European Cruise Advisor

Have you ever thought about taking a European cruise holiday but perhaps you have already voyaged the Baltic, transversed the Northern seas around Norway and the Arctic or purveyed the Mediterranean oceans ? If this describes your experiences then may be you should consider a European river cruise instead.

If you want to visit some of the fantastic European cities such as Cologne, Paris, Budapest, Prague or Vienna then a river cruise is one of the best ways to do so. With a river cruise you can easily take in the sights and cultural heritage of the cities and between times, you get to experience the beautiful and impressive countryside.

Compared to ocean going cruises, a river cruise will offer a slightly different vacation. A river cruiser will be a smaller ship, with few decks and passengers. Also there are less likely to be as many facilities available, for example fewer bars and restaurants available to choose from. This is not to say a river cruise is inferior – far from it. Accommodation aboard a river boat will still be of a high quality and exceptional standard. As well as this you will get a much more scenarific holiday, as you will leisurely slide through the European waterways moving from city to town to city in abject luxury. with plenty of shore excursions and regular stops there’s something different to do and see every single day on a European river cruise.

With the possibility to stop over for extra days at some cities such as Paris, Berlin or Amsterdam, many passengers will extend their stays at theend of a cruise or perhaps at the beginning, staying in a hotel and this way make the most out of the holiday time.

Steeped in history and turmoil, Russia has always been a fascinating and culturally significant Country. Since its borders have been recently opened to westerners, the Russian people and state have much to offer a European river cruise enthusiast. With some of the best sights and so many wonderful historical buildings to visit, many with their root in religious and medieval architecture, a Russian River cruise is probably one of the best ways to visit this magnificent country.

To visit Russia by travelling to cities and booking hotel accommodation, one might find that the process can be quite high for good quality amenities that any discerning traveler might have come to expect from a European vacation. A simple way to get over this expense is to arrange a Russian river cruise. This way you will get great levels of service from you’re on board accommodation, easily equivalent to a nice quality hotel, but you will also get all the other experiences and advantages associated with river boat cruises.

Many of the cruises on offer will also provide shore excursions, sometimes built in, some at extra cost, but all pre-arranged. The ship itself will most likely have staff and translators that speak your language, although this is worth checking out when you book your cruise from your tour operator. When the ship docks for the shore excursions in Russia, you will be able to visit the locations, and again, many of the tours will also involve a translator so that as you are visiting the locations you will have explained to you the sights and sounds that you are experience in a clear and easy to understand fashion.

Make sure you take a camera or video recorder with you so that you can capture the memories so that you can watch them back when you arrive back home, be wary though of using flash photography in some of the place that you visit, some artifacts can be light sensitive and flash photography may be forbidden to prevent damage, your tour guide will be able to tell you when this applies, as well as translate other signs and notices that you might encounter on the trips.

When you are choosing your Russian river cruise, don’t forget to look at the entire package, to make sure that it will be visiting the destinations that you want to experience, whether that be Moscow and St Petersburg along the imperial waterways of Russia.

Whatever you decide, a European cruise to Russia has many possibilities, allowing you to visit those “must see” place such as the Kremlin.

Is travelling to London something that you have considered but not yet tried?
If you do visit London then you should definitely look at including some day trips on the River Thames as to not do so would be a great shame since you would be missing out on one of the iconic parts of London from a unique position, the river.

Travelling by river can easily be considered to be one of the most relaxing and comfortable ways to see the sights of London from the Thames. Travelling through London in this way is a unique experience and will let you take in all the sights such as the House of Parliament, Big Ben, the London Eye to name but a few places. River travel actually makes the experience different for you too, so even if you have already seen many of these places, seeing them from the river Thames from the deck of one of the many tour boats that populate the London River is an experience to be recommended.

Many of the cruises along the Thames can be pre-booked; you can also show up on the day and pay as you get on board. This is entirely up to you of course, but since the river trips may take in different sights depending on where about they depart from as well as which direction they are travelling, doing some research will mean you get to see what you want to on you river tour.

As an idea, you can make the river cruise day trip part of you sightseeing for day, rather than travel to the London destinations by tube, bus or taxi, you can incorporate the points of interest in the river tour, so when you get off the boat you can continue your sightseeing from a different part of the Thames.

Bear in mind the times of year that you will be visiting London, sometimes out of season, for example Jan-April and Oct-December the weather can be quite cold, to this end you should plan to take a cruise that has plenty of shelter on board, most cruises do have this but some may well be completely open-top which unless you wrap up warm might make the river tour less enjoyable.

Another interesting possibly is to hire your own river craft to travel on the Thames. Private hire boats though can be quite expensive, ranging between £900 and £1500 which is quite a lot, but if you are organising a large party if people it may well work out more cost effective.

Seeing London by night from the Thames is also something worth considering, many boat cruises will be available in the evenings; some have buffets or full silver service so you can eat while you sightsee. Live entertainment and music is also available on some cruises, so no matter what you want, there is something for everyone.