The Avid Cruiser

Make no mistake. River cruises and barge cruises are completely different beasts.

Designed specifically to transit locks along the way, modern river cruisers are long and narrow, as are the locks themselves, which measure more than 600 feet long but are only about 40 feet wide.

Barges typically are smaller and with fewer frills and amenities than river cruisers. Whereas river cruisers may carry more than 100 passengers, barges range from a few passengers to few dozen.

What River Cruises Offer

The opening of the Main-Danube Canal in 1992 not only spawned the birth of river cruising as we know it today but also spawned the birth of the contemporary river cruise vessel. There are more than 100 river cruisers operating on Europe’s rivers. A “building boom” since 2000 has seen the introduction of more than 50 new ships.

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With more than 5,000 miles of canals, France’s most popular canals for barging are the Canal de la Marne au Rhin, which links the Rhine with the Marne, and operates between ,  which empties into the Saone; Canal Latéral a la Marne, a canal that follows the course of the Marne river, passing through the heart of Champagne; and Canal Latéral a la Loire, which follows the course of the upper Loire. (Latéral indicates that the waterway parallels the course of the river. Some rivers, like the upper Loire, are not navigable, hence the latéral.)

Transiting these canals takes lots of time, as you pass through many locks that can takes as long as 20 minutes to pass through. But barge cruising is meant to be relaxing, and if you get bored, just hop on a bike or walk to meet the barge at another lock upstream.

The Elbe runs 725 miles from the Czech Republic to the North Sea. Most weeklong Elbe itineraries are between Berlin and Prague and include hotel stays at one or both ends of the cruise. Other ports often include Potsdam, Magdeburg, Wittenberg, Meissen, Dresden, and Konigstein. Continue Reading »

Also popular for barge cruises, the rivers of France course through the vineyard-canopied hillsides of Burgundy to the lavender fields of Provence. Positioned in between is the City of Lights, Paris, with its broad boulevards, charming cafes and world-renowned museums. Continue Reading »

The Rhine flows 820 miles through four countries — Switzerland, France, Germany and the Netherlands — from the Swiss Alps to the North Sea.

Though some cruises operate between Basel, Switzerland, and Amsterdam, in the Netherlands, or Dusseldorf, Germany, the most popular section of the Rhine is between Mainz, at the confluence of the Main and Rhine, and Cologne.

Mainz is the birthplace of Johannes Gutenberg and home to the Gutenberg Museum, which presents the history of printing. It’s not long before riverboats departing Mainz reach Rüdesheim, perhaps one of the Rhine’s most charming villages.

Rüdesheim is situated in the heart of the Rheingau wine-producing region, and the wine taverns along the narrow and lively pedestrian street known as Drosselgasse are packed with locals and tourists enjoying Reisling, sparking Sekts or local brandies.

Heading north from Rüdesheim, river cruisers pass half a dozen or more castles on both banks as well as the storied Lorelei, immortalized by poet Heinrich Heine, who wrote about a mysterious nymph who distracted sailors and lured their boats onto the rocks to their deaths.

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The most popular region for river cruising in Continental Europe — and a good choice for first-time river cruisers — is the Danube. Immortalized in Strauss’s Blue Danube Waltz, the Danube winds from Germany’s Black Forest through Austria into the Balkans before dumping into the Black Sea.

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