Most Scenic Europe Cruise

[schwerin]

I have been thinking of a future Danube River cruise, perhaps Budapest to Passau. Are there more scenic views if one cruises to Amsterdam? Please comment on the beauty vs. commercialism of the rivers. Thanks.

[steamboats]

Regarding the Rhine river the most scenic part might be the middle Rhine river valley (Koblenz to Ruedesheim). There are a lot of scenic areas like parts of the Main river with the vineyards and some castles, the Rhine-Main-Danube Canal near the end at Kehlheim, the Wachau valley on the Danube river. This is stuff for several river cruises.

 

To cover most of it you might consider an Amsterdam - Budapest itinerary. Budapest - Passau would be a pretty short trip (you can do it in 4 or 5 nights). Most German cruise companies offer 7 night cruises out of Passau (roundtrips down to Budapest and back).

 

steamboats

[letsgo39]

If you can take a Budapest to Amsterdam cruise. We did it on Avalon two years ago and it was wondeful.This cruise had many areas on the different rivers that were very scenic.

[CPT Trips]

We did the GCT Great Rivers route. Vienna to Amsterdam, 2 weeks I think. I would do it again (actually I want to do it again). There was so much to see.

 

Danube up river from Vienna was very scenic.

 

Main-Danube canal was less scenic, but still great views and the engineering is just incredible. A day cruising on the Main was beautiful and relaxing (they offered an optional tour to Heidelberg that day). We cruised by Mainhatten (aka Frankfurt) during dinner. Nice to see, but a "big city," I'm not disappointed that we did not stop there.

 

The Rhein of course has the Lorelei and the wonderful Schlosses. We stopped at Koblenz and Koln (sorry steamboats, I have no idea how to get an umlaut) . . . well worth the visit. There are also a lot of chemical and industrial plants as well as port loading facilities along the Rhein near Frankfurt and also down river from the scenic section. The whole way there was a lot of commercial river traffic. Keep in mind that much of your travel is at night, so you would not see much scenery while underway . . . chemical plants look kind of interesting all lit up at night.

 

We arrived in Amsterdam early in the morning and had a day there, overnight on board and then an early morning to catch our flight home.

[steamboats]

A day cruising on the Main was beautiful and relaxing (they offered an optional tour to Heidelberg that day).

 

Koln (sorry steamboats, I have no idea how to get an umlaut)

 

Are you sure about Heidelberg?? That would be a veery long drive. I´d say it was Rothenburg ob der Tauber.

 

Umlaut, they are on my keyboard :D;). No, don´t worry about any Umlaut. Just add an "e" (Koeln) that will make it perfectly.

 

steamboats

[Hydrokitty]

I would really encourage you to do Amsterdam to Budapest (or reverse) Scenary is breathtaking. We did it on Vantage and somewhere in the hundreds of threads on this topic is my trip review!

 

Yes we did Heidelburg...with Vantage is was included not an optional....I believe we stopped in Aschaffenburg, boarded buses to Heidelburg, spent the day in Heidelburg and rejoined the ship in Frankfort. I don't remember it as being a very long bus ride...I know we toured the Castle in the morning and then had lunch so I don't think it was more than an hour or two. And it was well worth the ride!!! Rothenburg was also included but was a choice between Rothenburg ob der Tauber or Wurzburg Residenz. We chose Rothenburg and had a marvelous time there but I can't say which you should choose because we didn't do the Residenz.

 

All the places we docked were delightful in one way or another and the scenary along the Danube and Rhine is wonderful. Even the Main is lovely and most of the locks are traversed at night. Just enough during daylight to be interesting.

[Hydrokitty]

Continuing....we did our trip end of August to early Sept. (two weeks) and commercial traffic on the rivers wasn't bad at all. Only places that were heavily industrialized was between Frankfort and Amsterdam. Only disappointment to me was Lorelei....not what I expected, hence mild disappointment.