Help me decide! River cruise vs. Italy/Switzerland

jenk824

Earning My Ears
Joined
Jul 4, 2019
I'm planning to travel next summer with my mom and daughters (ages 10 and 13). The itineraries look amazing for both the Danube and Rhine river cruises and also the land tour of Italy and Switzerland. If you have been on both, which one would you recommend? thanks in advance!
 
I haven't been to Italy/Switzerland BUT just returned from a trip with DM (68) and DD (18). We were on the Danube River Cruise and it worked very well for a multigenerational trip. There were about 8 to10 groups of grandparents, parents, and children cruising and it was a wonderful trip.

That said, I've heard great things about the Italy/Switzerland trip as well!

One thing to consider is the cruise ship's ac works very well, unlike some of the more historic hotels in Italy/Switzerland. This was quite important to us since there was a heat wave in Europe while we were there.

Truly, I don't think you can go wrong with any of the itineraries but depending on your mother's level of fitness, river cruises can be slightly more relaxing. My mother isn't in the best of health so that was a large consideration in the trip we chose.
 
I haven't been to Italy/Switzerland BUT just returned from a trip with DM (68) and DD (18). We were on the Danube River Cruise and it worked very well for a multigenerational trip. There were about 8 to10 groups of grandparents, parents, and children cruising and it was a wonderful trip.

That said, I've heard great things about the Italy/Switzerland trip as well!

One thing to consider is the cruise ship's ac works very well, unlike some of the more historic hotels in Italy/Switzerland. This was quite important to us since there was a heat wave in Europe while we were there.

Truly, I don't think you can go wrong with any of the itineraries but depending on your mother's level of fitness, river cruises can be slightly more relaxing. My mother isn't in the best of health so that was a large consideration in the trip we chose.
Thank you!
 
We have done the Rhine cruise and Italy/Switzerland. Both are great, but I don’t feel the river cruises and land products are very comparable. On a land trip, getting to know the group and the two guides is part of the fun. The river cruise felt more like an ocean cruise where paths might rarely cross again.
We found the pace of the river cruise to be exhausting- great activity choices, but long days. Italy/Switzerland is one of our favorite trips - scenery, culture, food, activities - a great mix!
Have fun deciding!
 


We have done the Rhine cruise and Italy/Switzerland. Both are great, but I don’t feel the river cruises and land products are very comparable. On a land trip, getting to know the group and the two guides is part of the fun. The river cruise felt more like an ocean cruise where paths might rarely cross again.
We found the pace of the river cruise to be exhausting- great activity choices, but long days. Italy/Switzerland is one of our favorite trips - scenery, culture, food, activities - a great mix!
Have fun deciding!
I was going to post almost the same thing.

I didn't care for the ABD River cruise for the same reason as pointed out above. No consistency in the guides and other guests on your excursions. Plus the excursions usually had full buses, maybe 50+ people? Way too many, especially on the zip-lining excursion where there were only 2 outhouses for the entire group. I also felt that some of the excursions were oversold (i.e. see the largest cuckoo clock in the world -- which involved driving by it on the bus at 50 mph; hike to a waterfall -- it was maybe a 10 minute walk up a gentle slope, etc.).

If you were choosing between ABD river cruise or Italy / Switzerland (which I've also done), I'd go with the land tour. But it depends on what you are looking for. The Italy / Switzerland trip is amazing.
 
I'm planning to travel next summer with my mom and daughters (ages 10 and 13). The itineraries look amazing for both the Danube and Rhine river cruises and also the land tour of Italy and Switzerland. If you have been on both, which one would you recommend? thanks in advance!
Took the Danube cruise last year signed up for Rhine this year. Danube was great. Both cruises made some changes to activities from time of booking to date of sailing. Rhine has been problematic since Disney does not run a bus from Zurich to boat. They say too far but they ran one from boat to Munich last year that was further and London to Dover to get to Disney Magic several years before which was a longer ride as well. After paying a rather princely sum for a trip it doesn't feel magical to be left to figure out how to get from one city to another after a long overnight flight from the states. Those would be my only cautionary tales.
 
We're sailing the Danube next June. I'll be with my DS who will be 9. When choosing a date, I took into account that you have to make your way to the hotel in Munich on your own, but ABD will meet you at the airport in Budapest. We elected to sail from Budapest to avoid the hassle of making our own way to the hotel. This is from the trip FAQs:

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We're sailing the Danube next June. I'll be with my DS who will be 9. When choosing a date, I took into account that you have to make your way to the hotel in Munich on your own, but ABD will meet you at the airport in Budapest. We elected to sail from Budapest to avoid the hassle of making our own way to the hotel. This is from the trip FAQs:

Let me tell you what that was SUPER nice. I loved seeing someone holding a sign with my name waiting for me at the Budapest airport. We got there the same time as other people on the boat and they still put us in our own van that was just for us.
 
To be honest I don't think you could go wrong with either choice. One of the Adventure Guides that was on our cruise has guided the Italy/Switzerland tour and it looks amazing.
 
Last year my DD (then 11) and I had an awesome time on the Rhine cruise, and we felt we had opportunities to get to know other cruisers and guides. We did fly into Zurich but had no trouble navigating the Swiss train system to Basel. The rides were very scenic and it gave us an opportunity to add on an OYO portion to our trip that was fantastic. We spent time in Lucerne and in the Bernese Oberland (Wengen in the Alps) and it was just magical and not that much of an extra expense. Perhaps you could do a combo trip, if you have enough vacation time and your mom is mobile enough?
 

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