RHINE HEAT AND HUMIDITY – AN ISSUE?

Q – Hi – just found your excellent site today. Some quick info before the question on heat. My wife and I are considering a cruise on AMA from Amsterdam to Basel plus the extra land days to Zurich/Lucerne in mid-July of next year. The date is fixed as we would be joining some other…

DO WE SIGN UP FOR THE CAPTAIN’S TABLE?

Q – We are booked on Viking River’s Elegant Elbe program on October 26th next year. The cruise goes from Prague to Berlin. It is our very first cruise of any kind  and we’re excited. We got 2-1 rates and the people at Viking were extremely nice and helpful. One thing we are wondering about…

HOW DO MY HUSBAND AND I GET UPGRADED?

Q –  You probably get this question quite often but we’re rather new to the idea of international travel as my husband is about to take a comfortable retirement next month. Although we live outside of Charleston and could just enjoy the city we love so much, the world seems to be calling. At your…

CAN YOU SOLVE A TWENTY YEAR MYSTERY?

Q – I lived in San Francisco for may years where I was a modest collector of watercolors I would buy at street fairs. I was particularly struck by these incredible mountain scenes, always covered by fog in the paintings and seeming quite mystical. Now, my wife and I are in a financial position where…

ANYTHING YOU CAN RECOMMEND CLEANING ON MY NEXT FLIGHT?

Q – I am a frequent flyer in the front of the plane who loves your site(s). The problem is I read traveltruth whenever I fly and sometimes the conversation about cleanliness makes me itchy. I know I’m a germaphobe and I don’t have any problem coming out of the closet. So I would ask…

REALLY GETTING FRUSTRATED BY AIRFARE SEARCH ENGINES

Q –  I’ve been keeping track – in the last three months, I’ve found four low airfares, tried to sell it to my husband, and each time when I got back the price was gone. Do these fares really change like that every  fifteen or twenty minutes? A – We are thinking that you have…

ANY HINTS FOR POTENTIAL CARIBBEAN RETIREES?

Q – We have been once – 25 years ago – to the Caribbean (friends house on Antigua) and fell totally in love with the island’s quietness, the vibrant and friendly people, the sound of the sea, and especially the steel drum music. We are now approaching retirement age (58 and 53) and we want…

SHOULD WE FEED THE ANIMALS IN THIS ZOO?

Q – I received an e-mail from Travel Zoo. I have never traveled with them. There were two bargains that would enable me to take my three daughters with me: 01 – Portugal, which includes airfare, well under #1,000 per person. 02 – Tuscany, about the same as above. How do I get an answer on…

YOU ARE CONFUSING YOUR READERS

Q –  As long-time readers and clients, I have to tell you that your site has one confusing characteristic. I’ve noticed that, while the site refers to “River Boats” and “riverboating”, you seem to have taken to calling river boats “riverships”. I don‘t know if this is worrisome to others but I would like to…

BOOKED ON SCENIC AND CONCERNED ABOUT WATER LEVEL ITINERARY ALTERATIONS

Q – We were pretty much set to book a Scenic Rhine cruise for next fall when we read your latest “CSI” Report. First, what is that, I’ve never heard of it, and should we think about sailing with Uniworld, our next choice, so that we don’t end up with a bus tour instead of…

WILL WE REALLY SEE WINDMILLS?

Q – We’ve met with our travel agent and she is recommending, knowing our love of gardening, that we ought to sail with Avalon on the “Tulips” itinerary next year. We imagine beautiful scenery and windmills along the route. Will we actually see the windmills? We have an allocated budget for this trip and I…

EDITOR’S CHOICE: WHERE WOULD WE GO IN OCTOBER?

Q –  Don’t be insulted but we came to this site confused and now we find ourselves wallowing in more great information than we ever thought we’d find online, and we are even more confused.  We’re in our mid-sixties, retired as of two weeks ago, and ready to see a bit of the world. We’ve…

IS THE RHINE THE DANUBE’S UGLY SISTER?

Q – Our research online has sort of led us to believe that the Rhine takes second to the Danube in popularity. We are all set to book with Uniworld but we want to be certain we are not going to be spending 10-Days on the Danube’s ugly sister. Are our concerns  justified? A –…

CONSIDERING MOZART FOR DANUBE BUT HOW MUCH DAY CRUISING WILL WE REALLY HAVE?

Q  – We have been intrigued by the information on RBR about Crystal and their philosophy of adding more time on the rivers for daylight cruising. Is this marketing hype or something we can count on in our future planning? Our agent is really pushing this cruise but we would want your sign-off. A –…

TOTALLY EXCITED ABOUT AMA’S WONDERS OF MYANMAR – BUT….

Q –  We are sooo excited about the Hidden Wonders of Myanmar itinerary being offered by AMA on the AmaPura. It is a sixteen day program that is round-trip out of Yangon and includes an in-depth look at unspoiled portions of this country that has been hidden from the rest of the world for so…

WILL WE EVER KNOW WHAT AWAITS US ON THE RIVER?

Q –     First: I want to thank you for this site.  My wife and I have taken a couple of Viking Cruises and we’re always getting asked questions that our limited experience prevents us from answering.  Now we know where to send them. Second:  I love the questions on “Why won’t they tell us…

AVOIDING BUS TOURING AND TOO HECTIC A PACE

Q –    I am impressed with the information on your site.  My husband and I (both 69, well-educated) are planning a European River Cruise some time between July and Sept of either 2017 or 2018,  I’ve been considering something between Amsterdam and Budapest (roughly), for approximately 2 weeks, but am open to suggestion.  My…

JUST HOW CLEAN IS THE DANUBE?

Q – Just wondering – the water on our recent AMA cruise seemed to be really clean for the most part. Is the Danube considered to be a clean river? A – For the most part, yes. It is even cleaner than the Hudson River. Since it passes through ten countries, there are areas of…

CAN YOU HELP AN AUSSIE BOOK A CRUISE?

Q –   Thank you for such an informative site, I have learned much and have so much more to learn. I believe I may be more informed, however, more confused. My husband and I are Australians planning to take a European River Cruise in 2017. After reading you site, I am tempted to go straight to…

IS THERE A MORE YOUTHFUL RIVER CRUISE OPTION?

Q –    My friends and I have decided that for our next trip we want a tour that covers several cities and doesn’t require changing hotels every night or two. We’re thinking a river cruise might be the thing, but several people told me that river cruises are best taken at 70+ –thereby insuring…

HOW CAN A READER TELL IF AN ONLINE REVIEW IS HONEST?

Q –  As an early adapter and technical Millennial, I like to think of myself as tuned in. But travel on the internet seems to be a blur of contradictory advice and I keep getting the feeling that I am being set up and fed large amounts of really crappy, biased information. This seems particularly…

ANY WAY TO COMBINE A TRAIN TRIP OF QUALITY WITH MACHU PICCHU ?

Q – This is a lovely web sight and we’d love to know who sponsors it. Is it the tourist boards or the hotels? Our question concerns a desire to see Machu Picchu but to combine it with train travel which my husband just loves. He has a magnificent train set up in our basement…