By Colin Hartness

Exploring Europe can be such a unique experience with a River Cruise. You just unpack once on this floating hotel and there you go cruising with river cruises over magnificent castles, significant towns and cities, appealing villages and lavish vineyards. It has become increasingly popular nowadays to sail through the grand rivers of Europe especially with the wide selection of vessels available. All the vessels are beautifully furnished, displaying attractive art objects with public areas reflecting the atmosphere around each region you cruise. It is the most pleasurable experience on river vessels as all offer personal service with the help of a smiling bilingual staff. You are provided with a single seating superb dining arrangement and well-accommodated cabins, which are comfortable and airy.

The most popular destinations in Europe, Russia or China can be explored intimately, closely and deeply with the river cruises. It is unlike a bus ride where you are still spending time on the bus than exploring and discovering destinations. River cruises provide splendid service and superb food. Every travel programs is well formulated and designed and you visit a port a day, at least. Hence, you get an opportunity to explore small villages in remote regions minutely, which might not have been otherwise possible with an ocean cruise. As you cruise along, you admire the beautiful scenery around as well as enjoy the local nightlife at the ports.

Have you ever thought of rediscovering America in an easy and relaxed fashion? Well River Cruises are there for you.

For the early settlers of America, rivers were natural highways, today the same rivers signify the old and the new, and as you cruise along them, you discover American history as it unfolds to you slowly and steadily. It is becoming extremely popular nowadays to experience America’s great waterways on Victorian Style steam driven paddle wheelers on 3-to twelve-night trips. There are stunning antiques displayed in the gallery and there is a two-storey dining room with huge windows for a fantastic view of the scenery. The river steamboats are designed in 19th century format with stylish furnishings- an impressive mirrored and brass staircase and a lounge with a two-storied glass rear wall for a glimpse of the giant paddlewheel. There are other amenities available like movie theaters, musical shows and bathing pools.

River cruises are well designed cruises – you are neither seasick nor loose sight of the land as in blue water cruises and neither do you pack, unpack or hip-hop hotels like in a car or motor coach tour. The River Explorer sails over the rivers Missouri, Mississippi and Ohio – to and fro on four to ten days trips throughout the year. Vacationers can sprawl on the Sky Deck, read, play games or watch videos. The dining is casual, informal having no assigned seating. You can meander into the pilothouse and catch a glimpse of the real-time radar and navigational charts, if interested. At various ports storytellers, bluegrass and blues bands, dancers and Cajuns step aboard to entertain the guests.

You learn about America’s heritage-it’s a rich experience to understand the development of commerce and industry in America or why river towns Tenn. and Clarksville were founded. Imagine seeing the colors along the riverbanks or the rising sun or the setting sun-are truly natural wonders. You might like to undertake shore excursions to New Orleans French Quarter or the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tenn. It is such a wonderful idea to have some river cruises to observe themes like 1950’s music, big bands, old-fashioned holidays, or the fall foliage along the Ohio River.

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Looking for information about cruises?

Go to: http://www.whatcruises.com

‘What Cruises’ is published by Colin Hartness -

An excellent resource for Cruises!

Check out more cruise articles at: http://www.whatcruises.com/archive

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Watch this revealing video. It contains some great "off the cuff" comments. Listen to the commentary of many people who make their views known on river cruising through Europe. An average of 150 people per month have viewed this particular video over the past year. People like you who were trying to decide if river cruising through Europe is for them. The good people speak freely about what they found appealing about exploring Europe in this way.

If having watched this video you think you may like to experience a european river cruise why don't you bookmark this site and call back regulary. There is a lot of useful information here for people that are first timers to river cruising.The content is updated every couple of days. We here are not affiliated to any particular cruise line company or travel agent so you can browse freely knowing that we are not going to biase you towards any particular carrier. After all we are not a travel agent. We provide this information purely as fans of river cruising.

Enjoy the video and check out the others on the site. My suspicion is that by the time you have viewed them all you will be a convert to river cruising in Europe.

Check out this Uniworld River Cruise video. It has had many viewings in a relatively short period of time on youtube. It will give you a quick flavour of what you can expect from a Uniworld cruise. What is it they say " a picture is worth a thousand words".

Uniworld has over 30 years experience in river cruise vacations. Uniworld travel the world's great rivers in Europe, Egypt, Russia and China. Uniworld boast more than 500 departures over 30 itineraries cruising 12 great rivers in 20 countries over 4 continents.
Some interesting facts from their marketing material:

• Unique Itineraries
• Intimate & luxurious ships
• Fewer guests with more trained staff
• Award winning chefs
• Local fresh produce in their cuisine
• Expert English speaking guides on their excursions
• A guest satisfaction rating of 98%

Have a look for yourself on this short 4 approx minute video. Make sure to turn up the volume so you can here the commentary.

If you think a Uniworld river cruising is for you check out the other useful information on this site. There are details of the various Uniworld cruises, their river boats, their destinations and even some happy customer reviews. Even though this site is focused on european river cruises other continents are supported equally well by Uniworld River Cruise

Europe Cruise Vacation Advice

The following article written by Ed Sparrow gives us a few good tips as how to ensure you enjoy your European cruise vacation when the time comes. Like all good tips they only work if you implement them. I will say no more. Over to Ed.

Cruise Ship Travel: 5 Tips For Cruise Travelers

By Ed Sparrow

Preparing for cruises can be an easier job, if you plan ahead of time. It helps in assuring you that your cruise vacation will be a memorable one. Let us have a look at the 5 tips for cruise travelers that can help your holiday to be wonderful:

Acquire knowledge on travel cruises
There are numerous domains on world travel cruises from where you can acquire every detail, which you might require for making a decision on your cruise. Information, which includes things to bring on the journey and departure time & location of the cruise, are only a click on the mouse away. You’ll have fun while exploring various cruise lines. Educating yourself on the cruise, which you might take, leaves you with an assurance that you’ve made the right decision.

Take your time before making a decision
Planning, selecting and preparing for cruise ship travel can be intimidating for you, as it has all those confusing options when it comes to cruise lines and their prices. Pre-cruise decisions are pain-free, if you consider these imperative factors:

Ask Yourself: You should ask yourself the reason behind choosing a cruise for your vacation

Planning the vacations: You should know what you’ll be doing while you’re on board during the vacation

If you take time and think over your preferences, you are sure to match them for getting the right cruise even if you’re surrounded with a host of options.

Get tips from seasoned traveler
If you’ve been around someone, who’s a seasoned traveler and prefer cruises as a mean of transport, you should get tips from them on what to do for finding a reputed cruise company and what are the ways for making your cruise vacation memorable. Even if you don’t know anyone with such experiences, you can find their presence on several online message boards, which has traveling as a topic of discussion.

Explore Specials & Promotions available in different seasons
Similar to tourist industries, companies providing cruise vacations also require marketing their services for attracting new passengers. They generally opt for seasonal promotions for their passengers. Most of these specials & promotions can help you in saving thousands without detracting benefits and amenities from your cruise experience. You should always consider changing the schedule of your travel, if substantial discounts are available and you’ve got a flexible itinerary for taking advantage of those promotions.

Plan for Relaxation & Enjoyment
2 key components of cruise vacations are relaxation and enjoyment. However, some folks require making concerted efforts for remaining stress-free during the cruise journey. You can free yourself from enormous stress by planning an excursion in a manner that doesn’t allow you be as busy as you are at your home. Planning of a Cruise Ship Travel should accommodate both relaxation and fun.

Follow these 5 tips, take deep breaths, put your feet up & relax and let your captain steer the cruise to your desired location!

About the Author: Ed Sparrow is owner of Holiday Of Magic. A Miami Yacht Charters company. Holiday of Magic’s Miami Yacht Charters will assist you in choosing the perfect-for-you Miami Dinner Cruise from our convenient boarding location at the Biscayne Bay Marriott Hotel & Marina Downtown, Miami.

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I hope you found these tips worthwhile and that you will apply them. In the meantime look forward to your Europe cruise vacation. If you need more information about a Europe cruise vacation have a search around this site. You will find lots of useful articles covering everything from the best cruise line companies right through to videos and photos from other seasoned Europe cruise vacation travellers.

Europe cruise vacation article compliments of isnare.

Some of the short Rhine cruise allow the visitor to see five countries in five days. A Rhine cruise is interspersed with several modern city tours.

Basel is the gateway to the Swiss Rhineland and is Switzerland’s second biggest city. Although it is an old city and retains many medieval and eighteen century landmarks it has a modern museum of fine arts reflecting modern works by Pablo Ruiz Picasso and Salvador Dali. Among landmarks in the old quarter are the Cathedral which has sections that were built in the 9th century, and the Town Hall which dates to the 16th century. Much of the cities steep streets are cobbled and the whole experience of Basel is rather quaint despite the fact that it is now a multi cultural modern city. The first night is then spent cruising to arrive at Breisach in the morning.

 Breisach is the gateway to the Black Forest and area is lush forests set on the areas mountainous landscape, deep meadows, and green fields. Like many German towns Breisach is dominated by the Cathedral of St. Stephanus. The height of this building means that it can be observed from any River Rhine cruise boat. There are many cuckoo clock manufacturers in the area and most Rhine cruise boats allow time to visit a factory within their schedule. Many of the Rhine cruise boats dock overnights and go to the French town of Strasbourg. Today Strasbourg is famous because the Place d’Austerlitz is the European parliament sits once a month. The surrounding countryside is full of vineyards.

Next day brings the Rhine cruise traveller back into Germany albeit by coach  to  Hiedelberg and Rüdesheim. Heidelberg is home to Germany’s oldest university founded in 1386. The dominant feature of Heidelberg is the red sandstone ruined castle which is perched on a hill overlooking the town and the old bridge over the Neckar River.  Even if the visitor does not visit the castle ruins there is plenty to see in Heidelberg. Many tourists stroll around the market place and the old town. Approximately 1,000,000 years ago, the “Heidelberg Man”, was found at Mauer and identified as the earliest evidence of human settlements in Europe.

The next port of call is usually Rüdesheim where many tourists stroll along the Drosselgasse, a pedestrianised street lined with restaurants, bars and shops. One of the attractions of the area is the mechanical music museum.
Cologne is famous for the invention of au de cologne the watered down version of perfume. Cologne’s old town offers a magnificent gothic cathedral to explore, but the modern town boasts a local brewery where it is possible to sample   local beer.

Arnhem in Eastern Netherlands is famous for the airborne museum. In World War II, during Operation Market Garden in September 1944, the British and the Polish Parachute Brigade were given the task of securing the bridge at Arnhem. However they failed and the attempt was dramatised in the 1977 film a Bridge Too Far. Amsterdam with its many canals offers a pretty city to explore, it has more cycle paths than any other city in Europe.

Gouda not surprisingly is home to the eponymous cheese, it is possible to visit a cheese factory and watch the cheese being made. Delft is famous for blue and white pottery and again there are possibilities to visit a working porcelain factory. Dordrecht is a charming Dutch town from which you can explore the windmills at Kinderdijk.
Bruges is an old medieval city famed for its gardens, the Gruuthuuze Palace and Simon Stevin Square. Antwerp boasts yet another Rhine Castle and an art gallery famous for its Reuben’s.

Bruges as a stop off  destination is particularly popular this year due to the movie “In Bruges”

I am sure you will now see why a Rhine cruise is fast growing in popularity in the world of cruise vacations.