Thoughts on River Cruise vs Land Tour - Holland/Belgium April 2013

We are considering Holland and Belgium next spring and have narrowed it down to a Trafalgar land tour or Vantage river cruise. We have toured with Trafalgar but not Vantage and are in our mid 50's. The Trafalgar tour starts in Amsterdam, ends in Brussels and is 9 nights with stays in 3 different locations. Vantage is round trip from Amsterdam. The primary difference in itinerary is the river cruise doesn't include Luxembourg.

Price works out fairly close for both tours when I include optionals and any extras - Vantage is slightly higher but is one night longer and we have a credit with them since we booked a cruise that we didn't take.

Our primary interests are seeing windmills (both include Kinderdijk), enjoying the tulips in bloom, and experiencing canal cruises in Brussels and Amsterdam (both include this).

I would love to hear from anyone that might have done one or the other and the pros and cons of each.

Thanks!!

I have just done alot of research on doing the exact same trip. I looked at the land tour thru Globus vs a river cruise and we decided to do the river cruise. The land tour was about $2000 per person with a lot of meals not included . So we decided on the AmaWaterway cruise on the Amalyra for about $2200 per person which includes all of the excursions and three meals a day. So I figured it was better to take the river cruise. AmaWaterway is offering $1000 off per couple at this time so we booked with them. I looked at about six different river cruise companies and even though we did not get a suite or french balcony we can go up on deck when we want. We are going April 9-16, 2013. Hopefully with us hitting the gardens and windmills towards the end of the trip we will be able to see the tulips in fill bloom.

Happy sailing.

We also booked our hotel at the Park Plaza Victoria Amsterdam which is right across from the central station

We did the 'Tulips & Windmills' cruise with Viking this past April. My husband had spent a great deal of time in Holland on business and really wanted me to see the country, but he really didn't want to move from hotel to hotel and didn't really like driving and (especially) parking there. So, we opted for the river cruise and were very happy we did. Also, although he had seen some of the sights when he had free time on his weekends there, he felt he got a much better experience on our cruise with our guides.

We cruised Apr10-19 and our weather was very chilly most days. We were only able to enjoy the upper deck on one day while sailing thru some locks. However, the lounge had wonderful floor-to-ceiling windows and we could enjoy the passing scenery from there when we could not enjoy the outdoor decks.

I so enjoyed Kinderdijk and the tulips at Keukenhof were absolutely breathtaking.

We've done the similar trip with Vantage and having been on other river cruises and other European land tours.......take the river cruise. When all is said and done, you will see and enjoy more and spend less.

We did the same river cruise and it was great ...