Included tours on River Cruises

[Host Jazzbeau]

River ships have between 130 and 190 passengers.  The ocean ships we prefer (Noble Caledonia) have only 100 passengers, and their itineraries are very port-intensive.  So from my perspective I can look at river ships as 'large' 😉

[SelectSys]

Well, we finished our first ever river cruise this morning which of course included a city tour from the ship to our overnight hotel.

 

All in all the included tours were mostly worthwhile but the pace at times was a bit slow for our preferences. I guess my lesson learned is to try as best you can to mix them up as best you can - city vs countryside vs activities…  We didn’t really do any research before the trip and probably could have done better with more planning.  
 

Included tours or not, the bottom line is that we really enjoyed the intimate experience afforded by river cruises and look forward to finding another itinerary to try in the future.
 

Good luck to all on their future river cruises and tours!  

[Canal archive]

Enjoy your research.

[CPT Trips]

56 minutes ago, SelectSys said:

 We didn’t really do any research before the trip and probably could have done better with more planning.  

It took us a cruise to learn this lesson and another one to improve my research approach. Unless I am familiar with a port, I search “<name of city> tourism” and develop a short list of places to see or things to do in our free time. This also gives me an idea of how much time we want. It also gives a sense of whether advanced tickets are needed (Anne Frank House). 

[Daisi]

Glad you enjoyed it. A suggestion, possibly look into the Active cruises next time (I think you were with Avalon?), You may find a mix (they still do the normal walking tours but also involve some more active) better suited. I take a lot of pictures, so tend to do the "gentle walkers" tours so I can grab shots while walking around the town on the tours - we find the guides are good at walking and talking, instead of walking then stopping and telling you about what you just walked past. They do move at a wandering pace, but I like asking the guide along the way about things I see that may not be mentioned in the general tour.

[SelectSys]

@Daisi - you are correct, our cruise was with Avalon.  We did not take an of the active tours as we felt it would be better to have the local guides rather than the ship’s activities manager lead the tour.  
 

Overall, we were very impressed with the whole Avalon experience and would recommend the company’s cruises.