River Cruise on a Budget

Christmas Markets and Snow

As I write this I am sitting in the ship’s library as we pass through a lock on the Danube River. We are en route to Passau today, traveling at a leisurely 12 knots. Snow blankets the hillsides and small villages dot the shoreline.

Brussels

Friends introduced us to Gate1Travel last summer. We typically don’t take tours or travel with tour companies. We are more the independent, happy wanderer types. As we have written before, getting lost, and not knowing the language or the local customs is part of the adventure. But Gay and Bob wanted us to join them on a Gate1 tour of Italy. While Gate1 is a more moderately priced travel company we couldn’t fault their organizational skills or attentiveness. ¹

So as Denise and I discussed how to explore more Christmas Markets in Europe, we landed on a river cruise. It won’t be that many years until we will want to travel without schlepping bags from town to town. But unsure if we would like it we decided on a short, lower-cost option. Gate1 offered a 7-day (actually only 5 days as they count the days of travel from and returning to the US) cruise from Vienna to Regensburg, Germany.

Looking down from the rooftop of the old Stock Exchange our first night in Brussels.

Faro airport did not offer a direct flight to Vienna, but for about €40 we could fly to Brussels. We had never been to Brussels, so why not? The night we landed we signed up for a free walking tour. Of the more than a dozen walking tours we have booked through Guruwalks, it was our first less-than-satisfactory tour. We, along with several others, abandoned the tour after about 45 minutes.

The Chocolate Museum offers samples!

Over the next two days, we visited Christmas Markets, the Chocolate Museum, and the Beer Museum. We visited the little boy who is peeing on the street corner and learned about their fascination with cartooning. We stayed at a hotel on the Grand Plaza and saw the light show at the top of the page each evening².

A Vienna Christmas Market in front of city hall.

On to Vienna

After 3 nights in Brussels, we hopped on an inexpensive, 90-minute flight to Vienna. For only €55 a private driver met us at the airport and took us to the dock. (Public transit would have been less expensive. Gate1’s airport transfer fee was considerably more!) We boarded the ship, the Monarch Queen, at 14h. While our cabin is lovely and the bathroom is very large for a ship, the rest of the ship seems a bit dated to me. It is not that the rugs are threadbare or the walls are marred, but rather their New Orleans Jazz decor seems out of place and tacky. The meals are adequate³ and the free wine flows freely at mealtime. Finally, you certainly can’t fault the friendliness of the ship’s crew or the travel staff.

We woke to snow in Vienna.

Our short itinerary included:

• An evening and day in Vienna, with 2-hour walking tour. Denise and I also spent a few hours in the Museum of Applied Design (which we highly recommend);

• The next morning we stopped in the quaint little village of Durnstein. I hiked up to the fort (ruin) while Denise shopped.

• That afternoon we stopped in Melk and toured a Benedictine Abbey.

• While we slept we traveled to the next stop. Many disembarked for a full-day “Sound of Music” tour in Salzberg. We stayed on board arriving in Passau at 14h for a walking tour and more Christmas Markets.

• Traveling again at night, the last day and evening was spent in the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Regensburg, where again we had a walking tour and opportunity to visit more Christmas Markets.

Looking out a window from the Brussels Beer Museum.

Verdict

So what did we think of our first river cruise? (Note: I consulted Denise who has been studying her Portuguese in the lounge as I write this.) First, while neither of us enjoys large ocean cruises, we would both consider another river cruise in the future.⁴ While I still prefer solo travel to tour travel, this trip has provided enough unstructured time to explore without feeling herded from place to place. It seems to be a good way to visit several places (without unpacking) so you can identify where you would want to visit again. The ship is comfortable and there is no worry of seasickness.

For those on a budget, Gate1 offers good value. Our trip (excluding airfare) was $1799/per person.⁵A similar trip on Avalon, AmaWaterways, or Uniworld would be 20-30% more.⁶ I suspect Denise and I will book a river cruise on one of these lines in the not-to-distant future so we can determine for ourselves if the additional expense is worth it to us. Denise is already scooping out Egypt with a tour down the Nile. If anyone has any suggestions, please leave them in the comments below.

And finally, if you are enjoying Expat in Portugal please share it with your friends… either via email or through social media. Think of it as your holiday gift to me …

Obrigada, fica bem

Nanc

1. I believe they have a much smaller advertising budget than other tour companies. They seem to continue to grow based on word of mouth of value oriented travelers.

2. The light show is every hour on the hour from 18h to 23h. While the light show was lovely, we preferred the one in Málaga we enjoyed last Christmas.

3. But not special. I suspect some of the more expensive river cruise lines do a better job of this.

4. Every ocean cruise we have taken has resulted in at least one of us getting sick.

5. Our cabin had a French balcony. There are less expensive cabins with only portholes on the lower level.

6. These lines are considered among the “better” river cruise lines.