River Cruising

It is hard to know where to start when it comes to river cruising, as the options and choices are extensive. For our first river cruise we chose Scenic Tours, and whereas we had a fabulous 2 week trip on the beautiful Scenic Jewel, we think travellers should be aware of a few hidden issues that we were not aware of when booking.

But firstly, let’s look at the overall trip, and then we will place blocks of photos of some of the places we visited along the way. Make sure you check out our Travel Tips and Alerts because we do share some important information.

Scenic have exploded onto the river cruising scene and customers are spoilt for choice. We chose a 2 week trip from Amsterdam to Budapest, and it was an exceptional trip. Remember, these are all inclusive trips, but the type of cabin you choose does alter slightly what is included in your overall package. The inclusions that come with each cabin are shared on Scenic’s website.
We booked the Royal Panorama Suite located on the Diamond Deck. There are only 2 of these suites on board, both located at the stern, so they are quite spacious with lovely sundecks on the back and a small lounge area to relax. They are quite expensive, but some of the additional services you receive are:
- 24 hour Butler service
- In-cabin dining if you would prefer to miss a meal in the dining room
- Free laundry service throughout the entire trip
- Daily aperitifs
- A monetary credit to use on board for such things as the hairdresser or a massage.
There are about 200 guests on board the Scenic Jewel, but we did not feel over-crowded on board, except perhaps when everyone returned from their day out, and they all congregated in the bar area for a drink.
The food is excellent, the variety is amazing and there are a couple of restaurants on board where you can dine from bespoke menus. The suites also allowed us to have more than one booking for these restaurants.

If we were to have any disappointments with this trip they would have to be the following:

Once you dock at a destination, you need to be aware that you will be hopping on buses to reach your sightseeing options for that day. Sometimes the bus trips are up to 2 hours in length, which means early starts in the morning. This was not declared at any point during the advertising of the trip.
Once you reach your destination you usually have a tour with a dedicated tour guide, have lunch if it is included, and by the time you have some free time to wander around, it’s almost time to hop on the bus and return to the boat.
The sales pitch was that once the boat docked, you hopped off and had a leisurely stroll into town, took your time wandering the beautiful streets, had a relaxing and sumptuous lunch, and then returned to the boat in your own time. This is just not how it is.
When it comes to sightseeing you need to make a choice about what you would like to do for the day, each and every day. Scenic gives you ‘Scenic Freechoice’ options each day, where you choose your sightseeing destination. For instance on one day we had a choice of either a Guided walking tour of Dusseldorf, or Walking tour of Cologne. Both places would have been excellent to visit, but we could only choose one. However, as we travelled a few years ago, Scenic may have changed their itinerary, so best to check on their website.

Travel Tips

Take several different layers of clothing, as the temperatures can vary quite a lot. We had a mixture of hot and cold days, and some very wet days.
Most guests dressed for dinner, so pack some easy to wear dresses and sports trousers.
Research the sightseeing options before you make your choice. You want to ensure that you choose the option that interests you most, or you may well feel you made the wrong choice.

Travel Alerts

The seasonal rainfall affects the river’s water levels. Be aware, that if the water levels are low, the boats may not be able to get all the way through. We had this exact problem on our trip. Therefore we had to pack our bags half way through our trip, left for our sightseeing for the day, and when we returned we boarded the Scenic Crystal which was located further down the river and continued our trip.
Some travellers are not lucky enough to swap boats, and they continue their journey on buses. Scenic would have known the levels of the river before we started our journey, so I think in all fairness they should have alerted us to a potential problem so that we were prepared.
The boats obviously do most of their travelling at night, so you do miss out on a lot of scenery whilst you are sleeping. And, of course, during the day you are off sightseeing. There are a couple of days when the boat travels during the day, but not many.