Two week river cruise suggestions please

We have just returned from the AmaPura two week cruise down the Irrawaddy.

I'm now looking for other river cruises of about the same length - preferably in relatively unexplored places.

I can't find any. If you look at the suggestions in that 'sticky' you find that rivers such as the Amazon, the Mekon, the Ganges and so on are never more than a week. Yes, they are sometimes sold as two week holidays but half or more of the time is spend moving by car or plane. That is not what I'd want to do.

All ideas welcome.

Tony

London UK

You might consider an eastern Danube cruise that takes you past Budapest to Bucharest. My understanding is that part of the Danube has relatively low tourist traffic compared to the others. But, if you want two weeks on a boat, you'd probably need to combine it with parts of the Danube from say, Passau to Budapest, which of course are well trafficked. Or, maybe Russia would work for you?

Look into Vantage - the catalogs they send me seem to be filled with long trips, although I'm not sure how much of them are on a boat.

I have my eye on SilverSea when we have a higher vacation budget. I realize they are ocean liners, but they're smaller than most sea-faring vessels, and have some really interesting itineraries.

Hello T&C Fulham, not easy I think, indeed, in "unexplored territory". Here are my thoughts.

ewizabeff has already given you the best option in my opinion. The company I travelled with, Transocean, offer the lower Danube as a return trip Passau - Danube Delta, with variation leaving from Vienna. https://transocean.de/reiseziel/fluss/donau-bis-zum-delta

Please do not be put off by the German, I cannot find an English website. My cruise was bi-lingual with many Europeans (even a Russian couple) onboard. The next cruise after mine was even to have a complete large group of guests from the UK onboard. You could phone the helpline. A few companies offer the lower Danube on the North American market.

For a central European cruise you could go for Riviera Travel's "Cruising the Heart of Europe" Cologne to Budapest (15 days).

Vantage, as ewizabeff suggested to have a look at, has an appealing (to me) cruise of 15 days of the Rhine and Moselle.

For not exotic - you may find the area is a little like the dunes of some English coasts, harsher than Cornwall, of course, and probably as cold as Northumberland in rain - but unexplored territory as far as river cruise companies are concerned you could go for Transocean Berlin to Stralsund (11 days). https://transocean.de/kreuzfahrt/s703/naturlandschaft-kulturschatze-zwischen-spree-stralsund Berlin is always interesting for a visit and Stettin in Poland is certainly different. I saw the town in 1991 (in a sad after-communism state, not me, the town) and I am sure it has developed favourably since. This is not offered by any other company exactly like this. I have so far not seen this by any other company serving the English-speaking market. The only other company offering the lower Elbe to the English market with something similar is CroisiEurope - also travelling downstream on a different type of itinerary. This is shorter than the Transocean one.

CroisiEurope has a European river cruise of 13 days leaving from Strasbourg. A unique itinerary on the market, I assume, they are based in Strasbourg, hence them not leaving from Basel. http://www.croisieuroperivercruises.com/cruises/sbu_aipp-trans-european-cruise-port-port-cruise-no-transfers-included

Other than that you can do a back-to-back, I think Avalon offers two combined itineraries, i.e. including one ship change.

You might want to look into CroisiEurope's new cruise in Africa, but this is only 9 days.

As you said "two weeks and unexplored" is a little difficult.

Hope you find something that appeals to you.

notamermaid

Thanks for those two posts.

I'll get reading.

Tony

Thanks. I have done a lot of reading. It is, in my view, slightly naughty when they show a 14 day cruise holiday which actually only has 7 days afloat. But there are lots that are genuine all boat holidays.

Which of you two posters would you recommend as the most unusual? We have travelled a lot and much prefer the smaller modest stops to the big names like Berlin.

Nobody has yet pointed us to places much further afield than Europe. As a London I am happy to see more of Europe - but would prefer to go to the more offbeat spots that less inquisitive travellers have yet to see.

Tony

Tony

I assume that you are familiar with the various European longer trips runby a number of operators, including

- Amsterdam to Basel with an included trip up the Mosel (one of my favorite rivers).

- Amsterdam to the Black Sea which is generally scheduled for 4 weeks (often a B2B with many of the passengers exchanging in either Vienna or Budapest).

There is a CC thread at http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2375181&highlight=long+nile on a 14 night Cairo to Aswan cruise. You could then go to the other side of the Aswan High Dam and pick up a Lake Nasser cruise to Abu Simbal.

Considerably more adventurous, it is possible to go from Pucallpa, Peru all the way to Belem, Brazil by stringing together a number of local river boats. This is not an easy trip either physically or logistically, and way more than most want to do, but it easily provides a month of excitement (along with misery).

And my final suggestion is Kisangani to Kinshasa or vice-versa on the Congo (3 weeks downstream, not counting for delays). For many years this seemed to be done only by local boats, but it seems like there actually may be a tour company doing this recently (see http://www.virungaamanitours.com/tour-packages/7-22-days-congo-river-expedition-kisangani-kinshasa )

That's about as exotic as I care to do:cool:

Thom

Thom,

Some exotic ideas there. Thanks.

Bedtime here in the UK. I will follow up your ideas tomorrow.

What a great source of ideas CC is.

Tony

There's a bit of of a conflict in going to some of the more unusual places, but wanting to spend 14 days on a river boat. Most folks that are willing to shell out this kind of money want to go somewhere that has an established tourist infrastructure, and that isn't the case in the more exotic locales. Additionally, the vast majority of the amazing sites on this planet are not close to a river bank.

I've found that if I want a truly unique trip, I probably have to plan it myself.

There's a bit of of a conflict in going to some of the more unusual places, but wanting to spend 14 days on a river boat. Most folks that are willing to shell out this kind of money want to go somewhere that has an established tourist infrastructure, and that isn't the case in the more exotic locales. Additionally, the vast majority of the amazing sites on this planet are not close to a river bank.

Which is why the AmaPura on the Irrawaddy was so special.

But yes, the points you make are valid. Imagine touring England by boat. Portsmouth, Dover, Felixstow, Grimsby, Newcastle, Fleetwood....the heart sinks.

The difference for us is that we have done car trips round so many countries, Chile, Cuba, Namibia, India, America....that we now prefer a boat/ship where one can pack/unpack once and see the same number (and often more) places.

And one of the benefits of cruises exploring the less known places is that one tends to have more broadminded fellow passengers who revel in the unexpected and the unknown rather than simply ticking off place names.

Tony

Not a river cruise, but if you're looking for something different that would last 10+ days, what about an expedition cruise? Antarctica and Svalbard are both great trips.

And most expedition ships have to reposition from pole to pole between seasons; when they do, they offer interesting trips along the way. We did a fun trip to Panama and Costa Rica on Silver Explorer, and we're doing another 2-week one down the South American coast next November.

There are also expeditions to the Kimberly and the South Pacific, just to name a few. Lots of great ship-based adventures to try. But if you're looking strictly for a river cruise, then this won't be of interest to you.

Not a river cruise, but if you're looking for something different that would last 10+ days, what about an expedition cruise?

And why not. In fact the first ever cruise we did was with Seabourn in the Caribbean out of Barbados. Almost half the stops we anchored offshore. We went to some small townships and twice we decamped en masse to the beach where they organise a BBQ and served caviar in the surf.

Again any specific suggestions would be eagerly inspected.

Tony

Scenic is introducing a new expedition vessel in 2018. It will be all over the place over the course of the year, so any 2 week period would be different. (I must admit I haven't heard much recently about this so it might be delayed.)

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Not a river cruise, but if you're looking for something different that would last 10+ days, what about an expedition cruise?

...Again any specific suggestions would be eagerly inspected.

-Hurtigruten r/t Bergen to Russian border and return (11 nights)

-Antarctica I did a 14 nighter on Hurtigruten Fram; probably 5 nights within Chile + 9 nights down to Antarctica. We made 10 of 12 landings; some are bound to be cancelled by weather so IMO I did pretty well.

-Galapagos: Many trips are 3-4 days, but we did 7 nights on Celebrity Xpedition (they did really first class job). Since we went Ecuadorian rules have changed and boats cannot return to a wild landing for 14 days, so they now alternate two 7 night trips that can be done B2B.

Shorter (4-6 days) small boats that I have enjoyed as part of a much longer trip include:

-Yasawa Islands in Fiji; pretty undeveloped when I went there 37 years ago - OMG, has it really been that long? I assume more developed now.

-Whitsunday Islands and Great Barrier Reef out of Mackay, QLD

Thom

Hi T&C,

We recently returned from an Avalon Waterways Bucharest to Vienna cruise. We got off in Bratislava, so the fare was reduced.

If you add a couple of days pre-cruise in Bucharest and a couple post cruise in Bratislava, you get a very enjoyable 17 days.

This April we shall be doing the complement - Paris to Budapest.

Hope this helps.

Ira

We did the Irrawaddy first then the Amazon and Mekong.......yes more than 7 nights on the ship SO much better!!! We felt that both on the Amazon and the Mekong additional days and stops would have enhanced the itineraries.

Amsterdam to Bucharest would include some small towns (not exotic) but would be fun! We only the did the first leg of AMS to Budapest but look forward to someday doing the Budapest to Bucharest.

Would definitely agree the Galapagos cruise would be great if you could do b2b for 14 nights. We also did the 7 night Celebrity many years ago and it was so much fun......I called it camp for adults!!!

Not a river cruise, but if you're looking for something different that would last 10+ days, what about an expedition cruise?

 

And why not. Tony

You might be candidate for the Aranui 5. It's not Seabourn, but it takes you to the Marquesas Islands which are sufficiently away from the trodden tourist paths. Only their main island gets ordinary cruise ships. The Aranui is a freighter that also transports tourists. It does a 14 day round trip from Papeete. I took the trip on the Aranui 2 which was a freighter, then on the Aranui 3 which was 1/3 human and 2/3 cargo.

On both trips, the humans included locals back home from their Papeete 'exile' and several professionals who used the Aranui to get from island to island for their jobs: a bookkeeper for the shops, the new French administrator, and a representative of the harbor master to assess the viability of cruise ships.

The Aranui includes wine and water with meals, all excursions except helicopter rides and diving and a doctor's care if you need it. Information and excursions are in French, English, and German. Expect an international passenger mix of travelers. Nothing formal. Not suitable for pampered cruise passengers with a need for lots of entertainment etc.

The Marquesas are stunningly beautiful when the ship sails close to the shore line. Good preparation reading: Herman Melville's Typee and Thor Heyerdahl's Fatu Hiva. Heyerdahl's book is autobiographic. Melville's says it is, very likely with lots of embellishments. Hiva Oa's cemetery has Paul Gauguin's tomb.

Would definitely agree the Galapagos cruise would be great if you could do b2b for 14 nights. We also did the 7 night Celebrity many years ago and it was so much fun......I called it camp for adults!!!

My husband and I belong to the people who thought 3 days would have been sufficient for the Galapagos. On the other hand, we loved our Napo River extension on our own with and in the Napo River Wildlife Center. Canoe rides with somebody else steering and paddling. Close up to the jungle, canopy tower walk, parrot lick.

By the way, Pandaw does an upper Mekong river trip. You could combine it with the upper Mekong first, then the lower Mekong. The boats can't go between them because of the cataracts at the Laos/Cambodia border.

Thanks folk,

Lots of new reading.

Some really unusual ideas.

Tony

Have a look at the Pandaw web site - they have a few interesting longer cruises - think there is a 20 night combined Chidwin/Upper Irrawaddy, when we did the 14 night Yangoon to Mandalay cruise there was at least one person who had done the Chidwin and they indicated that they would do it again , also the Assam Bengal Navigation company has a 10 nighter on the Brahmaputra in India. I have also noticed that there are a few dates this year that the "long" Nile cruise Cairo to Aswan is happening - think it is 14 nights.

Thanks for that about India.

When I looked at the reports about a year ago they were somewhat mixed.

But I will look again. We love India. Done it three times on land and would love the comfort of no packing/unpacking and no bumpy roads.

Tony

Thanks for that about India.

 

When I looked at the reports about a year ago they were somewhat mixed.

 

But I will look again. We love India. Done it three times on land and would love the comfort of no packing/unpacking and no bumpy roads.

 

Tony

Agree Tony...7 days were not enough. Last year did 14 nights on AmaPura and just came back from Amadara. I have read that Amawaterways is looking at a 10 or 11 day cruise in India for 2018 (later). This was tentatively confirmed when on amadara last month.

We are hoping for them to do this area.

Uniworld does a really nice job with India. It's half land and half cruise, a nice mixture. There is some moving around the first week (3 locations) but the second week on the river is unpack and forget it.

We just got back from the trip a week ago. Working on my trip report. Will be a slow process. But the trip was lots of fun!

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Thanks JP.

Fine if you are prepared to do the land element.

In Saturday's paper there was a 'Mekong' trip with a celebrity guide and that did not involve a single night afloat. Not for us. OK it was not sold as a cruise but forgive me for thinking the Mekong is a river!

Tony

Scenic offers quite a few long itineraries, with all of the time on the river. We did a ten night with them last year and spent several days aboard docked in Bordeaux, which we very much enjoyed and are returning to for a few days this fall.

While we prefer AMA overall, Scenic might provide an itinerary that appeals to you.

Thanks.

I'll look at Scenic.

Tony