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when is the best time of year for a river cruise


zebs
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When is the best time of year to do a river cruise, for nice warm days and preferably no rain?

You have to define what you mean by nice warm days, since that differs for everyone. One person's warm is another's unbearably hot. Remember that you aren't lazing in the heat; you are generally walking in it.

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The next question is 'which river'? This forum covers the whole world, but even in Europe the weather varies in different regions – and you may have to settle for 2 out of 3 [e.g. the Rhône is one of the warmer and drier areas, but in summer the Mistral wind can be very fierce]

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We were very fortunate to have moderate temps on our recent cruise. July 4-17. Rhine/Main/Danube. High temps around 80F. (25ish C?) No rain except on the last full day. But we were all on ship right after lunch and most people were in their cabins packing for next day's departure.

 

 

 

But, the previous weeks had been much hotter. Well up in the 90s. We live in Houston and are used to that summer heat but it doesn't mean we like it. We were glad to escape it for a couple of weeks.

 

 

 

The thing is... you just can't plan your trip based on hoped for weather. You can arrive in July with a major front going through bringing heavy storms and cold air behind it. Or you can catch a heat wave.

 

 

We'll take the cold any day!

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we've really enjoyed river cruising in the fall. We've taken Danube, Rhine and Rhone cruises in October and November. The October cruises were perfect weather - cool at times, not cold, warm but not hot, no rain. And not as many crowds as during the summer!

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Based on over 20 river cruises in a wide variety of months my strong preference is for SPRING. Moderate temperatures like Autumn, lesser crowds than Summer, cheaper prices, and much longer days than Autumn (day length the last half of May is equal to day length the last half of July).

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We were on the Rhine (northbound) May 12 to 19th. Didn't have much rain, but it seemed cooler than I would have expected (we did a late May Danube cruise in 2016, and it was outright hot for several days). Biggest problem with mid summer cruises can be water levels, and the added amount of land based tourists taking their vacations. I want to to a late fall cruise sometime.....

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This year, we took a late June/early July cruise of the Danube (Budapest to Passau) and it was downright chilly most of the cruise. I brought mostly warm weather clothes and had to wear the same pair of long pants and jacket on several days.

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