River cruise itineraries w/ small towns & villages

[simone72]

Can anyone recommend a river cruise, or river that has stops in mostly small towns and villages?

[bbwex]

Most of the stops along the Rhine and Danube are in small towns.  You would have to look at various trips to see which ones have more small towns than others.  I think you will find that most trips will have a bit of each, as few customers would want all of one kind, but on our cruise from Amsterdam to Vienna, most of the stops were in smaller towns.

[Shmoo here]

1 hour ago, simone72 said:

Can anyone recommend a river cruise, or river that has stops in mostly small towns and villages?

Our Vantage Bucharest to Budapest cruise was pretty much all small towns and villages.  

[leaveitallbehind]

I would consult with a travel agent with your preferences to get input for your options as there are many river cruise lines to choose from with dozens of different itineraries combined between them for consideration.  And as bbwex indicates, most of them have stops in smaller towns along their itineraries.

Edited February 22, 2020 by leaveitallbehind

[Host Kat]

3 hours ago, simone72 said:

Can anyone recommend a river cruise, or river that has stops in mostly small towns and villages?

 

@simone72

 

Howdy and welcome to Cruise Critic!  

 

Thank you for your new thread on the Ask a Cruise Question forum that is for general questions about cruising. 👍 

 

Since your thread concerns a river cruise, I have moved your thread to the River Cruising forum where it will be on-topic. The majority of your fellow Cruise Critic members that have sailed river cruises frequent the forum and provide feedback there.

 

To help you research various stops, I suggest you check out the River Cruise Ports forum. Please browse through the thread titles on any of our forums looking for threads of interest. You will probably find your fellow Cruise Critic members have already posted questions and received answers that will be of interest to you.  

 

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Host Kat

[Host Jazzbeau]

If you really want a river cruise with only small towns, I suggest a Barge Cruise.  There are many small companies doing this, and one big one (that I know of):  CroisiEurope

https://www.croisieuroperivercruises.com/boats/canal-barges-fleet

 

[notamermaid]

Hello Simone72,

I like jazzbeau's suggestion of barge cruising. In addition to CroisiEurope you could search on the internet with the words European barge cruises. Note that in these itineraries you are mostly on small rivers and canals and they do not travel very far in miles sometimes.

 

You have not specified size other than with the word small. If you prefer to have all your towns under 100.000 inhabitants than a river cruise in Europe is tricky. If you do not mind a mix with two or three cities being over that figure, a Douro cruise is an option. To avoid the huge Cologne and busy Amsterdam, the itinerary from Basel to Trier or Remich on the Moselle is a good one to look at. Along the Main from Nuremberg to Wiesbaden and for the longer itinerary along the Rhine and Moselle is also quite quite good but you will find several places there that are somewhat above the figure of 100.000.

 

For a more physically demanding small river cruise ship along a hardly travelled route try this one from Paris to Bruges: https://en.radreisen.at/france-belgium/bike-and-boat/france-and-belgium-by-bike-and-boat

 

Few cruises start or end in small towns, the big exception being the really small Remich on the Moselle. (3645 souls).

 

Have fun planning.

 

notamermaid

 

[Hoyaheel]

The Mekong also fits, since you didn't specify where you'd like to cruise. Every stop in between HCMC and Phnom Penh was a very small village.

[dogs4fun]

58 minutes ago, Hoyaheel said:

The Mekong also fits, since you didn't specify where you'd like to cruise. Every stop in between HCMC and Phnom Penh was a very small village.

Yes - all small villages and ours was a lovely cruise.

 

13 hours ago, simone72 said:

Can anyone recommend a river cruise, or river that has stops in mostly small towns and villages?

Our Danube and Rhine cruises also featured many small towns. Check-out the many itineraries offered by various companies as most river cruise itineraries include a host of small towns - you should have no problem finding an itinerary that 'clicks' with your desires.

[Hoyaheel]

1 hour ago, dogs4fun said:

Yes - all small villages and ours was a lovely cruise.

Husband and I agree that our Mekong trip on Avalon last summer was the best trip we've taken together so far!

[sbjornda]

Scenic's Romantic Rhine & Moselle includes stops in Veere, NL, which is very small, also Xanten, Cochem, Bernkastel, and Rüdesheim. Even Maastricht and Koblenz are not huge cities in comparison to, e.g., Amsterdam. It was a bit more of a relaxing cruise than the Amsterdam to Budapest itinerary.

[Barrheadlass]

A Douro Cruise also stops in small villages and towns.