Christmas Market River Cruise - Rhine or Danube Itinerary?

[TopChop]

My wife and I have cruised approximately 4 times (Princess and Disney), but have never been on a river cruise. We want to do the Christmas Market Cruise and have narrowed it down to Viking, AMA and Uniworld. The question now is going on the Rhine River (Amsterdam-Switzerland) or the Danube (Prague - Budapest). We will want to stay and extra day or two at the start and finish - and for that reason the Amsterdam-Lucerne-Zurich cruise from AMA seems to be the way to go. But AMA charges a lot for the pre-post stays (when compared to cruise cost), so I am not sure whether to make our own pre-post hotel plans. Need advice on both the best tour (Rhine or Danube) and pre-post plans.

[Host Jazzbeau]

I can highly recommend AMA in general and for this itinerary in particular [although I haven't done it at Christmas market time].  We did the AMA post-cruise option to Lucerne and Zurich and felt that it was worth the extra cost because: the Cruise Manager from our ship stayed with us, making this a seamless transition; we don't speak German so wanted our hands held; AMA included many activities (Basel city tour; stop at Lion of Lucerne on transfer; walking tour of Lucerne, optional tour to Mt. Pilatus, cruise along Lake Lucerne and stop in Brunnen as part of transfer to Zurich, Zurich walking tour, optional tour to Rhine Falls and Stein am Rhein) plus transfer to Zurich airport that included accompaniment right up to the check-in queue.  But we would not do a pre-cruise tour in Amsterdam because it is very easy to do it on your own: there is train from the airport direct to Centraal Station and you can walk with your luggage to the nearby Doubletree which is also very close to the cruise docks, the tram system is easy to navigate and simple to use, and English is widely spoken.

[djh1959]

I would think you could just as easily do Lucerne and Zurich by yourselves.  We did a four week train tour of Germany a few years ago, with two teenage boys in tow, and managed easily, without any German.  Well none at the beginning, lots at the end.

 

We will be disembarking in Basel later this year too, and it is a very easy train trip from Basel to Zurich and/or Lucerne.  Swiss trains literally run like clockwork and everyone we met at the stations appeared to speak English.

 

Lucerne is a very walkable city, with a great tourist office and you can easily buy all required day trips to Pilatus, Titlis or Rigi yourself.  The same applies in Zurich, so easy to buy tickets to the Rheinfall or the airport and simply do it yourself.

 

Generally tour hotels aren't the best and you can often do better.  An example is the Hilton in Amsterdam that a lot of river tour companies use.  Very handy for the boat and station admittedly but that's about it.  So many nicer hotels on the canals that I would choose.

 

I imagine it would also be a lot cheaper to do it yourself too, although "cheap" isn't really a word associated with Switzerland.

[notamermaid]

12 hours ago, TopChop said:

My wife and I have cruised approximately 4 times (Princess and Disney), but have never been on a river cruise. We want to do the Christmas Market Cruise and have narrowed it down to Viking, AMA and Uniworld. The question now is going on the Rhine River (Amsterdam-Switzerland) or the Danube (Prague - Budapest). We will want to stay and extra day or two at the start and finish - and for that reason the Amsterdam-Lucerne-Zurich cruise from AMA seems to be the way to go. But AMA charges a lot for the pre-post stays (when compared to cruise cost), so I am not sure whether to make our own pre-post hotel plans. Need advice on both the best tour (Rhine or Danube) and pre-post plans.

From what I have read over the years here on cruise critic, the river cruisers slightly favour the Danube markets. But both areas are full of them! Ama on the Rhine sounds a nice choice (judging from what past cruisers have said).

 

Two things to consider: daylight and opening times. First: for excursion daylight is of course nicer but the markets are best (albeit more crowded) towards the evening. Have a close look at the published itinerary and the sailing times, i.e. when the ship leaves port in the evening. Second: it has come across that a slight misconception exists that Christmas markets start at or just after Thanksgiving. The day to work with instead is Sunday of the Dead. Markets either start shortly before, close on that date during daytime and reopen in the evening, to then run till 23 December. Or they open after said Sunday. Opening times of the markets in touristy towns are available to look up online, for example Cologne has got a huge tourism website.

 

And as always for those new to river cruising : I recommend our host jazzbeau's stickies at the top of the main river cruising page for lots of info.

 

Have fun planning.

 

notamermaid

 

[Coral]

I did the Markets this year on the Danube and loved it though can't compare them to Rhine.

 

I found the Austrian Christmas markets opened before the German ones. Just within Vienna - they were all over the place. Here is last year's dates for a variety of markets - many were mid November: https://www.wien.info/en/shopping-wining-dining/markets/christmas-markets  

 

Crystal did list times in port. I have a difficult time finding times in port for other lines. We had a bunch of overnights in ports which helped. Many Markets didn't open until 11 am or so.

[jpalbny]

On 1/28/2019 at 2:48 AM, djh1959 said:

I imagine it would also be a lot cheaper to do it yourself too, although "cheap" isn't really a word associated with Switzerland.

 

Very true! Switzerland is really expensive. Good thing it's worth the visit anyway. 

 

I would also DIY in either of these areas. But that's because we've done a few trips here and we are comfortable with the area.

[orchidj5]

We did the AMA Basel to Amsterdam this year. Had a marvelous time and are looking forward to booking the Danube for 2020. We did pre and post cruise on our own. I have a dear friend who is a travel agent and she found us awesome hotels that were nicer-and less expensive than the cruiseline's package hotels.  I always like to plan for early arrival -late departure on international trips to allow for flight delays especially with winter travel so it worked out well for us and we were able to see the things that were important to us and seek out food and wine experiences as well. Things are more expensive in Switzerland than in Germany for sure but we did not find them to be outrageous.

[Hoyaheel]

I can't recommend one over the other because I've done...the middle? We did Nuremberg to Basel. DIY on both ends and it was fine. Easy to do! I would like to go back to Budapest & Prague and bring husband (who's never been) I'd prefer DIY land trip but husband says he might want a river cruise, so....I keep my eyes open for deals I like 🙂  Make sure you read Christmas Market reviews (there are some in this forum that are not posted in the Review section on the website, so make sure you check in both spots!) I personally want to see the Rhine Gorge on deck and in daylight so would probably save that itinerary for a trip with more daylight. Though we did spend time on deck when we did our Avalon cruise. Usually were the only ones outside 😉

 

Amsterdam is so very easy on your own. But honestly, I find all of Europe travel friendly & easy so if you have anxieties about it, I'm not perhaps the best person to offer advice.