Apr 1, 2008
The European river cruise is enjoying massive popularity as a means of offsetting the weakness of the U.S. dollar (part one)
At a typical price of $1,699 per person for seven nights, including round-trip airfare from the United States, the all-inclusive European river cruise along the Rhine or the Danube is fast becoming the top travel hit of 2008. My own current cruise of the Rhine, starting in Amsterdam (at the Rhine canal) and going to Cologne, Cochem, Rüdesheim, Heidelberg, Strasbourg and ending in Basel, Switzerland, is sold out with American travelers convinced they have overcome the poor present value of the U.S. dollar.
All the river cruise lines -- Amadeus Waterways, Peter Deilmann, Uniworld and others -- are reporting equally high sales.
Although we passengers have all had to change some dollars into Euros for tips to the riverboat staff, we have otherwise spent very little beyond the basic cost of the cruise and airfare (U.S. east coast to Amsterdam, and from Basel back to the east coast). Our lodgings are in comfortable cabins aboard the ship, and two of our daily meals are a giant buffet breakfast aboard the ship and an equally massive sit-down dinner of near-gourmet level prepared by a surprisingly-accomplished ship chef and his staff. Some of us have not even had the appetite to buy a sandwich lunch on shore.
I will not pretend that seeing Europe in this fashion is a fully satisfying alternative to the kind of trips we used to enjoy when the dollar was king. But the European river cruise has some plus points.
You stop every day, usually for the entire day, in an historic European city in which the river boat ties up very near to the center of town, and not -- as in some ocean cruises -- far out to sea or miles from the city. Although the riverboat tries hard to sell you optional land excursions by motorcoach, and many passengers buy them, I've had no difficulty simply wandering into the center of town just a short walk away. And there I've passed the day in more or less the same way as in earlier years.
Unlike an ocean cruise aboard one of those new, 3,000-passenger sea monsters, the river cruiseships do not inundate the cities at which they stop. The typical rivership carries 140 passengers -- scarcely ever more than that -- and its presence in town is scarcely noticed by inhabitants.
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All the river cruise lines -- Amadeus Waterways, Peter Deilmann, Uniworld and others -- are reporting equally high sales.
Although we passengers have all had to change some dollars into Euros for tips to the riverboat staff, we have otherwise spent very little beyond the basic cost of the cruise and airfare (U.S. east coast to Amsterdam, and from Basel back to the east coast). Our lodgings are in comfortable cabins aboard the ship, and two of our daily meals are a giant buffet breakfast aboard the ship and an equally massive sit-down dinner of near-gourmet level prepared by a surprisingly-accomplished ship chef and his staff. Some of us have not even had the appetite to buy a sandwich lunch on shore.
I will not pretend that seeing Europe in this fashion is a fully satisfying alternative to the kind of trips we used to enjoy when the dollar was king. But the European river cruise has some plus points.
You stop every day, usually for the entire day, in an historic European city in which the river boat ties up very near to the center of town, and not -- as in some ocean cruises -- far out to sea or miles from the city. Although the riverboat tries hard to sell you optional land excursions by motorcoach, and many passengers buy them, I've had no difficulty simply wandering into the center of town just a short walk away. And there I've passed the day in more or less the same way as in earlier years.
Unlike an ocean cruise aboard one of those new, 3,000-passenger sea monsters, the river cruiseships do not inundate the cities at which they stop. The typical rivership carries 140 passengers -- scarcely ever more than that -- and its presence in town is scarcely noticed by inhabitants.
Write and read comments about this post.
Fifty years ago, 
Arthur Frommer is generally acknowledged to be the nation's foremost travel authority. He is the founder of the
