Our 14 night river cruise crosses five countries – Hungary, Slovakia, Austria, Germany and Netherlands. We booked the 16 day Classic European River Cruise from Gate 1 which starts in Budapest and ends in Amsterdam. We sailed along 3 different rivers – the Danube, the Main Canal and the Rhine. We are not cruisers and we don’t typically go on organized vacations. But this was a great experience for all of us. The best part was not having to unpack and pack every couple of days and having great views from our cabin when we were underway. Bill’s best part was not having to drive. The organized tours each day gave us a lot of historical information that we probably wouldn’t have picked up on our own. The ship was small and it was easy to get to know other passengers. However we weren’t particularly social, especially when so many people were getting sick on board. Gate 1 is not that well known for their river cruises but in my opinion this trip was just as good as the same trips offered by the big names (Tauk, Viking, Uniworld). We sailed side by side, stopping at the same ports. The service was excellent, the food was pretty good, we had wine and beer with our dinners and lots of included tours and a few reasonably priced additional excursions.
Gary was our tour director and he did a great job of keeping everything on an even keel. The activities director, Amir, organized all kinds of “fun” activities each day which many people seemed to enjoy. If you ever book one of these trips, don’t get the cheapest cabins on the lowest level because they only have small windows. Splurge for the 2nd or 3rd floor rooms which have floor to ceiling windows called French Balcony. Not sure a real balcony is worth the extra money (not available on Gate1) because it looked to us like they had to take some space from the cabin for the balcony. The locks limit the width of the ships so they are all about the same width. Get on the Gate 1 mailing list to get notification of their specials.
https://www.gate1travel.com/river-cruises/europe-river-cruises/2018/danube/danube-river-cruise-16dbudams18.aspx
