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Is a hotel barge cruise better than a river cruise in Europe? I explore 5 times, and types of travellers, where a European barge hotel cruise is likely to be the best way to cruise through Europe. River cruising in Europe has become very popular, but less travellers know there is an alternative way to cruise the European Waterways - hotel barges that cruise the canals and rivers of Europe. Discover if they are a better option for your European vacation
Note: I travelled as a guest of CroisiEurope on a 6-night French cruise on their Deborah hotel barge along the Yonne and Seine from Sens to Paris. The cost of the cabin would have been £2043 / $2500 per person sharing. CroisiEurope had no input on the content or opinions expressed in this video.
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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
you're about to discover the five times
0:02
you should choose a barge cruise in
0:05
Europe over a river cruise
0:07
I'm Gary Bainbridge this is another of
0:08
my tips for travelers I'm just recently
0:10
back from a barge cruise through France
0:13
on Crossy Europe Deborah and I thought
0:15
it'd be a great opportunity to talk
0:18
about the five times that I think a
0:20
barge cruise is a better choice than a
0:23
river cruise in Europe the first and one
0:28
of the most important reasons for
0:29
choosing a barge over a river cruise in
0:31
Europe is pace if you're looking for a
0:33
vacation which is just much slower much
0:36
more relaxing then take a look at a
0:39
barge cruise and the reason for that is
0:40
the way that barge cruises work first of
0:44
all they cover a much smaller distance
0:47
they might travel only 50 to 70 miles
0:49
across the course of seven days they
0:52
travel and cruise much much slower an
0:56
important reason for the pace slowing
0:58
down is that barges do not cruise at
1:00
night normally what happens is you will
1:02
have half a day of excursions and half a
1:06
day of cruising along the canal or if
1:08
you're cruising along the rivers along
1:10
the rivers and the barges always docked
1:13
at night so it has much less time really
1:16
that it can be cruising often a river
1:17
cruise you might cruise all night so the
1:21
whole pace slows down because you're
1:22
going to be spending half of the day on
1:25
board the barge as you meander along the
1:29
canals all the rivers so the pace just
1:31
slows right right down if you're looking
1:34
for something that's much karma as a
1:36
vacation option a barge is a great
1:38
option a second good reason for choosing
1:42
a barge over river cruise is if you are
1:46
a very sociable person and you like
1:48
small intimate experiences where you
1:50
really get to know a few people really
1:52
well so a river cruise boat will have
1:55
between 120 to 200 passengers barges are
1:58
much much smaller for example on the
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cross route of Deborah barge there are a
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maximum of 22 guests and many other
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barges will go even smaller on that you
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might find there's an average of 12
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guests so it's a much more smaller
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intimate experience and you're going to
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get to know those people really really
2:13
well
2:13
because you'll go out on this excursions
2:16
together you're dying together you will
2:18
socialize together so it's a much more
2:20
intimate experience so if you're the
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sort of person that likes to travel with
2:23
less people and you like to get to know
2:26
people really well on barges a really
2:28
good option river cruise boats obviously
2:30
are quite small in terms of number of
2:32
people but this is a much more intimate
2:34
experience the third area where a barge
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cruise could be a really good option is
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if you've traveled quite a lot around
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Europe so you've seen koala of Europe a
2:44
barge cruise could be a really good
2:46
alternative because barges largely as
2:48
they go on canals will go to more
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out-of-the-way places they might go to
2:52
quieter places and the river cruises go
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on the big rivers so they're gonna go to
2:55
the big towns that often go to many of
2:57
the sort of the must-see big iconic
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towns barges tend not to do that because
3:02
they're going along canals they'll go to
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much more out-of-the-way quieter places
3:07
smaller villages and towns so you're
3:10
going to see parts of Europe that you're
3:12
not going to see otherwise because they
3:14
go deep inside the countryside you are
3:16
going to see some very different things
3:18
so if you've seen parts of a country a
3:20
lot or you've been to all the big iconic
3:23
places in Europe a barge is a really
3:25
interesting way of seeing a very
3:26
different side of a country because it's
3:29
gonna take you to more out-of-the-way
3:31
places so definitely it's a really good
3:33
thing to think about if you feel you've
3:35
done quite out of Europe or
3:36
alternatively you don't want to see the
3:38
obvious things you want to see much more
3:41
in-depth and unusual places
3:44
a barge cruise is a really good idea if
3:47
you perhaps are less bothered or have
3:49
seen all of the big iconic places and
3:51
you want to see the more out-of-the-way
3:53
the more rural the more countryside
3:56
parts of a country it really is
3:58
definitely gonna give you a very
4:00
different experience another reason when
4:04
a barge cruise may be better than a
4:06
river cruise is if you're the sort of
4:08
person that's not bothered with having
4:10
lots and lots of choice but first of all
4:12
you're going to have less choice of the
4:14
number of places you can go to so barges
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largely cruise on canals about 95% of
4:19
all barge cruises in Europe are on
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canals these are man-made waterways but
4:24
largely in the 18th century and they
4:26
were really designed
4:27
to transport goods around about Europe
4:31
before railways came along and of course
4:33
then eventually road haulage came along
4:36
so 95 percent of bad cruisers go along
4:39
canals because the nature of where
4:41
canals are where you can do barge
4:44
cruises they tend to be mostly in France
4:47
you can do some in England you can do
4:48
some in Scotland some in Ireland and
4:50
there are a few sort of in the Holland
4:52
Belgium area but there's much less
4:53
choice of places you can go to I'm not
4:56
gonna River Cruises where there are a
4:57
multitude of providers there are many
5:00
many different cruise lines offering
5:02
River Cruises barges is much less so so
5:06
for example there are only about three
5:08
or maybe four key providers of barge
5:11
cruises around Europe across Europe is
5:13
one of them for example they focus
5:15
mostly on France also then once you're
5:17
onboard there is much less choice
5:19
because obviously the boats themselves
5:21
are much smaller so if you take for
5:23
example the Deborah barge there
5:26
obviously the cabins then on the main
5:28
level you had a dining room you had a
5:31
little bar area and you had a lounge
5:33
area then outside there was an open
5:35
seating area with someone's we could eat
5:37
or you could relax and a hot tub there's
5:40
also an upper level like a Sun Deck
5:41
level on many barge cruises the Sun Deck
5:44
level is closed when you're cruising
5:46
because the level of the bridges is
5:48
quite low so it you actually can't be
5:50
out on top deck so in many barge cruises
5:52
if you're heading along canals you can
5:55
only use the Sun Deck when you're docked
5:57
a lot of our cruise took place on the
6:00
river because the water level was very
6:02
low in the canal so we actually went on
6:04
the yarn and the Seine River so actually
6:06
the top deck was available much more
6:08
often when we were cruising so you're
6:10
not going to find things like fitness
6:12
centers workout rooms alternative dining
6:15
venues swimming pools all that kind of
6:17
stuff that you might find on modern
6:19
river cruise ships you're not going to
6:20
have you can have much less choice
6:21
another key area we're going to have
6:23
less choice is when it comes to dining
6:26
on River Cruises you're often a very big
6:28
menus with lots of choice you know
6:29
multiple starters main courses desserts
6:32
on barge cruising you tend to have a set
6:36
menu so again let me give an example on
6:38
my cruise breakfast was a buffet
6:39
breakfast
6:41
the usual things pastries fruit yogurt
6:43
the lunches were a set menu as a
6:46
four-course menu so the food was very
6:47
very good and very gourmet like you
6:50
never starter a main course a cheese
6:53
course and then a dessert course but it
6:55
was a set menu so you had one starter
6:57
one main course two cheeses and one
7:00
dessert and any time that would vary as
7:02
if you had dietary issues which you'd
7:03
arranged with the cruise liner and the
7:06
chef before and once you're on board so
7:08
it was a set menu the evening meal again
7:11
a set menu a starter a main course and a
7:14
dessert
7:14
so unlike on river cruising on a barge
7:16
you have very good food very high
7:18
quality
7:19
gourmet cooking but you don't have a
7:22
choice and many of the cruises you'll
7:24
find it's very specific to the region so
7:26
on a French barge cruise you'll get lots
7:29
of real classic French dishes another
7:32
area where you're going to have less
7:33
choice is when it comes to excursions so
7:36
excursions will be included and every
7:38
day you'll have one excursion but there
7:40
won't be a choice of excursions everyone
7:42
will do that one excursion of course on
7:44
rivers they do have often a lot of
7:47
choice of excursions they might have
7:48
more active ones through to much more
7:51
relaxing calming walking tours on a
7:54
barge cruise he will have an excursion
7:56
every day but not a choice of excursions
7:59
but if that doesn't bother you you're
8:01
ready therefore the pace the experience
8:03
and you want to have good food you know
8:04
you're gonna see the sights you're gonna
8:06
be able to relax and have kind of what
8:07
you need on hand but not lots of choice
8:10
definitely then a barge is something
8:12
worth looking at another key
8:16
consideration is if you're not bothered
8:18
about your cabin as being a pretty
8:19
functional place on a river cruise you
8:21
can get pretty big cabins you can get
8:23
Suites you can get cabins with balconies
8:26
but a cabin can become a place where you
8:29
can retreat to and you might want to
8:31
spend time relaxing in on a barge that's
8:33
very different the cabin is a much more
8:36
practical place so for example on
8:38
Deborah it had two single beds quite a
8:42
little storage a little seating area and
8:44
then it had an ensuite bathroom with a
8:47
shower but it's a pretty small compact
8:50
space it's not the sort of place that
8:51
you're gonna want to spend a lot of time
8:53
relaxing and chilling out
8:54
you can only spend that more in the
8:56
public areas it's already a place to
8:59
retreat to because it's a smaller more
9:01
compact space and it's a much more
9:03
functional space
9:04
so if you're not that bothered about
9:05
having a bedroom that you want it can
9:06
spend time in or a balcony private
9:09
balcony you want to spend time on a
9:10
barge is definitely something to think
9:12
about I had a great time on my barge
9:18
cruise and it really over my eyes to an
9:20
alternative and different way of
9:21
traveling it's definitely something I am
9:23
going to do much more of I like river
9:25
cruising and I'll really light barge
9:28
cruising if you're interested in going
9:30
on a barge cruise or even a river cruise
9:32
I have many more videos about barge and
9:34
river cruising and of course ocean
9:36
cruising too so why don't you watch
9:38
another one of those right now
9:47
you
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