Every day you wake up somewhere new—many times even in a completely different country. You don’t have to pack and unpack your bags. You don’t have to get accustomed to a different bed. You don’t have to brave traffic and motion sickness and insanely narrow roads. You don’t even usually have to go through customs. That’s because you’re cruising on a five-star “hotel” on water—a luxury river boat—across a broad swath of Europe.
This fall, I had the opportunity to host a dozen Tech alumni on a Danube river cruise from Germany to Bulgaria—with bookend city stays in Prague and Sofia. And I have to say river cruising more than lives up to its hype, especially when you travel with a top tour company like AHI Travel and a cruise line like Austrian-owned Lüftner Cruises with its new, state-of-the-art Amadeus fleet.
Now I’ve been fortunate to travel abroad quite a bit, and in many different ways: with family and on my own, with guided tours and for business (mostly press junkets). Here are 7 reasons why river cruising stands out against the rest.
1. The cruise itself. When I got home from my trip, everyone asked me what my favorite part was. And it wasn’t any specific port or destination, but rather the experience of traveling on the Amadeus Silver. Unlike an ocean cruise, there was no pitching and swaying in the water—and no motion sickness. I slept well, and loved to spend swaths of time on deck or in the passenger lounge just watching the beautiful scenery go by, especially when we traveled through the lush Wachau Valley and past the craggy Iron Gates.
2. The service. You get mostly the same cruise staff serving you throughout the trip, and as such, Lüftner made sure they hired people who worked hard to build personal relationships with their guests. Everybody in the GT group loved to be waited on by Vlad in the dining room, even if the Romanian was more comedian than vampire.
3. The river locks. You don’t have to be an engineer to be fascinated by the way the shipnavigates down the Danube. The first lock we encountered was at nighttime just after dinner, and I can say it was a thrilling, surreal experience to see the boat “sink” nearly 80 feet so it could continue on its way to our next port.
4. The destinations. These cruises do take you to some of Europe and Asia’s most well-known cities—including Vienna and Budapest—but the river also winds through some more exotic lands, showing you parts of the world you may not see any other way. For me, Belgrade, Serbia, proved to be a fascinating stop where we could see not only the hundreds of years of culture on display, but also its recent turbulent past as its people emerged from the yoke of Communist rule to be led headlong into civil war.
5. The excursions. When you have only a day—sometimes even less—at a port of call, it’s important that you make the most of it. AHI made sure we saw the top historical and cultural highlights of our destinations, led by excellent local guides who also made personalized recommendations on how we could spend our ample free time exploring.
6. The company you keep. Book a trip with a cruise line directly, and you’ll be traveling with strangers. But go on an alumni tour, and not only do you have an immediate connection with a group, but you have a shared mission to make sure your alma mater is having the best time among all those universities represented. It quickly became known on our ship that Tech alumni were by far the most fun and spirited—we even cajoled a Florida State alumnus to wear a GT pin on his Seminoles hat. In fact, he got so into the Ramblin’ Wreck way of things that he spent more time staging travel photos with a cardboard Buzz than any Yellow Jacket did.
7. The food. Most everyone on the trip tried the local cuisine while out on daily excursions—personally I was always on the hunt for signature desserts like Vienna’s Sacher Torte—but it was always nice to wake up to a quality breakfast buffet and then wind down after a day of adventurous undertakings with a dinner that was both familiar and fantastic.
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