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What are the best European river cruise lines? I discuss the 6, based on my numerous river cruises through Europe that I recommend that you consider for your first or next river cruise in Europe. I review and discuss lines ranging from premium to more value, and those in between. These are the 6 best river cruise lines to consider. Which one sounds right and best for you?
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Gary Bembridge's Tips For Travellers aims to help you make more of your precious travel time and money on land and when cruising the oceans or rivers of the world. To help you, in every video I draw on my first-hand tips and advice from travelling every month for over 20 years and 60+ cruises.
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0:00
I'm Gary Bainbridge this is another of
0:01
my tips for Travers in this video I'm
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gonna explore and share with you what I
0:05
think are the six best european river
0:08
cruising lines and hopefully help you
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decide which one of these would be right
0:11
for your first or your next River cruise
0:14
in Europe choosing a river cruise line
0:18
in Europe can be quite a challenge
0:19
because certainly when you take a look
0:21
at them they all seem to be the same
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because they are constrained by the
0:25
rivers of Europe so they tend to be the
0:27
same length the same width and the same
0:28
height to be able to sail down the
0:30
rivers so it's really important that you
0:33
understand what goes on within the ship
0:34
and what the services to help you decide
0:36
the other thing that makes it hard to
0:39
choose between river cruising lines is
0:41
all of them talk about all-inclusive
0:43
fares and largely they are all-inclusive
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so most will include accommodation or
0:47
your food they will include some or all
0:50
of your drink many will include
0:51
gratuities and excursions will be
0:53
included so largely speaking they offer
0:55
all-inclusive fares there are slight
0:57
differences though when you get into the
0:59
detail by a cruise line so let's take a
1:02
look at what I think are the six very
1:04
best cruise lines let's start with uni
1:07
world which is probably one of the most
1:10
prestige and certainly probably one of
1:12
the more expensive of the cruise lines
1:14
sailing around Europe I've done a couple
1:16
of unique world cruises and I really
1:18
like Guinea world as a cruise line they
1:21
position themselves as offering six star
1:23
service so the point is they go way
1:25
beyond what you would normally expect
1:27
the ships are all very different and the
1:30
record does tend to be a little bit on
1:31
the rich and the glitzy side so they are
1:33
very glitzy inside they are very
1:36
beautiful very comfortable the bedding
1:39
the beds the service the quality of
1:42
everything onboard is phenomenal and the
1:43
service is really really outstanding
1:46
they do cruise on pretty much all of the
1:48
major rivers and as I said they are more
1:50
on the premium side so if you're looking
1:51
for a particularly luxurious River
1:53
cruise with very high degrees of service
1:56
certainly take a look at uni wood if you
1:58
like you know when you're cruising to
2:00
travel in quite traditional five-star
2:02
really upmarket hotels the next two
2:06
lines I want to talk about are probably
2:07
in the 5-star area the first of those is
2:10
a Cruise Line called amar waterways
2:13
I really liked Emma waterways I think
2:15
they do offer a great product they are
2:18
owned by a group of friends so it's
2:20
really a family-owned company it was
2:22
established back in 2002 and still
2:24
really run very actively by the families
2:27
they have very great quality of ships of
2:31
service of food and I really like the
2:33
deco it's quite modern one of their
2:35
features that they have is a cabin which
2:39
has both a Juliet balcony and a normal
2:41
balcony the advantage of the Juliet
2:42
balcony is it means the cabins can be
2:44
slightly bigger cabins on board River
2:46
cruise boats are quite small so the
2:49
advantage of having both is it means
2:51
they can allow a little bit of extra
2:52
space there are sophisticated terms of
2:54
Technology so you'll find lots of
2:56
technology on board both through
2:58
interactive television and through
2:59
devices the food is outstanding huge
3:02
choice of menus they also have a
3:04
specialty dining option called the
3:06
chef's table where you can also watch
3:08
the chefs prepare the food they're also
3:10
very big on wellness so they have a
3:12
dedicated person on board looking after
3:14
a wellness program they'll run classes
3:16
they'll have lots of wellness excursions
3:19
they have bikes on board so if you like
3:21
five-star service you have to be little
3:22
bit of contemporary and a big focus on
3:25
wellness definitely take a look at mo
3:26
waterways I think they could definitely
3:28
appeal to you probably the best known of
3:31
all the river cruising companies is
3:33
Viking Viking is incredibly well known
3:36
particularly in North America and in the
3:38
UK because they do spend a lot of money
3:40
on marketing they have a huge fleet they
3:43
have at summer of courting I think over
3:45
70 ships across all the different rivers
3:47
of Europe all the ships tend to be the
3:50
same they have the long ships which are
3:51
almost the bigger rivers which hold on
3:53
190 guests and they have a smaller
3:55
version of the long ships which operate
3:56
on rivers which can't cope with such big
3:59
ships so for example in a Portugal
4:01
Viking is a much more traditional kind
4:04
of approach so although the ships are
4:06
quite contemporary so they have a real
4:08
Nordic feel to them they do tend to be a
4:10
little bit more on the traditional side
4:11
so unlike Emma waterways they don't have
4:14
bicycles they don't have a fitness
4:15
center they don't have lots of that kind
4:18
of fitness activity on board they do
4:20
they offer some more active excursions
4:22
so you will find you can go on bike
4:23
excursions but Viking do tend to focus
4:25
much
4:26
on the hotel experience with the
4:28
destination more as the hero so they are
4:31
definitely incredibly well known pretty
4:33
much every river that you want to go on
4:35
they will have multiple itineraries so
4:36
you'll often find when you go to a port
4:39
there's sometimes more than one Viking
4:41
ship in there because they have lots of
4:44
different permutations of cruises and
4:45
different lens so Viking I would say
4:48
probably five-star service they have
4:50
good comfortable cabins good comfortable
4:53
bears good quality of service good food
4:55
and so definitely if you like a
4:57
five-star service with a sort of more
4:59
Skanda feel to it
5:01
and also they have many many
5:03
permutations of cruises that you can do
5:05
within Europe so if you're looking for
5:07
something little bit unusual or
5:08
different accommodations and lengths the
5:09
advantage the Viking has is they have
5:11
loads and loads of ships so they have
5:13
loads of choices of itineraries the next
5:17
two cruise lines both of which I also
5:18
really like are probably a more in the
5:20
four star kind of category so if you try
5:22
to equate that with what you can expect
5:24
on land of the first of these is a
5:26
company called Avalon waterways now
5:28
Avalon waterways is part of a really big
5:30
group it's part of the Globus Travel
5:32
Group so it has huge resources behind it
5:34
and that also means that in the various
5:36
ports they have lots of long established
5:38
connections so they do have really great
5:40
excursions Avalon is definitely focusing
5:43
more and more on fitness and wellness so
5:45
on board they have fitness people they
5:47
have fitness classes very active
5:49
excursions so you can actually go on
5:51
excursions that are incredibly active
5:52
hiking biking if that's the kind of
5:55
thing you're looking for again reflected
5:57
in the food a real wellness approach one
6:00
of the things that they talk about with
6:02
their ships as they talk about their
6:03
suite ships and they do have really
6:05
great cabins I really like the cabins on
6:07
Avalon so the cabins the beds face the
6:11
window which is a great point because as
6:14
you cruise through parts of Europe
6:16
there's beautiful scenery you're often
6:17
cruising during the day so that's a
6:19
small touch but it's a great touch good
6:21
levels of service and definitely
6:23
something to look at be seen if you look
6:25
into something that is going to give you
6:26
lots of active excursion options so if
6:29
you're the sort person on land who likes
6:30
a four-star hotels you like kind of nice
6:32
spin of luxury but you don't want to go
6:34
to 5-star kind of prices and all the
6:37
bells and whistles and extra service
6:38
that comes with a five-star
6:40
take a look at Avalon waterways the next
6:43
cruise line which I also really like is
6:45
called Emerald waterways Emerald is
6:48
owned by scenic so cynic is probably
6:50
more their five-star product probably
6:52
little bit more premium emerald is
6:53
perhaps a little bit more affordable
6:55
again there is a big big focus on trying
6:58
to be active and giving much more active
7:00
excursions they also try to attract a
7:03
much younger type of traveler to river
7:05
cruising so you'll find that a lot of
7:07
the activities they do onboard are
7:09
trying to appeal to a younger crowd one
7:11
of the things that n will do in order to
7:14
make sure that you have bigger cabins
7:15
instead of having balconies they have
7:17
panoramic windows which are the full
7:20
length of the cabin and they slide down
7:22
so effectively your balcony is within
7:25
your cabin so you have the extra space
7:26
but the advantages are being able to let
7:29
fresh air into your cabin so that's a
7:30
really great plus one little features
7:33
that they have at the back of their
7:35
ships as they have an area which during
7:36
the day is a plunge pool inside in an
7:39
evening they convert that into a cinema
7:41
emerald waterways don't have as many
7:44
ships as some of the other cruise lines
7:45
so there perhaps isn't as wide a range
7:48
of itineraries but they certainly cover
7:50
all of the major rivers that you would
7:52
want to go on Europe particularly if
7:53
you're going on a first or second River
7:55
cruise so emerald is a really
7:57
interesting line it's probably a bit
7:59
more youthful again very nicely designed
8:01
ships and good all-inclusive fares so if
8:04
that appeals to you and you like this as
8:06
a force to are more youthful approach
8:07
take a look at emerald now all of the
8:11
cruise lines that are spoken so far
8:12
operating on the European rivers tend to
8:15
be quite English centric so they tend to
8:18
be very Telus all American and British
8:21
and Australian type of travelers if you
8:24
want something very different take a
8:26
look at across Europe across Europe is
8:28
very interesting because they are I
8:30
believe the river cruising company
8:32
that's been operating for the longest
8:34
across the rivers of Europe they've been
8:36
going since the mid 1970s it's a
8:39
family-owned company it's owned by the
8:40
schmitter family and the family still
8:43
runs it I think it's all about the third
8:44
generation that are currently now
8:46
increasingly taking over the reins of
8:48
the company it's real Heartland is with
8:50
French travellers however increasingly
8:52
the ships are becoming more
8:53
more international so you like to have a
8:56
much more diverse group than you'll have
8:58
on any of the other River creasing lines
9:00
and certainly you're going to have a
9:01
much more European experience so they
9:03
really focus on providing great French
9:05
food and a much more European experience
9:07
so if you're going to cruise through the
9:09
rivers of Europe crossing Europe
9:11
definitely something worth considering
9:12
they do sell on an enormous range of
9:15
rivers and they will design ships very
9:17
specifically for rivers I meant in the
9:19
lure in France which is a very shallow
9:22
river and they had designed a paddle
9:24
ship specifically to go on that river so
9:26
really really interesting very
9:28
innovative and pretty much if there's a
9:29
river around Europe they sell on it they
9:32
do tend to be much better values so they
9:34
probably operate in the more value end
9:36
and depending on where you're coming
9:38
from the fares are constructed different
9:40
ways so often you can buy a cruise only
9:42
fare and you can buy then excursions
9:45
ad-hoc or as packages if you booked from
9:47
the US they tend to do a more of a
9:49
bundled package because of course people
9:51
are coming much further so they do does
9:53
tend to be more flexibility and they do
9:55
tend to be much more on the value side
9:57
they do have regular ships and premium
9:59
ships so again lots and lots of choice
10:01
crossing Europe definitely very
10:02
interesting as a cruise line because
10:04
it's going to give you a much more
10:05
European experience so you'll find it's
10:08
much more multilingual and it's going to
10:10
definitely give you a much more European
10:12
feel so definitely something to consider
10:14
there are many other cruise lines that
10:17
operate in Europe but for me those are
10:18
the six I think you should look at if
10:20
you're looking for all your first or
10:22
your next River cruise in Europe I have
10:24
loads of videos of tips and advice about
10:27
river cruising and ocean cruising so why
10:29
don't you watch another one of them
10:31
right now
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