Travel Through a Different Lens While River Cruising

I've loved cruises since I was a child and our family took me on a voyage from New York City to the Bahamas in the early 1970s. That boat was the S.S. Oceanic, later purchased and renamed by Disney as the 'Big Red Boat.'

Because I enjoy cruising, I've been on several with a number of different lines. Though until this year, they were all ocean cruises.

For whatever reason, river cruises were never really on my radar or my travel wish list. Perhaps I thought they wouldn't be adventurous enough or maybe it's because sailing on these big magnificent vessels on the open seas was always an exciting event.

For me, the experience of the Mediterranean, Northern Europe and Caribbean cruises on these luxurious vessels will always have its magic. But in the spring of 2022, I discovered a whole new kind of enchantment when I took my very first river cruise with Viking Cruises. That unforgettable Seine River experience changed everything.

I loved the boutique feel of our cruise, the personal attention, and mostly, the ship docking right in the center of the town we were visiting. We could immediately start exploring. Whether it was visiting a local castle, a Benedictine abbey, or taking a foodie, biking or history tour, the groups were all small.

Impressive local guides were well-versed and educated in the area's culture and history. Everything had a charming degree of intimacy. And there is no nickel and diming on river cruises. Port excursions are all part of the package with few or no add-on charges.

There are no cattle calls for embarking or disembarking, no long queues for anything. And here's my favorite part - with the small number of passengers, it's easy to find people to bond with, and others who become friends long after the cruise is over.

You don't have to sit at assigned tables at dinner, enabling you to mingle with other guests. And as a foodie, I happen to love the impressive chef creations celebrating the food of each region we explored.

When I returned from that first river cruise, I excitedly told my husband that "we have to do a river cruise together." He was a bit surprised knowing I was such a tried-and-true fan of ocean cruising. But he trusted my judgement and we booked an AmaWaterways 2022 Christmas Markets on the Danube sailing from Budapest, Hungary to Vilshofen, Germany.

Most travelers love cruising the Danube, Rhine or Seine in the summer months. But we found that no matter the time of year, river cruising has its special charm. For us, it was the Christkindl markets, whether they were in larger cities like Budapest and Vienna, or the charming quaintness of the medieval villages of Mondsee or Passau.

There's something very special about river cruising, and that's no exaggeration. I talked to a lot of passengers on the AmaWaterways cruise who felt the same way and said time and again that "once you experience river cruises, it's hard to go back to ocean cruising."

Riverboat cruise ships don't have to deal with high seas, and inclement weather doesn't have much of an impact on a river cruise. We never felt rushed or overwhelmed. And it's not just the port visits that provide the "honey, grab the camera moments." We've seen ruins of a castle dating back to the 800s along with medieval churches as we sailed along the Danube. We passed quaint villages on the Seine, and one morning on my balcony, coffee in hand, I was greeted by a family of deer on the river bank.

Life has a slower, more relaxed pace. And yet you sacrifice nothing in terms of memorable experiences. It's almost as if travelers today want more personal deep-dives into the culture and history of a region.

While ocean cruises take you to a country, river cruises take you through them. Plus, rather than thousands of passengers disembarking on an ocean cruise port call, river cruises carry less than 200 visitors aboard, some fewer than that. So they never overwhelm the destination.

Kristy Mosolino, owner of Wishes Travel, a Birmingham, Alabama-based agency talks about river cruising in this way: "Now that COVID risk is minimized, our clients are dusting off their dream vacations and making sure they are happening."

She added that "they are so ready to experience Europe but the idea of packing, unpacking and transferring city to city by rail or air is less enticing than before. Not only that, but they like connecting with like-minded travelers, and the idea of floating down a river each day and waking up in the heart of these European cities is the way they want to travel."

"When they return, we hear time and time again that it was the best trip they've ever taken with the best memories and newly-formed friendships."

Well, that has certainly been our experience. So much so, that on our flight back to the U.S. from Munich, we were already researching our next river cruise.

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