How about a vacation where you have amazing service, unpack once but see multiple destinations, and explore some of the world’s most important historic and cultural sites? Sound good? That’s what a river cruise vacation has to offer. Today we’ll discuss why this type of travel just may be a great vacation for you!
Reasons to River Cruise
- New ports and experiences every day (sometimes even more than one a day)
- Constantly seeing the view (see life happening, no seasickness)
- All-Inclusive/Luxury experience
- Unique experience (highways of the culture, see ports unavailable to other cruising, hard to do this type of trip in one vacation another way)
- Maximize your vacation budget (all-inclusive, multiple experiences, prepaid one price)
- Local tastes and culture (food, entertainment, cultural experiences)
- A small ship experience with high-level staff and attention
- New options around the world (not just Europe…Asia, North America)
Question: What seems like the best reason to river cruise to you?
Please let us know in the All Things Travel Podcast Facebook group!
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Episode 152 Transcripts
Episodes are transcribed with artificial intelligence, so some highly amusing translations are likely!
Ryan: Hello and welcome to all Things Travel. How about a vacation where you have amazing service, unpack once, but see multiple destinations and explore some of the world’s most important historical and cultural sites. Sound good? That’s what a river cruising vacation has to offer Today.
We’ll discuss why this type of travel just may be a great vacation for you. So Shayne, we’ve talked about river cruising and episodes past, but it’s a really popular way to travel and it’s getting more popular with more people. And so we wanted to give just an overview of why people might want to think about river cruising.
Shayne: We’re gonna discuss eight reasons why a person might want to go on a river cruise versus another type of vacation. And, uh, one of those stands out to me. It’s the, I like the way you phrase that.
Unpack once and see multiple destinations you can do that on an ocean cruise, but, you’re probably gonna have a lot of sea days and sea time and you’re gonna have a pretty short window in each port and a lot of people from your ship with you and those ports, and those are things that aren’t gonna happen on a river cruise.
Ryan: Yeah, I think I, I think when I think of river cruising, I think it’s just a much more immersive and intimate way to travel. And by that I mean you, you are having the cruise experience, right? But yet, you’re literally watching people. You’re, you’re seeing the scenery, you’re in the towns.
you’re not stopping at a port that’s a half an hour away from the city center. I mean, you’re, you’re literally right there and, and really seeing how people live there. And that’s what I love about River Crusing. So I’m excited to talk about it.
Shayne: Me too. That reminds me of number two. That’s gonna be coming up here in a couple of minutes, and I’m excited to talk about that one.
Ryan: Shayne, don’t ruin the list before we get there.
Shayne: number two, prepare for number two.
Ryan: Most families are confused and overwhelmed on planning a vacation. We work with you to plan a trip perfect for your interests, saving you time, money, and stress.
Shayne: We would love to help you plan your next amazing vacation.
Ryan: You can reach out to me atRyan@creatingmagicvacations.com. That’s r Y a n, at creating magic vacations.com. All right,
so, since you’re excited about number two, Shayne, I’ll start the list off with number one.
the number one reason, not in any particular order, but the number one reason why river cruising is a great vacation. You have new ports and experiences every day and sometimes more than one a day.
So for instance I was looking at a river cruise a while ago for the Rhine, and you’re in a particular city in the morning. And so you’re having that port experience, and then in the afternoon you’re going and seeing castles all along the way during your time along the river, and the, the tour guide is narrating for you about the castles and about the countryside, and you’re having a, you’re having beer and appetizers while you’re, while you’re having this experience.
And then, then you wake up the next morning and you’re at a completely different place. You’re constantly having new experiences along your river cruise vacation.
Shayne: And like the owner of Amma Waterways says, river cruising takes you through the destinations, not to the destinations.
Number two, constantly seeing the view. It doesn’t matter which side of the boat you’re on, you’re gonna see one shore or the other, and you’re not gonna be miles away from the shore out in the ocean.
It’s gonna be, I mean, the, some rivers are pretty big, but you’re still gonna be right there cruising through the the main porch cities. I’m a, I’m a huge map geek. I’ve been since, since before Google Maps and Yahoo Maps and all those, and I would always just stare at maps and note the places as as we did road trips or when I flew, and I’ve looked at itineraries for a lot of these river cruises.
I. and there’s a lot more than just the port cities. There’s also smaller townships along the way that you see and all sorts of fishing and swimming and biking and, and hiking and running along the rivers. It’s so much to see the entire time it, it, it’s nonstop views from the river cruise cabins.
Ryan: And as part of this Shayne, because you’re constantly seeing the, the coastline and you’re on a river, what does this also do for you if you’re kind nervous about cruising, maybe.
Shayne: Well, it’s just right there. You’re not gonna need six or eight hours to get back to the shore if you’re not feeling well. You are. You’re right there.
Ryan: And there’s no seasickness because the river’s flat and you don’t have that sense of I’m out in the middle of nowhere cuz you can see the coastline all the time. So number three, Shayne an all-inclusive experience with every river cruise company that we work with. Almost everything that you want to do that has to do with that cruise is included.
So obviously your accommodations, oftentimes your transfers to and from the airports. Maybe sometimes your hotel stays o obviously your food, your alcohol, if not just at dinners, maybe all the time. Your shore excursions are often included and you have o other things that you can choose to add on to that.
There are tons of things that are included with your river cruising fair?
Shayne: It’s not as many surprises to get off of the ship.
Number four, unique experience, highways of the culture. You see ports unavailable from other cruising vessels and it, it’s just hard to do this trip any other way without a lot of driving or flying and packing and unpacking.
Ryan: Yeah, I mean we, we’ve talked about in the past, when you’re, when you’re river cruising, whether you’re in Europe or in Asia or in the United States, you are seeing the highways of the civilization. This is how people used to used to travel, used to get around. And so because of that, you’re seeing a very unique aspect of the culture and history. we have several more reasons. We’ve got four more reasons why River cruising is a great destination for a vacation. But first I wanna know where in the world is all things travel.
Shayne: Washington, DC
Ryan: All right, welcome Washington DC.
Shayne: I’m pretty sure everybody knows where that is. since Ryan and I are both big Disney fans, since we love a action and adventure and intrigue, do you know what we’re gonna have to do, Ryan?
Ryan: Recreate some sort of national treasure mystery
Shayne: I was going to say, we’re going to have to steal the Declaration of Independence.
Ryan: Oh, goodness. Oh, good. So Secret service, if you’re listening right now, this is purely for entertainment.
Shayne: Yes. Really, for entertainment. Shout out to Nicholas Cage
Ryan: Hey, Washington DC is a great city. In fact, today we were talking about my daughters looking at one or two colleges out there. And so in the back of my mind, I’m starting to formulate a road trip. That’s gonna take us out there this summer. So Washington DC I am so glad that you’re listening to all Things Travel.
It means a lot to us. Do me a favor, reach out to me via email or on the Facebook group cuz I have a thank you gift for being featured on today’s show.
Shayne: And to make sure that you hear where in the world is all things travel next week, be sure to follow the show so that you never miss any of our travel ideas, travel tips, or travel stories.
Ryan: So number five, Shayne is a river cruise really allows you to maximize your vacation budget. What I mean by that is it’s all inclusive. You have multiple experiences that are included in your trip. So it’s not just all inclusive from a hotel and food standpoint, but also experiences. And you also prepay that before your trip even starts.
So, It could be based on the river cruise company that you work with. You get off of a eight, 10 day cruise having this amazing experience, and your balance is zero.
Shayne: And a lot of our river cruise partners include in the price, either your airfare or a flat rate for your airfare and some of the river cruising companies in Europe. That includes airfare from the United States, and then a lot of them include Your port city stay the night before the cruise, the night after your cruise so that you can follow Ryan’s.
And my advice of not arriving in the
Port city the day of your cruise.
Ryan: no, I, oh, that, that would, that, that would give me a heart attack. As your travel advisor, if you’re arriving to Nuremberg to get on Dan u Cruise, the, the day of your cruise, please don’t do that. But it also many include tips your gratuities. Kind of everything that you’re gonna need to have once you step on that ship.
Everything except your incidentals, are, are taking care of, and that’s a really good way to vacation.
Shayne: Yeah, I you can just bring enough cash to for your souvenirs and all those fabulous cities, and probably some local beers and coffees and wines and foods and all those fabulous local cities.
Ryan: So speaking of local beers, foods, and wine Shayne, what about number six?
Shayne: Local tastes and culture that includes foods, drinks, entertainment, art festivals, whatever cultural experience is going on, you get to just dive right into that.
Ryan: It’s not uncommon because of the size of river cruise ships. They can’t carry the, the food that they need for the entire cruise. So the culinary staff will actually get off at the locations and purchase food. And, and beverages and things like that. So, you’re actually getting food and, and menus that are based around where you’re traveling.
And it’s also not uncommon for a, an entertainment group, a, a band or a singer or a, a lecturer to get on at one port and speak about that or, or perform based off of that, that evening and then get off at the next port. So, so you really are having local taste and culture. So it won’t surprise you.
Number seven. A small ship experience with high level staff and attention. Most of these river crews lines have less than 200 folks that are, that are guests on the river crews. That may seem like a lot, but trust me, it’s really not. I mean, 200 people is a very small river cruise and you may have, a river cruise line that has, close to a hundred staff members for 200 passengers.
That’s really high level attention to detail service with not very many people.
Shayne: 200 might sound like a lot, but compared to the, the thousands of other passengers that you might have in some of the ocean liners, it’s, or even a hotel. If you think about just staying in a hotel, you’re gonna have at least that many people in the other rooms. So it’s, yeah, it’s not that, not that many people for this type of vacation.
Ryan: So Shayne, what’s number?
Shayne: New options all around the world seems like we talk mostly about Europe, but there’s river cruises on the Mekon River in Asia, on the Nile River, the the Amazon River, and there are even some river cruising on the rivers here in the United States and Canada.
Ryan: So in the next episode, we are gonna compare two different river cruise experiences, so you can really get a sense of how these reasons to river cruises play out. We’re gonna give you two different types of cruises, and you’ll see all of these eight reasons play out in what these companies have to.
Shayne: If you’re currently working with a travel advisor, please reach out to them about planning your next. If you don’t have a trusted travel advisor, we would love to help you plan your next amazing vacation.
Ryan: You can reach out to me at Ryan at Creating Magic Vacations. That’s R Y A N, at creating magic vacations.com.
Shayne: Most families are confused and overwhelmed when planning a vacation. We work with you to plan a trip perfect for your interests, saving you time, money, and stress.
And I we’re gonna go. We’re gonna, we’re gonna discuss eight reasons why