With upwards of 30 European river cruises in their portfolio, Tauck has plenty of award-winning luxury itineraries to consider for your next holiday.
Tauck’s all-inclusive 12-day Blue Danube cruise is a great place to begin your foray into European river cruising. With absolutely everything covered in the purchase price — from your five-star accommodation and fine-dining meals to airport transfers and gratuities — it’s a convenient and stress-free way to see the highlights of central Europe.
Once you’ve travelled the Danube and have acquired a taste for the personalised Tauck way, it’s time to start planning your next cruise on one of these great European waterways.
The Rhône River
If your travel dreams centre around châteaus and croissants, raclette and rosé, a jaunt down the Rhône aboard MS Emerald is the logical next step. The 814km-long river stretches from the Swiss Alps to Arles in the South of France, meandering through the cities and towns of Lyon, Vienne, and Avignon along the way. On the 14-day French Escapade: Paris to the Riviera, you’ll visit all three.
Kick things off in five-star luxury at the Intercontinental Paris Le Grand, a historic hotel that’s hosted celebrities and aristocrats since 1862. Across from the famous Opera Garnier and within walking distance of the Place de la Concorde and Champs-Élysées, it’s a fine example of Tauck’s dedication to providing their guests with the best.
Travel from Paris to Lyon by high-speed train, where you’ll set off down the Rhône, winding through the vine-covered countryside of France and stopping in charming villages to sample the regional expressions. Learn about the Provençal cowboys and cuisine at a working farm in La Camargue before swapping the jeans for jewels in the jet-setting capital of France, Cannes. It’s here the cruise ends. But, not without your choice of day trip through Nice and Monte-Carlo or the hillside town of Grasse, one of the world’s premier perfume-making centres.
The Duoro River
If you don’t board MS Andorinha with a well-founded appreciation for wine and port, you’ll have gained one after the 8-day Villages and Vintages cruise. The 80-guest river ship spends each May to November on the Duoro, cruising upstream from Portugal’s second-largest city, Porto, to the confluence of the Douro and Pinhão rivers.
There are some 2000 years of wine-making history to learn of on the journey, uncovered glass by glass on multiple stops at family-owned quintas (wineries). The pinnacle of the cruise is the private tour of Quinta do Portal’s vine-covered property, where they detail their centuries-old production methods before you sit down to a farm-to-table dinner paired with the estate’s wines. As the ship prepares for the return journey to Porto, head on another Tauck-exclusive excursion to a different quinta where you’ll discover alternative ways to enjoy port in a port wine cocktail-making class.
Back in Porto, choose to depart for home or delve deeper into Portugal’s culture and history by back-to-backing your Tauck river cruise with a land tour. Where the cruise centres around the Duoro Valley, the ‘A week in Portugal’ land tour departs Porto for the cities of Lisbon, Évora, and Coimbra.
The Rhine River
Like the Danube, a cruise on the Rhine will see you checking multiple countries off the European bucket list. On its way to the North Sea, the 1233 km-long river flows through no less than six countries, five of which you’ll stop in on the 11-day Rhine Connoisseur cruise.
With food and wine the primary focus on this cruise, you’ll be sampling the finest Belgian chocolates at your departure point in Brussels, dining on the unique French-German cuisine of Strasbourg and sipping on countless Swiss pinot noirs at Lavaux-based vineyards. But, the pièce de résistance is the Tauck-exclusive dinner at Slot Loevestein, a medieval castle on a private island in The Netherlands.
At the endpoint in Switzerland, the special experiences keep coming with three nights in the Fairmont Montreux Palace, a music-themed tour following Freddie Mercury’s footsteps around town, and the chance to visit Glacier 3000 in the Alps.
Discover more
For more information on Tauck’s European river cruises, visit their website or call your local representative.
This article is brought to you by:
