Boat trip in Germany?

I was told that a boat trip on a major river is a good way to spend a
vacation in Germany. Any suggestions about how best to do this? Any
cautions?

In the message ups.com...
"Ivan Skivar" wrote:

I was told that a boat trip on a major river is a good way to spend a
vacation in Germany. Any suggestions about how best to do this? Any
cautions?

My suggestion is that you start by visiting George's page on Continental
River Cruises at : http://www.canals.com/cruise.htm

Regards,

- Alan (in Brussels)

On 10 Mar 2005 12:13:40 -0800, "Ivan Skivar"
wrote:

I was told that a boat trip on a major river is a good way to spend a
vacation in Germany. Any suggestions about how best to do this? Any
cautions?

A boat trip on the Rhine or the Moselle would be very nice, but I
wouldn't recommend spending your whole vacation on river trips. You
would miss a lot of other interesting things. The Moselle boat trips
don't last more than a few hours. You can take longer Rhine trips, but
the nicest part of the river can be seen in about six hours if you
make no stops. There are regular boats that ply the Rhine, stopping at
various towns along the way. You can get off when you like and catch
the next boat when you want to leave. I wouldn't take a cruise,
because it costs a lot more and ties you to the schedule of the cruise
ship.

The KD line offers some tours as well as regularly scheduled boat
service. The following page gives some details of all of these. Note
that the Moselle service operates only in high season. The Rhine
service goes from Cologne to Mainz (or vice versa), but the most
scenic part is between Koblenz and Mainz.

Their are also some boat trips on the Moselle leaving from Trier,
which is a lovely town to visit. These are all day tours as far as I
know, and only operate in high season. It's not possible to travel by
boat the whole length of the Moselle, but you can travel all along the
Moselle using a combination of trains, bicycles and boats. The middle
part of the river is very scenic, perhaps more so than the Rhine.

--
Barbara Vaughan
My email address is my first initial followed by my surname at libero dot it
I answer travel questions only in the newsgroup

On 10 Mar 2005 12:13:40 -0800, "Ivan Skivar"
wrote:

I was told that a boat trip on a major river is a good way to spend a
vacation in Germany. Any suggestions about how best to do this? Any
cautions?

If you take a cruise with a tour-operator, do be aware that cabins can
be quite small - not surprising when you see the locks that the ships
have to squeeze into.

As another poster has mentioned, you are very much tied to the
itinerary of the tour-operator, and to be honest outside the Bonn -
Rüdesheim stretch the Rhine is not that interesting. In fact, Mainz to
Basel is fairly nondescript, but excursion possibilities are great -
the Alsace wine road, the Black Forest and if you go through to Basel
in Switzerland, tour-operators usually offer excursions to Interlaken
and Grindelwald.

The Moselle is wonderful virtually all the way to Trier.

If you decide on a cruise, I'd advise you not to pre-book any optional
excursions. You might pay a little more to book them on-board, but I'd
recommend paying at the last possible minute so if it's (a) chucking
it down with rain (b) you don't feel up to it or (c) there's a
possibility of doing your own thing, then you can maintain more
flexibility - plus the fact that if you pre-pay and don't go and are
not ill, then you've lost your money.

(this advice from a part-time Rhine and Moselle river-cruise
director!!)

"Ivan Skivar" wrote in message
ups.com...
I was told that a boat trip on a major river is a good way to spend a
vacation in Germany. Any suggestions about how best to do this? Any
cautions?


This is a stupid way to see Germany, IMHO.

The Rhine is a big brown water highway, with double rail tracks for most of
it's length through the "scenic" area. The Mosel is nice, but it is wine
country and you can drive almost directly down it's banks, stopping and
enjoying the towns and vineyards as you wish.

I would never, ever, recommend a river cruise in Germany, unless it was a
half day mosey up and down a scenic portion, like near Walhalla.

Thank you all for sharing your insights. I appreciate it very much.

Ivan Skivar wrote:
I was told that a boat trip on a major river is a good way to spend a
vacation in Germany. Any suggestions about how best to do this? Any
cautions?

Others have mentioned the Rhein and Mosel. The Donau (Danube) should
also be possible, but most trips go down river from Passau into
Austria. I personally like a short half day cruise, which can also be
done on the Neckar out of Heidelberg or Stuttgart. The one going
upstream from Heidelberg is nice. Having in-laws that had made a long
river trip across Europe, there can be problems if the water in the
rivers is too high or too low. Then you end up on a bus.

George

Ivan Skivar wrote:

I was told that a boat trip on a major river is a good way to spend a
vacation in Germany. Any suggestions about how best to do this? Any
cautions?


Probably less well-known than the Rhine and the Main cruises is the fact
that you can get all the way from Berlin to the North Sea or the Baltic
on waterways- something really different.

T.

On Sat, 12 Mar 2005 17:24:44 +0100, nitram wrote:

On Sat, 12 Mar 2005 15:38:19 +0100, Tom Peel
wrote:

Ivan Skivar wrote:

I was told that a boat trip on a major river is a good way to spend a
vacation in Germany. Any suggestions about how best to do this? Any
cautions?


Probably less well-known than the Rhine and the Main cruises is the fact
that you can get all the way from Berlin to the North Sea or the Baltic
on waterways- something really different.

One can get all the way from the Baltic to the Mediterranean via
inland waterways.

But it doesn't sound like a fun vacation.

--
Barbara Vaughan
My email address is my first initial followed by my surname at libero dot it
I answer travel questions only in the newsgroup

On Sat, 12 Mar 2005 23:47:20 +0100, nitram wrote:

On Sat, 12 Mar 2005 23:40:10 +0100, B wrote:

On Sat, 12 Mar 2005 17:24:44 +0100, nitram wrote:

On Sat, 12 Mar 2005 15:38:19 +0100, Tom Peel
wrote:

Ivan Skivar wrote:

I was told that a boat trip on a major river is a good way to spend a
vacation in Germany. Any suggestions about how best to do this? Any
cautions?


Probably less well-known than the Rhine and the Main cruises is the fact
that you can get all the way from Berlin to the North Sea or the Baltic
on waterways- something really different.

One can get all the way from the Baltic to the Mediterranean via
inland waterways.

But it doesn't sound like a fun vacation.

Despite which lots of people have had fun doing it.

It's considerably better by boat, than doing the same trip in a car.

One can also get from the Baltic to the Black Sea by inland waterways.

One of the positive things that can be said for river-cruises is that
if they're done properly they are a very relaxing way of travelling.
If the weather's good, there's the sun-deck for watching the world go
by at a slow pace, and compared with other forms of travelling you
arrive on board, unpack once, and that's it - no more packing every
day to move on to a new location. Your hotel room travels with you,
even if it is often quite small. And if you decide to have that extra
few glasses of wine with your lunch, you can always sleep it off in
your cabin in the afternoon.

From the point of view of guiding, I find that there is time to give a
good, in-depth commentary about places on the riverside. 20 km per
hour downstream, 12 km per hour upstream is ample time to really
explain the significance of something - but then I can shut up for a
goodly while and let people enjoy the passing scenery. It's almost as
good as a walking tour for giving in-depth commentary! Nothing like
the frenetic pace of a coach tour.where many people miss something as
it flashes past the window,

I love working on the river and inland waterway systems. There's a
real cameraderie - at mooring points the crews of different ships come
and visit each other and swap stories and gossip. Of all the
tour-management activities I undertake, I much prefer river cruises.

There's none of the snobbery and one-upmanship which can be prevalent
(so I understand) on deep-sea cruises and there's always something to
see. You moor up at night and can explore the riverside cities, towns
and villages, go to the pub and meet the locals, or skip the on-board
meal and go into (say) Strasbourg and stuff yourself silly on a huge
choucroute.

OK group tours are not everone's cup of tea - but river crusies can be
an excellent way of seeing places.