Cruise Reviews, Ship Reviews by The Avid Cruiser

Junior suites are spacious on AMA Waterways, which boasts Europe’s youngest fleet of river cruise vessels.

I’m currently cruising the Danube River on Amalegro in Junior Suite 303, which measures a generous 255 square feet. The queen-sized bed is oh-so-cozy, and the bathroom has a deep tub and separate shower, with lots of storage space.

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Perhaps the biggest surprise for passengers on Peter Deilmann Cruises’ Mozart is that they will get to put their swimsuits to good use. Indeed, many of the passengers I spoke with on a September sailing along the Danube were astonished to learn that the five-star river cruiser offered a warm and welcoming watery respite, situated indoors on deck two at the front of the ship.

The fact that Mozart features an indoor pool (the only such ship in Europe to do so) may not necessarily be a key factor in choosing this ship over its competitors on the Danube, but the fact that Mozart is wide enough to accommodate a pool is worthy of consideration. Continue Reading »

In the Netherlands, it is said, there are more bicycles than people.

The statistics, thanks to the web site Amsterdamize:

• Population: 16.5 million
• Bikes: 18 million
• New bikes sold a year: 1.35 million
• Bikes stolen a year: between 1.2 and 1.4 million

I pedaled through the tiny country and saw more bikes than I could count. Everyone, from crib to coffin, pedals a bike in Holland.

The country is mostly flat and ideal for cycling, but the best part is that cyclists pedal along roads either with no cars at all (with traffic lights just for bikes) — or with drivers who actually pay attention to cyclists. That is why Dutch cyclists are 30 times less likely to be killed than their stateside counterparts, according to Bicycling magazine.

The story gets even better when you combine boats and bikes. That is just what I did for one week on a “Bike & Boat Tour” offered by Channel Cruises, which touts its tours as “the most Dutch way” to see Holland.

Each morning, the captain mapped out a route for the 70 or so German, Dutch and English-speaking passengers. We pedaled away from the ship in small groups to a destination where we would meet the ship late that afternoon. Along the way we fortified ourselves with apfelcake (apple cake) and french fries with the traditional Dutch topping — mayonnaise. There is no better way to see Holland. Continue Reading »

 

 

How to get the most of your river cruise in Europe.

Click here to read a special report featuring European river cruises in digital format.

I checked into my hotel in Budapest, Hungary, and checked out a week later in Passau, Germany. Each evening, sometimes after I had fallen asleep, my hotel moved, from Budapest, to Bratislava, to Vienna, to Durnstein and Melk on the same day, to Linz and finally Passau. If you’re scratching your head, I’ll let you in on a secret: My hotel was a river cruiser.

To get the most from your experience, just click on this link, flip through the digital guide or use the “toolbar” at the top of the page to navigate and print articles you want to read at your leisure.

Click here to read the summer issue of Avid Cruiser magazine in digital format.

The digital issue is GREEN, immediate, up-to-date, portable, features embedded video, spans 100 pages and has no international borders. Anyone, anywhere, can read it, print it, pass it along and archive it for future reference.

To get the most from your experience, just click on this link, flip through the magazine or use the “toolbar” at the top of the page to navigate the magazine or print articles you want to read at your leisure.

Archives: allows you to access past issues of Avid Cruiser digital edition.

Thumbs: displays small icons of each page in the digital issue so that you can quickly find the article you want to read. Just click on the thumbnail to get to that page.

Print: possibly the most useful feature, allowing you to print the pages you want so that you can curl up on your couch and read.

On tap for European river cruises: more choices of pre- and post-cruise tours, more special interest programs and more bicycles. Yes, more bicycles. Continue Reading »