Dream About River Cruising Now; Travel Later
By Hank Schrader, USMA ’71, Europe Destination & Europe River Cruise Expert
I don’t know about you, but I suspect you are feeling a little cooped up right now.
My mind wanders often these days, thinking about where we will travel next.
It will be somewhere in Europe when it is safe to go.
For me, many of my dreams involve a Europe river cruise and I hope soon we can help go again or sail on one for the first time.
This week, we will help you dream by examining why people take river cruises, and the routes available. Dreaming further, perhaps we can inspire you by one of our many blogs about European river cruising and when the time is right, why you should use us to plan your European River Cruise.
So, this week, I’d like to write about dreams to take you to Dream Destinations on European river cruises.
7 Reasons Why People Dream About & Take River Cruises
They like the Cool destinations & itinerary—almost always the most important reason.
They like All-Inclusive luxury vacation at a reasonable cost—a very good perceived value.
They want Real-life experiences in smaller towns & villages often combined with great cities of Europe—a great mix that is hard to do on your own but easy with a river cruise.
They really like included land programs and sightseeing.
They like smaller ships and intimate ambience.
They appreciate shipboard services and caring staff.
It is convenient and hassle free.
All great reasons in my mind—are your dreaming yet?
Great Routes to Dream About
Do you want to dream about great destinations?
Then our comprehensive guide of the available European River Cruise Routes is the best single resource available for you to quickly learn about European Rivers. It is designed so you can easily decide on which route will be the best for your next Europe river cruise vacation.
Old Town Lyon—a port on the Rhône River—one of the Routes we describe in our guide
Europe has the distinction of the continent with the largest number of navigable rivers compared to other regions of the world. They are often devoid of major obstacles such as waterfalls and rapids, and are usually wide and deep enough to allow a steady passage of people and material on all types of sailing vessels.
Combine the easy navigation with captivating sights such as castles, vineyards, capital cities and small, quaint villages and it is clear to me why folks would want to sail these amazing rivers!
Europe Rivers Map from AmaWaterways
Our route guide page will describe the river, point out a couple of highlights and why you might consider sailing on this river. The routes may be very short or may cover larger distances. While there are some variations, many lines essentially cruise the same route on the most popular European rivers.
Since most folks want to know what the best starting rivers are if they have never taken a European River cruise, by far the two most popular rivers are the Rhine and the Upper Danube, so let’s explore them first together. Then we will examine the remaining Europe Rivers you might want to consider for your vacation.
The Watchman of the Danube Schönbühel Castle
Sailing into Rüdesheim Germany on the Rhine
Ready?—Let’s cruise together!
European River Cruise Route Guide
Dream Using Our River Cruise Blogs
If you believe Google, I am the number one Europe River Cruise Blogger.
Our blogs, by design, are much more detailed than most other blogs—usually 2000 words or more. There are two types of blogs we use to help you understand characteristics of Europe river cruises.
In the first type, we try to tell the story of each topic in a way you can see yourself there—can we capture the experience for you?
While some blogs easily fall into storytelling type of blog, others are designed as informational, data blogs, our second type of blog. This blog is more the informational type blog.
Both have immense value, in my opinion. Sometimes you just need the data in a form you can understand and make comparisons. But this alone is not enough—you need to know what you will experience on a Europe river cruise to get the full story. A key element of the blogs is a clear separation of facts (usually there is a source) and our opinion. When possible, we use many pictures in each blog to help enhance our descriptions.
As you can see from this blog, we break up our blogs into sub headings to make it easier to understand. Often, there is quite a bit of research that goes into the content—we try to sift through the overwhelming amount of information and advertising to paint an easily understandable summary of each topic. Most is first-hand information from our experiences, but some is news or research, or information facts (internet, blogs, books, travel publications, company brochures or other sources) you need to know to become a better traveler.
Our blogs have two goals—the most important is to inform you so you can decide if a Europe river cruise is right for you. The second, a bit more subtle, is to help you decide if we are the right folks to help plan your river cruise.
Why We Are the Right Folks to Plan your Next European River Cruise
Our knowledge of Europe river cruises is exceptional. We have been on 18 Europe river cruises, written over 60 blogs about all aspects of Europe river cruises, have 3 items on the first page of Google, we have 51 port guides (they are free) for you, and we have help dozens enjoy river cruising in Europe. And if that we not enough, we have 50 free guides to most Europe Cities you might want to visit before or after your Europe river cruise.
My Final Thoughts
Wow!—what a quick way to get exceptional information and start dreaming about European River Cruising! We want to earn that trust from you to use us for your vacation needs—start with your dreams first—when European River Cruising starts up again, we will make your dreams reality..
We are travel experts, ocean and river cruise experts, and Europe destination experts. We have first-hand knowledge of almost anywhere you want to visit in Europe. We know our products and the vendors who sell them to you. We have designed special tours for dozens of clients, led several and will continue to find just the right vacation that will exceed your expectations. As you can see, our full service agency can get you to almost anywhere you desire to travel and provide you a great experience and vacation.
When you are spending your hard earned money for a vacation, you want an advisor who can match you with the right trip. You want someone who will understand your expectations and fuel your anticipation (or excitement) to get you the best possible trip experience.
Whatever your Dream Destinations are, we are here to help you get the best possible vacation based on what is important to you! We will provide you high quality, expertly planned travel. Please give me a call 713-397-0188 (Hank) or email me at hschrader@dreamdestinations.com. We want to help you: Savor life…make memories…Visit Dream Destinations! Your journey begins here!
HANK is a certified Western European Destination Specialist (DS) who has been traveling to Europe for 48+ years. He is also an Accredited Cruise Counselor (ACC), conferred by the Cruise Line International Association (CLIA). This recognized expert in cruise and leisure travel is a retired Army Officer, and taught World Geography for 8 years. He is a `71 graduate of West Point and has earned 2 master’s degrees. His other Certifications:
AmaWaterways River Cruise Specialist
Viking River Cruise Specialist
Scenic River Cruise Specialist
Emerald Waterways Specialist
Avalon Waterways Specialist
Brit Agent
