Doing Rhine River next summer. Questions about pre an post cruise travel

TimeforMe

<marquee><font color=royalblue>Remember who you ar
Joined
Sep 24, 2001
At this point, we are all over the place as far as what we want to do. I do think, however, that we've narrowed it down to spending some time in Paris before and then a few days in Amsterdam at the back end. We considered Zurich first, then cruise, then Amsterdam, then Paris but it seemed a bit exhausting. We have never been to any of these countries (with the exception of France --but it was the Cote d'Azur) so would like to see some other points of interest while we are there. Any and all suggestions, ideas, tips are more than welcome! :thanks:
 
We are doing the Rhine cruise next summer as well, and I am having the same dilemma. The plan right now is to spend the weekend somewhere in Switzerland prior to the Monday cruise departure, and then take the train to London at the end of the cruise for 4 or 5 days. I considered Paris (and Disneyland Paris) too, but the family is leaning toward London. Flying to Iceland after the cruise also crossed my mind :)
 
struggling with the same thing. we are thinking of doing london for a few days before hand. our kids are young (6 and 8) so think they will probably be too tired when the trip ends to do much.
 
Think this through

( A ) Flying to mainland Europe Currency is Euro ( Switzerland has Swiss Francs But takes Euros )

( B ) Flying to London Currency is £ Sterling ( Will not take Euros in Shops )


...............

( C ) I would suggest flying from USA into / from Amsterdam ( Schiphol )

Why ?

At the Airport Ground Floor Trains will take you to City Center OR To Paris etc.

... Take train to Amsterdam Central Station .... ( 15 min. trip ) Go to Hotel

Take Canal Boat Tour . Art Galleries ( Boring for Kids )

OR Take a Bus tour to Madurodam near Scheveningen Toy Village ( Not boring for kids & adults )

Or Take a bus or train to " The Efteling " Park . Kids will enjoy this Theme park

..............

From Schiphol take train to Paris

Do the sights .... Forget Disneyland Paris ... you have this in USA

Try Park Astrix another Theme park great for all ages .

......................

Train from Paris to River Cruise

.................

At the end of cruise Take train Back to Amsterdam

............

Flying into London is O.k

BUT you either go back to airport and fly to ?

OR YOU CAN take EUROSTAR train to Paris via the Channel Tunnel
 


Woodview....thank you for this but a couple of things. 1--we will not be traveling with children (we are 50-somethings) and 2--the cruise begins in Basel, Switzerland and ends in Amsterdam. Suggestions based on this?
 
I decided to stop in Iceland on the way to Switzerland after I found a flight for $400 from JFK to Iceland (2 day stop) to Zürich on Icelandair. I love Belgium so I'm going to go to Brussels after the trip.
 
Woodview....thank you for this but a couple of things. 1--we will not be traveling with children (we are 50-somethings) and 2--the cruise begins in Basel, Switzerland and ends in Amsterdam. Suggestions based on this?


We are in a similar situation. Flying into Basel (July 2nd cruise), but we have decided to go to Paris from Amsterdam. Haven't decided on the train vs. plane route yet, but we are going to get our Disneyland Paris "check in the block" and spend 4 days there. There is a nice "buy 2, get 1/2/3 nights free" special right now that includes admission every day. Maybe food too, not sure of that. It's only about a 30 min train into downtown, so we will probably go there 1/2 days. Flying out of Paris on BA.
 


Thanks for the info everyone. After taking the Danube ABD we are seriously considering this one for next summer.
 
We were on the inaugural DVC members Danube River cruise last July and Rhine River cruise this past April. For the Rhine, since we had our 2 children (10 & 13) with us and their Spring Break is 2 weeks long, we decided to fly to Amsterdam round trip and spend some time in The Netherlands pre-cruise. Our children go to school with a lot of Dutch heritage so we thought this would be a great opportunity to learn more about their culture. We knew we weren't going to be able to do all the excursion options while with ABD in Amsterdam so we did some of them on our own over 5 nights/5 1/2 days, including 2 days in Amsterdam, Madurodam and The Hague, Volendam and Zaanse Schans, and Kinderdijk with a short visit to Deflt. We definitely could have spent more time in The Netherlands as we didn't cover everything we wanted to see. We flew to Basel with easyJet and spent 3 nights there. Lucerne was on our bucket list so we did a day trip there. We spent our other full day walking around the historical area of Basel on some color-coded walking tours and visited the Teddy Bear Museum which had a set of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. No photos allowed in the museum but it is clearly ingrained in my brain. Lovely little museum with a LOT of stuffies and an out-of-this-world collection of dollhouses. Post-cruise we took the transfer to AMS and spent one more night in Amsterdam close to the airport. Since it was Easter weekend, we went to Keukenhof to see the tulips in full bloom, another bucket list item checked off. :) Too bad they don't flower year-round as it was absolutely gorgeous.
 
Disneyland Paris is nice, although I've never been there in the summer time, when it it's crowded. We decided to do a Disney Med cruise from Barcelona, which will end 2 days prior to our ABD Rhine cruise. We'll fly to Zurich for 2 nights, and then take the train to Basel.
 
I understand the OP's dilemma. I think the general thought is "I'm all the way over in Europe, I want to make it count and see everything!" Which is, unfortunately, impossible. It is very easy to get around Europe, between air and train. Something to consider is every time you switch cities, you lose a day to sight see. Yes, you'll get some time, but getting to the airport/trainstation, arriving, checking into the hotel, getting your bearings - those things all take time.The more cities you try to see, the more days you spend traveling between them.

We'll be in Amsterdam next month for the first time and it looks like there is so much there. If the OP is still reading this, I'd plan on getting to Basel a day or two ahead, to give you cushion for travel. You could plan a trip to Lucerne if you wanted for that extra day. Then spend some time in Amsterdam at the end, and tack on one more city of your choice - Paris, London, Bruges, Copenhagen, etc. The choices are endless. You don't necessarily have to fly in and out of the same city. We got a good price on tickets flying into AMS and out of Zurich.

ETA - I'm not sure why it's important what currency each country uses, as per a PP? My experience so far has been that a quick trip to the local ATM is all you need. And that practically everyone in Europe takes credit cards anyways, down to street vendors.
 
Last edited:
A cruise is a great way to see multiple cities without all the flying around. if you want to do Paris, then I'd do that by land. But there are some great prices on Europe cruises.
 
It's also not too early to buy air for next summer as soon as it's available. We just locked in some business class air through a consolidator at a great price for next June. If you wait too long all the good connections will be gone. Our first choice only had 1 business class seat available! We switched from DL to AA to avoid a 9 hour connection in Atlanta!
 
It's also not too early to buy air for next summer as soon as it's available. We just locked in some business class air through a consolidator at a great price for next June. If you wait too long all the good connections will be gone. Our first choice only had 1 business class seat available! We switched from DL to AA to avoid a 9 hour connection in Atlanta!
Thanks for the tip. Will start looking. May I ask which consolidator you use? I don't know if I've ever done that before.
 

GET A DISNEY VACATION QUOTE

Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.

Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!






Top