Europe travel

Ok. After the great advice I got here on where to travel by myself I have another travel question.


I've been sitting here all morning starting to research my holiday for next year.

We (hubby and I) want to go on a river cruise. Looked at one for 15 nights but they are $5K each. So thinking the 8 nights from Nuremberg to Budapest. Anyone been? advice?

We will start in the Netherlands (5 days?) where I have to visit where my dad was born (find some relos?). Then we'll have 10 days until the cruise. Any advice on where to go from here? Places in Germany?

After the cruise we'll probably stay in Budapest a few nights then go to Prague for 3 days then home from there.

Any advice, ideas welcome. How best to travel (train?). We get cheap airfares so if it's a big distance with not much to see in between we'll fly.

Nothing is set in concrete (except visiting Holland).
We'll leave end March, home beginning May.

thanks.
 
Ohhhh sounds amazing Travelbug!

Last year I did a Trafalgar tour and whilst it was a bus tour and not a river cruise, we did spend some time on the Rheine river in Germany - it was magnificent. We also visited Cologne in Germany which was great.

If you're going all the way to Budapest, have you thought of hitting the beaches in Croatia? Amazing.
 
Got to love school holidays!

For a cheaper cruise option, have you looked into sailing in Croatia? Probably not the river cruise you were chasing, but I did a couple of days sailing there in 07 and it was really nice. Much better than the Rhine cruise we did when I was a little younger.Bit of a cheaper option too.
You can always head up to Budapest/Prague after that - plenty of busses regularly heading up that way from most larger towns.

Trains between Holland and France are an easy way to get between the two countries - maybe check out battlefields first hand or head down to the south of France and enjoy the food/wine etc. That will easily kill a few days! :)

My GF spent a couple of months travelling through Germany a few years back, so happy to ask her about her highlights if you'd like?

Hope your report cards are going well!
 
If you are going to spend some time in Germany, you simply have to hire a car and experience the autobahn. It will scare the ** out of you initially.... you have to drive fast, but it is very easy to get around, using a GPS, and a great way to see out of the way places. I found it took a couple of hours to get used to the speed, and then its a blast! Just remember to keep to the right (not the left), and to watch your rear view mirror for cars going 250km!

Following the Rhine down from the Netherlands, and staying on the south side of Germany... Neuss is a very historic town. I haven't been there, but my husband loved it. The river drive from Koblenz to Mainz is superb... a castle around every corner. Heidelberg is well worth a visit ...... Strasbourg on the German/ French border has a stunning cathedral. Lake Konstance, on the border of Germany and Switzerland is fantastic... classic views of Alps with lake infront. Hockenheim raceway. Bad Schonborn has "healing spas" where you can swim in the water which is supposed to have medicinal powers. Sinsheim has a technic museum, where you can go inside a Concorde. Bad Wimpfen has a very old castle, which was great for Christmas markets! and then down to the fairytale castles and beer drinking in Munich.

I did a business "exchange" for my work in Germany for 2 months a few years ago. We had a car as part of the "package" and we drove around 8000km in 8 weeks, just on the weekends. Having "lived" there, I think you would miss alot of the really special bits by just cruising through. Driving around the villages is so lovely (obviously you have to get off the autobahn, otherwise you just speed through!). One of my favourite villages was Angelbachtel... tiny village, but with a light dusting of snow, its soooo beautiful!

Both hotels and food are pretty reasonably priced in Germany, so I think you could extend your holiday a bit if you chose this option over the river cruise!
The train is also reasonably reliable, fast and not so expensive. But it only gets you so far... you'd probably still need some additional transport to get to see much.

OK, now I'm homesick. I'd better start planning my next business trip to Germany and think about where I'd like to go!

cheers

Pen
 
Thanks everyone.
Reports finished, checked and ready to print. Hence the reason why I've got time to research my holiday now.

Penny I'm getting excited now after reading your post.
Lady at work leaves today for the 15 day cruise. She does that then comes home. I don't want to do that. We have 5 weeks and hubby has his heart set on the cruise (except when I picked one called "Romantic Danube"):eek::eek:

I was thinking we'd hire a car in Holland and by the sounds of it Germany would be a good idea too.

I know there are literally years worth of things to see but I don't want it too hectic. We tried to see too much in Italy. It was great but exhausting.
So I'm thinking Holland bits of Germany with the cruise which finishes in Budapest then Prague stopover after the cruise. I'll have a look at Croatia too.
I'll leave France (been to Paris only) for next time as I'd like to combine that with the top of Italy (which we missed).

Thanks everyone. I'd better do the housework now before I start looking again.
 
Just to be the contrarian here...I found when I was in Europe a few years back, that the river cruises got a bit tedious after a while (just like the churches). Yes, they are all beautiful and historic, but...tedious.

Not trying to turn you off travelbug, but perhaps consider a tour that includes some river cruises in the itinerary, that way you get to see a lot of the sights up close as well as the cruises.

Anyway, just my opinion.

Loved Germany and would love to get back there one day.

Regards
Marty
 
Just reread the thread (properly, lol) and it appears you may have already done the sight seeing things. If that is the case, cruise away :D.

Re Germany, we (wife & I ) loved Berlin. Also travelled down to Friedrichschaffen (sp?) to do the zeppelin ride and found it was a beautiful little town and there were close by towns to visit from there.

Regards
Marty
 
Just reread the thread (properly, lol) and it appears you may have already done the sight seeing things. If that is the case, cruise away :D.

Re Germany, we (wife & I ) loved Berlin. Also travelled down to Friedrichschaffen (sp?) to do the zeppelin ride and found it was a beautiful little town and there were close by towns to visit from there.

Regards
Marty

I really like Berlin as well... so much to see there.
Friedrichshafen is on the shores of Lake Konstance We took a ferry ride across from Konstance (about 2.5 hrs south of Heidelberg) to Friedrichshafen, and had a wander around. Such a beautiful area and well worth the visit!

Pen
 
I also recommend a hire car in Germany, and get along those Autobahns. You don't have to drive at 200kmh (I did:D), but nonetheless 130-140 kmh is very exciting after our nanny state speed limits here.

One tip for rental cars, avoid picking a car up in one country and dropping off in another. Huge "drop fees" can then apply, and limitations on the types of cars too.
Not too bad if you pick up/return in different cities of the same country.
 
I also recommend a hire car in Germany, and get along those Autobahns. You don't have to drive at 200kmh (I did:D), but nonetheless 130-140 kmh is very exciting after our nanny state speed limits here.

One tip for rental cars, avoid picking a car up in one country and dropping off in another. Huge "drop fees" can then apply, and limitations on the types of cars too.
Not too bad if you pick up/return in different cities of the same country.

I still felt unsafe at 130km, (too slow) but 140 was probably getting OK.
Another tip for rental cars is to get a manual rather than automatic.. most of them are anyway, and although it takes a while to get used to changing gears on the wrong side, it is much easier to drive on the autobahn with manual than automatic, because of the extra control you have.
and make sure to find out what speed your tyres are rated to... our car was only rated to 200km or so, so that was our speed limit.
cheers
Pen
 
Friedrichshafen is on the shores of Lake Konstance We took a ferry ride across from Konstance (about 2.5 hrs south of Heidelberg) to Friedrichshafen, and had a wander around. Such a beautiful area and well worth the visit!
That's the place. Other towns like Meersburg (by bus) are accessable very easily. Also crossed lake Konstance (with zeppelin/s hovering overhead) via ferry to dock in Romanshorn (Switzerland) for a browse.

Regards
Marty
 
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