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you're about to discover the five times
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you should choose a barge cruise in
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Europe over a river cruise
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I'm Gary Bainbridge this is another of
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my tips for travelers I'm just recently
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back from a barge cruise through France
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on Crossy Europe Deborah and I thought
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it'd be a great opportunity to talk
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about the five times that I think a
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barge cruise is a better choice than a
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river cruise in Europe the first and one
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of the most important reasons for
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choosing a barge over a river cruise in
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Europe is pace if you're looking for a
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vacation which is just much slower much
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more relaxing then take a look at a
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barge cruise and the reason for that is
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the way that barge cruises work first of
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all they cover a much smaller distance
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they might travel only 50 to 70 miles
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across the course of seven days they
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travel and cruise much much slower an
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important reason for the pace slowing
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down is that barges do not cruise at
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night normally what happens is you will
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have half a day of excursions and half a
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day of cruising along the canal or if
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you're cruising along the rivers along
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the rivers and the barges always docked
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at night so it has much less time really
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that it can be cruising often a river
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cruise you might cruise all night so the
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whole pace slows down because you're
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going to be spending half of the day on
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board the barge as you meander along the
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canals all the rivers so the pace just
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slows right right down if you're looking
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for something that's much karma as a
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vacation option a barge is a great
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option a second good reason for choosing
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a barge over river cruise is if you are
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a very sociable person and you like
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small intimate experiences where you
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really get to know a few people really
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well so a river cruise boat will have
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between 120 to 200 passengers barges are
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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
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because you'll go out on this excursions
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together you're dying together you will
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socialize together so it's a much more
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intimate experience so if you're the
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sort of person that likes to travel with
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less people and you like to get to know
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people really well on barges a really
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good option river cruise boats obviously
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are quite small in terms of number of
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people but this is a much more intimate
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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
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barge cruise could be a really good
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alternative because barges largely as
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they go on canals will go to more
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out-of-the-way places they might go to
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quieter places and the river cruises go
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on the big rivers so they're gonna go to
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the big towns that often go to many of
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the sort of the must-see big iconic
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towns barges tend not to do that because
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they're going along canals they'll go to
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much more out-of-the-way quieter places
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smaller villages and towns so you're
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going to see parts of Europe that you're
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not going to see otherwise because they
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go deep inside the countryside you are
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going to see some very different things
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so if you've seen parts of a country a
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lot or you've been to all the big iconic
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places in Europe a barge is a really
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interesting way of seeing a very
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different side of a country because it's
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gonna take you to more out-of-the-way
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places so definitely it's a really good
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thing to think about if you feel you've
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done quite out of Europe or
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alternatively you don't want to see the
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obvious things you want to see much more
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in-depth and unusual places
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a barge cruise is a really good idea if
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you perhaps are less bothered or have
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seen all of the big iconic places and
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you want to see the more out-of-the-way
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the more rural the more countryside
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parts of a country it really is
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definitely gonna give you a very
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different experience another reason when
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a barge cruise may be better than a
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river cruise is if you're the sort of
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person that's not bothered with having
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lots and lots of choice but first of all
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you're going to have less choice of the
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number of places you can go to so barges
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largely cruise on canals about 95% of
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all barge cruises in Europe are on
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canals these are man-made waterways but
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largely in the 18th century and they
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to transport goods around about Europe
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before railways came along and of course
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then eventually road haulage came along
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so 95 percent of bad cruisers go along
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canals because the nature of where
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canals are where you can do barge
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cruises they tend to be mostly in France
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you can do some in England you can do
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some in Scotland some in Ireland and
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there are a few sort of in the Holland
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Belgium area but there's much less
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choice of places you can go to I'm not
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gonna River Cruises where there are a
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multitude of providers there are many
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many different cruise lines offering
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River Cruises barges is much less so so
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for example there are only about three
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or maybe four key providers of barge
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cruises around Europe across Europe is
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one of them for example they focus
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mostly on France also then once you're
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onboard there is much less choice
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because obviously the boats themselves
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are much smaller so if you take for
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example the Deborah barge there
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obviously the cabins then on the main
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level you had a dining room you had a
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little bar area and you had a lounge
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area then outside there was an open
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seating area with someone's we could eat
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or you could relax and a hot tub there's
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also an upper level like a Sun Deck
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level on many barge cruises the Sun Deck
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level is closed when you're cruising
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because the level of the bridges is
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quite low so it you actually can't be
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out on top deck so in many barge cruises
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if you're heading along canals you can
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only use the Sun Deck when you're docked
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a lot of our cruise took place on the
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river because the water level was very
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low in the canal so we actually went on
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the yarn and the Seine River so actually
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the top deck was available much more
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often when we were cruising so you're
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not going to find things like fitness
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centers workout rooms alternative dining
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venues swimming pools all that kind of
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stuff that you might find on modern
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river cruise ships you're not going to
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have you can have much less choice
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another key area we're going to have
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less choice is when it comes to dining
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on River Cruises you're often a very big
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menus with lots of choice you know
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multiple starters main courses desserts
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on barge cruising you tend to have a set
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menu so again let me give an example on
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my cruise breakfast was a buffet
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the usual things pastries fruit yogurt
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the lunches were a set menu as a
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four-course menu so the food was very
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very good and very gourmet like you
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never starter a main course a cheese
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course and then a dessert course but it
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was a set menu so you had one starter
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one main course two cheeses and one
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dessert and any time that would vary as
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if you had dietary issues which you'd
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arranged with the cruise liner and the
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chef before and once you're on board so
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it was a set menu the evening meal again
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a set menu a starter a main course and a
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so unlike on river cruising on a barge
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you have very good food very high
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gourmet cooking but you don't have a
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choice and many of the cruises you'll
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find it's very specific to the region so
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on a French barge cruise you'll get lots
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of real classic French dishes another
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area where you're going to have less
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choice is when it comes to excursions so
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excursions will be included and every
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day you'll have one excursion but there
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won't be a choice of excursions everyone
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will do that one excursion of course on
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rivers they do have often a lot of
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choice of excursions they might have
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more active ones through to much more
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relaxing calming walking tours on a
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barge cruise he will have an excursion
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every day but not a choice of excursions
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but if that doesn't bother you you're
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ready therefore the pace the experience
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and you want to have good food you know
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you're gonna see the sights you're gonna
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be able to relax and have kind of what
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you need on hand but not lots of choice
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definitely then a barge is something
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worth looking at another key
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consideration is if you're not bothered
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about your cabin as being a pretty
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functional place on a river cruise you
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can get pretty big cabins you can get
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Suites you can get cabins with balconies
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but a cabin can become a place where you
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can retreat to and you might want to
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spend time relaxing in on a barge that's
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very different the cabin is a much more
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practical place so for example on
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Deborah it had two single beds quite a
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little storage a little seating area and
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then it had an ensuite bathroom with a
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shower but it's a pretty small compact
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space it's not the sort of place that
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you're gonna want to spend a lot of time
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relaxing and chilling out
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you can only spend that more in the
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public areas it's already a place to
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retreat to because it's a smaller more
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compact space and it's a much more
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so if you're not that bothered about
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having a bedroom that you want it can
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spend time in or a balcony private
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balcony you want to spend time on a
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barge is definitely something to think
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about I had a great time on my barge
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cruise and it really over my eyes to an
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alternative and different way of
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traveling it's definitely something I am
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going to do much more of I like river
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cruising and I'll really light barge
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cruising if you're interested in going
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on a barge cruise or even a river cruise
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I have many more videos about barge and
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river cruising and of course ocean
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cruising too so why don't you watch
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another one of those right now
