Can a Mississippi River cruise rival the rivers of Europe?

If you’re thinking that a cruise along the storied Mississippi River will be a snooze after trawling the rivers of Europe, we have a tip for you: It’s actually a fabulous experience that offers treasures that will surprise and delight even the most jaded world travelers.

Curious? From our take on seven ways to find Europe along the Mississippi to the region’s best downtowns and from our experts’ guide to finding the blues to trekking Kentucky’s bourbon trail river, check out our series of stories on Mississippi River cruising, here:

http://www.cruisecritic.com/sponsored-content/mississippi-river-cruises/

And if you’ve got your own secrets to share about this fascinating waterway, please feel free to tell us about them! They could inspire a new feature.

Thanks.

Carolyn

Carolyn Spencer Brown

Editor in Chief

Cruise Critic

Got to check it out. We've been hoping to go down the Mississippi in 2018

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We did this on The American Queen about 12 or so years ago during Christmas time and it was absolutely lovely.

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The holiday markets' cruises in Europe are awesome; my bucket list recently got an addition: A Mississippi River cruise during the holidays. Can't wait to see the "chateaux" of America in Louisiana....

Carolyn

One way that the American river cruises seem to exceed the European ones is in their cost. When I checked out how much a Mississippi River cruise costs I decided to just drive it. We spent three weeks going from New Orleans to Minneapolis, including a couple days with friends in central Minnesota, three nights in NO, two nights in Memphis and St. Louis, and spent about $5000 for two people, plus airfares from Los Angeles. We more or less used much of the itinerary that the river boats use while mostly just winging it along the river. I think we got much more of a flavor of that part of the United States while saving a pile of $$$.

One way that the American river cruises seem to exceed the European ones is in their cost. When I checked out how much a Mississippi River cruise costs I decided to just drive it. We spent three weeks going from New Orleans to Minneapolis, including a couple days with friends in central Minnesota, three nights in NO, two nights in Memphis and St. Louis, and spent about $5000 for two people, plus airfares from Los Angeles. We more or less used much of the itinerary that the river boats use while mostly just winging it along the river. I think we got much more of a flavor of that part of the United States while saving a pile of $$$.

This is very interesting...about how many hours per day did you spend in the car? Only question is if you spent $5000 for two, not including airfare from LAX did you really save much? I would be flying from NY so air would probably be a wash, but I'm thinking it would be fun, but not necessarily cheaper.

This is very interesting...about how many hours per day did you spend in the car? Only question is if you spent $5000 for two, not including airfare from LAX did you really save much? I would be flying from NY so air would probably be a wash, but I'm thinking it would be fun, but not necessarily cheaper.

We drove 2002 miles over 13 travel days, plus two flying days, 3 nights in New Orleans, 2 nights in Memphis, 2 nights in St. Louis, 2 nights with friends in Minnesota, and 2 nights in St. Paul before flying home. Typically, we drove only 2 to 3 hours per day with one day over 200 miles. It was a very leisurely trip.

Since we were playing it by ear I was somewhat nervous at first about how many miles we should be traveling at first; but after five or six days it became obvious that we could go at what ever rate we wanted. I had no preconception about exactly what highways we would be on, but wanted to at least travel through every state along the Mississippi. We eventually did not make it to Kentucky. We did travel about 30 or 40 miles along the Natchez Trace between Natchez and Vicksburg MS. Very interesting. We discovered that looking at the river itself was not that scenic after we'd seen it a few times, while the various areas away from the river were the more interesting and varied. Serendipity played a significant part of the things we discovered........a plantation in St. Francisville, LA, a lovely small winery outside of St. Genevieve, MO, a great brewery in New Ulm, MN, the World War II National Museum in New Orleans, riding the street trolley in New Orleans, a river cruise at St. Paul, MN, staying at a somewhat strange gambling resort that we stayed at outside of Greenville, MS, the small town of Galena, IL (US Grant's home town) where we stayed at a hotel with an Irish theme. Discovering the quaint town of Wilson, AK which was a company town belonging to the Wilson family for more than 100 years, that is being vastly improved by a wealthy man who (evidently) wants to save it from decay. We discovered it only by accident because my lady needed to find a restroom, so that I veered about five miles off the highway that we had been traveling on.

http://www.wilsonarkansas.com/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=%7Bkeyword%7D&utm_content=Music%20%2B%20Arts&utm_campaign=Wilson

http://www.nationalww2museum.org/?referrer=https://www.google.com/

http://schellsbrewery.com/

http://www.riverridgewinery.com/

Experiencing the changes in food from south to north..........I describe it as going from the land of everything fried, to the BBQ belt, to meat and potatoes. The changes in the ethnicity as one travels from south to north.

I superficially checked the prices listed for the cheapest cabin for two cruise lines at about $6000 pp and about $13,000 pp. I don't know what people actually pay. We stayed mostly in 3-diamond AAA hotels/motels, with the cheapest rate being a weekend in St. Louis at the Hyatt Regency (4-diamond not incl breakfast). Car rental was more than $1050 for some reason for the nearly 3 weeks we had the car. I would have expected a better rate, but that was the best we could do when we signed up.

Interesting discussion! For me a big part of the charm, especially on a paddlewheeler, is actually spending time on the river....

Carolyn

We drove 2002 miles over 13 travel days, plus two flying days, 3 nights in New Orleans, 2 nights in Memphis, 2 nights in St. Louis, 2 nights with friends in Minnesota, and 2 nights in St. Paul before flying home. Typically, we drove only 2 to 3 hours per day with one day over 200 miles. It was a very leisurely trip.

 

Since we were playing it by ear I was somewhat nervous at first about how many miles we should be traveling at first; but after five or six days it became obvious that we could go at what ever rate we wanted. I had no preconception about exactly what highways we would be on, but wanted to at least travel through every state along the Mississippi. We eventually did not make it to Kentucky. We did travel about 30 or 40 miles along the Natchez Trace between Natchez and Vicksburg MS. Very interesting. We discovered that looking at the river itself was not that scenic after we'd seen it a few times, while the various areas away from the river were the more interesting and varied. Serendipity played a significant part of the things we discovered........a plantation in St. Francisville, LA, a lovely small winery outside of St. Genevieve, MO, a great brewery in New Ulm, MN, the World War II National Museum in New Orleans, riding the street trolley in New Orleans, a river cruise at St. Paul, MN, staying at a somewhat strange gambling resort that we stayed at outside of Greenville, MS, the small town of Galena, IL (US Grant's home town) where we stayed at a hotel with an Irish theme. Discovering the quaint town of Wilson, AK which was a company town belonging to the Wilson family for more than 100 years, that is being vastly improved by a wealthy man who (evidently) wants to save it from decay. We discovered it only by accident because my lady needed to find a restroom, so that I veered about five miles off the highway that we had been traveling on.

 

http://www.wilsonarkansas.com/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=%7Bkeyword%7D&utm_content=Music%20%2B%20Arts&utm_campaign=Wilson

 

http://www.nationalww2museum.org/?referrer=https://www.google.com/

 

http://schellsbrewery.com/

 

http://www.riverridgewinery.com/

 

Experiencing the changes in food from south to north..........I describe it as going from the land of everything fried, to the BBQ belt, to meat and potatoes. The changes in the ethnicity as one travels from south to north.

 

I superficially checked the prices listed for the cheapest cabin for two cruise lines at about $6000 pp and about $13,000 pp. I don't know what people actually pay. We stayed mostly in 3-diamond AAA hotels/motels, with the cheapest rate being a weekend in St. Louis at the Hyatt Regency (4-diamond not incl breakfast). Car rental was more than $1050 for some reason for the nearly 3 weeks we had the car. I would have expected a better rate, but that was the best we could do when we signed up.