Routings of Rhine River Cruises

Cruising the Rhein, Mosel, Main, and Danube (Donau) Rivers, Germany

Feb 7, 2008

The Rhine River at Bacharach, Germany, © Henk Bekker

Rhine River boat cruises can add the Moselle, Main, and Danube Rivers in Germany to extend popular multiple-day cruise routings to many top European holiday destinations.

The Rhine (Rhein) River is popular with both German and foreign tourist for day trips and multiple-day cruises. Luxury cruise liners such as Peter Deilmann, Amadeus, Viking, and Tauck cruise the Rhine both on the classic full Rhine route as well as by combining other tributaries such as the Mosel and Main to form longer and more interesting itineraries.

The opening of the Main-Danube Canal during the 1980s finally connected Europe’s two most important waterways: the Rhine and Danube Rivers. This canal opened up around 5,000 km (3,000 miles) of continuous rivers, canals, and other waterways to riverboat cruises in Europe.

The Classic Rhine River Cruise – Amsterdam to Basel

The classic Rhine River cruise is from Basel in Switzerland to Amsterdam in the Netherlands. This route was traditionally done in four days downstream and five upstream but present permutations are up to ten days in either direction.

The most popular part of the Rhine is the Middle Rhine from Rüdesheim to Koblenz – this section of the river with its steep banks, the Loreley Rock, endless castles, and small wine villages are inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list. The Drachenfels (Dragon’s Rock) near Bonn is also spectacular while the city skylines of Cologne and Düsseldorf are both memorable.

Combining the Rhine with the Mosel, Main, and Danube Rivers

Surprisingly few boats do the full-length Rhine River cruise these days. Adding Rhine tributaries to Rhine cruises adds more destinations and allow for longer cruises.

Several permutation and combinations are available to make German river cruises more interesting:

The Mosel (Moselle in French and sometimes in English) is a meandering river in a steep valley often as dramatic as the Middle Rhine. Cruises frequently depart or terminate in Trier, Germany’s oldest city with huge Roman monuments, just across the border from Luxemburg and France. Popular stops along the Moselle River include half-timbered wine-trading villages, Cochem with a medieval-look knights’ castle, and Burg Eltz – an authentic medieval fortress and arguably the best-looking castle in Germany.
The Main is a larger river, which cuts several wide s-bends through a wider valley often lined with vineyards. A major sight is Frankfurt am Main with its modern skyscraper skyline, Würzburg with its UNESCO World Heritage listed Residence, half-timbered villages active in the wine trade, and Bamberg with its UNESCO World Heritage listed old town and cathedral.
The Main-Danube Canal link the Main River from near Bamberg via Nürnberg (Nuremberg) with the Danube River at Kelheim. Completion of the canal during the 1980s allowed for riverboats to include both the Rhine and Danube in single cruises. Passau, at the German-Austrian border and the confluence of the Danube and Inn Rivers, is a very popular departure port for Danube River cruises.

Cruises that combine the Mosel, Rhine, Main, and Danube rivers can be as long as a month although two to three weeks are more common.