Hi

Having just had my first experience of a river cruise holiday (Nile) I am now hooked! Has anyone had a european river cruise? Any information, tips, recommendations re operators or just opinions would be gratefully received. I saw one post which mentioned travelscope but when I got their brochure there was no information about the layout of their boats, whether they have air conditioning, the total number of passengers etc. However, the write up looked very good!

Thanks

Jael

I too would love to do a Rhine Cruise. I know that Cosmos do feature a couple in their brochure as do Inghams who feature a 4 day Rhine Cruise.
There is also a German Operator, Peter Deilmann cruises who do luxury river cruising although they are quite expensive.

Peter Deilmann website HERE

Pippy

Hi Sugarbabe

Thanks a lot. I'll pick up the brochures you mentioned. I noticed in the Travelscope brochure that they do Christmas Market cruises of 3 or 4 days in November & December. I'm very tempted.

Jael

Thank you Pippy, too

Jael

You're welcome!

Planning a river cruise on one of the rivers in Germany, France etc, Rhine Danube Moselle for a Golden Wedding holiday in a year's time. Anyone with experiences of these. I too, have the travel brochures from Travelscope and they seem to be Ok apart from the UK flights with the budget airlines. We live in Kent and so Luton and Stansted are a bit far when it comes to check in times in the early mornings!!!! Any information would be gratefully received.
Gatasuki

Hi everybody

I have just booked a river cruise with Travelscope - Amsterdam Summertime Cruise - on Aug 16th.
This is a 4 day cruise (very cheap £159) to Amsterdam, Volendam and Hoorn. We go by coach and ferry to Hook of Holland and then on MS Liberty Anne.
I haven't found out much about the ship but will phone Travelscope to try to find out more. We only booked last week.
A friend of mine has just come back from Rhine and Moselle cruise - but Travelscope used a ship that they don't usually use. I will let you know the name of it.

I will let everyone know how my cruise goes - but as it is so cheap I won't be expecting luxury.
Joan

Another very good company for rivers cruises in Europe is Viking River Cruises. I have just booked an 8-day Rhine Cruise from Basel to Amsterdam with 2 extra nights in Basel and another 2 in Amesterdam. Because this is for our 40th wedding anniversary Viking offer a 25% discount on the cruise it's self. This particular cruise uses their new MS Helvetia 2 which only started in service earlier this year.

You can get details on their web site http://www.vikingrivercruises.com. This will also give you details of their UK agents.

We have booked just the cruise with them and intend to fly from Stansted to Basel and Amsterdam to Stansted with Easyjet.

Dave R

had a brilliant cruise in holland with travelsphere. very good value.

got picked up by coach and went from harwich to hook of holland by fast ferry, then coach to liberty anne river boat for 4 nights on board. had time to relax and also visit amsterdam, volendam, hoorn, delft and the hague.

marie

I've finally got around to booking a river cruise holiday with Travelscope. The cruise is the Rhine to Switzerland (except in this case it's the reverse itinerary). The vessel is the Britannia and I would be really grateful for any information from anyone who has experience of this holiday. So far the Travelscope customer services have been very friendly and helpful. The cost seems extremely reasonable when compared with some of the other river cruise holiday companies so I'm not sure what to expect in terms of the accommodation.

Jael

Welldone on booking your river cruise, please come back and let us know how it went.

Sarah

Hi Sarah

The cruise isn't until 30 June but I will certainly write a report when I'm back.
When we booked, the 'air travel' option quota was full. We were not too keen on getting to dover for a 7am crossing followed by a long coach trip to the vessel so although we have actually booked the 'coach travel' option we have arranged our own flights from heathrow and will make our own way from Basel to the boat at Breisach.
The reason for all this rambling on is that we have very little idea of how we are going to find our way from Basel airport to Breisach beyond the belief that there is a shuttle train from the airport running in the right direction. Does anyone have any advice?

Jael

OK - Basel to Breisach here we come!

First of all, look up Basel Airport and see if there is a bus between the airport and Breisach - though I think that this is unlikely, as it will be going up the German motorway to Freiburg.

You can definitely get to Breisach by TRAIN but it will take some time. You will need to go out of the SWISS side of the airport, and take the bus to Basel SBB train station - approx 5 CHF. From there you will be able to take a train via the Basel German station to FREIBURG. From Freiburg you will be able to get a bus or a commuter train to Breisach. I suggest you use http://www.db.de for timings. The station is about 10-15 mins level walk from the landing stages, but you might be more comfy with a taxi if you have luggage.

Hi Alsacienne

Many thanks for your extremely helpful response. I think I have replied to your PM but not being familiar with how it works I can't be sure
If my message doesn't appear do let me know and I'll try again.

Kind regards
Jael

Hi Has anyone been on a Travelsphere Danube River cruise ?
Just booked on for June, Any advice welcome.

Hello

Just thought I'd post a little note to say how very excited I'm getting about my river cruise starting in just over three weeks time .

Is anyone else going on the Travelscope Rhine to Switzerland cruise?

Has anyone else recently been? Any tips?

Jael

I've just returned from a 9 day Travelscope Rhine to Switzerland cruise on the Britannia (no, not that one!) and I thought Forum members might be interested in a review of it.

First of all I would like to stress that this was a very low cost holiday when compared with other, similar holidays which could be 3 or 4 times as much, so I wasn't expecting 5* luxury. The basic cost of this holiday, using coach travel (which takes up the first and last of the 9 days) to the vessel, was £449 per person for 2 people sharing a double cabin on the lower of 2 decks. Upgrades to the upper deck were available for an additional fee but as far as I could tell all of the cabins - upper or lower deck - were exactly the same size and had exactly the same furnishings and facilities, the one difference being that the window in the lower deck cabins - essentially the same overall size as the upper deck windows - had a broad, vertical division effectively making two smaller windows. In retrospect we decided the extra cost for the upgrade was a bit of a waste since 5 of the 8 days other boats moored alongside us effectively blocking the view and necessitating closing our curtains.

The Sun Deck had two covered, seating areas one forward and one aft (see, I've picked up the nautical terms even in that short space of time! Who says travel doesn't broaden the mind?!) with a small swimming pool between and giant sized games of chess and connect 4.

CABINS

The door into the cabin was set in the centre of the short end of a rectangle. Immediately to the right was a generous, set-in basin with a mirrored cabinet above and a hair dryer. Adjacent to this was a double wardrobe with 2 shelves in each half and two very small drawers. Immediately to the left was a 'room' of about 3' x 6' which was divided between a shower cubicle and a wc. The inner section ie sleeping area was approximately 8'x 10' and contained a bed settee that converted to a bed at night and a bed that folded into the wall during the day, a 'bucket' chair and a small table the centre section of which opened to reveal a mirror on its underside and a compartmentalised inset so forming a dressing table. All cabins had air conditioning (bit noisy, of dubious efficiency and not much adjustment) and television (non-English speaking)
While the accommodation was adequate, my cabin would have benefited from a coat of paint and the shower and wc fittings were badly in need of an upgrade. Soap, body & hair shampoo/gel and towels were provided. Bed linen was not changed. Towels were changed if requested.

PUBLIC LOUNGE

The public areas of the boat were well furnished and comfortable with large windows to facilitate easy viewing from inside. There was a bar where coffee (€2), tea (€1.50) and other drinks (small beer €1.85)
(1ltr bottle of water €3) could be purchased throughout the day and evening.

DINING ROOM

Breakfast was self service buffet style and usually between 7.30 & 9.00 and was the usual continental fare ie juice, cheese, ham, bread rolls, cereals, yoghurts, fruit and jams plus a cooked option, egg, bacon, beans, sausage in various guises and combinations on any given day. Toast was via four extremely slow toasters!

Lunch and dinner, at set, slightly variable times depending on excursions etc., were 3 courses and were served ready plated; usually a clear soup, meat or fish, and a light dessert. The quality of the meals varied somewhat but on the whole they were acceptable. The big drawback to having set, served meals was that with 190+ passengers being in the dining room together the noise level made conversation between table companions extremely difficult and certainly not a relaxed experience. My preference would have been for a self-service, slightly staggered meal time.

EVENING

There was not a great deal of entertainment during the evening. Each night a keyboard player played and sang and most evenings the tour guides organised a quiz.

THE TOUR

Our route began at the Swiss end in Breisach. On the first day we overnighted in Breisach and the next morning sailed to Basel. The day was fine (the last fine one for 5 days!) and unfortunately, because of the number and type of locks we had to pass through we were not able to be on deck.

Various optional excursions were on offer and the Grand Swiss Tour taking in Interlaken, Grindelwald and Lucerne was well worth it. Sadly the inclement weather thwarted our view of the Eiger from the top of the cable car ride and put a bit of a dampener on the rest of the day. But imagine what a great time you would have in good weather if we were able to enjoy it in bad. Another good trip was to the Black Forest. Again the weather was against us but you have not tasted Black Forest Gateau until you attempt to scale the north face of a portion in Titisee!!! The cost of excursions varied from £15 to £23.

The scenery, from the boat, was disappointingly dull and industrial until we neared the Rhine Gorge when the stunning castles, countryside and forested hillsides appeared. The architecture is so attractive and interesting but sadly we were now approaching Koblenz and the end of our cruise.

Our tour guide was enthusiastic, helpful, knowledgeable and entertaining and accompanied us on all of the excursions.

MISCELLANEOUS

I was not aware of any health problems ie tummy bugs and we all used the water both for teeth and for drinking with ice.

The only time we encountered 'bitey' things was during an independent amble up a wooded hillside - containing a stream - to visit a castle.

Finally, (bet you thought I'd never end ) the personnel from the initial booking to leaving the vessel at the end of the cruise were, in the main, friendly, helpful and professional.

I would rate the cruise as perhaps 3.5* which, in my view, still represents good value for money. If you are looking for 5* cruising this is not the one for you. But if you have a yen to cruise European waterways this is certainly an affordable way to do it.

Jael

Many thanks for your review which I'm sure will be helpful to our members.

luci