What Is The Best Time Of Year To Go On A River Cruise?

What’s the best time of the year to go on a river cruise?  To answer that, let me tell a little story.

Once upon a time....

Last year over Christmas and New Years we were on the beautiful AmaWaterways AmaBella. We were in Prague CZ Christmas day, Linz Austria New year’s day. It was in the 30’s and 40’s the entire week (colder at night). Yet we had a great time. We drank glühwein (warm red wine) and hot mead (honey wine), we toured some Christmas markets, we toured towns that were not full of summer tourists, and we spent time in Vienna sipping hot coffee warming up. We dressed in layers and brought thermal underwear, scarfs, hand warmers and gloves. So we were prepared.

Cold but great

Is this your idea of a great vacation? For us it worked out fantastic as we got to see and do things that were unavailable in the summer. But for some people only a warm weather vacation is what they want. And we’ve had great fun during nice weather too. But Paris in the summer is really crowded;  when we went in March there were few lines at the Louvre. Sailing up the Rhine in October was fabulous since the trees were in full color; sailing up in the summer would have been great as well.

Is cost a prime consideration? You’ll find prices are highest in May, June & September. Have your heart set on seeing tulips in Holland? Need to go before May. Want to see a Christmas Market? Obviously you need to go in December.

So what's the best time to go on a river cruise?

It depends on what you want.  Even December we had a great time.  No it wasn't great weather but we had much less crowds, we paid much less and we saw things that the summer tourists would never see.

Fall Foliage on Rhine

Hot Mead Can Warm You Up Quickly

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