a lot of the times
you'll find you're perhaps docked overnight,
So you can then head out into towns.
But it is a relatively regimented set day
and a set way of doing things
because of the nature of European river cruising.
So if you're a very independent traveller,
and you like to do things more on a whim,
you might see that as more of a con.
On the plus side, of course,
it does mean that everything's organised,
everything's sorted, and they do make sure
that you make the most of your day on the river
and in the places you call on.
The next possible con depends a little bit
on the type of traveller you are.
I would say river cruising at the moment in Europe
mostly caters for couples.
And it does tend to be a little bit on the older side,
so 50s, 60s, 70s, and even older than that
is really still the core of the traveller
on European river cruising.
If you're a solo traveller, for example,
you'll find that it's a pretty expensive way of travelling,
because you're normally going to have to pay
for double occupancy of cabin.
What a lot of cruise lines do,
particularly in the shoulder seasons,
is they might do some solo traveller deals,
but you won't find lots of solo cabins and things like that.
Also if you are a person of limited mobility,
river cruising in Europe is also a challenge,
not only because the ships don't always have all
the facilities, but the places you call on are not great.
So some of the ships will have, for example,
an elevator between the floors.
Not all of them will have it.
They won't always have accessible cabins.
Some will have them.
But the big challenge is, particularly if the ships
are docked next to each other,
moving through the ships could be a potential challenge.
But also just the nature of the places you call on
are very old, you have cobbled streets,
you have steep banks, that kind of thing.
So it's not ideal.
If you want to go river cruising with your family,
it's still kind of mixed.
More and more cruise lines are trying
to attract more families, so for example,
AmaWaterways have got more into connecting doors,
they have launched AmaMagna which is a bigger ship.
Some of the cruise lines are trying to,
at school holiday time, build in more stuff for kids,
particularly to try and attract more multigenerational.
But really at its heart,
it's still very much a couples experience.
Now I've been on quite a few river cruises
as a solo traveller and, of course, you get to meet people
and, of course, you're very welcome
but it is an expensive way of cruising
unless you can find those particular deals.
Another possible con of river cruising is water levels.
So if you're on ocean cruising, of course,
you could have weather, wind in particular
could be the thing that disrupts your getting
in and out of ports, swells, that kind of stuff.
In Europe, it is water levels.
So water being too high or too low.
And it can go through various times of the year
where you have a real problem.
So for example, a couple of years ago in Europe,
there wasn't a lot of rain,
it was almost a drought situation.
So the rivers got very low,
and that meant that the ships were very restricted.
So, for example, I was on a Danube cruise
and we could only get as far as Vienna
because the water was just too low off that.
In other years the water's too high,
and they can't get under the bridges.
So, of course, you need to be flexible and understand
that you may have that as a potential downside.
The same is if you go ocean cruising,
you can't predict whether you're going to have swells
or winds or whatever and miss port for that reason.
But do bear in mind, water levels is quite a hot topic
and could be an issue within European river cruising.
On the plus side, or the good side of that,
is sometimes the distances you travel are not that huge,
so what the lines are allowed to do
is they're allowed to bus you to a place,
because you might find it's only an hour's drive away
to get to that particular excursion
and bring you back to the ship,
or what they've even done in some cases,
is they've moved people from one ship up to another ship
further along the river, and then carried on.
River cruising in Europe is a great experience.
It's a great immersive way of seeing a region.
Like everything, there's pros and there's cons.
And for some people, some of those cons are pros,
and vice versa.
I hope you found that interesting.
I have loads more videos about European river cruising,
ocean cruising, so why don't you watch another
one of those right now?